Bonjour tout le monde

It’s been an eventful two weeks in Gabon. Unfortunately the internet didn’t work at the internet cafe I was at, so I got my writing done and have now moved to a non internet cafe where I’m using my phone's hotspot. Reason for which there isn’t much footage this time - sorry!

I left Jocelyn’s place in Yaounde on the 19. February 2020. It was great to have a couple of days rest and I stayed a night more than planned. As far as my mood went, I could’ve stayed even longer. But then forever I could not stay and so at some point I had to get back on the road. I said goodbye to Joceyln (thanks again for everything man!) and fuelled up before heading South. At the Gas Station I bumped into Marko from Germany on his KTM 990. Marko still had to get his next Visas sorted in Yaounde but we agreed to meet up somewhere further South. I made it all the way to the Gabon border that day. Once on the road it was actually nice to be riding again. The countryside slowly changed to more jungle, less people and for the first time since Guinea-Bissau I think: rain. I arrived at the border town of Kye-Ossi, which borders Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon and Gabon at around 5 pm. As hotels were expensive, I asked the catholic mission if I could set up a tent. Père Hubert let me stay in the spare room (for free). Naturally, I took a liking to the place. I had dinner, prepared by madame Rosine, with père Hubert and frère Justin. They’re very pleasant people and we had interesting conversations on the country, the school they run and priestly celibacy (yup, because I’m not afraid of asking questions XD). I was interested in their work and decided to delay my entry into Gabon in order to visit the school the next day.

On 20. February 2020 I attended the 6 am mass in the unfinished church, good guest that I am. This was followed by breakfast with père Hubert and the newly elected mayor of the town (as far as I could tell, a courtesy call on the part of the mayor). After that I joined Justin for what turned out to be a regional arts activities day themed “cultural heritage”. Justin is the principal of the school and as far as I can tell works around the clock. We went to all of the six high school classes and explained the rules of the competition. The students had two hours to prepare a sketch, a dance, drawings etc. For some reason (costs?) Justin had sent the teachers home for the day. Remembering my high school days - I wondered if that was such a good idea. We would soon find out. After completing the rounds we visited the elementary classes who had a regular school day and were working hard. After lunch (which Justin did not have time for) the students presented their work in the unfinished church serving as an auditorium. I received the honour of serving as one of three jurors (because of my expertise in Cameroonian cultural heritage of course :). My colleagues were a local musician (sun glasses and whisky at 10 am) and the music teacher. We very diligently graded the performances of representatives of the six high school classes competing against each other. It didn’t seem fair to me, that the 12 year olds had to compete with the 18 year olds. Oh well.

I was surprised at what everyone came up with in just two hours I have to say. We jurors invented our grading system on the spot and the whole thing was (a bit) chaotic. I do feel like we chose the best of every category in the end though. All in all the younger ones seemed to outperform the older ones. The latter got publicly scolded by Justin (who basically lead the whole day of activities single handedly - kudos!) for not taking the activities seriously enough. The winners of every category were to perform again the next day and compete with the winners from the other schools of the region. To this end, the regional supervisors showed up at the end of the afternoon with all the formalities. The whole thing was a hoot!

Us jurors, the supervisors and Justin had a snack and wine (apéro :) together. After that I had about an hour of free time to do some motorcycle maintenance before the evening mass. This Thursday evening the unfinished church was packed with villagers and it was the full on 3 hour loud African church experience. The day ended by père Hubert, Justin and I having supper together. I was exhausted, what a day.

On 21. February 2020 I had a last breakfast and said goodbye to everyone. I’m quite impressed with the mission overall. The staff works all day for the children/teenagers and the church and they're all very dedicated. I appreciated that these were Cameroonians helping their countrymen. I especially had a good impression of père Hubert who did not want to accept any money for my stay and had a very open mind and humble attitude. In the end I did manage to give them a small contribution - specifically not for the construction of the church however (I’ve seen too many unfinished churches in Africa already) - but for the school and the staff.

I got into Gabon easily enough. They’re a bit formalistic with the entry procedure (i.e. I had to present a hotel booking confirmation when entering the country) but I was cruising along the newly Chinese built roads through the jungle by the afternoon. The countryside is exactly what I imagined the African rainforest to look like. You'd expect Ms Frizzle and the magic school bus to pop up at any turn :). I was really happy for the change of scenery. Finally heading South with the altering landscapes and not ever West. That night I wild camped in the jungle South of Mitzic and it felt good to put up a tent again after such a long time in hotels (no more Nigerian security situation).

