Things to Do in Central African Republic in June

June's rising water swirls sediment and baitfish into eddies opposite Bangui's Kilometre 5 district. Hand-line fishing at dawn yields Nile perch heavy enough to bend the wooden pirogues. The river is glassy calm before the 10 a.m. breeze picks up, and the city's morning soundtrack - muezzin, outboard motor, clattering coffee carts - drifts across the water.

First storms of the year push the M'bari River over the 50 m (164 ft) basalt cliff in a brown, roaring ribbon. Walk the slippery track behind the curtain and you'll feel spray like warm needles. Rainbows appear and vanish as clouds cross the sun. By late afternoon the pool below is swollen enough for a cautious swim if you don't mind the current.

June grass is still short from the dry season. But pans hold water, so buffalo, roan antelope and the park's last lions move into the open. Track fresh spoor on the laterite roads that cut between Borassus palms. The air smells of sage and warm dust until a storm rolls in and everything turns to wet clay and geosmin.

Temperatures drop to 24°C (75°F) after dark, and the covered lanes of the central market fill with charcoal grills. Goat brochettes hiss, palm-oil fritters bubble, and the smell of pepper sauce makes your eyes water. June mangoes appear in every stall - ask for a "mangue-sel" bag: wedges dusted with salt and chili that Central Africans swear cures the rainy-season blahs.

A 45-minute pirogue south of Bangui, Zinga sits mid-Ubangi like a green postage stamp. June floods raise the lower paths, so villagers lay plank walkways and the island smells of wet reed and smoked fish. Sleep in a stilted raffia hut, wake to the thud of mangoes dropping on tin roofs, and watch storms approach across 4 km (2.5 miles) of water.