Tailor made gorilla safari in Gabon

Evengue is a small island gorilla retreat where orphaned or previously caged primates are monitored and given better life quality with (very) long term goal of re-habituation. Visiting here allows the chance to see gorillas that may not have seen either at start or end of your stay in Loango National Park. There is a side attraction of visiting the St Anne’s Mission with church built by Gustav Eiffel on the boat transfer to or from Loango.

Loango National Park is probably the most popular of the parks as it is also the coastal reserve that allows for a range of terrain on which to discover wildlife.

There are a few lodges, the main being Loango Lodge and the satellite camps, Akaka (seasonal due to rains) down a river, Tassi further south on the plains and St Catherine’s is on a beach but there is no wildlife here. Game drives, walks in plains or forest pockets and boat/fishing trips in lagoon. Red river hog, forest elephants and forest buffalo are often seen in this area and on a rare cocasion, chimpanzees have been seen (the nests are visible) and even lowland gorilla. Loango is renowned for seeing large game on the beaches as well as the infamous surfing hippo but do not travel with the expectation of viewing this, it is simply a wonderful surprise if you do witness such things.

Further inland, reached by plane or train, the simple Lope Hotel is a fine base for forays into the national park, and its surrounding plains and pockets of forest. A variety of wildlife can be seen including forest elephants, forest buffaloes and several monkey species. One of the highlights is to go Mandrill Tracking and this is possible most of year provided researchers are on the project. Trekking for a couple hours across the Lope plains and forests and eventually finding the mandrills is a fantastic experience although as with all wildlife, it cannot be guaranteed.

You can also go to heart of Lope forest and stay at Mikongo Research Camp and join researchers and guides trekking through forests daily viewing wildlife such as birds, monkeys, and smaller aspects of nature. Gorillas and chimps are present but quite hard to see through the thick ground layer of this secondary forest.

This is an ideal trip for a one off short trip to Gabon or part of a more lengthy exploration of the country. There are several areas and National Parks that should be visited but if restricted with time and budget, then the following itinerary is ideal to capture some of the main highlights. Travellers do need a keen sense of adventure, be ready to rough it a bit, and pay rather high prices for more substandard and basic accommodation which can sometimes be lacking in service that you would expect for such rates. Gabon is new to tourism so things can and will go wrong no matter how much we ‘tailor make’ but they are learning and will improve over future years.

Note: In order to keep the costs down Air Maroc has been used which requires an overnight stay in Casablanca on the outbound journey. Transport around the country completely depends on the itinerary and where you are travelling to but a lot of the transfers are by light aircraft, there can also be several lengthy road trips to distant parks and often there will be some short or long day or night train journeys to get about.Gabon has many varied seasons so travel can be restricted to certain areas at different times of year and type of wildlife possible will also determine if place is worth visiting. Generally travel is possible throughout the year dependent on your resistance to rain, humidity and dislike of insects - with rain comes more insects!

The small dry season is December to January where there are clear blue skies and little rainfall. The long wet season is from February to April where there can be heavy rainfall and tornadoes but its is warm. The long dry season from May to September is overcast but there is no rain and temperatures are cooler though in the twenties centigrade. The small wet season is October to November where heavy rain bursts are followed by hot sun.

In Loango National Park, the best wildlife can be found from November to April when the animals move up north into the park, closer to the Loango Lodge area.

Sightings of large wildlife on the beaches can be more prevalent during this time. However, such sightings cannot be expected as the parks are not so prolific in wildlife as is found in other areas of Africa. The turtle season is January to March and if there are researchers in the area, these projects can be visited. It is alos possible to view humpback whales from the shore from late July to September and if there are specific whale projects in the area, it may even be possible to take a boat out with the researchers.