On 22. February 2020 I rode to the Lope national park to see some gorillas. The road was ok enough and I saw more animals on the way (e.g. the Chimps in the Video below) to the park than when actually getting there. The scenery changed yet again from rainforest to beautiful green sloping Savannah. I got to the nice little village by nightfall and Paul let me stay a his small motel at the train tracks for a very fair price. Yes, there is a train! Too bad I couldn’t take it. One of the many reasons I would recommend this country as a travel destination.

I really wanted to see the gorillas and gave it a shot the next day with a guided hike through the forest. We were out of luck. Partly because it wasn’t quite the rainy season yet and there was thus no fruit for them to feed on. In search of food, they wander in the dry season and are so harder to find. It was still great to be out and hiking. 

On 24. February 2020 I rode a full day’s worth from Lope to Lambarene and set up my tent at the Albert Schweitzer hospital compound. As I hadn’t managed to see the gorillas in Lope I was debating whether or not to go to Loango, where the price is higher (EUR 460 - still cheap for gorillas, compared to other places in the world) but you’re basically guaranteed to see them, as they are constantly tracked by researchers. To this end I went down to the port and inquired about a boat ride to Port-Gentil from where I could head South to Loango. After some haggling I bought my ticket and was scheduled to leave the next morning 7am. I ate a pizza, skyped dad and went to bed early. The next day I was up at 4.30 am to pack up my tent and get to the port on time. When we were to move Diddy Kong onto the boat, I found out that they were going to lay him on his side (“le coucher”) for the journey. I wasn’t sure if this could damage the bike and my first google hit said not to do this under any circumstances. Scarred by my previous mechanical troubles I decided not to get on the boat. It took some effort, but the guys refunded my ticket. I wasn’t sure what to do with the early started day.

I finally decided to ride South (a packed motorcycle is meant to be ridden after all) to Fougamou. I knew there was a road from Fougamou to Loango. I had however read that it was in poor shape. Once in Fougamou and after a nice omelette with spaghetti (the food is pretty good here - comparabale to the Ivory Coast I'd say) I followed my gorilla impulse and bought some cakes, water and enough spare fuel in plastic bottles to get me back from Loango. The road was surprisingly good and I was cruising along a nice gravel stretch until about 5 pm when I started to notice my concentration slipping. I saw some men working on a telephone mast and they let me put up my tent next to their shack. It turned out to be an interesting group of guys. They work for Gabon Telecom and put up and take down telephone masts all over the country (working on rotation 4 weeks at a time with a week’s break between assignments). I caught them on their last day on the site. Their leader Bobby was a particularly interesting guy. He was a good speaker and apparently is a political activist. He gave me an evening long run down of everything that was right and wrong in the country and how he had been involved in trying to change things. I listened and asked questions, in awe of this conversation I hadn’t been expecting. Bobby is not university educated, but street smart, eloquent and fed up with a corrupt system. That bein said, not all his ideas are coherent (he wanted me to help him buy a metal detector to look for gold - I’m pretty sure Glencore would have one up on us). The guys were very friendly and I felt less like a tourist and more like just another young man. They let me wash with their water but didn’t invite me to dinner. I got the feeling that they didn’t have an abundance of food to go around. Still they were very accomodating.

It had started raining in the night so I slept as long as I could in the morning hoping that it would let up. I had another interesting conversation with Bobby under the shack roof waiting for the rain to die down. At some point one of the guys noticed that my rear tire was flat. I don’t carry a pump (something I should remedy) but the men said that their truck driver was on his way and he could lend me his compressor. So I had another reason to practice my patience, embrace the rain and conversation and relax. The rain finally stopped, the driver showed up and we changed the tire in the afternoon heat. I’m very grateful that I put my tent up exactly where there was somebody to help me with my soon to be flat tire!

It was about 2 pm when I set out. I bought some more cakes and water at an intersection (no bananas because apparently the elephants ate them all) and before long arrived at a Shell oil field. I waited 40 minutes for a 10 minute escort across the premises and was about 60 km from Loango when it was time to look for a place to sleep. People kept warning me about the wild animals (especially elephants) and so I wanted to find an inhabited hut where I could put up my tent. Thankfully I happened upon Mr. Bonnie and his family. They were very friendly. I washed in the nearby stream and got to hear real African jungle stories by the campfire in the evening. Initially I didn’t want to ask for food (I had been eating cakes for 36 hours) but hunger won and I tucked in to their banana stash (tasted amazing!).

We woke up to a sunny day and not being far from Loango I decided to take a slow morning and hang out with Mr. Bonnie and his family. They insisted on giving me a huge plate of rice and prunes (my first warm meal for 48 hours) and I promised to stop by on my way back to go check their traps with them. They didn’t want to take an cash - and it took some convincing, but I managed. I left at around 10 pm bright eyed and bushy tailed.

