Libreville, Gabon

The allure of Africa; felt long, long before I ever set foot on the continent, my nose buried into the writings of Hemingway, the diaries of Stanley, Burton, Capstick and Karamojo Bell, nourishing a youth's craving for adventure, ostensibly stagnating in rural Canada with wanderlust so powerful it hurt.  And now, even more so, having lived, travelled, hunted and hiked and biked all over this wild continent, Africa gets into your system and under your skin and one tries to intellectualize the seduction, and invariably fails, but those who have spent time here....they know.

This is my first jaunt into West Africa.  I truly wanted to see the Western coast of Africa, having spent time most everywhere else on the continent, while somehow avoiding a dreaded Nigeria posting, so Gabon fits the bill rather nicely.  Being smack dab on the equator, I expected it to be hotter, but it's considered winter here, and has been overcast and windy and overall rather pleasant.  I arrived in Libreville to discover that I'd be on my own for a few days, so after catching up on some much needed shuteye, I threw on a pair of shorts and some trainers and headed into town on foot.  I soon found the crowded downtown about an hour walk down the coast and then inland to the busier areas, first locating a small Airtel booth and I waited patiently with locals, trying to catch a teller's eye, there being no organized queue that I could fathom, and eventually scoring a sim card and some data for my iPhone.  The place feels very much like the East Africa I'm very familiar with, but cleaner and with noticeably far less stares than I would get walking in town by myself in Dar or Mombasa.  The food has so far been quite good, but this is the capital, and unfortunately we are just passing though.  I'm meeting with government officials today to help square away all the paperwork and inspections, then there'll be some maintenance flights, sign off some currencies, then ferry down to our operating base, and hopefully I'm settled into some sort of routine by this time next week.

Getting some use out of the bottle opener on my pocket knife.....