Last year I spent Easter in Andalucía and had a fantastic time with Dana. I didn´t think anything could beat that. This year, however, was even better. Safari in Sette Cama was an amazing experience. Let´s start from the beginning then.On Friday we packed our things (two small backpacks) and went to the Libreville airport. There, after enquiring three times with three different people, we ended up in a small building on the airport grounds, which was the "terminal" of AirService, the company we were to fly with. There we went through very elaborate security control ("Put bag on table. Open bag. Thank you.") and waited with 
a bunch of people for our small plane (37 places). By the way, this company, as most African companies, is on Europe´s "black list" and cannot fly outside of Africa. Reassuring, isn´t it? The plane was late, obviously, but we got on it and took off. The views were great (see my picasa). The funny thing was that the plane stopped in Port Gentil (just as a train pulls in at the station) and we waited while some people got off and some boarded. Then we continued to Gamba, our final destination, a place practically built by the oil company Shell, who basically own everything and have great privilages (later you will see that this is a very important piece of information). In Gamba we were picked up by an employee of Sette Cama Safari, the place we were heading for.
The sunset
The jungle
Our first day was the jungle day. At 10 am we got on a traditional boat and sailed off into the park with two guides ("we" means Jandro and me plus a French soldier and his daughter). As soon as we entered the park (our eyes fixed on the fantastically shaped mangroves) the guides stopped the boat and... we saw five or six hippos right in front of us. Hippos! We were elated, and that was only the beginning.
The boat left us on the shore and one of the guides took us into the forest. The jungle was just as I imagined it: the plants are agressive, they fight for light, they are everywhere. There were lianas and awfully big trees, and mangroves, and marshes... We spent around two hours in the jungle and we saw a bunch of monkeys (crossing the marsh was just great, by the way, I was wet up to my knees of course) and then we had lunch on a clearing by the beach, watching some buffalos doing the same thing nearby.
We walked on along the beach and rested in the shade of some palm trees. We got quite bored there, actually, and asked the guides when we were going to move but they only said: "Wait, we´re waiting for the elephants." And at that point we got excited. ;) Soon enough we saw the first elephant, a big one, walking out of the forest and onto the beach. It smelled us quite quickly and ran away but OH MY GOD! An elephant! A real elephant in the wild! It was amazing. We still had around 5 kilometres to go along the beach and we soon set off. On the way we saw various elephants, including a smaller jungle elephant with a baby. We stood there, very close to them, enchanted by the view. They were beautiful. On our way back by boat we saw three elephants on a small island. They walked slowly and the scenery could not have been better, the sun was just setting. The elephant picture you can see is not a postcard. Jandro took it, while I stared, trying to freeze the moment. The day ended and we both agreed that it had been magnificent.
The village
Our second day
in Sette Cama was very different. This time the guide took us to a little village (five buildings? six maybe?) where, since the death of the village chief in 2006, only one family remains (a man, his four wives and the children). The guide told us they spoke their own dialect. We went on a walk around their plantation (manioca, potatoes, pumpkins, corn, peanuts... oh yes, peanuts, by the way!:) and got to see a Special Elephant Protection Alarm System (this is the name they should register it under!!), designed by the village chief (coke cans on a string - very efficient, apparently). We also saw bones of an elephant that had the idea of messing about the plantation. We find elephants pretty, they find elephants a pest. Cultural differences per excellence. After a long walk around the forest (we heard monkeys on the way!), we had lunch at the village. The guide provided the food and also entertainment, as he played music (three songs specifically, for an hour) from his mobile, proudly deposited on a specially made mobile phone stand, where the signal was tolerable.
We chatted to the guide and he told us about the village and how those people lived. We observed two girls (the older one couldn´t have been more than three) who played with huge knives. Later on I played with these two and got to look into their huge adult eyes. They were dirty and they spoke nothing but the local language. They insisted on my lifting them up up up. The took my hands and made me walk around with them. As any child in the world, they wanted attention. It felt horrible to be the white lady who kindly sacrificed half an hour of her safari trip to play with them. And I didn´t like the way they looked at me when I was leaving. Bitter-sweet experience I suppose. But still worth it.
Later on we ended up in a tree house, built by the BBC to make a documentary about monkeys. We even spotted some of them but they were too far away to take pictures. We insisted on staying there for a long time (Jandro more then me, I think I´d never seen him this excited:) and the guide was bored. But that´s his job I guess.
The flight back
We had an amazing time and it was not even a problem to get up 5:30 Monday morning to catch the boat to Gamba and then the plane to Libreville. But of course that would have been too simple. We got on the boat all right and were at the airport on time. Our guide was sorting out the check-in and we waited. After a while, he came up to us and said: "I´m sorry but the plane is full. There are no seats for you, as the Shell company booked 20 tickets". As I said at the beginning, Shell has great privilages here. Thus, if they say "We want 20 seats", they get what the want, even if other paying customers must stay on the ground. There is no customer service here and no complaint forms. TIA, this is Africa. I got really mad but the guide said that we had to wait until all the Shell people arrived because they hardly ever used up all their reservations. At some point I did want to go and shout at those people but Jandro stopped me and was right, of course. It´s better for the native to argue with the natives. In the end we got on the plane. Next time we might not be as lucky.
