More frustrations in Libreville

Libreville's pretty road along the beach

After landing at the airport in Libreville the plane had to wait as the Prime Minister of France has just arrived with his entourage. Obviously he was give all the diplomatic and military welcome reserved for a statesman. I managed to catch a little bit of the action on my binoculars which I had brought along to catch the wildlife of Gabon. Not exactly how I envisioned using it but it was a start nonetheless.

The idea was to spend as little time as possible in Libreville since my intention was to visit the interiors and its national parks and not seek the creature comfort of a city. As soon as I got my passport stamped I headed to the counter of a regional airline company to find out if I could catch a flight next day to take me to a national park in the south.

Watching & Listening to some Gabonese music

At the counter, I came across more bad luck as all flights for the next three days were booked. I sought other domestic carriers but to my dismay there were none. I later learnt that the reason for just one domestic carrier was because about a month or so earlier a regional carrier had crashed in the Atlantic Ocean and an investigation led to the conclusion that most of the carriers operating at that time were not following the security protocol and were hence banned leaving just one domestic carrier operational. This was a very recent event and further complicated my travel plans.

Grafitti

I flagged a taxi driver who incidentally happened to be a Nigerian chap working in Gabon and asked him to take me to an inexpensive accommodation for the night. Later that evening, I walked to a local hang-out place to get a drink and settle in. Since I travel in Africa without any malaria preventive medication my drink of chose is always tonic water. There I met Aymeric, a Gabonese who spoke perfect English and the evening was spent talking about the Gabonese culture and listening & watching some Ivorian and Congolese music being played on a big screen.

Port of Libreville

It was Saturday and around 11pm we decided head to a night club so I could see a little bit of the night life of Libreville. My chances of getting in were pretty bleak as I was in shorts and sandals but after Aymeric convinced the manager that I was a traveler he agreed to let me in with the condition that I won’t hit the dance floor. I was not in the mood to embarrass myself on the floor so I readily agreed.

Downtown...empty since it was a Sunday

Owendo train station just outside of Libreville

That night I found out that Libreville was a very expensive city and I think Gabon is a fairly expensive country in general. Interestingly enough, at he club I found a lot of the locals splashed around the cash which shows that there is a lot of money changing hands in Gabon, evenly distributed or not. Perhaps crude oil being the biggest export of the country has something to do it with but even then it was more expensive than say Boston with a fraction of its facilities.

She was thrilled to pose for the camera

I woke up next day hoping I can re-jig my plans and see if I can take a train to a different national park in the center of the country and headed straight to the train station to reserve the ticket. I was in literal disbelief when I found out that the train was completely booked too. Next stop was the port to see if I could take a ship or boat or anything just to get out of Libreville but...it was a Sunday and everything was closed.

A little heartbroken after the latest setbacks to my plans, I decided to explore Libreville that day as it seemed I was destined to be stuck there for at least another day. I had already lost about 5 days of my leave even before arriving in Gabon so it was disappointing to know that I was all set to loose more days. I was running out of my vacation before it really begins. After taking stock of the days I had left and what I wanted to see I had to make a decision whether I keep Sao Tome & Principe in my plans or scrap it. The decision boiled down to the fact that Gabon had been a dream and was my primary destination so I reluctantly decided to scrap Sao Tome & Principe from my vacation plan.

Amazing Salad avec avocado sandwich

My train

My impression of Libreville was that it’s a fairly decent city. Perhaps my judgment could be skewed since I might be involuntarily comparing it to Monrovia but if I think I can live and work in a city for a year or two I tend to give it a pass. Libreville certainly got the pass since it has a lot of thing to do for expats coupled with decent infrastructure and mild weather.

A future traveller in the making?
(playing with my backpack)

Later that afternoon I went back to the airport to exchange my Euro’s to the Central African CFA francs which is similar to the West African FCA francs but used by Central African francophone countries like Gabon, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of Congo, and Equatorial Guinea. At the airport I met Ulrich who suggested we go back to the train station and try our luck again to get a ticket on the night train. I went back to my motel, packed my bags and left with the intention of getting out of Libreville no matter what.

My compartment in the train

Surely my luck was going to change eventually. At the station when I learnt that there was no chance getting a ticket I asked Ulrich if there could be some other way. He picked up my cue and checked with a porter if it was possible. The porter agreed but suggested we had to "help him and some of his contacts". The porter asked me to wait at a local eatery and after a couple hours as the train was boarding he came looking for me and said something which I think was “lets go” in French…and soon I was sneaking my way through cargo containers and i could literally fell my heart beating fast as i tried to hop on to the train.

Soon I boarded it with the help of the porter and a couple others all of whom I think shared the bread. Smuggle myself on a train was not on my bucket list but I said to myself in Hindi “Chal beta…yea bhi kar liya” which translates “ok son…done that too”

It was really awesome to stick the head out and feel the air

Normally, I would not want to do something against the system and certainly not in my professional capacity but I had enough of bad luck and if lady luck was not going to play fair…so wasn't I. Moreover, I paid more than the actual ticket cost and not deny any other traveler his berth. In fact, I think I might have helped a few Gabonese put some extra bread on the dinner table. Considering that, I don’t think I have any qualms about doing what I did.

As the train cranked its engine…I heaved a huge sigh of relief which was a combination of not having been caught but more importantly at finally getting out of Libreville!