Gabon

20/04/04

After the completing the Douane formalities a couple of kilometers after the river in Eboro we took the road to Bitam. The road is very good, tarmac and huge road signs, all very surprising as we had heard bad news about the state of the roads here. In Bitam we presented our passports and photocopies of Gabon visa to Immigration. The photocopies we wanted to have stamped so we could take it into cities instead of our passport. Unfortunately the arrogant guy behind the desk decided he wanted these copies plus copies of our passport in A4. This meant looking for a photocopy shop. He then spent a long time writing out our details anyway on a scrap of paper. Bitam is a well organized and clean town and after a huge lunch at local café we started the 600 km drive to Libreville. The tarmac continued and took us through the tropical forests, the only traffic being an occasional car and logging trucks. Urs and Elsa skillfully spotted a place to stay in the forest and we bush camped for the night.

We set off early after forging a cholera signature in our vaccination book. Police checks are quite frequent here and they all ask to see evidence of this book. Although it is not legally required to have cholera injections anymore some countries still ask for it, like Gabon and the Congos, so this bit of fraud might make our lives easier. We knew we were in the tropics because not only is it very hot and humid but everything bites. The little flies still had time to eat Krissy and Tubbs leaving red blotches over their arms and legs before we left.

We crossed the equator. A big moment. Its tradition for overlanders to push their vehicles over the middle of the earth which we duely did, much to the bemusement of the road workers. We then recrossed it to get to Libreville.

It was a beautiful drive through the forest and along the Ogooue River. The road remained as tarmac to just past Oyem. It was then 80 km of piste which is in pretty good condition. They are building a big road through and Caterpillar trucks, lorries and graders were everywhere carving their way through the forest. The roads out here in the middle of nowhere are some of the best we have driven on in Africa and there purpose seems to be for logging as these were the main vehicles we saw using it.

We are currently roughing it with Elzas family in Libreville, the most modern city we have seen since Europe. Jean Luc and Veronique are kindly letting us have the run of their house and garden which overlooks the sea and is slightly taken up by a large swimming pool. Jean Luc kindly offered to take us out on his yacht on Sunday 28^th and we felt we could not refuse. We sailed out to the other side of the massive estuary arriving to a beautiful beach and cocktails at the Equador Club. Its hard out here but we are coping.

The Angola Embassy is in Batterie 4 next to the church. We are going to get 2 transit visas, one for Cabinda (Angolan Enclave so we avoid Brazzaville and Kinshasa) and the other for the main country. The options are a transit visa for 25,000 which last 10 days or a month visa for 60,000 or multiple entry month visa for 90,000. To get a visa involves getting a letter of invitation, writing a letter by hand which they have already written saying you will be good whilst there, copies of passport and vaccination certificates and providing it all in duplicate.

We were told to return on Tuesday with the filled in forms, only to find it was closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Finally on Thursday we handed in the mountain of forms and returned on Friday to pick up the visas. Unfortunately, they would only issue one transit visa but they had given us 30 and not 10 days which was good news. This was the longest time we have waited for visas so far, which given other peoples experiences in Africa, is pretty good. When we talked with the American over landers they got their visa in 3 hours, their quickest visa, on a Tuesday! They didn019t hand in any duplicates, wrote no hand written letter, paid 30,000 and got a transit visa for 15 days. There are no rules regarding getting this visa we think!

We have been in contact with The Americans for a few weeks via email. Actually, 3 Americans and a Brit - sorry Mrs Jackson for that mistake! They are making slightly faster progress than us. Connie, Graham, Jennifer and Witt left the US in December, shipped to Southampton (a place where they had never seen so much chewing gum on the pavement!) and in January headed for Africa. They caught us up in Libreville and now we are traveling together to Angola. It will be good to have more people for this next, more dangerous section of our journey. Its also good to be traveling with more Landrovers; they have 300TDI Defenders.

The story regarding their landies is a long and expensive one as it is illegal to import Land Rovers into the US because they don't meet US safety standards ie air bags and side body protection. As there are only 500 odd landies in the US it is also hard to buy them as they are extremely expensive and hard to get hold of. However, through a complicated series of events lasting a couple of years, they eventually managed to get on the road.

We all left Libreville on the 8^th April. We had heard that the road from Labarene to the border at Ndende was horrendous so we decieded to take the better conditioned minor road past the Lope Reserve, Lastoursville and try and cross the border at Bakoumba.

The piste was surprisingly good, passing through the forest, over rivers and up into savannah. Graham spotted a crocodile and a monkey while the rest of us just saw moving grass of an exiting animal. Towards sunset the mist came down over the forest and it looked great. We had a good bushcamp overlooking the river , thanks to the Americans downloading someones elses GPS points.

