The policemen on both sides of the crossing had clearly failed to read the African border guard raining manual. No Kafkaesque bureaucracy, no attempts to exhort money, no five hour wait while they fetch the man with the stamp. Just a friendly 'Bon voyage'.
In northern Gabon the rain forest was so dense that we had to camp on a village green. The elders were very welcoming and in return we became babysitters to dozens of fascinated children for the evening. The ratio of children to adults seemed very high, which made more sense when one of our hosts told us, after a long pause for some mental arithmetic, that he had 14. It was comforting to see how familiar their games of throwing grass in each others faces were. Luckily our schoolboy french had left us with a good knowledge suitable reprimands. Several hours of playing the avuncular entertainers later we eventually managed to light a fire, cook our food and persuade them to go to bed. The next morning we were woken to find a row of eager faces again peering into our tent.
Whoever made up Equatorial Guinea (and, judging by its shape, someone definitely did) really didn't have the convenience of overland travelers in mind. Well, not the sort too disorganised to get a full set of visas anyway. This meant a long day of detouring before we finally arrived in Libreville.
The capital of Gabon seemed pretty bland on first inspection, but this might have been because the entire city was on a four day public holiday (a legacy of the French no doubt). Instead of hanging around we headed aimlessly north. Had we drawn a picture of our perfect camping spot (and assuming we could draw) we could not have improved on what we stumbled upon in Cap Esterias: a flat patch of grass in between a tropical forest and a picturesque beach, looking out on the Gulf of Guinea. There was even a small shack serving cold beer. There's very little to say about the next few days. We slept, we ran, we read, we ate, we drank and we waited for the inevitable change of fortune.
We returned to Libreville to find the streets lined with military vehicles, always a slightly disconcerting experience in Africa. Fortunately in this it was for the 53rd anniversary of Independence. Later that day, and to everyone's surprise, Daisy arrived ahead of schedule and with all his luggage.
In northern Gabon the rain forest was so dense that we had to camp on a village green. The elders were very welcoming and in return we became babysitters to dozens of fascinated children for the evening. The ratio of children to adults seemed very high, which made more sense when one of our hosts told us, after a long pause for some mental arithmetic, that he had 14. It was comforting to see how familiar their games of throwing grass in each others faces were. Luckily our schoolboy french had left us with a good knowledge suitable reprimands. Several hours of playing the avuncular entertainers later we eventually managed to light a fire, cook our food and persuade them to go to bed. The next morning we were woken to find a row of eager faces again peering into our tent.
Whoever made up Equatorial Guinea (and, judging by its shape, someone definitely did) really didn't have the convenience of overland travelers in mind. Well, not the sort too disorganised to get a full set of visas anyway. This meant a long day of detouring before we finally arrived in Libreville.
The capital of Gabon seemed pretty bland on first inspection, but this might have been because the entire city was on a four day public holiday (a legacy of the French no doubt). Instead of hanging around we headed aimlessly north. Had we drawn a picture of our perfect camping spot (and assuming we could draw) we could not have improved on what we stumbled upon in Cap Esterias: a flat patch of grass in between a tropical forest and a picturesque beach, looking out on the Gulf of Guinea. There was even a small shack serving cold beer. There's very little to say about the next few days. We slept, we ran, we read, we ate, we drank and we waited for the inevitable change of fortune.
We returned to Libreville to find the streets lined with military vehicles, always a slightly disconcerting experience in Africa. Fortunately in this it was for the 53rd anniversary of Independence. Later that day, and to everyone's surprise, Daisy arrived ahead of schedule and with all his luggage.
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