We got up early this morning and sure enough as we were packing up to leave the village showed up to see us off. They brought us some enormous bananas for breakfast and Graham and Connie gave them a bag Mountain Man candies.

We set off and passed through Ambam on our way to Kye-Ossi where we completed customs and immigration formalities for Cameroon. We crossed the border and drove to Bitam where we went through customs and immigration on the Gabon side. Someone here has figured out that using a copy machine is quicker than copying details into a book by hand, but they haven't quite got that that's only the case if you actually have a copy machine. Graham and Witt followed the immigration official's lackey all over town to three different shops before locating a functioning copier. An hour later we were finished and on our way to Libreville, or so we thought.

Police checkpoints in Gabon seem to be spaced every 500 meters or so and in contrast to the happy, friendly officials in Cameroon the Gabon officials are decidedly sour. Most of them so far (we stopped at about 8 this afternoon) have asked for money, although we haven't paid anything. We suspect that they either aren't paid much or aren't being paid at all. On the plus side, the roads are excellent and while driving we make good time. We stopped for the evening at a very secluded spot along the disused road that the current tarmac road replaced. Instead of human visitors, we have tons of little biting flies that leave red marks on the skin.

We had a quick dinner of avocado and tomato salad and harira soup with bread. After dinner we put on our mosquito nets (that go over the head) and waited for darkness, when the flies left for the evening. Fortunately there aren't many mosquitoes. We watched a bat in its nightly hunting routine and saw several fire flies. We can hear lots of birds, insects, and who knows what else out in the jungle. It's hot and humid tonight, and unlike last night there is no breeze.

Last night was extremely hot and uncomfortable, with sticky sheets and hot still air. We did get some sleep, though, and were up just in time for the flies to come out when it got light enough.

We got on the road and after two more police checkpoints left the tarmac. For the next 70km or so the road was under construction. The project was huge, with lots of heavy earth moving equipment involved. We decided that it was very important to make eye contact with the driver of the 30-ton Cat front loader before driving behind him. We noticed that in sharp contrast to the police the road construction guys are very friendly giving us enthusiastic waves and thumbs-up signs.

We crossed the equator today, and of course stopped to take pictures of the GPS. The scenery was breathtaking with the forest canopy completely covering the road at times.

We decided that we wouldn't make it to Libreville in time to begin visa applications before the weekend, so we turned off and headed toward Réserve de la Lopé, a national park. We drove alongside the Ogooué river to a hotel about 115km from the turn off. The drive was beautiful, as is the hotel. It's a full-on tourist resort complete with a golf course and swimming pool. It's set on a bend in the river and we heard thunder from a distant storm while enjoying beer and gin and tonics. The place is expensive at 32,000 CFA, but very nice.

Our plan for the day was to do some sight seeing in the park. For some reason we thought that we could drive our own vehicles in and do some game viewing, but that was not the case. We arrived at the park gate and were told that we could only go in with a park vehicle. So back to the hotel. We had a quick conference and decided that, though expensive, the safari tour would be worth it. We piled into a Land Cruiser with our assigned guide and went back to the park.

The day of game viewing was nice, though very different from what Connie and Graham had experienced in Southern Africa. We saw mankeys and elephants and a huge monitor lizard. At one point we got out of the Toyota and walked into the forest to see a small deer and more monkeys. Our guide inadvertantly stopped on an ant colony, and was soon dancing around trying to get them off!

at about 4pm we came back to the hotel, picked up our cars and headed down the road. We stopped at a nice river overlook to camp.

We drove into Libreville today. It is a huge city and the most expensive city in Africa. We spent some time trying to find accomodation and eventually setteled on the Mainson Libermann.

We visited the Angolan embassy this morning in anticipation of hassles, but were told that the embassy was closed today and we should come back tomorrow at 9am.

We visited the Congo-K embassy and applied for visas there instead, and were told to come back in the afternoon to pick them up. We spent the rest of the afternoon doing laundry and writing web updates. The weather in Libreville is extremely hot and muggy, and the addition of wet laundry to our room in the mission doesn't help.

Graham and Connie visited Mbolo, the local supermarket, which is the biggest we've seen since Marrakech. We anticipate a large shopping trip there before we depart. Witt received an email from Vicky today and we met them for drinks and the sunset at the Tropicana Hotel on the beach. They are a group of five in two vehicles, with Vicky, Slade, and Krissy in a Land Rover like ours ( www.popadd.com/ksv2africa) and Urs and Elsa, Swiss and French (respectively) in a 6x6 Pinzgauer. They are interested in joining with us for the next section, which we are happy about. We enjoyed drinks and a beautiful sunset over the Atlantic before dinner at a local pizza restaurant.

We went back to the Angola embassy this morning, where Graham and Jen had a good conversation in several languages with the lady at the embassy. We filled out the appropriate forms, paid our 30,000 CFA, and were told to return later that afternoon to retrieve our passports. We were quite surprised (and pleased) by how easy it was to obtain the visa.

