Gabon

In Gabon, we crossed over the equator,

and in Lopé National Park saw buffaloes bathing in mud

and forest elephant.

We saw three herds of elephant, two of which we viewed from the 4x4, and one of which we followed on foot at dusk. As we were struggling to take photos with low light and no flash, we were suddenly told ‘Reculez! Reculez!’ [Get back! Get back!] as they had begun slowly walking towards us. They stopped for a little while but then continued walking towards us and we were told several more times ‘Reculez! Reculez!’, before finally having to get quickly back into the safety of our 4x4.

We only had one night and morning in Libreville unfortunately, but still made the most of the time we had, having dinner at ‘La Dolce Vita’ (clearly we need to get out more often as we were all over-excited by the packets of butter and wine that doesn’t come in a carton or 5 litre plastic bottle, let alone the meals themselves!)

and dancing with the locals at the nearby ‘Aristocrat’ nightclub.

The following day, we were offered a lift into town by a very friendly local ‘Chef de l’Entreprise’ who ended up offering all four of us jobs! He said he needed someone in marketing to work in Paris and Luxembourg from time to time. A-MA-ZING!

We only had a few hours that morning to visit Libreville, and spent most of it bargaining at the Artisan’s Market and visiting the waterfront sculptures.