Now this is when the road turned bad. The last 40 km to Loango is filled with many (about 30) long puddles, most easily passable, some however up to waist deep. I got stuck in about 4 I think and had to take off my bags, push Diddy out, carry the bags out and repack (I’ll show you the video of an easy one below - because it’s smaller in size - there’s more footage with explicit language for a slide show once back home ;). It was exhausting. My chain sprung off at one point and 12 km from Loango (I thought I had almost made it) Diddy did not start anymore after a deep puddle. I started pushing him in the direction of Loango in the hope of finding a hut. Pushing through puddles is even less fun than riding through them xD. Sure enough after about 500 m (only! thankfully!) I found an abandoned camp. I called Max (astoundingly good reception :) and he gave me some tips on what to try. I put up my tent and got out my tools. Intermittently I tried to restart Diddy - no luck. A car passed and they gave me some Rambutan for dinner :). I got out the spark plug and kicked the kickstarter, no water came out (good sign). It was dark by then and I retired to googling my problem and deep deep sleep after an exhausting day.

They next day, 28. February 2020 I started fixing Diddy. Just for the heck of it, I tried to start the engine again. He fired up at second kick - praise the lord! I packed up and finished the last 12 km to Loango Lodge. This is a beautiful upscale place on the lagoon run by the most welcoming of Italian managers Federico :). I was a bit out of place soaked, dirty and hungry from 4 days of jungle riding. Federico did not mind. I decided to treat myself to a continental breakfast - I ate and drank everything they put in front of me with no shame xD. Some blessed employee washed my clothes for me, I took a nap and had a swim in the pool. In the evening I went out to see the elephants where I met Alex and Loriaine from France and their 1 year and 3 month old Maxence. As quiet a few people visiting the lodge, Alex works for a French petrol company in Port Gentil and the young family was out for the weekend.

The next morning we took a 40 minute boat ride out through the lagoon to see the gorillas. The gorillas at Loango are habituated. This means that they are wild, but are used to humans observing them. You can get as close as 7 meters to the animals. Which we did :) It was pretty awesome I have to say. We spent an hour with one group of gorillas and luckily I got Alex’ photos (the one's below are my handycam pics however).

As I couldn’t afford anymore Loango lodge fun - I headed North towards Port-Gentil after lunch on 29. February 2020. I regret not being able to go back to Mr. Bonnie and his family for trapping, especially after promising to visit again. But there was no way I was taking that road back again to Fougamou. I decided to opt for the boat I should’ve taken in the first place (in the meantime being reassured by both Alex - who has been dirt biking since he was 3.5 years old - and Max that laying down your motorbike with the engine off is fine). I made it on to a good gravel road and decided to put up camp at the beach. I hadn’t seen the ocean since Lagos. I was a very happy camper that night, with gorilla memories to think of and a bad road put behind me.

On 1. March 2020 I headed North to Port-Gentil and easily completed the leg by lunch on the beautiful new Chinese built tarmac road. It was so pleasant to just twist my right hand and not have to worry about the road. One minor incident was a policeman chasing after me because I didn’t stop for him. I had heard that you need an authorisation to use the road - so I thought better not to stop (because I didn't have that paper). The officer didn’t have a car so I thought I was fine - he however got a bystander to drive him - oh bother. After taking my details, threatening me with a CFCA 24000 fine and me saying sorry a lot - he let me go.

Once in Port Gentil I spent the Sunday afternoon looking for an ATM. I tried all 8 and none of them worked. Alex and Loriaine (and Maxence :) had invited me to stay at their house in Port Gentil (thanks guys!). I happily accepted their offer as hotel prices are ridiculously high in this Petrol town. The next day I went on another round trying the ATMs for a second time and one of my cards worked at one of the machines. First time I managed to retrieve money in Gabon! Alex and Loriaine very kindly let me stay another night as the boat left the next morning at 7 am. Merci beaucoup encore pour l’acceuil!

Yesterday, 3. March 2020 I had a pleasantly uneventful boat ride along the Ougoue River from Port-Gentil to Lambarene and am now back at the Albert Schweitzer compound having completed a very eventful gorilla loop :). Marko whom I met in Yaunde is arriving today from the North and we plan to head South to Congo together. As the rainy season is starting there are frightful stories going around amongst overlanders about the Congo roads. I’m not sure which route we’ll take yet, either in the South at Ndende or in the East at Franceville (this would be a 500 km detour however). Another issue that has arisen is a travel ban imposed by Angola on 1. March 2020 for people who have been in a Corona case country since December. This means everyone who’s been to Nigeria. Angola is sort of a must on the way to Capetown, because going around and deep into the DRC means a lot of riding in the red zone. I most likely would not opt to do this. I’m not sure how all this will play out. Hopefully we will be able to get into Angola once were there.

Mit zentralafrikanischem Gruss

Chris