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In the top national parks in Gabon, it’s possible to catch sight of everything from forest elephant to lowland gorillas. Yet there’ll be few other travellers to take in these spectacles or the other top things to do in Gabon. This is partly due to cost. It’s also partly geography, and partly because so few people know about the treasures that await them here. So let me try and change the last of these right now.
From tiny acorns…
The story of Gabon’s national parks is an intriguing one. In 1999 an American conservationist called J Michael (Mike) Fay undertook a 3,200 km transect across the Congo Basin. Starting on the banks of the Ubangi (a tributary to the Congo), he ended it on Gabon’s Atlantic shores.
The resulting report led then-president Omar Bongo to declare 13 new national parks in Gabon. They occupy roughly 11% of the country’s landmass and 25% of its waters. The act made Gabon a leader in conservation overnight.
The top national parks in Gabon
Lopé National Park & Mikongo Camp
By far the easiest of Gabon’s top national parks to visit as an independent traveller is Lopé National Park. Its gateway is the settlement of the same name. This lies on the transgabonais rail line connecting the capital Libreville on the coast with Franceville in the far east.
There’s accommodation in Lopé village, but staying closer to the action in the Lopé Hotel within the national park is certainly worth the extra cost. Positioned on the Ogooué River, its individual roundel chalets offer views of Mount Brazza. There’s also a small pool and an exceptional restaurant for somewhere so deep in the jungle.
The long list of activities possible from the hotel include boat trips to see ancient petroglyphs (rock carvings), walking and vehicle-based safaris. Walking safaris usually take you under the canopy, where forest buffalo, various antelope, chimps and even drill roam.
Vehicle safaris explore the bais (grassy clearings) favoured by incredibly shy forest elephant. But Lopé’s piece de resistance is Mikongo Camp. Here the jungle is the realm of western lowland gorillas, which can be tracked with rangers on walks lasting a whole day.
Loango National Park
In the difficult to reach south of Gabon (travellers have traditionally flown in on small aircraft) lies Loango National Park. One of Time’s World’s Greatest Places 2023, Mike Fay described it as Africa’s last Eden.
Completely unspoilt by man (being difficult to get to has its benefits), Loango spans four main ecosystems: rainforest, savannah grassland, beach and mangrove. As a result, the park has an incredible diversity of both plant and animal life.
There are good populations of forest elephant, in addition to the chance of further gorilla sightings and leopard encounters. But what wildlife enthusiasts really come for is Loango’s surfing hippos. The national park is the only place in the world where it’s known these giants hit the beach.
And what a beach Loango can boast. Its completely natural white sands aren’t used for sunbathing so much as a nesting site for turtles, whale and dolphin watching. This area of Gabonese coast has the highest variety and number of these creatures outside of South Africa.
Mayumba National Park
Although it has the designation of a national park rather than a marine park, Mayumba is all about Gabon’s coastal species. Even further south than Loango, but ‘slightly’ easier to reach, the beaches of Mayumba are one of the most important nesting sites for migrating leatherback turtles in this part of Africa.
To see them nest, you’ll want to head to Mayumba between December and January – during the short dry season. Hatchlings start to appear a couple of months later.
Take a boat trip out into Mayumba’s protected waters, and the species you might encounter are more impressive still. Migrating humpback whales arrive between June and November, while resident species include bottlenose dolphins, various shark species, and manta rays.
Ivindo National Park
Centrally located Ivindo National Park is primarily known for forest cover cleaved by rivers and waterfalls. The best time to visit Ivindo’s cascades – Kongou, Mingouli and Djidji – is between November and April. That said, anywhere outside of December and January will fall slap bang in Gabon’s two rainy seasons.
However beautiful the falls are, it’s Langoué Bai you won’t want to miss. A large forest clearing known for its saline marshes, it’s roughly one kilometre long by 300 metres wide, making it the fifth largest in Africa.
Carved out by forest elephants seeking natural salt to supplement their vegetarian diets, Langoué Bai has become a gathering point for an impressive array of species. Here travellers will find the biggest concentration of western lowland gorillas in Africa. But also troop of colourfully-faced mandrill, rare sitatunga antelope, and perhaps the leopard which hunt them too.
Pongara National Park
Just 20 kilometres from Libreville’s international airport, Pongara National Park protects the southern side of the Gabon estuary. Although it’s known to be inhabited by elephant, chimps and gorillas (and visited by turtles), I think the main reason to visit Pongara is for its birdlife.
More than 150 bird species have been recorded within Pongara, about a fifth of Gabon’s total. Founded in 2007, it’s important enough for migrating waders that it’s a Ramsar Wetland as well as a national park.
Birds to look out for include the Gabon coucal, yellow-billed turaco, hamerkop, African spoonbill, red-necked buzzard and long-tailed hornbill.
Gabon’s top national parks
An extension of the Congo rainforest, much of Gabon is covered in jungle. But the top national parks in Gabon cover ecosystems as diverse as mangrove and unique-to-the-region bais. As a result, the wildlife encounters that can be had in Gabon are as incredible as they are varied. I’ll never forget encountering a forest elephant on the banks of the Ogooué River, and live in endless hope of one day encountering an elusive leopard too.
