Gabon – January 2008

Route
We entered in the south at Ndende and took the south-north N1 and N2 roads straight through the country (missing Libreville), with one detour to Mayumba for turtle-watching. Everything we had read and heard about Gabon suggested that it is a good
fly-in, high-end tourist destination and probably not the best place to explore with the car.

Visas
We got our 30-day tourist visas in Luanda for a hefty 150 USD each (Luanda is not the place to get visas); it would have been 100 USD each if we had been prepared to wait for a week. We understand you can't get them on the border.

Border formalities and check-points
Coming from the south, the border is staggered for about 100km between Nyanga in Congo and Ndende in Gabon. All of the posts along this border were very rural and relaxed. In Nyanga you get your carnet stamped out of Congo and you can get an immigration exit stamp too if the office is open. Otherwise carry on along the road north where you’ll pass through Congo immigration, a couple more police stops and then Gabon customs. Finally, the police station in Ndende can stamp you officially into Gabon.

We didn't have to stop at any check-points until very close the the border and there were no tolls.

We exited Gabon at the usual Gabon/Cameroon border at Bitam/Nkolmeng-boua. Both immigration and customs are in Bitam, which is some 30kms south of the border. Police demanded our passports at a police block at Mitzic but not at the border, despite the huge barriers funnelling you from the road into the police compound (they were very rude, just drive out the other side). Otherwise, no border hassle or hustle.

An alternative border crossing between Gabon and Congo
Whilst in Pointe-Noire we debated taking the coast road straight up to the border with Gabon and then on to Mayumba. The yacht club owner told us that he regularly drove as far as Ndindi, at the southern end of the Mayumba lagoon, and also that there are customs and immigration posts on the border to complete the formalities. We eventually chickened out because we could find no information about the roads north of Ndindi and were worried about having to come back over the Congo border. Subsequently we spoke to people in Mayumba who told us that this route is possible using either the road along the peninsular or one on the mainland, although not in the rainy season or just after due to flooding and debris. It sounds beautiful.

Mayumba turtle-watching (nesting season Dec & Jan)
We chose to go to Mayumba rather than Sette-Cama as there is more chance of seeing turtles despite the lack of infrastructure. In Mayumba we first camped at Hotel Mbidia Kou Kous(S03.27.069; E10.39.619) right on the beach for 5,000 CFA per night but, after talking to a Peace Corps volunteer working there, we headed south to where there are more turtles. The national park starts about half-way down the peninsular and you could stay with the researchers there but we bushcamped before that on a deserted beach. Just head south from Mayumba village on the only tar road to the airport. At the airport you'll need to drive along the airstrip (there are only planes about 3x a week!) until you hit a track into the savannah. After about 11km you take a right at a farm fence and get to the beach. We bushcamped along this stretch (S03.31.783; E10.46.097) and saw loads of turtle tracks and a couple of nesting turtles in the middle of the night. See www.mayumbanationalpark.com.

General driving conditions
The roads in southern Gabon consist of shocking mud corrugations and potholes with the odd good logging road/dangerous wet muddy piste. These roads will suffer in the rainy season. About 50kms south of Lambarene the N1 changes to graded gravel, which soon changes into near perfect tar running all the way to Cameroon. Apparently there is a section of potholed tar on the way into Libreville form the south. Many of the roads through the jungle are hilly and twisty so the main danger is the logging trucks. Speeding convoys of these are generally preceded by cars with flashing lights and 'grumiere' signs - we learnt to get right over to the side of the road and slow down when we saw these!

Specific driving conditions

• Border to Ndende - 2 hours on compacted dirt with hard rocks and possible flooding.
• Ndende to Tchibanga - 2 hours on bad pot-holed dirt then good graded logging roads.
• Tchibanga to Mayumba - 4 hours on perilously muddy logging road (with skating lorries!). Free car ferry over lagoon (runs hourly during the hours of daylight).
• Mayumba village to park boundaries - 1 hour on airstrip, wet savannah and deepish sand tracks!
• Ndende to Lambarene - 6 hours on wide dirt track followed by 40 minutes on graded gravel and perfect tar.
• Lambarene to Oyem - 8 hours scenic drive. Perfect tar to Ndjole, very bad dirt through Medouane and then good tar to Oyem. The stretches along the river have some collapsed sections but these are well sign-posted. (Waved through several police blocks).
• Oyem to border - 1.5 hours on perfect tar.

Accommodation
Generally, the south of Gabon is great to bushcamp with a lot of open savannah and giant plastic purple trees. There are also many roadside quarries from the road building. When bush-camping beware the invisible flies that bite without you noticing until a day later when you will be covered in itchy red measle-like spots. Covering up and deet seems to help. The north is very populated around the main roads and the accommodation a little pricey. Try the missions as usual. We have the following recommendations:

• Bushcamp just north of Ndende (S02.15.156; E11.15.211). Great spot in the savannah recommended by Mike Beckett. Follow the narrow track off the road towards the koppie.
• Bushcamping on Mayumba peninsular (see above).
• Hotel Modiboti, Tchibanga - very pleasant treat (read: 26,000 CFA!!) after the trudge through the Congo. Clean with good restaurant, bar, patisserie and pool.
• Mouila is a big place with lots of accomodation options.
• Souers de l'Immaculee Conception, Lambarene (S00.41.516; E10.13.680. 5,000 CFA) - the nuns were very accommodating and the gardens were suprisingly peaceful considering the proximity of the school. We got some good, cheap welding done at the mechanics next door - ask the nuns for Mr Theo.
• Motel les Champs, Oyem (N01.36.715; E11.34.611. 10,000 CFA) - basically a condom-by-the-bed motel but friendly, good value and next to an excellent restaurant. (We tried the Center Marie Domnique on the hill where many people camp - N01.35.758; E11.34.885 - but it was late and we couldn't find anyone to talk to about camping).

Food, water and beer
You can find tasty pork or goat roasts with plantain or baguette in most towns. There are large and useful markets in Tchibanga, Lambarene and Bitam and the fruit and veg is good and plentiful. Elsewhere, we saw a lot of bushmeat hanging from gibbets at the side of the road.

There are publice water taps in Ndende and other towns. We picked up OK water from the mission in Lambarene but on another day it was very dirty. Bottled water is reasonably priced (i.e not shipped in from Paris).

Regab is the beer of Gabon but you can get Primus from the DRC which is a lot better.

Money and fuel
There are no ATMs (at least outside of Libreville) and it was difficult to find anywhere to change money in Gabon. There is nowhere official in Ndende, Tchibanga or Mayumba, although we saw some banks in Mouila. We found an unofficial money changer in Tchibanga market but he didn't give us a good rate. In Lambarene we changed Euros for CFA at the Albert Schweitzer hospital for 650:1.

Diesel cost 430-470 CFA/litre (50p). We saw fuel stations in Ndende, Tchibanga, Mayumba, Mouila, Fougamou, Lambarene, Mitzic, Oyem and Bitam.