Gabon

Libreville — the capital of Gabon (a small, oil-wealthy country straddling the equator in Central Africa, 267,000km², 2.3 million people — one of the most forested and least-deforested countries in the world at 88% forest cover, producing 1% of world oil output from reserves discovered in 1956) with the Marché du Mont-Bouté (the largest traditional market in Libreville, with smoked fish, forest fruits, medicinal plants, artisanal crafts and the sounds and smells of Central Africa) and the Sainte-Marie Cathedral.

💡 Gabon has maintained 88% forest cover — the highest in Central Africa and one of the highest in the world for a country of its size. This is primarily the result of low population density (9 people per km²), oil wealth reducing the pressure to clear forest for agriculture, and successive governments committed to conservation. Gabon established 13 national parks in 2002 covering 11% of the national territory — the largest single conservation announcement in African history.

Lopé National Park (UNESCO World Heritage — the most accessible park in Gabon, 500,000 hectares of equatorial rainforest and ancient savannah in the Ogooué Valley, with a population of forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis — the smaller, rounder-eared forest elephant, now recognised as a separate species from the savannah elephant, with a population of 60,000–100,000 in Gabon — the most important refuge for forest elephants in the world), western lowland gorillas and mandrills).

💡 Gabon has the largest population of forest elephants in Africa — approximately 60,000–100,000 Loxodonta cyclotis (the forest elephant, a distinct species from the savannah elephant, smaller, with oval rather than triangular ears and straight tusks) live in Gabon’s forests, representing approximately 60% of the entire world’s remaining forest elephant population. Forest elephants play a critical ecological role as the primary seed dispersers of large-fruited tropical trees; they are sometimes called “the engineers of the forest.”

The Lopé habituated western lowland gorilla groups (Gorilla gorilla gorilla — the most widespread gorilla subspecies, less studied than the mountain gorilla, with a population of approximately 100,000 remaining — the habituated groups in Lopé allow close observation from 7m in the forest, an experience less intense but more solitary than Rwanda gorilla trekking, with no permit queues and a fraction of the cost) and the mandrill tracking (Lopé has the world’s largest mandrill troop: 1,300 individuals).

💡 The Lopé mandrill troop (Mandrillus sphinx — the world’s largest primate troop of any species, estimated at 1,300 individuals, ranging through the Lopé valley forest — is the largest known social group of any non-human primate. Male mandrills are the most colourful primates on earth — the vivid red and blue facial skin and the multicoloured hindquarters intensify with social rank; dominant males have the most saturated colours.

Ivindo National Park (the remotest major park in Gabon, in the northeast near the Congo border — accessible by boat from Makokou, with the Kongou Falls (a series of waterfalls and rapids on the Ivindo River where forest elephants and western lowland gorillas come to drink on open rocky outcrops — the finest wildlife viewing area in Central Africa, with elephants photographable at close range on the rocks — and the Langoué Baï (a forest clearing where 100+ forest elephants gather at the mineral-rich clay lick).

💡 The Langoué Baï (a forest clearing in Ivindo National Park where forest elephants, western lowland gorillas, forest buffalo and sitatunga gather at a mineral-rich clearing — one of the most biodiverse wildlife viewing sites in Africa, comparable to the bai at Nouabalé-Ndoki in Congo) was made famous by the conservation photographer Michael Fay’s Megatransect (a 15-month walk across 3,200km of Central African forest, 1999–2000) which documented the extraordinary biodiversity of Gabon and persuaded President Omar Bongo to create the national park system.

Pongara National Park (across the Gabon Estuary from Libreville — 92,000 hectares of Atlantic forest, mangroves and beaches, accessible by boat in 30 minutes, with the largest nesting concentration of leatherback sea turtles in Central Africa (October–February — 1,000+ nests per season on the Atlantic beach) and the humpback whale calving grounds offshore.

💡 The leatherback sea turtle (Dermochelys coriacea — the largest sea turtle and the largest reptile on earth, reaching 900kg and 3m length, able to dive to 1,280m — the deepest dive of any reptile) nests on the Atlantic beaches of Gabon in October–February in one of the three largest nesting concentrations in the world. The Gabon-Congo coast supports approximately one-third of the world’s leatherback nesting population.

Loango National Park (the most spectacular coastal park in Central Africa — a 155,000-hectare mosaic of Atlantic beach, lagoon, savannah and forest, famous for the unprecedented spectacle of forest elephants, buffalo and hippos on the open beach — the only place in the world where hippos regularly enter the Atlantic surf) and the surf break at Setté Cama (one of the best uncrowded waves in Central Africa).

💡 The “surfing hippos” of Loango National Park (hippopotamuses entering the Atlantic surf on the Loango beach — a behaviour documented by Dutch photographer Cees Veenmans and spread worldwide via BBC documentaries — is real and regularly observed. Hippos in Loango have learned to enter the sea to cool off; their buoyancy in salt water is visibly different from river swimming, giving the impression of bodysurfing.

The Omboue-Herrmann market (the most authentic Gabonese village market on the southern coast) and a final pirogue ride through the Fernan Vaz lagoon mangroves (one of the most extensive and intact mangrove systems in Central Africa, with sitatunga antelope, African manatees and the forest-edge where the Atlantic forest meets the sea) before returning to Libreville. Fly from Libreville (LBV) or Mayumba (MYB).

💡 The African manatee (Trichechus senegalensis — the West African manatee, a freshwater and estuarine herbivore closely related to the Amazonian manatee, found in rivers and lagoons from Senegal to Angola) has one of its largest remaining populations in the coastal lagoons of southern Gabon. The Fernan Vaz lagoon system supports a population of 200–300 individuals; they are rarely seen but occasionally observed at dawn in the mangrove channels.