12 Days in Gabon – Africa’s “Off-the-Beaten-Track” Garden of Eden

Explore the home of “Africa’s Last Eden,” Gabon, sandwiched between Congo and Cameroon on the continent’s central Atlantic coast, may not have an ecotourism infrastructure like hot spots Botswana or Kenya. 

Visit Loango National Park  for Western lowland gorilla treks that are arranged through the Gabonese park service and may be accompanied by staff from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Limited to four people and two guides, the daily treks are a unique chance to glimpse gorillas’ social behavior and feeding habits. 

Pongara National Park  is singularly distinguished by a remarkable diversity of primates, plants and birds. Travel anywhere along its shimmering estuary which also cuts through mangrove swamps and flooded forest, you can view snapshots of arboreal monkeys peering down from lofty treetops, and forest elephants and hippos wading in slow-moving lagoons. And just further afield along tracts of savannah is another unspoilt sanctuary for small herds of forest buffalo and elephant, red river hog and the elusive leopard.