We visited the US embassy, where we found no new information relating to the coup attempt in DRC that we heard about in Youandé. In the afternoon we found a cafe for lunch called Parad'ice, which serves yummy ice cream treats.

We picked up our visas for Angola and met Vicky's group for dinner, where we discussed our route. Based on advice from many different sources, we have decided to go via Franceville, then south to Dolisie. From there we will either go straight to DRC or go via the Angolan enclave which contains Cabinda. We have decided to spend one more day in Libreville doing some car maintenance and depart on Thursday.

We met our new friends this morning so they could show us where to buy an oil filter (finding quality spare parts isn't always easy). We purchased the filters and some oil, then went to a Total station where we paid the attendant 4000 CFA to use the pit to change our oil. It didn't take long, and afterward we met at Parad'ice for some lunch and ice cream.

Graham is having trouble with his steering box, so we spent the afternoon trying to locate a new one, without success. Witt and Jen drove to Cape Esterias for the evening to enjoy a night away from the city, while Graham and Connie spent time on the internet and enjoyed a nice meal at a restaurant on the pier.

Our group of four cars departed this morning at about 9 am. We saw lots of bush meat along the road today, including monkey, crocodile, and some sort of rodent. We turned off the paved road the junction for Réserve de la Lopé, as this is also the road to Franceville. It rained off and on as we drove, and the road was much wetter than it was the last time we were here. The rains left rainbows and low hanging clouds in the valleys, which made for incredible scenery. We stopped to help extract a car from a mud hole, but still made it to our camp site in time to catch a beautiful sunset. We made dinner and sat around talking and watching the stars. As we were getting ready for bed, someone noticed an orange glow on the horizon. It turned out to be the moon, and we watched the huge orange ball rise into the night sky.

We set off this morning at around 8:30, trying to escape a swarm of bees and flies that descended on our camp this morning.

Graham discovered that his right shock tower has broken loose again, and at the same time Slade found a loose hub on his Land Rover. We stopped for an early lunch and set about making repairs. Graham removed the shock completely and tied the axle up with a piece of strap to prevent it from dropping too far and the spring falling out.

Shortly after we got moving again, we encountered a log bridge with a makeshift barricade across it. Two guys came out and demanded money let us cross. We ended out giving them 2000 CFA for our four vehicles, which in retrospect was probably a mistake, but we did get across. The road improved in the afternoon and we enjoyed a beautiful drive along the river through lush, green forest until we found a place to camp about 40 km from Lastoursville.

Graham and Connie borrowed Slade's shower, which is a pressurized lawn fertilizer (the kind you fill with fertilizer, then pump up by hand and spray; it makes a great shower). We cooked dinner and sat around the camp fire chatting and looking at the stars. Graham and Connie have decided to name their car "Thokalossi" after a sort of gremlin reputed to exist in South Africa. The story is that some people believe that these creatures (small, like gremlins) exist and bring bad luck. If someone is experiencing a bout of bad luck, they will start stacking their bed on top of bricks, because if your bed is high enough, the Thokalossi can't get you. So Thokalossi means "The gremlin under your bed."

This morning was very foggy and quite beautiful, but once again the bees drove us from our camp in a rush. We enjoyed more of the same good track we had yesterday and after stopping for lunch to fix a tire and tighten a hub on Rafiki, we made it to Moanda by about 2pm.

We filled up with fuel and water, and after a quick shampoo at the gas station water tap we were on our way south toward the Congo border. We stopped for the evening in a level spot created during excavations from the road. Our new friends cooked a wonderful meal and we spent a nice bug-free evening chatting.

Had a leisurely start to the day. Urs redid the timing on the Pinzgauer and then discovered a fuel leak in the top of one of the carburetors. Luckily he had a spare carburetor, so a quick change was made.

We hit the road and made it to Bakoumba, the last major town in Gabon, by about 10. Of course it is Sunday so no one was at immigration control. We walked around to find customs and were told that the customs officer had "gone traveling" so we should get the carnet stamp from the gendarmerie across the road. The guys found a shop selling beer and decided to stock up. Eventually the immigration officer showed up and dutifully noted exit details in all passports since he didn't have an exit stamp.

Then it was off to the gendarmerie. The officer there was most contrary. He didn't like the lack of an exit stamp in the passports and told us it would cause trouble later. He then told us the border was closed, but he could let us through for a fee. Elsa argued for a long time with him about visas and open borders, and eventually he agreed to call the Secretariat who could authorize him to open the border for us. So we packed the man and Elsa and Graham into Toki and went to find the Secretariat. Unfortunately he was not at home, so we went back to the gendarmerie brigade. We settled in for a long stay, with Witt trying to fix a rattle in Rafiki's bonnet and Urs swapping tires around on the Pinzi.

