One woman went off the beaten track to have the adventure of a lifetime, seeing gorillas, hippos, turtles and more in the wilds of the West African nation
Trying to identify animal tracks in the wild is always exciting â and these were unmistakably a hippo’s. If we were attempting to spot one of Africa’s most dangerous beasts from the safety of a game-viewing vehicle in broad daylight, this would have been fun. But we were on foot. On a beach. At 2am.
Suddenly, seeing one of Gabon’s fabled “surfing hippos” didn’t seem very sensible. But, after scanning the waves with his torch, eco-guide Ghislain said: “Let’s go.” I’d seen him pad through the bush barefoot, stare down an elephant, and now shrug off a possible encounter with a hippo in the dark⦠“The animals know that I come in peace,” he said.
There are certainly enough animals in this country on the west coast of Central Africa to test that mantra. More than 85% of Gabon â slightly bigger than the UK, but with just 2.3million people â is covered in forest, which is home to an estimated 30,000 lowland gorillas and chimps, 90,000 forest elephants, buffalo, mandrills, bongo and sitatunga antelopes, leopards, golden cats, red river hogs⦠and humpback whales can be seen offshore from July to September.
The vastness of the country’s forests mean exact numbers are difficult to determine â and most of the animals actually live outside the designated national parks.