I was on patrol recently in Virunga National Park with my Rangers. We were near Ishango.

We patrol the park looking for illegal cultivators or people who bring their cattle illegally into the park. We also act as a deterrent to the Mai Mai rebels. Here I am examining cattle droppings. It is different conducting patrols in the savanna areas of the park. In the forest areas we find the rebel camps and poacher camps, but in the savanna people tend to come in and out of the park at night as it is harder to hide during the daytime.

The boundaries of the park are shown by what we call a “borne”. This is a concrete stone, and they were put in place all round the edge of the park by the Belgians in the 1950s. The park was established in 1925 but the “bornes” were not put down until later.

This is a “borne” in Ishango. You can faintly see the markings. It is number 31127 and says PNA on it which stands for Parque National Albert. This is the colonial name of Virunga National Park.

Many people used to believe that the Belgians hid treasures under these concrete stones. When Independence came to Congo in 1960, people say that the Belgians did not know what to do with their treasures. They did not want to take them to Rwanda or Burundi so they hid them. And they hid them under the “bornes”. So people in Congo have dug up where they have found the concrete stones, to try and find treasure.

This is a view from afar of where people have dug a large hole in search of Belgian treasure.

And here is the hole closer up. This hole was actually dug in 1997. I think it was dug by the NALU - the National Army for the Liberation of Uganda.

I am not sure if the NALU rebels found anything there, but I reckon it took them about 6 months to dig that hole. I hope it was worth it.

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