Albert Schweitzer-land

Thank you to Andrew for posting information about the Iroko tree. Since the first day we arrived in Cameroon onwards we have seen giant truck loads of tree trunks being transported around the country and in Yaounde we was the first of many logging collection centres. Here in Gabon you cannot go many miles without seeing either a fully loaded ‘grumier’ (the name for the log carrier) or convoys of empty ones with their rear wheels loaded on the trailer going full speed to collect the next load. In the past few days we have also seen where the wood is coming from and large forest areas where they are stored and loaded, mainly under Chinese ownership.

Here we are for the second night in Lamberene, home to the Albert Schweizer Hospital and Museum. Last night we parked in the grounds outside the Museum with a view of the lake, and tonight we are sleeping in a charming room (complete with HOT water shower), once occupied by Mathilde Kottman, secretary and infirmary worker from Alsace and a colleague of Dr Schweitzer. This morning I took the self-guided tour of the museum and learned so much more about the wonderful doctor who set up a hospital for leprosy sufferers and was an example and inspiration to many who followed: Medecins Sans Frontiers to name just one organisation.

We have been without internet since we left the hotel in Oyem, in spite of buying a Sim card to act as a hotspot. It failed to work, so today we have spent nearly 2 hours in Lamberene in a phone shop queueing to buy another. Success this time.

Success in other ways over the past few days. As planned, we went to Oyem Airport on Friday, 24^th Feb to meet Thierry, the Airport Manager. I cannot imagine there is another airport manager in the whole world who is as charming and helpful. He allowed us to drive in through the gates alongside the airport building while the afternoon plane to Libreville was still preparing to take off. When he went off duty he left us the key to the gates and we had the place to ourselves. We prepared the basket and burner and attached them to the back of the Enterprise before going to bed, to allow us to choose the best position for launching in the morning. We were up at day break on Saturday morning (no airport activity that day). With the help of the Security Guard and another bystander we inflated the balloon in the position the windsock showed would give us the most space for flying along the runway. However, by the time we were ready there was a slight change in the light wind and we walked the balloon to the centre of the runway. Chris and I flew together. We should have stayed in the original position to get a longer flight, but after 10 minutes in the air we would have been over the airport perimeter and into the trees so we landed in a large clearing alongside the runway near some new buildings. Plenty of people appeared through a gate in the fence to help pack away while Chris walked back down the runway to fetch the Enterprise.

Thierry came on duty at 8am and was pleased to hear that we had made use of his airport. Once we had breakfasted and tidied everything away, we set off for our next adventure. The road south to Minzic (pronounced Mingzig) was picturesque and interesting. We stopped at the supermarket to stock up on bottles of drinking water and some frozen chicken and pork, then set off on a laterite road (the RN11) for Sam, close to the border with Equatorial Guinea. We were at Sam late afternoon and after checking in with the local Gendarme, who questioned Chris thoroughly, including asking if he was an Evangelist, we continued a few kilometres further looking for somewhere to pull off the road and bush camp for the night. A newly bulldozed logging trail appeared just at the right time and we parked on level ground down a slope off the road. Chris lit the barbecue to cook pork chops, jacket potatoes and garlic bread while I cleared the dust off everything and prepared a salad.There was a rumbling of thunder overhead and lots of lightning. We were surrounded by dense ‘jungle’ forest and the noise of insects was deafening. While tending the barbecue a large animal came crashing through the trees overhead – a forerunner of things to come. Dinner was cooked just in time before the heavens opened and we had the most torrential rain I have ever experienced. When we had eaten we switched off our internal lights and turned the headlights on to watch the puddles increase in size. We decided there was no point moving and would wait until the ground dried enough in the morning to be able to drive out up the slope. Next to the noisy night we spent in Dix Cove, Ghana with the local inhabitants carousing all night, this was similar but more so and this time it was nature that provided the noise. First the rain and insects and then the monkeys which appeared to go shrieking through the trees above at regular intervals. We could not see them as it was too dark. Just before dawn the frogs began, with the cheerleader apparently sitting just outside our window. They just about drowned out the dawn chorus of birds. In the daylight Chris spotted one big frog, or toad, leaping into the undergrowth but all the puddles were full of frogspawn. So that’s what all the noise was about. We had a lazy start while waiting for the ground to dry in the sun and had no problem exiting the track back on to the dirt road. There were a few wet patches but a lot of newly cut gullies where the rain had cascaded down the hills. There was very little traffic on Sunday morning apart from a crazy tanker hurtling round a bend towards us. In each of the villages we passed through people waved at us in a very friendly fashion. By afternoon most of the men were sitting around in the local bars drinking. There were church services going on and other celebrations, perhaps animist ceremonies.

We crossed the ‘soft’ border into Equatorial Guinea where the road from Gabon traverses the country to the town of Medouneu, high up on a plateau, as we later found. Close to the border were 2 stunning lumps of rock covered in trees, perhaps volcanic plugs. They rose from the forest landscape dramatically and were a fitting welcome to a country we did not have a visa for. Chris had selected a possible clearing in the forest to fly using Google Earth at the village of Acam but there was no way to tell if it would really be possible. It wasn’t. We decided to continue to Medouneu to try and get some water for our tank as we were running low. It was late Sunday afternoon. There was no-one at the Gendarmerie for us to report to. Chris asked a local where we could get water and we were led to the market but there was no way we could get the Enterprise close enough to the tap to fill. We trundled out of town, where there was a large area outside the big church but it was full of young people leaving a service. We spotted 2 white people sitting at the top of the church tower but didn’t stop to talk. Down the hill we passed an obvious water tap, recently in use, right next to a bar. 3 drunken men accosted us, one trying to climb in through the Enterprise window. One was very tall and cross-eyed and only spoke Spanish and the third was short and stocky, dressed in a yellow football strip. He informed me he was the Sergeant of the Gendarmes and wanted to see our passports and visas. Chris was busy with filling from the tap and caused great interest to the 3 sozzled characters. He ended up smacking the hand of the Gendarme for picking up some of the contents of the box. To distract them I entered into a long conversation about where we had come from and where we were going. I couldn’t understand why one was only speaking to me in Spanish until I later realised that it is one of the main languages of Guinea. I shall end this account as the battery on the lap top is very low.

To be continued …..