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.
|
