If you look at the satellite imagery over most of Africa you will see that very little forest remains. I know there’s a large desert that runs across the continent, but in the areas that once had forest, large tracts have nearly been wiped out and the bulk of what is left only remains because of strict protection laws and the creation of national parks. National Parks are the largest swathes of green left in most countries in Africa. But not Gabon.
As we flew in over the airport it was odd to be flying over trees. With large, intact forests spanning the horizon, Gabon never suffered the same fate as its neighbors where trees were chopped down by the millions. But while Gabon is largely untouched, tourism is very much lacking and the hoops we needed to jump through when we first landed at the airport (and beyond) were exhausting. Gabon is also incredibly expensive. And when I say expensive, I mean, EXPENSIVE. Libreville ranks as the 24th most expensive city in the world!!
With warm weather, nice beaches, beautiful lowland rainforests full of so many animals including Giant Pangolins, Mandrill, Chimpanzee, and Gorillas, not to mention rare and rarely recorded species of birds, Gabon deserves to be a country highly sought after by tourists because it has so much to offer! But we know first hand that the price and logistics can be uninviting. We were going to try to do Gabon on as much of a budget as possible, but any reasonable budget was essentially thrown out the window. Anyone that Ross talked to beforehand who has done research on or visited Gabon in the past warned us of this. Aside from being expensive, the logistics of independently travelling the country can be near impossible to figure out simply because not many people have done it and very little is available online. Most people take one look at Gabon and sadly retreat from an independent excursion. We almost retreated too, but in the end figured we would jump in and just figure it out as we went. Truth be told we had no choice other than to show up and execute. Thank goodness that last phrase basically describes Ross’s ideal trip! (He specializes in logistics outside of birding so I often think that is why many of our independent trips are as flawless as they are.)
First up on our agenda was a trip to Lopé National Park. When we were in Libreville and trying to figure out how to get to Lopé, it seemed that nothing would work. (Ross and I arrived in Libreville and spent a full day and a half trying to sort out logistics before flying to Sao Tomé. In case you missed it, I did write a post all about our first 24 hours in Gabon and I highly recommend reading ALL about that disaster here before continuing onwards!) Transportation proved to be our biggest issue. The train was sold out (in both first class and regular class) and a private car ride and driver was over $800 for one way. Attempting to rent a private car and not have a driver was even more expensive! It was because of multiple transportation dead ends that Ross explored the idea of car rental a bit further. Initially car rental options seemed impossible, especially to foreigners, but upon further investigation, Ross found that there was an AVIS car rental in town and decided it would be our best option. The 4×4 we needed was expensive and online it said it only allotted for 100km a day. We figured we’d need almost double that so at $.75 per kilometer for each additional km, we figured we’d need to pay almost $1,600 in extra mileage charges! Again, let me just say transportation in Gabon is crazy expensive and the logistics of getting from point A to point B was our biggest headache! But if we rented a car, at least now we wouldn’t have to “babysit” a driver or worry about the hardcore nature of our trip being too much or going too fast. And we would have total autonomy and freedom. More and more it seemed that a rental was the way to go so eventually that’s the option we went with. (Spoiler Alert: having a car was the BEST thing we could have ever done to benefit ourselves on this trip. Thank goodness the train was fully booked!)
But the fun didn’t end there because the Avis employees were no where to be found when we arrived at the airport and eventually Ross had to make his way to their office downtown. Then they didn’t want to give him the vehicle for the online price, instead wanting to charge almost double! It was hours of negotiating for Ross while Jason and I stayed behind. In the end he got the original price but only because a local guide, Ghislain Ngonga agreed to accompany him to the car rental place. And only because Ross agreed to put down a large deposit in cash that we would (hopefully) get back at the end.
The first location on our itinerary to Gabon: Lopé National Park. To visit Lopé, Ross previously contacted a guy by the name of Ghislain Ngonga (+241 07 84 65 23) who was employed by the park and the chief man in charge of Mikongo Camp, a well-forested section of the national park. Ghislain set up our trip to Mikongo as you can’t visit this location without a guide. We knew Gabon was going to be expensive, but when Ghislain came back with a price of $215 per person per day, we nearly fell over. This is an independent budget trip. All inclusive prices are not for us. We explained we would be happy to sleep in the cheapest accommodation, eat basic meals, camp in our tents, etc. We bargained down and eventually settled on a price of $172 per person per day. It was still a lot, but park entrance fees are a lot and at least this included the price of admission to the park and having Ghislain as our guide. Honestly, I don’t think we could have asked for a better guide than Ghislain. If I could do one thing to better the tourism industry in Gabon, it would be to make Ghislain a full-time guide to the country! Ghislain lives part-time in Libreville and met us there when we arrived and I’m not sure the rental car company would have given Ross the rental car had Ghislain not been there to explain. (For some reason the Gabonese like tourists to have a sponsor or host with them. This was another issue we ran into at the airport when we first arrived and tried to get a visa without anyone accompanying us.)
