Way to Lope National Park in Gabon

Libreville
Libreville

Our first landing on African continent as well as the first country of our long backpacking trip.

Sponcered Link
Sponcered Link

Libreville Airport

Our flight with Air France landed at Libreville in the evening on December 3, 2017. After we got off from the aircraft, the security guards led us to the counters for visa application on arrival. Although the flight was not full, it took about an hour for us to get out from the airport due to a long line at the counters. Once we lined up at the visa counter, an officer came to pick up our passports and it took about 30 min for us to be called to the counter. At the counter, an officer had our passports and we also handed our visa authorization form which was filled out and obtained online previously with 85 euros per person as the visa application and processing fees. Then the officer took our photos shown on the visas.
* To obtain the visa authorization form, you need to obtain contact information of a person who hosts you in Gabon. We reached out to the hotel and obtained the hotel manager’s name and phone number for the visa online process.

International Arrival Gate at Libreville Airport

International Arrival Gate at Libreville Airport

After picking up our luggage, we went outside to take a shuttle bus to a SPG hotel, Le Méridien Re-Ndama. The free shuttle was parked on a road across from the arrival gate. It should be easy to find a shuttle or transportation to the downtown of Libreville because there were a lot of drivers of cabs and shuttles outside of the arrival gate.

In the shuttle, a radio was played and the first song we heard was “Sorry” of Justin Bieber. Later we heard that America music was more popular than French music in Gabon. After listening to the radio for about 15 min, we arrived at the hotel.

Libreville, Gabon

The time we arrived at Méridien Re-Ndama hotel was already late evening. Since we did not know any tour or hotel in Lope where we planned to go the following day, we spent the rest of the day collecting the information about Lope. Also, the hotel helped us to obtained a SIM card for us to call some tour companies offering a tour to Lope.

SIM card of Gabon Telecom

SIM card of Gabon Telecom

Long story short, the hotel had some information about downtown but not much about national parks because none of the employees at the hotel had been to Lope National Park. However, they gave us the train schedule to Lope for the following day and some phone numbers of the tour companies offering a tour to Lope.

Unfortunately we could not reach any of the tour companies as we arrived on a Saturday and the following day was a Sunday. It seemed only few stores and companies were open on weekends.

Since the train on Sunday was scheduled to depart at evening time, in the morning we took a walk around the area close to the hotel and looked for a tour company that opened on weekends. Unfortunately, all the stores and tour companies were closed except one supermarket. At the supermarket, we purchased some groceries in case of the limitation of food available in Lope.

Trans-Gabon Railway

Train Ticket

Train Ticket

In the evening (2 hours before the departure time), we checked out from the hotel and took a cab to the train station Owendo to purchase the train tickets to Lope National Park. The ticket office was on the left side of the station and the information desk was on the right side.

Owendo Station of Trans-Gabon Railway

Owendo Station of Trans-Gabon Railway

With assistance from the lady who spoke some English at the information desk, we filled out a form and got the 2 tickets from the ticket office. There are two types of trains: Train Express and Train Omnibus (local), and three classes of seats: Classe VIP (VIP Class), 1 Classe (1st Class) and 2 Classe (2nd Class). Each passenger has a assigned seat. However, there are limited available seats because the train only runs once in a day. When we first lined up at the ticketing office, we were told no available seats. Luckily, later we reconfirmed with the ticket officer and were able to purchase the tickets. We recommend to buy the tickets in advance at the ticketing office if possible.

Trans-Gabon Train

Trans-Gabon Train

At the check-in time, an officer checked both the photo ID (we used passport) and the tickets before the passengers got into the platform. The train was much longer than the platform so it would be easier to get into a train car and walk to the assigned train car. The train left on time at 6:50pm. Our train car had a bathroom but we did not use it due to the strong smell. There was no A/C in our car but the train ran at night so it was pretty cool with open windows. After confirming with other passengers (seemed all local people but some spoke a bit English), we started walking toward front when the train got closer to Lope station. Probably because it was a red-eye train, lots of people slept on the floor in the 2nd Class cars, while the 1st Class remained clean and organized. We recommend to buy 1st Class tickets unless you are really on an extremely tight budget. As a first-time traveler in Africa, we had a hard time to sleep in the train because of the smell from bathroom and bugs on seats.

2nd Class Car

2nd Class Car

The train was scheduled to be at Lope at 1:40am but due to delay we arrived around 3am. There were a few officers at the train station and no lights at all other than the station itself. Without maps, hotel reservations and any contact info, one of the officers was very kind and made a call to the Lope Hotel for us. Later on a person driving 4×4 came to pick us up to the hotel. We met with the hotel manager outside of the lobby. There are two types of rooms within the hotel, 73,000XAF and 65,000XAF per night with access to swimming pool, and annex for 25,000XAF per night. The hotel accepted cash only and there were no ATM in the village. We decided to stay at Annex and thus the driver drove us to the other side of the train station where the Annex was located. Since the hotel also offered a tour, we were told to contact them the following day again to arrange a tour in Lope National Park.

Information

Accomodation

Libreville

Méridien Re-Ndama

Price: 10,000 SPG points + Tax (2,000XAF) / night

WiFi: Not included. But it was included if you have a Gold status or above at SPG. However, the browsing experience was not smooth.

Amenities: Towels, shampoo, soap, etc.

Meal: Breakfast was not included. But it was included if you have a Gold status or above at SPG.

