Sandwiched between Cameroon and the Republic of the Congo on Africa's west coast, Gabon has long been promoted to tourists as the continent's "last Eden" – and not without justification, says Mike Carter in the FT. This equatorial country is half the size of France, its former colonial power, but home to only 2.2 million people, most of whom live in the coastal cities of Libreville (the capital) and Port-Gentil.
Almost nine-tenths of the rest is cloaked in forest, much of it never significantly disturbed by human activity, and more than 10% of it strictly protected. There's little infrastructure, and only 40,000 tourists visit each year. But for the adventurous few, the rewards are huge, including the chance to see western lowland gorillas, forest elephants, and a vast amount of other spectacular fauna.
The dictator Ali Bongo Ondimba (a keen conservationist) was deposed in a coup d'état last year, but the situation has since been calm. Roads are "hideously rutted", but you can also cover long distances by river boat, and there are some pleasant lodges, such as Ndola and Pongara. To see gorillas, you must tag along with scientific researchers.
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The apes' favourite habitat is a swamp, where you might sit and watch an eight-strong family relaxing in a clearing, "bathed in a celestial glow as if stage-lit". Also "thrilling" is the chance to track a 1,000-strong troop of mandrills – the world's largest monkeys, and most likely its biggest primate group – which set the whole forest "vibrating" as they fly through the canopy. You might also see hippos, crocodiles, leopards, manatees, pythons, forest buffalo and plenty of beautiful birds.
And there is much of cultural interest too, not least the shamanic ceremonies of the Bwiti religion, during which participants holding fiery torches perform ecstatic dances to the music of drums and antelope-horn trumpets. They also take iboga, a natural hallucinogen that I found "wild but not unpleasant", but which can have seriously adverse psychiatric or medical effects in some people.
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