From Jungle Interior to the Coastal Plains of Gabon

Picture taken from the the center of Makokou with the Ivindo river in the background

 Heading back from Kongou to Makokou, we had to travel upstream of the Ivindo River and it was a little more difficult as we had to negotiate shallow waters, strong currents and some rapids. Most of the time we could use a pole to push the pirogue through the rapids but in rare cases the boatmen would descend in the water and pull the pirogue across them. Here’s a video of one instance when we had a little bit of a trouble.

WWF office in Makokou

Kids talking pleasure in playing with my
wrist band

In Makokou, I learnt a crude fact about travel by road in Gabon. Gabon has one of the lowest population densities in the world. In fact, the whole country has only 1.4 million residents! Compare that to say Monrovia which has 1 million residents, or even worse place like Mumbai, Mexico city and Sao Paolo which have over 15 million residents. To make matters more complicated, the road conditions are very rudimentary and most of the time you are passing through seemingly impenetrable rain forest. All this means that more often than not only one or two bush taxis depart and they all do so very early in the morning. There are very few if any private vehicles that traverse these roads so hitchhiking is not as easy as it would be anywhere in the world.

Delicious fresh grilled fish

I wanted to go to Libreville from Makokou and since I got there around noon, I had no other option but to spend the night in Makokou and then take the next bus in the morning. Makokou actually was a charming little town situated on a mountain overlooking the Ivindo River. The center of the town was dominated by the marche during the day and in the evening the main street turned pretty lively with Congolese music emanating from the bars and the appetizing smell of fresh grilled fish that was been prepared by several women lining the street.

Loading a gas cylinder on my bush taxi....safety issue?

I thought this kid was cute

Perhaps it was a sign of how small the town was, as at one of the open air bars I met Rafinho, the taxi driver who brought me from Booué to Makokou a few days ago. After spending some time with him, he introduced his friend Raul and waved goodbye for the night as he advised me to be at the transport office at 6am to make sure that I get out of the town the next day. Later, Raul and his friend who were some sort of school regulators on assignment from Libreville for the regional exams took me to a local club which looked like a small eatery from outside but was fairly decent on the inside with a nice dance floor and good music. I even heard them play some Nigerian music with which I could associate after a lot of exposure to it in Liberia.

Waiting for the taxi to Libreville

Makokou, Ivindo and Kongou were a great travel experience but after more than 3 days in the region I was ready to head to the destination that was top of my list…the Loango National Park. More on that later…first I had to make my way to Libreville which took almost 12 hours. Since I had arrived early at the office I had make sure to get a seat in the front by the window. The journey was almost parallel to the equator and took us from Makokou to Ovan, Larala, Ndjolé-where we had our lunch before proceeding onwards to Bifoun, Kango, Ntoum and finally Libreville. On the way we passed the equator twice. It was almost 8pm when I got in to Libreville and I decided to spend the night in Libreville in the same place as before.

Through the jungles from Makokou to Libreville

His mother just handed him to me as she headed
for a bathroom break. He is scared and i am confused...
What do i do now?

The night and the next morning were spend recharging myself, getting a shave and good wash. Later in the morning, I headed to the airport to catch my flight to the town of Setta Cama in the south of Gabon. Knowing from experience how full the flights were, I had already purchased my tickets in advance. The flight was a short one, with a total time of one hour.



Better road





Common Skink

As we closed in on Gamba I could see numerous islets in the huge lagoon than is encompasses by the park. As I landed at Gamba, I was slightly nervous about visiting the Loango National Park. Accessibility to this park was notoriously difficult and from what I had read it seemed as the only way to visit here was to go through a tour operator who would charge a not so small fortune. It seemed as though the location of the park and circumstance were such that access to this park was reserved for the super rich and nobody cared for independent travelers or backpackers. I asked the taxi driver to take me to the center of the town from where I would plan my next steps. On the way, he told me about the WWF office and suggested that I might have better luck talking to someone there.

Forest being cleared to expand the road

Ogooué River as it meanders it way through Central Gabon before emptying into the Atlantic Ocean

The WWF office was also shared by the Loango Park officials and a non-profit organization called Ibonga. I tried speaking to the park officials hoping that they would offer me a good option but it was late in the day and they asked me to comeback the next day. That would mean another lost day and I was not in a mood to let that happen so I met asked a couple Japanese volunteers at Ibonga and they offered to help. They called a guy called as Jean Pierre and told me that he was the cheapest and best option available to visit the park. The option he gave me was way…way overpriced in my option so I told him I will get back to him later.

Higher altitude forest dominated with ferm

My flight from Libreville to Gamba

Despondent, I sat down to collect my thoughts when a chap from Ibonga, called Dmitri, came up to me and said he could help. Soon enough he was dialing several numbers and finding out options for me. After several iterations we finally agree that I will have to hire a car and go to the village of Setta Cama and for my three days I will have a guide who will also arrange for a boat and a boatman. The whole package though still expensive was reasonably realistic considering difficult it is to access the park.

View from plane of the numerous islets in Loango National Park

Airport at Gamba

Later in the night we met up with the guide, Ghislien, and worked out the details for the following day. Knowing that things were in place for my park visit, Dmitri and I bought some grilled fish and rice and took it to his house for dinner with his girlfriend. I am also thankful that Dmitri was kind enough to let me sleep in his house for the night and as a goodwill gesture for his help on arranging my trip and letting me sleep for the night I gave him some CFA’s equivalent to what I would have spend at hotel.