The room was clean with a king-size bed. However, compared to SPG hotels in other countries, the room is dark and not as clean.

Transportation

Trans-Gabon Railway

Time Schedule – Owendo to Franceville

 
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri
Local Exp. Local Exp. Local Exp.
Owendo 18:50 18:50 18:50 18:50 18:50 18:50
Ntoum 19:46 19:44 19:46
Andem 20:15 20:11 20:15
Mbel 20:54 20:48 20:54
Oyan 21:38 21:30 21:38
Abanga 22:18 22:08 22:18
Ndjolé 23:18 23:08 23:08 23:08 23:18 23:08
Otoumbi 0:15 0:03 0:15
Ayem 0:57  0:43 0:57
Lopé 1:40 1:08 1:08 1:08 1:40 1:08
Offoué 2:00 1:26 2:00
Booué 2:37 2:03 2:03 2:03 2:37 2:03
Ivindo 3:07 2:32 2:32 2:32 3:07 2:32
Mouyabi 3:39 3:02 3:39
Milolé 4:13 3:34 4:13
Lastoursville 4:58 4:19 4:19 4:19 4:58 4:19
Doumé 5:25 4:44 5:25
Lifouta 5:57 5:14 5:57
Mboung 6:32 5:47 6:32
Moanda 7:06 6:21 6:21 6:21 7:06 6:21
Franceville 7:36 6:51 6:51 6:51 7:36 6:51

Time Schedule – Franceville to Owendo

  Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri
Exp. Local Exp. Local Exp. Local
Franceville 19:50 19:00 19:50 19:00 19:50 19:00
Moanda 20:30 19:40 20:30 19:40 20:30 19:40
Mboung 20:04 20:04 20:04
Lifouta 20:39 20:39 20:39
Doumé 21:11 21:11 21:11
Lastoursville 22:35 21:51 22:35 21:51 22:35 21:51
Milolé 22:21 22:21 22:21
Mouyabi 22:55 22:55 22:55
Ivindo 0:06 23:27 0:06 23:27 0:06 23:27
Booué 0:44 0:05 0:44 0:05 0:44 0:05
Offoué 0:32 0:32 0:32
Lopé 1:32 1:15 1:32 1:15 1:32 1:15
Ayem 1:37 1:37 1:37
Otoumbi 2:19 2:19 2:19
Ndjolé 3:32 3:19 3:32 3:19 3:32 3:19
Abanga 4:16 4:16 4:16
Oyan 4:56 4:56 4:56
Mbel 5:40 5:40 5:40
Andem 6:19 6:19 6:19
Ntoum 6:48 6:48 6:48
Owendo 7:45 7:42 7:45 7:42 7:45 7:42

Price – Owendo to Franceville

  Express Local
VIP 1st 2nd VIP 1st 2nd
Owendo
Ntoum 3,500 2,950 2,070
Andem 5,400 4,530 3,170
Mbel 8,250 6,930 4,850
Oyan 9,900 8,300 5,850
Abanga 12,500 10,500 7,400
Ndjolé 18,300 16,000 12,000 16,000 13,400 9,400
Otoumbi 19,450 16,350 11,450
Ayem 22,900 19,250 13,450
Lopé 29,150 25,500 19,050 25,500 21,400 15,000
Offoué 27,300 22,900 16,000
Booué 34,100 29,900 22,300 29,900 25,000 17,600
Ivindo 37,100 32,500 24,300 32,500 27,300 19,100
Mouyabi 35,900 30,100 21,100
Milolé 38,500 32,300 22,700
Last/ville 47,900 42,000 31,400 42,000 35,300 24,700
Doumé 44,600 37,400 26,200
Lifouta 47,200 39,600 27,700
Mboung 50,600 42,500 29,700
Moanda 59,800 52,400 39,200 52,400 44,000 30,800
F/ville 63,800 55,800 41,800 55,800 46,800 32,800

Price – Franceville to Owendo

  Express Local
VIP 1st 2nd VIP 1st 2nd
F/ville
Moanda 4,840 3,980 2,970 3,980 3,340 2,350
Mboung 6,350 5,330 3,740
Lifouta 9,050 7,600 5,300
Doumé 11,600 9,800 6,850
Last/ville 16,300 14,300 10,700 14,300 12,000 8,400
Milolé 17,700 14,850 10,450
Mouyabi 20,300 17,050 12,000
Ivindo 27,200 23,800 17,750 23,800 19,950 14,000
Booué 30,100 26,400 19,700 26,400 22,200 15,600
Offoué 29,000 24,300 17,000
Lopé 35,000 30,700 23,000 30,700 25,700 18,100
Ayem 33,300 28,000 19,600
Otoumbi 36,800 30,900 21,600
Ndjolé 46,000 40,200 30,100 40,200 33,700 23,700
Abanga 42,800 36,000 25,300
Oyan 45,400 38,100 26,800
Mbel 48,900 41,100 28,800
Andem 51,400 43,200 30,300
Ntoum 53,200 44,700 31,300
Owendo 63,800 55,800 41,800 55,800 46,800 32,800
* The tables of time and prices above were made based on the following photo which was obtained in December 2016.
Train schedule and price

Train schedule and price

Notes

  • The luggage check-in counter closes 1 hour and 30 minutes before the train departure time.
  • The passenger gate closes 15 minutes before the train departure time.