The Vuvuzela Diaries

Noted for its lowland gorillas and wild chimpanzees (the country contains over 80% of the world’s population), Congo is characterised by dense rainforest and impenetrable jungle juxtaposed against a narrow 169km coastal strip that plays host to a nascent oil industry. Outside the French-flavoured capital of Brazzaville, attractions include the surf beaches of Pointe-Noire, the white-water Congo River rapids and – in 13, 600-sq-km Odzala National Park – one of the Africa’s largest and least known tropical ecosystems.

Wildlife aside, Congo remains a largely unknown quantity to most outsiders, with little tourist infrastructure and a recent six-year civil conflict scaring off all but the most intrepid travellers. But with a pathway to peace in progress and old feuds and disagreements temporarily – or permanently – forgotten, change flickers tantalisingly on the horizon.

Congo’s greatest asset is the Congolese. Musicians, cooks, philosophers and table-football enthusiasts, the people of this ex-French colony are undoubtedly one of its most engaging national exports. Ignoring adversity and ever curious of visitors, this is a nation of people eager for a good laugh. Be open and respectful and you could be invited to share the joke.

With thanks to Lonely Planet

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!

In Gabon, you might just find yourself landing on an airstrip full of goats, dodging forest elephants on the stroll home from the bar, or wandering into a celebration of starkly painted dancers that harkens back hundreds of years. Outside Westernised Libreville, just about everything in Gabon is so newly accessible that just by being there you’re already off the beaten path and in the middle of a whole new world. And if you happen to be travelling with a 4WD, mechanic, cash to burn and a French dictionary, you’re bound to have the adventure of a lifetime. Exploring this land ain’t no walk in a national park. Lack of infrastructure and transportation will lead you on long, bumpy journeys, and it practically costs 20 bucks just to breathe the air in the glitzy capital city, Libreville.

But you’ll be stunned by what is shaping up to be Africa’s next best ecotourism destination. Thanks to President El Hadj Omar Bongo’s designation of a whopping 10% of the country’s land as national parks – closing it down to loggers and miners and opening it up to travellers, conservationists and ecotourists – it’s now possible to explore endless white-sand beaches, primate-filled tropical rainforests, rolling savannahs and estuaries. Probably the most beautiful of the country’s parks, Loango National Park is located on the Southern Gabon coast, and is renown for – wait for it – surfing hippos. The wilds of Eastern Gabon are where you’ll find the Ivindo National Park, with its own eco-camp and resident elephants and gorillas.

Nature and wildlife fanatics will not be disappointed: long days of trekking will be rewarded with seeing wild creatures in their own pristine environment. The experience will transport you back to a time when Mother Earth – not humans – ruled the land.

Thanks to Lonely Planet

Cameroon’s tourist industry is a victim of geography. It sits in a tough neighbourhood, bordered by some problematic countries. But this shouldn’t put you off, as Cameroon real­ly has just about everything a traveller could want. One of the most culturally diverse countries on the continent, its people include ancient tribal kingdoms, Muslim pastoralists and forest-dwelling pygmies.

The landscape is no less dizzying in its diversity. Mt Cameroon (4095m) is the highest peak in West Africa and attracts plenty of trekking interest. A still-active volcano, it rises almost straight from the sea in a spectacular manner. Further north are the rolling grassfields of the Ring Road area, while the Mandara Mountains are a complete contrast again – dry and rocky, with isolated villages eking out a living. Fringing all of this are some of Africa’s oldest rainforests, and the excellent Parc National de Waza, with abundant mammal and birdlife, and large herds of elephants gathering at water holes in the dry season.

If all this exhausts you, you can retire to some fine palm-fringed beaches and fantastic seafood, which should help to recharge your batteries. Throw in a cold beer or two, some lively home-grown makossa music and the Indomitable Lions of the national football team, and you’ll be revelling in your discovery.

Thanks to Lonely Planet

1 in 5 Africans live in Nigeria – a population of 140 million people. A country of great extremes – where great wealth and great poverty sit cheek by jowl. Whilst we travelled a relatively small section of Nigeria, along the major route, the following are overall memories of the country:

-          Police Check Points: if you’re in a hurry to get from A to B then you shouldn’t be driving in Nigeria. The section of 100km from the border post was littered with these checkpoints: a small structure on the side of the road made from wooden poles and slats, complete with obligatory ‘bed’ for those quite periods. A makeshift barrier slides out as you approach – it manually slides along the ground from aforementioned structure and is decorated with nails pointing to the sky. You inevitably stop, especially when armed men cock their rifles. The whole process is relatively painful – many questions, lots of small talk and of course the ‘What present have you brought for me from South Africa?’. Our standard response to this was, ‘A smile and a good attitude! Is it OK for us to continue, officer?’. And off we went! 8 seconds was our quickest stop, as we began to time ourselves to keep our interest levels up throughout the process.

-          Poverty vs Wealth: driving through the country we barely came across fresh produce and how the majority of people survive is a mystery. Small villages of shanty type homes littered the sides of the roads. The roads were potholed, overcrowded with trucks and utterly atrocious. 20km from Abuja, the Capital, the roads became first class highways and Abuja sprung into sight, a view not dissimilar to arriving in Johannesburg. The shopping centre near our hotel had a 15 screen cinema, Nandos (our eyes were on stalks when we saw it and we wanted to jump over the counter and hug the attendant), well stocked bookstore, Mango, a  games centre, marble flooring, neon-lit water features, a cocktail bar…and contained the well-heeled Nigerians sporting American/British accents. A far cry from what we had traversed through painstakingly for the previous 2 and a half days.

-          ‘Dashing’ and ‘Snapping’:  words that became part of vocabulary. A ‘dash’ can mean either a bribe or a tip. Most roadblock officials are after a dash from the drivers, but we were relentless and the most we gave was an onion, taken reluctantly by the officer. A ‘dash’ can also be a tip given to someone who has provided you with a service, or a gift from someone, such as if you bought a lot of bananas from a lady on the side of the street she may ‘dash’ you with an extra few or a couple of oranges. ‘Snapping’ is referred to when taking a photo and often we heard ‘Don’t Snap me’ or ‘No snapping’ as our Japanese influenced crew traipsed through Nigeria.

-          ‘You are Welcome!’. This is thrown into greetings as casually as the South African ‘Howzit’ but with real sincerity. Throughout our 8 days in Nigeria we felt so warmly welcomed by one and all – the staff at the Sheraton who would tend to our needs as though we were full paying guests, Thelma who offered us two rooms in her hotel free of charge and took us on a tour of Calabar with her driver and mini-bus, the tourism representative for the Cross River State who gave us goodie bags of marketing paraphernalia, Mama from Mokland Inn who lovingly watched Andrew eat her Amalah (well done to Bones for managing to finish it!). Really, the people were fantastic and it is unfortunate that Nigerians have the stereo-typical image of grime and crime when in fact their country is blessed with such fabulous and down-to-earth hospitality.