Gabon — Where to Go
Top Things to See and Do
• Take a stroll around Gabon’s lively, charming and cosmopolitan oceanside capital, Libreville.
• Visit the National Museum in Libreville, which contains some of the most beautiful woodcarvings in Africa, especially the indigenous Fang style of carving which influenced Picasso’s figures and busts.
• Gawp at the sheer expenditure that is behind the construction of the Presidential Palace in Libreville; it was built in the 1970s costing US$800 million, and has Italian and Greek marble columns.
• The Cathedral of St Michael in Libreville is famous because of its 31 unusual wooden columns which were carved by a blind Gabonese craftsman; each of the columns depicts a Biblical scene.
• Don’t miss the hustle and bustle of the Mount Bouet Market in Libreville.
• Walk the winding route from Libreville to the beach of Cap Estérias, where the rocks abound with sea urchins, oysters and lobsters: on the way, pass through a forest of giant trees. This is a good place to swim.
• Visit Lambaréné, the town made famous by Doctor Albert Schweitzer, the tropical disease specialist and musician. Schweitzer Hospital is open to visitors as part of it has been made into a museum. A tour on Evaro Lake can be organized.
• The villages of M’Bigou and Eteke are famous for their local crafts and gold mines and are well worth a visit.
• For wildlife, enter the region of Bateke Plateau, which comprises savannah and forest galleries and tumultuous rivers spanned by liana bridges, such as the one at Poubara. Creatures include forest elephants, buffalos, sitatunga, river hogs, gorillas, panthers, crocodiles, monkeys and parrots.
• Gabon’s national parks are all rich in wildlife. The largest national park is the Lopé-Okanda Reserve, near La Lopé in the center of the country, and its landscape, containing a mixture of savannah and dense forest, encloses gorillas, chimpanzees and elephants, as well as a variety of other primates, large mammals and around 350 species of bird. Alternatively, traverse the enchanting Mayumba, a thin strip of land set between sea and lake, and try to spot some of the many creatures that lurk here. Whale watching is popular all along the south coast from July to September each year, when up to 3,000 humpback whales can be seen.
• Bathe at some of the beaches on the Atlantic coast. For peace and quiet, the deserted beaches of Pointe Denis and Ekwata beach are in the north, Mayumba and Sette Cama are in the south. Port Gentil at the mouth of the River Ogooué and Libreville have beaches with facilities for waterskiing and other watersports. Mayumba in the south and Cap Estérias, 35km (22 miles) from Libreville, are popular watersports centers at weekends. Perroquet and Pointe Denis both offer good skin-diving. Kayaking is also a popular sport among visitors.
• Go fishing: popular among European visitors, many of the rivers offer excellent catches. Equipment can be hired at Port Gentil. Fish abound in Gabonese rivers and lakes, but the local fishermen can find the largest variety along the coast and in the numerous lagoons located at the mouth of the Ogooué.
