From Libreville to Lopé and Back – Travel Stories from Gabon

Gabon has so much to offer: a spectacular variety of wildlife, dense rainforests, open savannahs, white-sand beaches, rushing rivers, and lush green landscapes. It’s one of Africa’s more unexplored destinations, and being in Central Africa, it’s far from your typical safari tourism destination.

In this post, I’ll share how I managed to visit Lopé National Park in Gabon and how I traveled there from the capital city, Libreville.

When I found myself in Libreville, the bustling capital of Gabon, my goal was to get out of the city and explore some of the more remote parts of the country. At the top of my list was Lopé National Park—a UNESCO World Heritage Site known for having some of the largest mandrill troupes in the world.

What I didn’t know at this point was that getting there was going to be a challenge. I had plenty to take care of in Libreville: arranging my visa for Congo-Brazzaville and, on top of that, struggling to withdraw money from any of the ATMs in town. In the end, I was running out of cash. Since none of the ATMs worked, I had to transfer money to myself using Western Union—only to find out that, even though their logos were everywhere and I could make a transfer, Western Union no longer operated in Gabon. I then turned to MoneyGram and ended up spending half a day waiting in line just to pick up my money.

I had been in touch with Lopé Hotel to get some help arranging my trip to Lopé. The best—and I think the only—way to visit Lopé is by train, since the roads are in bad condition. However, I heard from the hotel staff that the train hadn’t been running for a few days due to technical issues. Luckily, by the time I went to buy the tickets, the train was running again.

It was the day before Christmas Eve, and the city was buzzing. Locals were traveling to their families, and the train station was packed with people trying to do exactly what I was doing: buying train tickets. I spent hours waiting in line, and when I finally reached the counter, I was told there was nothing they could do—the train was sold out.

I went to the station twice that day, desperately trying to get tickets. On my second visit, I came across a Singaporean guy who was clearly a traveler too. I was surprised—usually, you don’t meet many other travelers in this part of Africa.

He was also trying to buy a ticket to Lopé for the next day, so we decided to join forces. Somehow, we found an employee at the station who spoke English, and he introduced us to the station master. To our surprise, the station master sold us tickets for the train that was supposedly sold out. I’m still not sure how it happened, but I was so relieved to finally have my ticket for the next day. I ended up paying 15,150 CFA for a 2nd class ticket on the Omnibus train. Maybe the station master pocketed a little extra for selling us the tickets—probably—but at that point, I really didn’t care.

So the next day, on Christmas Eve, I arrived at the train station at 5 p.m. The train was scheduled to leave at 5:30 p.m., but of course, it was two hours late, and we finally departed at 7:30 p.m. The train was surprisingly clean and in good condition inside—at least compared to the Tazara train I once took in Tanzania (that was years ago, though, and I’ve heard they now have better Chinese-built trains).

Although the seats were relatively comfortable, I couldn’t get any sleep during the night because of my insomnia. The only way I can ever sleep on a train is with a sleeper cabin, a proper bed, and some sleeping pills. Unfortunately, I had none of those, so I spent the whole night wide awake.

The train also broke down in the middle of the night, leaving us stuck for four hours in the middle of nowhere. I spent the night wandering through the aisles, trying to chat with locals (language barrier was an issue as my French is very limited and not many people speak English), reading my book, and trying way too hard to get some sleep.

When the sun finally rose and the train started moving again, I was more than ready to reach my hotel in Lopé and get some rest. It was around 9 a.m., when we approached Lopé. I was looking out the window, and there it was: Lópe, with its spectacular green hills framed by the Ogooué River.

We hopped off the train, and since we knew how difficult it had been to get tickets in the first place, the very first thing we tried to do was buy our return tickets to Libreville. Unfortunately, the ticket office was closed, and we were told to come back later.

Shortly after, we were greeted by the staff from Lopé Hotel and escorted to safari vehicles, where we unexpectedly met another traveler—a German guy who had arrived in Lopé earlier. We were told that the first item on the itinerary was a walking tour. We drove to the hotel to drop off our bags, but there was no time for a shower, food, or even a short break.

I wished I had been ready to explore the national park, but after a sleepless night on the train, feeling sweaty and dirty, and not even remembering when I’d last eaten, I was completely exhausted. Hiking was the last thing I wanted to do. Still, off we went, and soon I found myself walking up one of the green hills I had admired from the train.

The views were beautiful, but honestly, I was far too tired to take anything in. With zero energy from not eating, I eventually decided to turn back to the hotel. Later, I learned from the others that I hadn’t missed much—they wrapped up the hike soon after without spotting any animals or anything else remarkable.

Before heading back to the hotel, though, there was one important thing I needed to do: buy return train tickets to Libreville. I walked all the way back to the station, only to find that—once again—there was no one there to sell tickets. I was told to come back later in the afternoon.

I walked back to the hotel, and finally, it was time to take a shower, eat lunch, and get some sleep before the afternoon game drive. After resting for a while, I felt so much better and was ready to explore Lopé again when the staff came to pick us up.

We made one more attempt to buy train tickets before the game drive, but it didn’t work out. This time, though, we were told that it would be possible to buy tickets directly on the train.

The afternoon game drive was pleasant and relaxing. We didn’t see anything particularly exciting—the only animals we spotted were buffalos and forest elephants, both quite far away. We also came across some leopard paw prints, so with a bit of luck, you might spot leopards here. There were no signs of the famous mandrills, and if you’ve done many safaris in Africa, you might not find Lopé especially impressive. Still, I truly enjoyed the experience. We ended the day by watching the sunset, which, as always in Africa, was absolutely spectacular. I don’t know what it is about Africa, but the sunsets here are always spectacular.

After the game drive, we wandered the dusty streets near our hotel, had dinner, and arranged transport to the train station. The train back to Libreville was scheduled for 1 a.m., giving us a few hours to sleep beforehand.

I managed a couple of hours of rest, and at 1 a.m. I was ready to head to the station. But just as we were about to leave, we were told the train was delayed and wouldn’t arrive in Lopé until 5 a.m.

So we went back to sleep, only to wake up a few hours later. In the pitch black, we drove to the train station, where we were told the train should arrive at 6:30 a.m. We decided to stay and wait. In the darkness of the night, thousands of different kinds of insects were crawling and flying around, making sleep impossible—so we just waited.

At 7 a.m., the train still hadn’t arrived. Maybe it would come at 8 or 9—no one really knew at this point. This is Africa. You need time and patience when traveling here.

Soon it was no longer dark, the roosters were crowing, and the town was waking up. I grabbed some breakfast from a nearby streetside shop, where chickens, cats, and goats all wandered around.

While eating my baguette, I heard the sound of the train. Finally, at almost 9 a.m., it was arriving. We hopped on and treated ourselves to first-class seats. Buying the tickets onboard wasn’t a problem, and soon we were on our way back to Libreville. I paid 21,600 CFA for the first-class seats.

Getting in and out of Lópe wasn’t the most straightforward task—but then again, when is travel in Africa ever easy? I think one of the reasons I love traveling here is the fact that it isn’t easy. It’s raw and real—a true adventure. And for anyone up for an adventure, I highly recommend visiting Lópe National Park.

If you would like to see more pictures and videos of my travels in Gabon, check out my Instagram, where I have added all of my Gabon stories to my story highlights.

 

---

Liked the post? Pin it or share it?