Trip Report: Gabon
Visited in May 2025
We were standing in a field in the middle of nowhere of the Pongara National Park. About 200 meters away, behind some bushes, stood a full-grown elephant, looking at us skeptically. About the same distance away, just on the other side, stood a herd of animals that we couldn’t tell were buffalo or cattle. Maybe a mixture of both, who knows. They also stared at us.
And us? Four tourists and a driver. And a vehicle that had just broken down on us. “The battery’s dead,” our driver announced. Our safari, which had cost 150,000 CFA (around $260), seemed to be over after just 15 minutes.
What was the bad news, apart from the safari ending so soon? Anyone who has ever been on safari in Africa knows that wild elephants do not react particularly well to humans and their vehicles. Neither do herds of buffalo or cattle. The good news? Even though it felt like we were in the middle of nowhere, we spotted a road in the distance, and soon, two quad bikes came to our rescue.
It wasn’t exactly the safari we had hoped for, but in many ways, it set the tone for a journey that would be full of unexpected twists. Gabon was the starting point of a trip through Central Africa that was to take me to my last four countries in Africa.
In the first two countries, Gabon and the Republic of the Congo, we were a group of six people, all seasoned travelers who had been to between 100 and 190 countries. And this safari would have been one of three game drives on this trip for me. In the end, only one of those three safaris actually happened.
This wasn’t just bad luck. It turned out to be a pattern – one that would repeat itself with the local tour operators over the coming days. It was also a trip that once again confirmed how little you sometimes get from tour companies in Africa, even though you pay them premium prices.
When they packed two of us each onto a quad bike and drove us back to the hotel, the mood was still very good. Having all been on many safaris, we took the setback lightly, this drive was more of a filler activity anyway.
While this incident occurred on our second day in Gabon, our journey had actually begun the previous day in the capital, Libreville. Or, strictly speaking, even a day before that at the airport in Zurich. At check-in, I had a piece of paper that was supposed to get me into the country, even though it wasn’t an actual visa, and hoped that the airline would accept it. In fact, I had not yet heard that you could currently enter Gabon with a visa on arrival.
However, our tour company RV Gabon assured us that it would work out. For €35, they sent us a letter of invitation, which we could use to obtain a visa at the airport in Libreville. I was more than nervous. I would have preferred to rely on a proper visa, but since I needed a visa for all four countries on this trip, there was simply no time to apply for one for Gabon at the embassy.
Until recently, Gabon was a country that had a reputation as an insider tip among hardcore travelers. Everything that Africa has to offer, i.e. beautiful nature, wildlife, beaches, national parks and so on, exists in this country. Simply without tourists, although Gabon was slowly opening up to tourism. That’s why Gabon had long been high on my travel bucket list.
In the mean time, times have changed. Gabon had a military coup in 2023 that made traveling in the country more difficult again. The e-visa, which was only recently introduced, stopped working for a long time. In addition, there were more and more stories of travelers who were not allowed into the country on arrival. Sometimes for trivial reasons. For example, because there was no guide waiting for them at the airport.
Given all that, it’s no surprise my excitement about visiting Gabon had started to fade. In addition, the things that once excited me about Gabon didn’t hold the same appeal anymore. In the meantime, I had been on enough safaris and seen a lot of beautiful landscapes, so unlike before, I was no longer so keen to spend more than two or three days in the country.
When I planned the trip with a travel buddy, I said that I didn’t really care about the itinerary for Gabon. After all, the country wouldn’t offer me anything new. I had already seen enough safaris, beaches, and African capitals, so I didn’t care which of these activities or places I would see again.
However, my travel companion introduced an unexpected idea: attending a Bwiti ceremony, a spiritual ritual native to Gabon and other parts of Central Africa. It often centers on the consumption of the psychoactive iboga root to experience spiritual insights, healing, or initiation. That is why the Bwiti ceremony is sometimes called the “ayahuasca of Central Africa.”
First, however, I had to get into the country. Fortunately, both the airline and immigration at Libreville airport accepted our letter of invitation. Nevertheless, entry was completely chaotic and took us about an hour, while it took the rest of the group, who landed earlier, two hours.
After clearing immigration, we checked into the Park Inn hotel and rested an hour or tour. In the early evening, our tour company picked us up and drove us about 45 minutes outside of Libreville. There, the Bwiti Ceremony took place in the garden of a house. In addition to us, there were probably about 30-40 other people present. Gabonese people, not tourists.
In the following hours, we watched dances and other rituals, during which I wasn’t quite sure what was going on. The whole thing lasted several hours. Two members of our group had tried iboga and described it as similar to shrooms.
