Central Gabon

The Road Chose Me Volume 2 OUT NOW!!
The Road Chose Me Volume 2: Three years and 54,000 miles around Africa

A move South in Gabon, until I am almost at the Southern border with the Republic of Congo. I have enjoyed my time here so much I don’t want to leave yet, and so swing North and East, aiming to cut directly through the middle of the country. My map and GPS show the road I aim for as a major highway, and major highways in Gabon have been great, so I expect it shouldn’t take to long.

At times I follow a perfect gravel road

Camping wherever I can get off the road

After half an hour of pavement I am confused when I turn off onto a tiny potholed dirt road. A local taxi driver sees my confusion and confirms this is actually the road I want when I say the name of a town shown on my map. Oh well, this must be it.

What follows is three days and two nights of bumping along a tiny gravel road, cutting right through the mountainous region of Gabon. Each night I simply drive until I am exhausted, and find a place off the road to setup camp. For the three days I only see a handful of vehicles, always clustered around the little villages I pass through. The road is already impressive (though old and maintained) and I am staggered to see teams of Chinese surveyors walking the roads taking line-of-sight measurements and readings. I can only assume a massive upgrade is in the works.

The rainy season here is intense!!

Occasional mud pits kept things interesting

Roaming in the jungle

At times the road is amazing, at times it degrades into a muddy slip-n-slide. At more than a few river crossings I wonder if I will be able to continue, and always find a way across on everything from concrete bridges built with a major highway in mind all the way down to a pile of sticks and logs.

Surely this pile of logs is strong enough…

Another impressively hand-made bridge

Unfortunately, the tiny biting bugs have persisted, and on consecutive nights I have to dive into the Jeep at 7pm and zip up all the mesh windows, turning the inside into a sweltering hot box. At times monkeys dart across the road, though I don’t see anything bigger.

Gabon is the first country I have seen where people tend to gardens

Getting off a road to find a campsite

I am extremely happy I chose to get off the major North/South highway and explore off the path in Gabon!

Sunsets continue to impress

-Dan