Adieu Gabon

I knew this blog would have to end some day.
I am ending it today.

Funny, isn't it? Just nine short posts and at the tenth one I am saying goodbye. But I am out of Africa now. So, no point in continuing this blog.

One year in Africa, a packet full of experiences and a bag full of memories. :)
It was all very nice. An unhurried pace of events, gentle people, calm environment and a life in the lap of nature......very relaxing.
But somehow it's nicer being back home.... Back to super busy India!
My African vacation is finally over......

 I did most of the 'to do' things while I was there. But two things got left out for no particular reason.......
1.  Whale watching in the sea!
      and
2.  Meeting Pygmy people in their village.

If I ever go back, which seems highly unlikely at present, I would like to do that.

Hey! ...... Have I ever mentioned that it rains almost every night in Gabon? But surprisingly, in the morning, it all clears up. There is no water logging any where. In fact the roads dry up minutes after it stopped raining.
Even the temperature is equable......pleasant. Not too hot as I had imagined it would be on the equator. But the sun rays are piercing. They really burn the skin. Maybe that's because they fall directly on earth's belly. One hour in the sun is enough to give you a deep tan.

Something else worth mentioning  about is 'The Artisan Village' where you get authentic African artifacts.
Wooden masks, statues, sculptures, jewelry, show pieces, toys, paintings........ Real tribal African stuff!
I particularly liked the masks belonging to the two Gabonese tribes.... Punu and Fang.
Punu masks are white in color and have a serene look on them..... Like Buddhist monks meditating. I found them very intriguing and was somehow attracted towards them.
Fang masks are long and decorative, with a carved metal plating .... Beautiful! Good for display.
There are other masks too from different parts of Africa. But they have a certain scary look. And with rumors of black magic and witchcraft surrounding them, I did not find them appealing.

You can also find jewelry made of horns and bones of some animals, snake skin bangles, crocodile skin purses......if you fancy such stuff.
Then there's jewelry made out of jade stone too...... I liked that.


I am now looking forward to a new adventure which life may throw my way.
No one knows what it will be.
All I know is that right now I am in the process of changing roller coasters.......disembarking from one ride and on my way to another.
Life is no doubt unpredictable....... But it's certainly very very interesting!

Joy forever

Gabon is a bird watcher's paradise.
I have swallows, weavers, pretty little munias, kingfishers .........all visiting my garden.....not to mention countless other species that I cannot identify.

A few days ago, we found a nest lying in the garden. Thankfully it was empty. It would have been very distressing had there been eggs or babies inside.

For the last few months, I have closely watched the weavers in action. It's such a joy watching them hard at work....quietly tearing thin strips off Palm leaves and then weaving them intricately to create a nest.
The funny thing is that they all decide to work towards the survival of their species at the same time :)  .........And then suddenly one finds trees overloaded with their nests.

And what a racket they make!... All trying to make their voice heard over that of the others.

Another amusing thing about the weavers is that they favour some trees over others. As if building a nest on a particular tree is THE thing to do. Just like us humans, isn't it? Aren't we eager to have fancy residential addresses in upmarket areas?

One morning, just before day break, while I was still in bed, I found that the birds were being louder than usual. What a delightful cacophony they were making!

Why would they be doing that?
Oh! They were just being their usual selves.
In fact, it was the regular whirring of the AC which was absent. Even the monotonous static created by the various electrical appliances had died down. For me, this silence was unfamiliar, different from the silence created by not making noise.
But it was definitely pleasant!

We were having a power cut. Not the first one, of course. But yes, it was the first time that I had woken up to the sound of birds.
I had woken up to the sounds of silence......

Musical whistles, shrill cries, deep throated calls, silly chirping...... I listened to the sounds with fascination.

It was such a fun exercise focussing on one sound and isolating it from the rest. It was also fun trying to imagine what the birds would be saying to each other.

"Good Bye Papa. Come home soon." Babies would be saying.
"Get some of those green worms, will you? They are juicier." Mrs. Bird must be instructing her husband.
They must be having some sort of conversation, isn't it? Or else why would they be making so much noise?

It could be a trivial thing for many, but for me it was one of the sweet little pleasures of life which linger in the memory forever.

Slow and steady .......

Half an hour from Libreville, across the sea, is a place called Pointe Denis.
No prizes for guessing that you need a boat to get there.

