When I look back and think about my time in Lékoni Gabon the first thought that comes to mind is not of the breathtaking scenery overlooking the Lékoni canyon but instead “ah, Lékoni, the place where we pitched a tent in the middle of nowhere without a care in the world.” We hadn’t been in Gabon for long but it didn’t take long for people like us to realize that one of the best ways to save money was to pitch a tent anywhere and everywhere. It meant we totally emersed ourselves in the outdoors. It meant we often fell asleep under the starry night sky serenated by the sounds of insects (or nightjars!) calling in the night. It also meant no access to amenities like bathrooms or showers. We had now gone an entire week without a toilet or a proper shower. Could you do that?!?! (Spoiler alert: We would go much, much longer than a week before our time in Gabon was through!)
There are four main areas to bird in Gabon. Since Gabon is not set up for international tourism, let alone birdwatching, I imagine most people are unfamiliar with what those four places are, so I’ll be sure to tell you in each of the upcoming blog posts. The first post covered Lopé National Park and this one will cover the second main area for birding, Lékoni.
Lékoni is a town in south-eastern Gabon sitting along the Lékoni River where the primary habitat to bird is remarkably different from the thick forests of the rest of the country. In Lékoni the primary habitat is open country grassland.
After a fun few days with Ghislaine roaming the forests of Mikongo Camp in La Lopé National Park, we dropped him off in his hometown and Ross, Jason and I continued on with the rest of our trip independently. It was a long drive from La Lopé to Lékoni and most of our next day was spent inside of our trusty Mitsubishi Pajero, sometimes driving through great tracts of forest but without time to stop and explore because we really needed to get on with our long drive! Gabon is not set up for travelers but fortunately not many police checkpoints existed and when they did, we typically could show our COVID vaccine cards, explain we were looking for birds and easily be let on our way. (We often wondered if the only reason the checkpoints existed were to make sure unvaccinated people weren’t going from town to town. Honestly had it not been August of 2021 where COVID quarantine protocols were still in place, I wonder if these checkpoints would have been fewer and father in between.) The biggest question we received from the police while passing through was “where is your guide” which was always a fun conversation that usually ended long before the officer ever got the answer they were looking for due to our incomprehensible French and their apathy in regards to reading the Google translate feature on our phones. Fortunately we didn’t run into too many police checkpoints outside of the big cities! And fortunately the police did not seem to care much so long as we had our vaccine cards! We did have two occurrences where police officers attempted to ask for a bribe, but after traveling Africa for about 9 months at this point, we became pros at diverting and avoiding these kinds of bribes.
Perhaps the most memorable feature from Lékoni was not the grass, but the crazy canyon formations that can be found just outside of town. We spent two and a half full days in the area, exploring a maze of vehicle tracks through the grasslands, some of which were quite sandy and required the 4×4 functionality of our vehicle. The first area to bird is actually about an hour before reaching Lékoni and isn’t grassland at all, but some open forest bordered by sandy fields. This area is known for Black-headed Bee-eaters and it didn’t take long to track a few down. We also managed Lyre-tailed Honeyguide, Yellow-throated Cuckoo, Sjostedt’s Greenbul, and three species of nigrita (including Pale-fronted!)
That afternoon and next day we concentrated on the grassland birds and managed to find Finsch’s Francolin, Black-rumped Buttonquail, Angola Batis, Olive Long-tailed Cuckoo, “Teke Cisticola” (an undescribed species of cisticola), and Congo Moor Chat. We worked an area looking for Black-chinned Weaver, but came up empty, only finding a few decent birds such as Salvadori’s Eremomela. Later on in the evening, we headed outside of town to the south, winding along sandy vehicle tracks until we arrived at the lip of a large canyon, an amazing and unexpected feature of this grassland environment. The view of the eroded sand escarpments were something to behold!
We hadn’t been in Gabon for long on our own, but we were soon finding out that it was incredibly easy to pitch a tent just about anywhere. Gabon is not populated or structured in the same way as the rest of Africa so instead of seeing small village after small village, once we got out of town we essentially saw no one. No passers by. No people to stop and stare. No one to wonder what on earth we were doing. No one else at the canyon. We simply got to enjoy the spectacular sights and somehow got to have them all to ourselves. In case you were wondering, 98% of the population of Gabon can be found in the major cities and thus outside of the cities is often devoid of people which was perfectly fine by us!
After visiting the canyon we drove down the grassland only a few kilometers before stopping to pitch our tent. Like I said, we could pretty much camp anywhere! Even though we hadn’t had a shower since our first night in the country, we didn’t mind bush-camping to save on money! And besides, we could fill an empty Fanta bottle with water from a nearby stream to “shower” with! (We were also drinking that water which is why it is important to never leave home without a proper water filtration system!) That night we were serenaded to sleep by Fiery-necked, Swamp, and Long-tailed Nightjars.
The next morning we spent some more time watching Finch’s Francolin before finally tracking down a few Black-chinned Weavers (thanks to some helpful tips from Michael Mills!). From there it was time to get back on the road and start the long drive to the third area of Gabon, Ipassa.
This birding took place on August 1st-3rd, 2021