Gorillas in Gabon ?
 

Hi,

we will travel north from Luanda soon.

Does anyone know good places to see gorillas?

In Gabon? Cameroon? Congo?

Thanks!

Not sure about Cameroon, but it should be possible in both Congo Brazzaville and/or Gabon. But I can tell you from personal experience that it is very difficult to arrange.

We came from the opposite direction than you and went to Lopé national park in Gabon. Seeing gorillas wasn't a big thing for me and I quickly gave up trying to see them when I heard the cost of the tours you have take. You aren't allowed into the area without a guide and a permit. These tours are operated from travelagencies in Libreville. And are usually booked for months in advance. It is a habituation project, so they don't just let hundreds of people go visit the area. It is not possible to just turn up in Lopé and arrange a tour from there to see gorillas (believe me, we tried for 4-5 days to arrange it.And in the end it fell through because of overbooking). You can however arrange for a tour to see mandril. Other local guides will take you out to see forrest elephant and buffalo at a reasonable price. There are two places to stay inside Lopé national park. The very expensive lodge and the not so expensive motel. The motel doesn't have a restaurant, but the owner can send out in the village for food. Ask the manager (can't remember her name) about a guide.

S 00 06.438 E 011 36.637 is the location of the cheaper motel inside Lopé national park.

We were told by two girls from a wildlife society (I forget which one) that it was possible to see gorillas at a project just outside Brazzaville in Congo. These were however not "wild" gorillas in their natural habitat like in Gabon. In my case, even the last option was not possible due to the safety situation on the road to Brazzaville at the time. I hope it has improved.

I know this wasn't the answer you were looking for. But what I am trying to say is that you should try to arrange a gorilla tour in advance and not just turn up and hope things work out. Libreville seems to be the place to arrange these things with a tour operator. If you are unable to spend a lot of time on the phone and send faxes back and forth, the Brazzville project seems to be your safest bet.

I hope I at least gave you a direction in which to search for a solution.

In Cameroon the Campo Ma'an national park has chimps, gorillas and pygmies. At Limbe there is a Primate Rescue Centre with a couple of dozen Lowland Gorillas as well as many other varieties of primates.

Many thanks for both your answers.

Reserve de Lopé looks like a relatively quick side-step from the main road.

How about the other one? Is it possible to enter the Reserve de Camp Ma'an from the Equatorial Guinea side? Would be a nice short-cut ... just driving north from Libreville through Bata.

I can certainly recommend Lopé national park as a side step. Absolutely beautifull area. Even if you don't get to see gorilas. Oh, and I understand from another thread that you somehow miss the "bad" roads. All I can say is...have fun in Lopé. Especially if there has been rain recently. :)

Thank you McThor !

From your Cameroon expertise: is it a good trip to enter CAR via Yokadouma and Nola and then to continue to Bangui?

The Michelin map doesn't even show this road.

I came from Nigeria (crossed at Ekok) and went straight through to Gabon. So I don't know about routes to CAR. Sorry.

By the way; crossing at Ekok can only be done if the road is relatively dry. If there has been recent rainfall, you simply cannot cross here. Some of the holes we drove through are man deep. Fun driving when it's dry, but when there has been rain, you will need a boat more than a bike. No kidding.

Edit: Congo is going to be tough enough as it is. You've got some pretty interesting roads ahead of you. And that's just the main route.

Many thanks.

We'll do a sidestep to CAR via Nola/Bayanga (Gorillas!) to Bangui (saw this route described by slep_africa on Routen, Schlafplätze, Übernachtungsmöglichkeiten, Botschaften, Länderinformationen von Reisenden für Reisende), then up north to Ndjamena and straight west into Niger.

If Ndjamena doesn't work, we'll have to go through Northern Nigeria, a country I wanted to avoid, if possible.

Hey Travelbug,

have a look at this thread for some further advices.

Cheers Peter

Peter,

I studied your 2 Transafrica trips.

Impressive! Very good information.

Thanks a lot.

Unfortunately most of the people do not realize that this is an open platform where everybody might post fast and easy (and if it'is just one little thing) some information :(. But I keep on working on it:thumbup1:.

Cheers Peter

Hi Peter,

I just wrote my first posting on your site traveller-tracks.com.

Angola: Ruacana Falls - Cahama. Didn't have GPS positions, though.

Regards,

Wow, thanks,

doesn't matter the next one can add it.

cheers Peter

My pleasure.

Got your message.

Will try a new route posting.

Cheers,

Hello,
About 3 months ago we came up through Angola, DRC, Congo, Gabon, Cameroon, CAR, back to Cameroon, Nigeria......etc.
Seeing Gorillas in the wild is very very difficult except in Bayanga CAR, where you are literally guaranteed to see them. We had an absolute amazing experience. A gorilla trek costs about $150 per person so far cheaper than in Uganda and the beauty is they only let groups of two go so you have the experience all to yourself. There is also a great German guy who works there named Phillip. Also there is a great elephant viewing, on the salt pan we counted 120 elephants at one time.
The route we took was Yaounde, Abong Mbang, Lomie, Yokaduma, Nola , Bayanga. The route for the most part is really good, except for the washboard from the logging trucks. You do have to take two ferries that cost about $10 piece before you reach Nola.
Be warned though CAR is not for week of heart, we found it to be the most difficult country of the 26 we have visited in Africa. For the most part the people can be friendly but the police checkpoints are the worst in Africa. I would recommend the route we took because there are few checkpoints and if you had farther north in the country there are far more checkpoints.
Cheers,
Josh
Welcome to www.quadsacrossafrica.com

Hi Josh,

thank you for your info. This is very helpful.

We plan to see the gorillas in Bayanga in mid-June and we will enter and exit CAR between Nokadouma and Nola.

By the way, is it possible to get the CAR visa at the border?

Regards,

No, you have to get it in Yaounde.
BTW: If you are going directly to Garoua Boulai, you will have better roads and the checkpoints aren't that bad.

Cheers Peter

Thanks! That's what we'll do.

The visa is very easy to get in Yaounde, one day and about $50. (The embassy is about 1 km from the Nigerian embassy) When you get there dont forget to look up Peter and tell him Hi from us, he is a great guy and will probably cook you dinner.
Also take the time to see the elephants at the salt pans, arguably the best elephant viewing in Africa. It is worth the extra $50 to see them for the day.
Also there is an American guy who went native with the pygmies 30 years ago, he is worth seeking out to hear some great stories.
Good luck
Josh

Sorry, where to look for the salt pans? Cameroon or CAR?

It's also in Bayanga. You can book there one day elephants on the pan, next day gorillas in the forest, next day hunting with pygmees in the forest next day canoeing with pygmees, next day ... as much as you like.
The pan is really somekind of magic, the elephants come and go permanently and you can see the excitement of the ones who come. They eat the the mud there, as well as a lot of other animals doing this, which you won't see anywhere else. There works an amrican woman for (I guess) 15 years and she is able to recognize over 3.000 different elephants just on their ears and tusks and she knows almost the whole family story of each of them. Some of them disappear for a few months and then come back.
If you stay in Bayanga you also have to visit the payotte "Cote d'Azur" in "Bayanga Downtown" for an evening :-).

Cheers Peter

Sounds great. Many thanks Josh and Peter.