And what about the rest of us? At first, we sat in the garden and watched the dances and rituals. But every now and then, an hour would pass without anything happening. At midnight, the ceremony moved to a small hut in the garden where a fire burned. That’s where the real ceremony took place, with participants dancing close to the fire, which was occasionally tossed or blown in their direction as part of the ritual. The whole thing felt quite surreal and hypnotic.
In hindsight, the Bwiti ceremony was a fascinating experience – though admittedly exhausting at the time. I had spent the night before on a plane and was accordingly tired. We left the place shortly before 2am and were told that the ceremony would continue until 11 o’clock in the morning.
After just a few hours of sleep, we headed off the next morning to catch a boat to Point Denis, where our next adventure was waiting. The boat ride from Libreville to Point Denis took less than 20 minutes. There, we had booked accommodation at La Maringa, a hotel with various bungalows right on the beach.
While calling it a resort might be a stretch, it was still a very pleasant place to stay. It was a Sunday, and we noticed that many guests, especially locals from Libreville, come here for the weekend and don’t leave until late Sunday afternoon. That’s why there were quite a lot of people here when we arrived.
We spent the afternoon enjoying some beach time before embarking on the glorious safari trip I described in the introduction. All of the accommodations in Point Denis allow you to book activities directly through them. La Maringa then had the nerve to try to charge us for the safari. When we said we wouldn’t pay for it, they tried to argue that we got 15 out of 60 minutes and should therefore pay for a quarter of it. We firmly rejected that as well.
Incidentally, our safari started half an hour late because our safari guide didn’t show up. That wouldn’t have been a big problem, but as sunset was approaching, we risked losing the last light of day for our tour. The hotel manager apologized, saying that the staff was tired because there had been a party the night before… I’ll have to remember that excuse next time I’m running late myself.
Unfortunately, it is often the case in Africa that you pay quite high prices for activities, but the service then falls well short of expectations. The pattern persisted the following day during our planned city tour of Libreville. I used the morning to visit the DRC embassy because I still needed the visa, but that’s another story, which I will also publish soon…
An alternative to Point Denis would have been Chez Béti Camp, which is very popular with travelers. It would have been the better option for wildlife, and several people highly recommended it to me. However, it would have added an hour to our arrival and departure times, and since we were short on time, we decided on Point Denis. With a bit more time, opting for this camp might have been a better choice.
Let’s get back to the city tour. Our guide Abdoul, who works for RV Gabon as well, was waiting in the hotel lobby at 4pm and when we were ready to go, we noticed in the hotel parking lot that the driver was no longer there. Funnily enough, we couldn’t find our driver (the same person) after the Bwiti ceremony either. Back then, however, he had returned after just 15-20 minutes. This time, he seemed to be… who knows where.
It took a whole hour for the driver to reappear. Abdoul repeatedly told us, “he’ll be here in 10 minutes.” In the end, he arrived, but I had the feeling that he wasn’t our actual driver but a random guy who worked for the hotel. I took this situation with humor as well. Such incidents are somehow part of life in Africa, and you get used to them.
We could have skipped the Libreville city tour, as the city doesn’t have much to offer. Still, wandering through the city gave me a first impression of Gabon’s relative wealth compared to other African countries – something I later confirmed through some reading. Interestingly, Gabon has one of the highest GDPs per capita in sub-Saharan Africa due to its oil and gas reserves.
And while we’re on the subject of exciting facts: Gabon is one of the few countries in the world that is CO₂-negative. This means that the country absorbs more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than it emits. With around 88% of its land area covered by forest, Gabon absorbs around 140 million tons of CO₂ annually, while emissions are around 40 million tons.
Environmental facts aside, our short time in Gabon had come to an end. We left Gabon on our fourth day and headed for Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of the Congo. Although a few things went wrong in Gabon, I have to say that I really liked it there. This was mainly because I found Gabon to be quite relaxed. The people were nice and I felt that the country was less corrupt than its neighbors.
Gabon also has a lot to offer in terms of activities. During our visit, we saw a cultural ceremony, a beach, a safari (well, sort of), and a city. So it was actually quite varied, and I can well imagine coming back someday.
The national parks in the interior of the country look cool. I always wanted to take the train to Lopé National Park, as I imagine it to be a great adventure. However, as the train sometimes has massive delays, it wouldn’t have fit into this short stay.
My conclusion about Gabon is therefore very positive. It’s a cool country that is sometimes rightly considered an insider tip. Of all the countries in Central Africa, without São Tomé and Príncipe, I would say that it was the best.
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