So Neil and I decided to hop out the car for a week whilst the others (with two new honorary members, Tony and Ted) headed for Lope National Park. We had a week to kill, public transport at our fingertips and the bags on our backs (or Neil’s to be slightly more precise). We decided not to rough it too much – what is the point on being too hard on oneselves?
Our first stop was Nyonie. After a debacle with the travel agent, and me losing my cool, we managed to book ourselves two nights at the Nyonie Camp and were to be collected from Michelle Marina in Libreville the next day. We were a little apprehensive to see if the booking which was made on the phone in French/Spanish/English was actually confirmed, and were most relieved when we found other tourists at the pier and the boat that was to take us. From here it was an hour’s ride on the speedboat and up the estuary through Mangrove swamps. We were then transferred by 4×4 along a bumpy track through rainforest to reach our final destination – Nyonie Camp. The camp overlooks an isolated beach and is truly stunning. We put our bags in our bungalow and headed for a drink and lunch. The bar was open and you literally helped yourself as you pleased (it was a lucky thing for the owners that we were both fending off stomach bugs, so we couldn’t overdo things) and meals were served with a ring of an old bell from the Titanic and all the guests sat down at a long table to eat their three course meals (with vin rouge, of course – this is catering for the French market).
In the afternoons there were game drives and we were lucky to see some very skittish Forest Elephants. 
They are much smaller than the African Elephants and tended to hang around the edge of the forest. When we drove up to them, they literally took two steps into the forest and were gone – you could not see an inch of them. The bird life was abundant and we also saw a few monkeys and a host of dolphins frolicking in the waves. The camp gets very busy over weekends and was very festive on Friday lunch – being the only English speaking people amongst about 50 guests was a challenge but we still managed to meet some interesting people.
From here we headed for Point Denis. The ferry also leaves from Michelle Marina, so we conveniently hopped from one to the other and steamed off to Point Denis at 5pm on the Friday afternoon. The guide book advised that all the accommodation was close to each other on the beach and if you weren’t sure where you wanted to stay you could hop off the ferry and choose on foot. This was far from the truth, and whilst all but two of the resorts had closed, they were about 3km from each other! So I sat on the beach whilst Neil walked down the beach and slowly discovered this vital bit of information. We ended up staying at La Maringa, which was actually very nice. The bungalows you stay in are very quaint with en-suite bathrooms and aircon. We ate a delicious meal in the restaurant that evening which overlooks the beachfront and in the distance bustling Libreville twinkles away at night on the other side of the estuary.
After a relaxing day at Point Denis we decided to head back to Libreville and then on to Cap Esterias. We did a quick shop of food supplies, as we wouldn’t be able to get anything once we were at Cap Esterias, and caught a taxi to the outskirts of town. From here we had to hop in to a taxi-brousse, or shared taxi (think Mowbray-Kaap), with our bags and shopping and travel in the dark for about an hour over a bumpy dirt track. Luckily the taxi drops everyone off at their doorstep and as we were the last stop we went round the village dropping everyone off. The guy just before us hoped out, and we noticed that he was wearing handcuffs! He had a policeman with him and then we realised that we were at the local police station – little did we know that this guy was sitting on the seat right behind us the entire journey!
Our last few days we spent at La Maree at Cap Esterias and we partook in the large Sunday lunch vibe that was being served up on the weekend. The weekdays are very quiet without any diners at all (the restaurant is basically closed) and the weekends extremely busy with expats. The owner was very kind allowing us to camp on her property for free and we were very grateful for the amazing location she has which overlooks a beach with a reef that makes a natural tidal pool on her doorstep.
The week flew by and we had some good relaxing time on the beach and at the game reserve. It was great to see Grant, Paula and Tony back in Libreville, along with Maude who we surprisingly missed as we have got so used to living out of the car!