Graham has had problems with his shock turret since he left, (at least we are not the only ones who had trouble with them). The shock turret is basically too short for the modified shock absorber as it bottoms out before the bumpstop hits on the axle; it has been welded onto the top of the spring bracket but one too many potholes finally shook it loose the next day. We stopped for lunch so that Graham could strap his spring onto the axle and Slade could highlift up Sid inorder to tighten the front wheel bearing. The lunch spot looked like a landy repair shop.

It took us 3 days to get to Moanda. The piste was in quite good condition and we were feeling pleased with ourselves for having come this route as it is a beautiful drive. In Moanda we fuelled up and Urs sorted out his flat tyre. We took advantage of the water pump in the garage to stand underneath it and wash 3 days worth of red dust from our hair. It was great to feel cool for at least 2 minutes before the heat and humidity caught up with us again.

We bushcamped outside Moanda and arrived in Bakumba early on Easter Sunday. The reason for our early starts of 8am is down to the bees and little flies that plague us while we try and eat breakfast and get packed up. You don019t feel them bite but for several days afterwards they itch like hell.

Due to what happens to us next we shall record the next few days like this.

Day 1 at the border:

The town was quiet when we arrived as practically everyone was in church, including the police officer on duty. He turned out to be a friendly man and told us that the border was open and wouldn019t be a problem. We then drove to the Doune 50 yards down the road to find that the only officer had gone on holiday. This we thought was strange for an open border. Unfortunately the Gendarmerie official was there and told us that the border was closed but if we gave him some money he would let us through! We refused and went back to the police man who basically said that the Gendarmie was out of order so should let us through, which really wasn't very useful. An hour later the Gendarmie suddenly said we could pass; the fact that we had made ourselves look pretty settled outside his office and we didn019t look too bothered with the waiting may have made him realize that he wasn't getting anything out of us.

20 km down the road we were stopped by the barrier of more gendarmerie. They looked surprised to see us and also said that the border was closed. However, if we gave him 50,000 CFA (£50) per vehicle we could go through. He was greeted to incredulous laughs and other negative words, so he relented and asked how much we could give him. We did more laughing and told him nothing. Probably deciding he would work on us later he said he would take us to the border 15kms further on. The border was a bit of a surprise to say the least. It was a locked gate behind which was a little track, high grass and another gate on the Congolese side. It looked very closed. Surprisingly there was a policeman there that told us that the border had been closed since 1997 and to get through we would need a letter from the local governor saying that we were allowed to leave from this point. Why no one had told us this before, we don019t know. As the next day was Easter Monday both borders would be closed so we should come back on Tuesday.

We drove back to Bakoumba and went to see the policeman who phoned the local prefect (chief police officer) who then phoned the Governor at his home to get our permission to leave! We wondered why the policeman had not done this 4 hours previously. Elza and Tubbs were then taken to the Prefects house to get the letter; it was strange to suddenly be in the prefects house surrounded by his kids watching an blood thirsty action movie as he typed out the letter for us. Whilst all this was going on the others had met he owner of the l'impala Hotel who said we could camp there, use the facilities and take a trip into the local game park the next day. This sounded very good.

Day 2

We were in the Lekedi park by 7.30am. It turned out to be very well organized with the animals held in different large enclosures. We saw buffalos, Impala, Ostrich, pigs but the most impressive was the Chimpanzees and Mandrill monkeys. The Chimps live on an island; there are wild chimps and 5 others that had been rescued and were enthusiastic about showing themselves, especially when thrown bananas . It was fantastic to get so close to them in the boat. On the way back the Mandrills came down through the trees on another island. The large male with is long red and blue nose and very colourful backside was fascinating to watch. The much smaller females jumped around in the trees which was very entertaining. There was another enclosure which housed more Mandrills and Chimps who charged about grabbing up the food. A walk across a very long canopy walkway that swayed a bit too much for comfort finished off the trip. Although the animals weren019t free we figured that it was probably the only way to have a park in this part of Africa as every animal is hunted for food and would be too vulnerable if left to run unhindered.

We spent the afternoon catching up on stuff like laundry until it rained. The policeman arrived to stamp us out of the country again and took Elza and Tubbs back to the police station. The head policeman wanted to see us and Elza had to explain the whole story to him, including the 50,000 CFA bribe. The chief was very indignant about this and said that they would follow it up and were keen that we understand that behaviour like this was not normal in Gabon. The girls were then stuck at the policestation until someone found a car to take them back to the hotel. To be honest with all the hassles we will be pleased to leave!

