Congo is the place that the term "deepest darkest Africa" was made for. It is a land that still feels wild and unexplored, and its unfathomably rich biodiversity proffers gems of endless beauty and fascination: teeming with life in all its forms, even the volcanoes bubble with dark vitality. This might just be the best spot for gorilla encounters, and what's more, low tourism numbers mean there are minimal other non-furry primates to encounter.

Best time to traval: The rainy season that spans April and May is the only no-go period in this otherwise year-round destination.

This is a destination that stole Richard's heart from his first visit more than 10 years ago. There is nowhere else like it on earth - volcanoes, primates, conservation and not many other travellers. There are simply no words that will describe waking on the Nyiragongo and watching the molten lava below you as the sun rises above you.

Congo is arguably the planet's best spot for primates, with national parks boasting mountain gorillas, and both eastern and western lowland gorillas. The hike to spend time with these magnificent apes is as much a part of the experience as the encounter itself, taking you through exquisite forest teeming with a diverse array of flora and fauna before bringing you face to face with a family of our closest living relatives.

Congo's Virunga National Park was established in 1925, making it Africa's first national park, and was founded primarily to protect its mountain gorillas - although it also encompasses a wider variety of species than any other protected area in Africa. It deservedly became a World Heritage Site in 1979, and in spite of oil industry threats, political upheaval and civil wars, it has protected its biodiversity and its gorillas, and remains a site of staggering beauty.

Virunga's boundaries incorporate one of the world's most active volcanoes, whose most recent eruption flooded Goma town with lava from seething, sputtering caldera whose diameter stretches wider than a kilometre. A helicopter ride lands you near its summit, where champagne and cosy bedding await: spend the night staring into the guts of the earth, watching its molten core bubble up and collapse in on itself.

The Albertine Rift runs from the glacier-capped Mountains of the Moon, through rarefied alpine flora and fauna down into thick, tropical rainforest, then into flooded swathes of phoenix palm, and down to the deltas of Lake Edward. Crystal clear springs, ancient lava flows, and a plethora of birds, butterflies and gorillas endemic to just this spot render this an Eden-like odyssey into unadulterated nature.