A new area of peat bog has been located in a remote part of the Congo Basin. Images from satellites appeared to show the area but an expedition last month has confirmed it. Covering an area roughly equivalent to that of England it is thought that it will contain billions of tones of peat.

The team that confirmed the discovery was made up of people from the University of Leeds, the Wildlife Conservation Society-Congo and Congo-Brazzaville’s Marien Ngouabi University. As the exploration continued around what is basically uncharted territory, the team was faced with all manner of local wildlife including dwarf crocodiles. However, they admitted that with the swamps being quite difficult to move about in the biggest challenge was avoiding soggy feet. The area that the peatland covers can only be walked on for two months in the year, right at the end of the dry season. Timing is everything and even then the ground is still wet every day. The only time that they experienced dry feet was at night when they were asleep in their tents. However, wven then, they first had to build a platform to put the tent on as the ground is water-logged all year round. So whatever you were wearing whether it was leather walking boots or another type of footwear it was tested to the limit.

Investigating this carbon-rich material may release information on over 10.000 years of environmental change in this little known area of the world, and the effect it has had in the world’s past and present climate as it will hold a large amount of carbon, locking it into the ground.. The latest estimate on the area it covers is now between 40 and 80,000 square miles, extending to a depth of almost 23 feet. That is one heck of a lot of decayed vegetation.

Samples have been taken from the area examined so that its composition can be examined and its age confirmed. So watch this space for updates and why not let us know the worst conditions you have had to face on your travels and how your footwear coped with the situation.