We ended the day with another of Slades great potjies and of course custard. (a daily meal)

Day 3

This is what happened in brief;

Say cheery goodbye to police
The douane man was back from his holidays and wanted to search our vehicles.
The gendarmerie appeared and said that they had orders from above not to let us pass. We showed them our letter from the Governor but because it was dated the same day as when they got their orders they wouldn019t accept it. They also wanted 10,000CFA to stamp us out of the country when they did get permission.
The douane would not stamp carnet and wanted to charge us 10,000 each to stamp it.
The girls sprint back to the police man and get the chief of police and justice to sort out the douane and gendarmie, accusing them of bribery and corruption
All the chiefs jump in their cars and take the douane and gendarmie aside.
They let us through.
We pass the second gendarmie official on the road.
He refuses to let us pass until he can drive back into town to phone his colonel for permission
We wait for 6 hours in the road (or rather track, no other traffic)for his return, drinking tea and watching ice age.
Urs and Elza go back to town to bring back Gendarmerie official as it turns out he has no car and needs to wait for a ride to return. He is drunk and in a bar. They bring him back getting a flat tyre on the way.
They let us pass, no mention of phoning the colonel and arrive at the border
The policeman on the border tells us that our letter has no reference number on it
When we require how we get through the locked gate he calmly tells us that the only man with the key has died!

Day 4

1. 8.30am After a heavy night of rain, every thing was covered in mud, the policeman walked past in his uniform and not in his usual hawiian shirt. We suspected he was going to cause more problems

2. By 10am the Congolese officials had arrived and have a white man with them. Officials from both sides talk and it looks like a hostage swap is going on! Turns out that the Congolese could not stamp us out until the chief of police and the immigration officer had been collected from the village 7km away AND we had got permission from the Prefect that we could ENTER!!!

3. Graham, Elza, Tubbs and Jen get in the back of the priests car (the only man with a vehicle) to enter Congo inorder to get permission to enter the country! After a white knuckle ride only the overgrown track to Mbinda Elza greets the chief and we pick up the officials.

4. Back at the border the Gabonese policeman (now back in his Hawiian shirt) agrees to let us out, no mention of letter or dead man.

5. As we cannot dig up the keys Slade smashes the lock of the border and we get out of Gabon!

6. Efficiently signed in by the Congolese officials who tell us we are the first tourists that have driven through the border for 7 years, excluding a Congolese ambassador who passed through whilst moving house to Libreville!

7. We give the priest diesel for his vehicle and give the Gabonese policeman a new lock and key for his gate!

8. We drive back to Mbinda, Graham getting stuck in the first mud hole due to a problem with the steering and the fact he thinks he is coming down with pneumonia. In Mbinda the Prefect wants to see us and enthusiastically welcomes us to Congo with a bone shaking handshake. We have a photo outside his office and drive out of town.

9. The next 25 km to Mokolo is rough going but all Land rover drivers enjoy the mud and gullys. We complete it in 2 hours.

10. The first police check in Mokolo is greatly helped by us having a form with all our details on it.

11. We find a bush camp half an hour before it gets dark and brai some chicken. Tastes great but it pours with rain as we dish it up.

Gabon Summary

Angola Embassy is in Batterie 4 next to the church. The options are a transit visa for 25,000 which lasts 10 days, a month visa for 60,000 or multiple entry month visa for 90,000. They will not allow you to get 2 Transit Visas at once. To get a visa involves getting a letter of invitation, writing a letter by hand which they have already written saying you will be good whilst there, copies of passport and vaccination certificates and providing it all in duplicate. (We also heard that this is not always required!)

The Embassy could be closed on any day and the time for issue is between 3 hours and 24 hours if you get your timing right regarding closure times!

Piste Information

Good road from border to just past Oyem. It was then 80 km of piste which is in pretty good condition. They are building a big road through and Caterpillar trucks, lorries and graders were everywhere carving their way through the forest. The roads out here in the middle of nowhere are some of the best we have driven on in Africa.

We had heard that the road from Labarene to the border at Ndende was horrendous so we decided to take the better conditioned minor road past the Lope Reserve, Lastoursville, Moanda and try and cross the border at Bakoumba.

It took us 3 days to get to Moanda. The piste was in quite good condition and we were feeling pleased with ourselves for having come this route as it is a beautiful drive.

Crossing the border after Bakoumba takes time! It took us 4 days including a bank holiday. You definitely need a letter from the Governor stating that you are allowed to leave from that border. Apparently leaving from any border in Gabon requires such a letter from the local governor. We arranged ours via the local police and Prefect.

Places to visit

Lekedi National Park near Bakoumba