Once we picked up the rental car, a Mitsubishi Pajero, we started on our 9 hour drive to Lopé, arriving late in the evening. The next morning we spent some time birding at the scenic La Lopé Hotel (although of course we didn’t stay at this fancy hotel — we stayed at the place the local truck drivers stay with no running water, no AC, no bathroom other than a hole in the ground out back, and in a room crawling with bugs. We felt it most sanitary to set up our tent INSIDE of the hotel room. (This accommodation was $10 per night versus the $100+ at La Lopé.) It was a bit frustrating that we weren’t leaving first thing in the morning for Mikongo (especially when paying so much money), but by late morning and after birding the hotel grounds, we started the two-hour drive to Mikongo Camp. The camp itself is now nearly abandoned and is in terrible shape. There are tents/mattresses set up in the dilapidated cabins. We didn’t trust the condition of the mattresses to sleep directly on, or the tent that was provided, so we moved the old tent aside, took the mattress out and, just like we had at the truck driver’s hotel, set our tent on top and knew at least we would be safe in there! For the next 2.5 days we wandered the forest of Mikongo camp and concentrated on a few target birds with the most important being Grey-headed Picathartes. This enigmatic species nests at a few spots within two hours’ hike of camp and we spent countless hours sitting at nest sites waiting for the picathartes to show itself. Unfortunately we never saw more than a few old nests and after leaving Mikongo we felt we didn’t do the place justice as lots of time was “wasted” sitting around and waiting for one bird. Despite the poor luck with the rockfowl, we did encounter a number of other amazing sightings during our visit. The avian highlights were a fantastic pair of Black Guineafowl and a pair of Forest Swallows nesting under our cabin! We also saw a number of other interesting species including a nesting Bate’s Nightjar, Woodhouse’s Antpecker, Yellow-bellied Wattle-eye, and Forest White-eye.
Along with the birds, Mikongo is internationally known for their mammals. Since we spent so much time waiting for the picathartes, we missed out on seeing Mandrill, but we did have the amazing opportunity to track down COMPLETLY WILD Western Lowland Gorillas! Although we had seen Gorillas in Uganda, this experience was totally different and so much more exhilarating. Instead of interacting calmly with the tame Gorillas in Uganda, our hearts were pounding as we quietly snuck up on a large silverback that we could hear calling loudly. Ghislain is a Gorilla tracking expert and positioned us perfectly to get brief but awesome views of the silverback in thick vegetation only about 10 meters from us. Although we weren’t able to get a picture, the opportunity was amazing and one of the coolest things we experienced in Africa. The mental picture in my head of that experience with a wild silverback being so close is one I will personally never forget even though I can’t share it with the world.
Speaking of cool things, we spent a lot of time out at night in Mikongo hoping to track down a Maned Owl (Spoiler alert: we didn’t find one.) Walking around in the dark in Gabon is another exhilarating experience because Forest Elephants are common and we encountered these amazing creatures while on foot a few too many times, often having to retreat quickly to avoid an unpleasant encounter. But during one of these nightly forays, we happened upon a Tree Pangolin that Ghislain quickly caught which allowed us an amazing opportunity to study the bizarre creature up close. Although Ghislain had seen tree pangolins multiple times before, this was the first one he had ever held so he was just as excited as us! Another amazing opportunity we will never, EVER forget.
After departing Mikongo, we spent one morning inside the more open areas of Lopé National Park where we tracked down the very local Dja River Warbler, Forest Buffalo, Red River Hog, and before light, we found a few “roosting” Chimpanzees in their leaf beds high up in the trees just outside of town. So cool! Only in Gabon is it possible to find while Chimps within walking distance of town.
If you want to visit Mikongo Camp, we highly recommend getting in touch with Ghislain. He’s an extremely hard worker and knows the forest very well. He had no problem being out all day, packing a lunch to eat in the field, and even staying out into the night. He was easy going and always smiling which says a lot about his upbeat personality. Although he’s not an experienced bird guide, he does have a good understanding of the more important species and is an absolute wizard with tracking down primates. Part of me wants to find a way to make him the go-to guy for all eco-tourists coming to Gabon! You can find him on Facebook “Ghislain Ngonga” or WhatsApp +241 07 84 65 23. Ghislain speaks basic English so it’s best to communicate in French via google translate.
This birding took place on August 28th-31st 2021
great to have you back again! Hank Kaestner