Soon enough the officer got bored and told us we could go through. The border had magically opened! We drove out to the last gendarmerie checkpoint where we were told that the border was closed, but that the officer had a key to open the gate. They searched our vehicles, and then we packed two guys with AK-47's into our convoy and one guy who wanted a lift onto Rafiki's roof rack. Then off to the real border. The road out there was quite good, but was going through some pretty thick jungle. The border itself was marked by two locked gates and a distinct lack of road on the Congo side. The officer at the border reaffirmed that the border was closed and told us we could only get through with a letter from the regional governor.

So after much debating we decided to try a different border after going back to the immigration officer to check us back into the country. So back to town and another stop at the immigration office. The officer told us again that the border is open and that we should have been let through. He got on the phone and called the govenor. While he was on the phone the Secretariat showed up. He took over the phone call and got authorization from the govenor that we could cross. Of course, no one had told us until now that the Congo side is closed every Sunday, and that it would be closed Easter Monday as well. So Elsa and Vicky went with the Secretariat to get a letter and the rest of us had lunch and made plans for the two days we were stuck in Bakoumba.

At this point the chief of the border control showed up and told us that we should stay Monday night at the border so we could cross first thing on Tuesday (and also so that we could give him a ride to the border post). So, with plans made for onward travel, we decided to spend the intervening time at Lekedi Park, the hotel and camping for which is in Bakoumba. Off to the hotel and a swim for most. Lots of washing was done, followed by a meal of chicken tikka masala and crepes.

Since the Congo side of the border is closed on the Monday after Easter, we decided to spend the day in Lekedi National Park which happens to be nearby. We all piled into a couple of Toyota pickups and spent the morning driving around the park. We saw some buffalo and impala as well as a family of chimpanzees that live on an island in a lake in a park. These chimps used to be kept as pets or tourist attractions, but now lead lives of leisure in the park, being fed bread and bananas every day to amuse the tourists. We also saw some wild pigs, Mandril monkeys, and an ostrich.

The afternoon was spent at the lodge relaxing, swimming in the pool, and reading. Slade and Graham made a wonderful chicken Potjie and Urs created a gigantic fruit salad which we drowned in custard for desert. We got our first good rain storm this afternoon, which left the evening nice and cool.

After buying some bits of chicken and some bread, we headed out of town, our letter from the Governor in hand, confident we would finally be able to leave Gabon. Driving past the customs office at the edge of town, a guy ran out into the street and stopped us. He claimed to be the customs officer and wanted to stamp our carnets, except that he didn't have a stamp. If you're an official in Africa without a stamp you might as well not even exist. He wrote out some bits of paper which he stapled into our carnets using a stapler he borrowed from us and told us that customs charges 10,000 CFA per vehicle. We argued with him for awhile and eventually Elsa and Vicky went off to find the prefect who had been very helpful in getting our letter from the Governor. We all sat around on the barrier at the customs office for a half an hour or so. Eventually two cars drove up, and the prefect got out of one of them along with his entourage (everything requires many people to follow the boss around). He had a few words with the customs guy, who, looking very unhappy, tore the bits of paper out of our carnets and let us through.

We drove for 30 minutes to the military checkpoint to speak to the guys with the AK47s. We showed them our letter, but they were not impressed, saying that they needed military authorization to let us through. The chief jumped into a pickup to go back to Bakoumba to talk to the colonel. We set up our awnings in the middle of the road and settled down in the shade to make tea. By lunchtime the chief had still not returned, so Elsa got out her laptop and we watched a movie (Ice Age). 90 minutes later the movie was over and still no sign of the chief. We used the sat phone to call the US embassy and spoke with an attaché there who promised to try to help, but really there is little he can do.

Witt, Urs, and Elsa drove the 30km back to town in the Pinzgauer to try to locate the chief. They found him drinking beer and waiting for a ride back to his post. We loaded him into the Pinzy and started back. Apparently he had made good use of his trip into town as he reeked of beer and was obviously loaded. We had to stop once on the way back so he could pee. He told us we could go, which we did with haste. We believe that he never spoke with any colonels at all and that the whole thing was a ruse so he could go into town to drink. By the time we left it was after 4pm. We drove the last 15km to the border and arrived there just after 5pm.

This border, we were told, hadn't been open since the Congolese civil war in 1997. The border itself is a couple of steel gates secured with padlocks on the Gabon side and a strategically placed rocks on the Congo side (we walked across while no one was looking to check it out.) There was a footpath between the gates, but it was obvious that there hadn't been any vehicle traffic through in some time. We showed the border guard our very official letter from the Governor. First he told us that we could not cross because the man with the keys to the lock on the gate is dead. We wondered if the keys had been buried with him, and if so could we go and dig him up? We explained that we could easily cut the bolts, so he next had to invent a story about there being no reference number on the letter from the Governor. The whole group is getting rather fed up with all the bulls**t; All we want to do is get out of Gabon. We set up our tents at the border and made a dinner of chili and rice. Tomorrow we plan to phone the prefect on the sat phone and ask for his help.