And that's all, folks. You´ve no idea how much I enjoyed it!
a bunch of people for our small plane (37 places). By the way, this company, as most African companies, is on Europe´s "black list" and cannot fly outside of Africa. Reassuring, isn´t it? The plane was late, obviously, but we got on it and took off. The views were great (see my picasa). The funny thing was that the plane stopped in Port Gentil (just as a train pulls in at the station) and we waited while some people got off and some boarded. Then we continued to Gamba, our final destination, a place practically built by the oil company Shell, who basically own everything and have great privilages (later you will see that this is a very important piece of information). In Gamba we were picked up by an employee of Sette Cama Safari, the place we were heading for.The sunset
A jeep took us from th
e airport into the town (typical African image, people in ugly wooden houses), where we got on a motorboat. The National Park of Loango is made up of huge lakes separated from the ocean by the ground and 365 little islands, thickly covered with jungle. The boat ride took more than an hour but we got to see a stunning sunset, the most beautiful sunset we have ever seen, which made the whole world golden for twenty minutes or so. Neither of us had ever seen anything like that. We then got off the boat and got to see our bungalow, nice wooden house with a bathroom. We were also informed that the elephants come to the little village at night. We said "yeah, right" and ten minutes later we heard an elephant in the forest (we didn´t see it that day though). From that moment we were pretty careful not to wander off at night.
e airport into the town (typical African image, people in ugly wooden houses), where we got on a motorboat. The National Park of Loango is made up of huge lakes separated from the ocean by the ground and 365 little islands, thickly covered with jungle. The boat ride took more than an hour but we got to see a stunning sunset, the most beautiful sunset we have ever seen, which made the whole world golden for twenty minutes or so. Neither of us had ever seen anything like that. We then got off the boat and got to see our bungalow, nice wooden house with a bathroom. We were also informed that the elephants come to the little village at night. We said "yeah, right" and ten minutes later we heard an elephant in the forest (we didn´t see it that day though). From that moment we were pretty careful not to wander off at night.The jungle
Our first day was the jungle day. At 10 am we got on a traditional boat and sailed off into the park with two guides ("we" means Jandro and me plus a French soldier and his daughter). As soon as we entered the park (our eyes fixed on the fantastically shaped mangroves) the guides stopped the boat and... we saw five or six hippos right in front of us. Hippos! We were elated, and that was only the beginning.
The boat left us on the shore and one of the guides took us into the forest. The jungle was just as I imagined it: the plants are agressive, they fight for light, they are everywhere. There were lianas and awfully big trees, and mangroves, and marshes... We spent around two hours in the jungle and we saw a bunch of monkeys (crossing the marsh was just great, by the way, I was wet up to my knees of course) and then we had lunch on a clearing by the beach, watching some buffalos doing the same thing nearby.
We walked on along the beach and rested in the shade of some palm trees. We got quite bored there, actually, and asked the guides when we were going to move but they only said: "Wait, we´re waiting for the elephants." And at that point we got excited. ;) Soon enough we saw the first elephant, a big one, walking out of the forest and onto the beach. It smelled us quite quickly and ran away but OH MY GOD! An elephant! A real elephant in the wild! It was amazing. We still had around 5 kilometres to go along the beach and we soon set off. On the way we saw various elephants, including a smaller jungle elephant with a baby. We stood there, very close to them, enchanted by the view. They were beautiful. On our way back by boat we saw three elephants on a small island. They walked slowly and the scenery could not have been better, the sun was just setting. The elephant picture you can see is not a postcard. Jandro took it, while I stared, trying to freeze the moment. The day ended and we both agreed that it had been magnificent.
The village
Our second day
in Sette Cama was very different. This time the guide took us to a little village (five buildings? six maybe?) where, since the death of the village chief in 2006, only one family remains (a man, his four wives and the children). The guide told us they spoke their own dialect. We went on a walk around their plantation (manioca, potatoes, pumpkins, corn, peanuts... oh yes, peanuts, by the way!:) and got to see a Special Elephant Protection Alarm System (this is the name they should register it under!!), designed by the village chief (coke cans on a string - very efficient, apparently). We also saw bones of an elephant that had the idea of messing about the plantation. We find elephants pretty, they find elephants a pest. Cultural differences per excellence. After a long walk around the forest (we heard monkeys on the way!), we had lunch at the village. The guide provided the food and also entertainment, as he played music (three songs specifically, for an hour) from his mobile, proudly deposited on a specially made mobile phone stand, where the signal was tolerable.We chatted to the guide and he told us about the village and how those people lived. We observed two girls (the older one couldn´t have been more than three) who played with huge knives. Later on I played with these two and got to look into their huge adult eyes. They were dirty and they spoke nothing but the local language. They insisted on my lifting them up up up. The took my hands and made me walk around with them. As any child in the world, they wanted attention. It felt horrible to be the white lady who kindly sacrificed half an hour of her safari trip to play with them. And I didn´t like the way they looked at me when I was leaving. Bitter-sweet experience I suppose. But still worth it.
Later on we ended up in a tree house, built by the BBC to make a documentary about monkeys. We even spotted some of them but they were too far away to take pictures. We insisted on staying there for a long time (Jandro more then me, I think I´d never seen him this excited:) and the guide was bored. But that´s his job I guess.
The flight back
We had an amazing time and it was not even a problem to get up 5:30 Monday morning to catch the boat to Gamba and then the plane to Libreville. But of course that would have been too simple. We got on the boat all right and were at the airport on time. Our guide was sorting out the check-in and we waited. After a while, he came up to us and said: "I´m sorry but the plane is full. There are no seats for you, as the Shell company booked 20 tickets". As I said at the beginning, Shell has great privilages here. Thus, if they say "We want 20 seats", they get what the want, even if other paying customers must stay on the ground. There is no customer service here and no complaint forms. TIA, this is Africa. I got really mad but the guide said that we had to wait until all the Shell people arrived because they hardly ever used up all their reservations. At some point I did want to go and shout at those people but Jandro stopped me and was right, of course. It´s better for the native to argue with the natives. In the end we got on the plane. Next time we might not be as lucky.
And that's all, folks. You´ve no idea how much I enjoyed it!
Thank you for answering my question so quickly ;-). Pictures are quite amazing! Now I can say that I know somebody who has actually seen elephants :-D.
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