With the scorching Savannah on one side and the cold, green Atlantic on the other, this place holds a special appeal for some fascinating sea giants!
Yes, it's the nesting place for the huge leatherback turtles.
This is the place where these gentle monsters lay their eggs during breeding season. They travel all the way across the Atlantic from Brazil and land up on the shore at Pointe Denis.
November-December is generally the breeding season. And if you are in Gabon, it's something you should not miss.

I got the opportunity to see this fascinating phenomenon thanks to my children's school. They had organized a study trip for primary school children and asked us parents to accompany them :)
 We were put up in cottages at Maringa beach resort and spent the entire day on the beach, playing in the sand and swimming in the cold water. We could see shoals of colorful fish swim past us in the cool green water.
An amazing sight!
And what an exciting experience! There you are, standing in knee-deep waters with the fishes swimming past you, all around your legs! Thrilling!

After dinner, all of us waited eagerly for the guide to call us. These turtles lay their eggs only at night.
And the guides keep a watch on the sea shore to see if there are turtles approaching.
We were armed with raincoats in case it rains. Some had torches covered with red plastic films.
White light disorients the turtles, we were warned.

At 35 minutes past 10 at night, two guides came to us with the news that they had seen not one but three turtles approaching!
Talk about good luck!

We were up on our feet and on the way to the beach within seconds.
Well, it wasn't a very short distance to the beach and by the time we reached the place where the first turtle was supposed to be laying her eggs, she had already done her job and left, leaving only her tracks behind. Bad luck :(
We went further ahead knowing that there were two more ladies in the family way.
Oh no!
The second one had also left.

I hoped and prayed that the third one would not be so quick. But she had decided to disappoint us too.
An entire trip wasted!

Just then a voice called out in the darkness,"There's one more further ahead!" ........And things started looking bright once again :)
We started walking in that direction as fast as we could.
When we reached, we saw the lovely lady deeply engrossed in her work.

My! She was huge!
She could easily have carried half a dozen 5 year olds on her back.

She was digging a nest for her babies.
Slowly and gracefully she dug out the sand with her hind legs....... (ummm..... flippers?)
She was in no hurry at all. Once she was satisfied with the depth of the hole, she started dropping her eggs one by one.
1, 2, 3, 4, ......... 19, 20,...... 32,.....and I lost count. She must have laid about 50 .......I suppose. Now don't  expect me to be accurate with these things........ Let's leave this job for the conservation people.

These Leatherback turtles are protected. That's because they are highly endangered. Their population has been consistently dropping over the years. ( I wondered how that was possible when each female was trying to compete with Gandhari from Mahabharata)
Almost as if he had read my mind, one of the guides told us that half the turtles won't even survive their journey from the beach to the sea. And once in the water, there are other dangers awaiting them.
Hmmm........ survival of the fittest!

Our lady continued with her job despite our presence on the scene.
So strong was her urge to lay eggs, that even when one guide gently lifted her tail for us to see the eggs dropping, she did not stop.
Personally, I thought it was a gross invasion of privacy....... but that is what we were there for, isn't it? To watch her laying eggs....... how insensitive!

I decided to adopt the scientific approach and watch a 'natural phenomenon' happening and felt slightly better.

Mrs. Turtle finally finished laying all her eggs. But she was not done yet. With the same slow deliberate motions she started covering up her nest.
" That's what's called protective maternal instinct!" I thought.
She made sure that her babies would be safe from predators in her absence.
She then patted the sand and took 2-3 slow turns to smooth it out.

The entire exercise ...... right from digging the hole to patting it smooth must have taken more than 2 hours and the lady was exhausted. She sat on her nest for some time panting and drinking air in huge gasps.

I could no longer watch with clinical detachment and my eyes started filling up with tears.
I felt like reaching out to her, stroking her head, and giving her a back massage......
I felt like telling her, "Yes sweetheart! I know what you are going through........I perfectly understand."

But we had to leave her to her own resources. We trudged back to our cottages with sleepy children in tow, while the beaming, proud mother, slowly and elegantly made her way back to the sea.

Ducks, Lobsters and Mona Lisa

I had never thought that eating out could be so hilarious.

But eating out in Gabon is something I'll never forget .... its priceless .... I mean, the experience :)

I went out to eat for the first time almost immediately after landing in Gabon. 
My husband and I were invited for lunch by a French couple. They took us to a Moroccan restaurant ..... a nice, quaint place. 
Our hosts wanted us to try sea food. While I jumped at it, my ever cautious husband decided to eat chicken. He did not want to take the risk of remaining hungry. On the other hand, I was ready to explore.

