A while back Olivier and I spent the weekend with our friends Didier and Diane walking through the jungle and savanna at Loango Park, a (or should I say the) nature reserve here in Gabon. As you can see here, it was elephant season that period, and while I may look all giggly here hangin' with the elephants, I was in fact pretty scared and telling Ol to hurry up and take the picture already! These guys are known as "forest elephants", which are chocolate brown in color and live in the jungle most of the time, coming out in the savanna to graze from time to time. While they are not as large as the grey elephants from Eastern Africa I'm used to seeing in children's books, they appear slightly less cuddly in person than what I had imagined, and they made threatening noises and gestures when we approached at times. Needless to say, this is the only picture of me and elephants in the same frame.
The resort itself is first rate, and definitely a surprise gem in the middle of this country (with oil reserves why bother to seek out tourists?). While the water in the river was brown, it had a golden tint given off by the numerous minerals that give it its color. For any of you planning to visit, this is definitely the place to spend a long weekend, as each season brings with it a new set of wild animals to see (leatherback turtles in Dec/Jan, elephants in March/April, followed by hippos and later whales and dolphins in August/September). The jungle treks are quite an experience too, with monkeys jumping from tree to tree up above throughout your walk.
The Dutch man (former Shell Oil hotshot I hear) who owns the resort has set up many projects to protect the local animals, including what they call "Gorilla Island", which is an isolated area where gorillas caught in the wild
to be sold on the market are taken and slowly rehabilitated with the cooperation of a Dutch gorilla/monkey zoo in Holland. It all sounds nicer than what we saw (they are cooped up on the island), but it was amazing to see these lowland Gorillas up close. When trying to cuddle with a 3-year-old gorilla (Cecilia's age and not much different in temperament) I got smacked and bitten a bit, as can be seen here below. Luckily Cilia never got into biting very much.
They've got a wonderful site too, so spread the word and maybe tourism in Gabon will one day be affordable:
http://www.operation-loango.com/
