Itinerary - 15 days - Loango National Park
/ Lope National Park
Day
1. Saturday: Arrival in Douala - flight to Port Gentil - flight
to the lodge
Upon arrival at
Doula airport (Cameroon) you will be welcomed by one of our
staff members where you go in transit and fly to Port Gentil
(Gabon) in about 1.5 hrs. In Port Gentil, you clear customs
immediately and after a short stop of 30 minutes you fly southwards
to the lodge in another 30 minutes. You will arrive arrive
around 20h00. Our staff will welcome you with refreshments
and take you to your room. The Gabonese cuisine will be served
in the restaurant afterwards. After dinner, the first introduction
to Loango National Park is possible and you can have a short
lagoontour with our crocodile experts.
Day 2. Sunday:
Loango National Park safari possibilities
After having breakfast
in the lodge, you can choose if you go by car, by kayak or
on foot into the reserve accompanied by our guides. You will
discover the beauty of the park and its diversity of landscapes
and animals. Other activities that we offer include sport
fishing with our professional equipment and trained guides,
or a village tour through the nearby village 'Ntchongerove'.
One of the beautiful spots in the area near the lodge is the
Okume Forest. Our eco- guides will explain how to survive
in the forest and you will see how the local population is
living with and in nature. Myths, medical usage of plants
and trees and its other hidden treasures will be revealed
to you.
Navigate through slideshow
and click on image for an enlargement.
Day 3 + 4. Monday
and Tuesday: Tassi bush camp
After breakfast
one of our 4x4 jeeps will take you southwest to the Tassi
/ Louri area, which will approximately take 1.5 hours. During
this drive you might see animals like elephants, red river
hogs, buffalo's, birds and sitatunga's.
Tassi bush camp is situated on the savannah, surrounded by
primary and secondary forest. In this area might be seen gorillas
and chimpanzees. In Tassi Sud, 30 minutes from Tassi Bush
Camp, the Max Planck Institute is based for their habituation
project of these primates.
From Tassi you can easily make excursions to Louri. Here you
will have a good chance to see buffalo's and elephants on
the beach: a remarkable view and characteristic for Loango
National Park!
Day 5. Wednesday:
Loango National Park safari possibilities
After returning
from Akaka around lunchtime, your guide will discuss with
you in which way you'd like to discover other parts of the
park. Go on foot into the Mangroves, by kayak through the
forest or by 4x4. accompanied by our guides. You will discover
the beauty of the park and its diversity of landscapes and
animals. Our eco- guides will explain how to survive in the
forest and you will see how the local population is living
with and in nature. Another option is to take the 'houseboat'
at the end of the afternoon and visit Bat and Bird Island
and its flocks of birds. While having a sundowners on the
deck, you can enjoy the beauty of the lagoons, the savannahs
and the forests.
Day 6. Thursday:
Point St. Catherine
After your return
from Tassi and a lunch in Loango Lodge, you can choose if
you go by car, by kayak or on foot into the reserve accompanied
by our guides. You will discover the beauty of the park and
its diversity of landscapes and animals. Other activities
that we offer include sport fishing with our professional
equipment and trained guides. It is also possible to do a
village tour through the nearby village 'Ntchongerove'. Our
eco- guides will explain how to survive in the forest and
you will see how the local population is living with and in
nature. Another option is to take the 'houseboat' at the end
of the afternoon and visit Bat and Bird Island and its flocks
of birds. At the end of the day, you go to the most beautiful
beach of Gabon: pt. st. Catherine where you have the beach
for yourself and where you can relax and hunt for seashells.
Day
7. Friday: St. Anne - Mpivie River - Loango Lodge
Early in the morning,
after arrival from the beach, you go back to the lodge, where
you will collect you r belongings and head for evengue lodge,
your last stop. By 4x4, in 45 minutes, you will arrive at
the debarqadere where you will get into a Gabonese 'peroque'
for a 2.5 hr boattour over the beautiful mpivie river. En
route to the island, you will visit the small town St. Anne,
where Gustav Eiffel has built an iron church in the late 1800s.
The story goes that it was a gift from the first priest mother,
designed and built in Paris, then shipped in pieces to Gabon
and transported over water and pulled out by elephants. The
church is still intact and if you are lucky you can even attend
mass. Other features of interest are the missionary post,
the boarding school and the 'bamboo cathedral', where, on
rare occasions, ceremonies are held. After your visit to St.
Anne you will continue the trip over the Mpivie River that
from there runs through dense rainforest. You can enjoy the
breathtaking views and you will see all kinds of birds, monkeys
and crocodiles. Hartlaubs Duck, Finfoots, Fishing owls can
be spotted all around.
Around lunchtime you will arrive at Evengue island, a small
island where Operation Loango has its gorilla sanctuary.
The gorilla program will be explained by our eco guides and
experts on the island. One of the guides will accompany you
during a short bush walk that will lead to the gorilla family
that currently consists of eight gorillas. Because their living
area is enclosed, you are assured to have a good look at these
impressive primates. For the rest of the day you can decide
whether to discover the island on foot or by kayak, or just
enjoy the calmness and the fantastic view from the terrace.
Day 8, 9 and 10.
Saturday: Lope National Park and Lope Hotel
After breakfast,
you will go to the airstrip where your fly in about 1.5 hr
to Lope National Park and Lope Hotel where you will arrive
around 11hoo where a member of the lope hotel will pick you
up.
This World Heritage site is one of the largest national parks
in central Africa and is a beautiful park. The park tours
are done in a 4-wheel drive vehicles, looking for the red
buffalo and elephant herds, antelopes, wild boars, and birds,
and on foot paths allowing the hiker to see the small mammals
and monkeys. Tours though the park are done in a 4-wheel drive
vehicles, looking for the red buffalo and elephant herds,
antelopes, wild boars, and birds, and on foot paths allowing
the hiker to see the small mammals and monkeys.
Day 11,
12 and 13 Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, Mikongo camp
The Mikongo Camp
- 1.5 hours from the hotel by 4x4, is a meeting point for
primates, and the base point for the Ecofac researchers who
will introduce to you the forest environment and the behaviour
to adopt when walking through the forest.
Accompanied by a
guide and tracker, you shall set out on a two-day search for
mammals, and especially the big primates: gorillas, chimpanzees
and mandrills.
Day 14. Saturday,
back to Lope hotel and flight to Douala
On Saturday morning
you go to back by 4x4 to Lope hotel from where you will be
picked up around noon for your flight to Port Gentil. This
1.8 hr flight will show you from the sky a fantastic overview
of the enormous forests.
Day 15 Saturday.
Flight to douala
After lunch and
a relaxed morning, your flight to Douala will leave around
noon.