As we could neither read nor pronounce what was written on the menu, our hosts did the ordering for us. All I could understand was that they had ordered Lobsters for me. I have eaten prawns before ..... but lobsters..... never. This was my first attempt.

My food arrived...... mmm....  piping hot and decorated in the most appetizing way. The chef had also been smart enough to keep us waiting till our stomachs were growling. I quickly picked up the weapons kept on the table; determined to attack the lobsters. But what was that? The flesh was firmly attached to the shell. And the fork and knife were not weaponly enough to deal with it.

My hostess saw me struggling with the stubborn creature and took pity on my plight. She deftly scooped the flesh out of the shell for me to eat. I was too hungry to even feel embarrassed, and in  my heart I blessed the kind lady.

A few weeks later I was in the soup again! It was a formal dinner at a Chinese restaurant this time and the rest of the people were hard core non vegetarians. My husband and I looked at each other and then at the lavish spread of  various meats in front of us. As usual, my husband decided to be on the safe side and opted for chicken. Being a little more adventurous, once again I wanted to try other things. 
There were some preparations of beef and pork. 
NO!....... I could not eat cows, buffaloes or pigs!! 
Simple reason..... cows are holy, pigs are dirty.
I decided to try duck. As soon as I sank my teeth into the bird, I could hear a strange quacking in my body. That was probably my conscience making its presence felt. I told it to shut up and continued eating :P
I think it was good... I am not really sure.
Umm.... on second thought, maybe it wasn't.

Next time, it was a Lebanese restaurant where we decided to try our luck. We had heard a lot of good things about this place. We also had a friend accompanying us. He was absolutely bonkers about Mona Lisa, a delicious wrap, and wanted us to taste it.
 The children wanted a simple cheese and tomato pizza. Thankfully, a pizza is a pizza in any corner of the world and we asked for it right away.

We studied the menu for a long time but could not find Mona Lisa. 
"Oh, language problem." we told ourselves. Anyway, Mona Lisa it was for the grown ups.
We placed the order. But instead of a polite smile  and a nod of the head from the waiter, we drew such a blank look, that we felt as if we were the biggest fools on earth. After 15 minutes of trying to understand what we wanted, the poor waiter finally gave up and called a lady from the kitchen. He probably thought that two ladies would understand each other better. But she was equally lost. 

I had used up all my french vocabulary which at that time was around 15 words ( its a little more than 50 now) and was left with only gestures and dramatic facial expressions to do the explaining.

Now, this lady turned out to be slightly smarter than the waiter and came up with a brilliant idea. She took me by the hand and led me into the kitchen. She directed me in front of the counter which had a few items kept on it waiting to go out.
Among them, I could see a wrap. Pointing at it, I nodded my head furiously and shouted,"Vi! Vi!"

"Pikasso!" she said.

Good Lord! Now I got it! The root of all confusion. Our dear friend had got mixed up between a painter and a painting!

After this, the next time when I ate out at Nyonie, there was chicken in the salad, minced meat in the mashed potatoes and fish in the gravy. 
The concept of vegetarian food was almost non-existent in this place. And I resigned myself to it.

Anyway, the ducks and lobsters did not excite me much. 
But one thing is sure, Mona Lisa is deeleeshious ;)

Fly....Mango fly!

"Take a look at this", said my neighbor, holding out a small plastic bottle in front of me.
I peered into it and saw a small white worm wriggling inside.
Why was she showing me a creature like this?
"Alright." I said, " But if this your latest hobby, I think I'll have to find a new friend."
"Guess where I found it." she said, obviously not getting the sarcasm.
" Under my skin!"

I shot up as if I had been hit by a bolt of lightning. "What??..... How??"
She explained, "Yesterday, I had a terrible pain near my shoulder. I could see a small boil coming up. But it was unusually painful. When I got up in the morning it was worse. I went to the doctor. He popped the boil and out came this worm!"

Creepy!.......The stuff nightmares are made of.
The creature reminded me of a scene from a strange sci-fi movie called BILL AND TED'S BOGUS JOURNEY, which I had watched long back when I was a teenager. Today I shuddered exactly the way I had two decades ago, when one of the boys is shown pulling a worm out of his ear.......Uggghh!

