(Mother might not want to read this one, but I have to write about what happens otherwise theres no real point!?)
I got up nice and early ready for a long days travel into Gabon. The plan being to head straight to Lamberènè, my visas for the next few countries are a little bit tight so I have opted to miss Libreville (the capital). I arrived at Cameroonian immigration at 7am, the boss lady turned up allot later, had a coffee, read the paper, took a stroll around town and then stamped me out at about 10am. I bumped into the Gabonese business man, who also ended up staying the night. We decided to travel together, and looking like a man of some importance I thought he may be of some use at the border posts.
We jumped in a taxi and crossed a bridge into Gabon. I got through the Police and Gendarmerie without paying, my new friend wasnt so lucky and I wandered off to immigration while he argued. The man in immigration was a complete ass and tried to charge me way too much, I started by arguing polite, ‘ im a visitor in your country, etc..’ It wasnt working so I tried the official approach ‘will you give me a receipt, etc..’ None of it was working so in the end I just lost my rag and started shouting at him, he let me through for nothing.
The Gabonese chap had a real rough time and so I brought him a beer in condolence, and then went looking for a bus. There were only buses to Libreville but I could change near the town of Ndjole. After a lengthy Gabonese style wait we got on the road, it was a good road too. Unfortunately for me a good road gives the driver an excuse to absolutely tan it, which can be a bit frightening.
The North of the country appears to be one massive steaming forest, with a few rivers meandering in between gentle hills. The only clearings on the roadside were for small logging communities and transit stations. The road was pretty empty except for the big modern logging trucks, complete with roll cages. They are are reknowned for causing accidents and it wasnt long before we saw the evidence of this.
A minibus (similar to ours) had attempted to overtake a truck, and plowed head on into a Landcruiser. It had only happened the night before and it takes the clean up crew a bit longer to arrive around here. I expected a bit of ‘rubber knecking’ by people on the bus, but instead we stopped and everyone went off for a closer inspection. I was pretty shocked by the amount of blood and brain splattered on the windshield and didnt hang around too long. Four people in the minibus had died on the scene, the Land Cruiser was fine.
We got back into the car, all of us slightly more aware of our mortality. Except for the driver who continued racing along. We came to a windy stretch of road with an unprotected drop to a river on side and a steep embankment on the other. On one particular corner we were going way too fast, I was sat alongside the driver in the front row so had a good view. I looked to his feet hoping he would hit the brakes soon, eventually he did - now i’ve never been in a car when the brakes fail, but there was a loud bang and it was pretty evident what had happened.
We are careering towards a big drop, im in the front seat desperately trying to grab onto something. By some pretty special driving we just make it round the bend with the bald tyres screaming for grip, but it was close. We eventually came to a halt as the road started to climb a small hill. Everyone out of the bus and sure enough hydraulic fluid is steaming all over place.
As is now normal in this situation, we were in the middle of nowhere and the sun was setting. Everyone had a little go at meddling but there was no chance of an immediate repair. It was decided that we should continue, using only the gears for braking. I wasn’t too happy but certainly wasnt going to sit in the jungle by myself waiting for the next truck to pass. We drove on in absolute silence, after over an hour and some dubious gear crunching we arrived in Ndjole.
Everyone piled out and straight into the bar (or mosque, depending on where your faith lies), The Gabonese are pretty wealthy and one of them kindly brought me a drink. It was pretty late so I decided to spend the night here, very tired but unsurprisingly very happy.