That worm happens to be the larva of a mango fly.
This little fly lays eggs on clothes which have been put out to dry. Needless to say, the eggs hatch when they come in contact with the skin and the larva feeds on living tissues in our body. Its best to iron the clothes really well after taking them out of the sun.

After all, prevention is better than cure.

Nyonie

"Safari!!!..... In Africa!!!..... Am I really going???"
 I broke out into goose-bumps while going to the port.
"This must be a dream!"  I said and pinched myself.....ouch....  No....this was real!

The thought of going for an African Safari itself was immensely exciting for an urban dweller like me! 
My first experience in the jungle.... how thrilling!

Nyonie is a part of the Pongara forest reserve.

We caught a boat from Libreville to go to Nyonie.

After about 50 minutes in the ocean, we traveled in a creek for some time where the water was fairly still. 

While disembarking, we observed little white things moving in the mud. On inspecting them, we found that those were crabs waving their scissor-like hands at us. 

I would have liked to take a closer look but did not fancy getting a mud-pack with acupuncture thrown in as a bonus.

So, I stopped studying the endearing habits of crustaceans and got into the Land Cruiser that was awaiting us. It took us to the resort in 45 minutes.

It was a nice, cosy beach resort. The food that was served was delicious; though I don't know what it was :)
But very soon, I stopped wondering about the ingredients and concentrated on enjoying the meal. 

We started our safari at 4 p.m. sharp. We were going for a drive through the jungle! 

Deep, dense, tropical forests....... huge, tall trees with many birds of different types. I was almost intoxicated with the amount of oxygen that I was inhaling.

And then suddenly, there were these large open spaces ..... the savanna grasslands. 

We saw wild buffaloes grazing. 
But where were the elephants?...... Not a sign of them!
Our guide kept on looking for them all over the savannas. Finally, our patience and his perseverance paid off. We saw plenty of elephants after sunset :)
But they kept disappearing into thickets as soon as they sensed our vehicle approaching. Who would have imagined that such enormous creatures could be so shy?

Then I observed something strange. There were a lot of tiny huts, not more than 30 cm in height,  all over the plains. I thought they were giant mushrooms and pointed them out to the children. 
But surprise! They were not!
Someone in the car informed us that those were ant colonies. 

Its almost as if they had an entire civilization of their own, oblivious to other larger creatures around them. 

(I wonder if there are creatures superior to us, who are observing us with the same amused curiosity.) 

The next day was even more exciting. We went for a nature walk in the forest! My heart was pounding when we entered the jungle. It took me a long time to feel at ease.
  

We heard a lot of bird calls and monkey sounds but could see neither. We also saw elephant and buffalo droppings but the elephants and buffaloes were equally elusive. In a way, it was good for me. I would have been scared out of my wits, had any animal suddenly made an appearance.

We were told that there are no predators in this forest. I chose to believe it. And if I was being stalked by a big cat, I didn't know it.

We later came across an elephant's bones in one clearing. It had been killed a few years ago by some poachers for ivory. I picked up one bone to see how heavy it was. It was heavier than a cricket bat. The guide told us that it was the leg bone. He even showed us the skull. But I did not feel like lifting it...... not even for scientific purposes.

Finally, after walking for 3 hours in the jungle, our guide took us to the sea shore.... I was so relieved to be out of the jungle, that I felt like throwing myself into the ocean! 
We walked for almost 30 minutes along the beach and reached the resort. A small welcome committee comprising of the people who had opted out of the trek was standing there to greet us. I think they must have been relieved too.

What an adventure! Unforgettable.

Pangolin

11th July 2013

Another evening at the beach.
Not surprising at all!
It is the most natural thing to do. Libreville, the capital of Gabon has a long coastline. It is located right on the sea shore. 

With the sea practically entering your backyard, and with limited sources of recreation, the most convenient place to entertain yourself in this city is........ the beach!We were walking....... feet splashing in the water......... soaking in the cool breeze...... when suddenly!.... we noticed something lying some distance away.

It looked like a pineapple from where we were....... But what was that?.... a tail?

Strange!!

A pineapple with a tail!!!???Certainly worth investigating.
We went closer and to my horror it was a mysterious creature. But unfortunately, it was dead.The poor creature must have died because of drowning and must have been washed ashore during high tide. 

Luckily, my zoologist friend was also present. She was able to identify the animal.

It was a pangolin.

It is considered to be a delicacy in some parts of the world.Somehow, I cannot digest the thought of eating an animal like this.

Vegetarianism........ here I come!!