Why is Gabon such a fresh and exciting safari destination? Because Gabon is home to some of the wildest, most unspoiled wildlife habitat in all of Africa. Though threatened by logging and mining, there are still large tracts of land that are untouched by modern man. That’s why many a traveler there comes back entranced, saying parts of Gabon are what Africa must have looked like before the first white man got there. I agree with that estimation, and I say that from experience, having lived two years in the remote reaches of northeastern Gabon, some 300 miles from the country’s capital.
Hunting safaris were practically a necessity in the early days of African adventure travel. Back before mobile refrigeration, travelers across the African heartland had to shoot meat as they went in order to eat.
One of the great safari experiences is to watch the Great Migration as it crosses the Mara River.
Twice a year, around January and August, the migration crosses into the Masai Mara, which is the northern extension of the Serengeti Plains in Kenya. Here they cross the Mara River en masse, in one or two well-defined crossings.
The great difference in my mind between a hunting safari and a photo safari is that a hunter takes a shot, and the animal is gone forever. A photographer, on the other hand, takes a shot, and the animal is there tomorrow for someone else to discover in all its glory.
I've had the great fortune to travel on exotic vacations to far-flung destinations across the globe, including safaris to Africa, expeditions to the Antarctic, voyages to the Galapagos, cruises down the Nile, luxury trains across North America and so much more.
The classic African safari is a photo safari to the Serengeti Plains. The Serengeti are the vast rolling grasslands of Northern Tanzania. Here, in the lee of Mt. Kilimanjaro, travelers come to see the "Great Migration," a vast migration of 3 million wildebeest and zebra in search of fresh grass across these vast plains.
Where is the new safari frontier? For my money, it's in Zambia, the Selous of southern Tanzania, and perhaps most tantalizingly, in Gabon in West Africa.
Safari is one of the great experiences a family can share. Where else can a grandfather and his grandson, a mother and a teenage son, or a father and daughter share the joy and wonder of an experience that is novel for both?
The present day safari owes its origins to European military and exploratory expeditions of the 1800s across Africa. From Speke and Burton's quest for the source of the Nile, and Stanley's search across central Africa for Livingstone, safaris morphed into hunting trips for rich European and American aristocrats. Including, notably, Winston Churchill and Theodore Roosevelt.
Today, the word safari is used to refer to any kind of journey, in Africa or elsewhere. We speak of hunting safaris, or photo safaris, river safaris, mountain safaris, gorilla safaris and so on. In many ways, it now is synonymous with an exotic vacation in a remote, wild place.
Of course there is so much more to see on safari than just the Big Five. There's my favorite, the cheetah. And so many others. Like the elusive and nocturnal striped hyena, or the rare wild cat that I saw in the rocky "kopjes" at Kusini in the western Serengeti, or chimpanzee in the Kanyawara Reserve in the Kibale Forest near Fort Portal in Uganda. And let’s not forget the Mountain Gorilla found in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in Uganda along the borders of Rwanda and Congo.
In the old days, hunters came to Africa in search of the "Big Five". The Big Five are Lion, Leopard, Elephant, Rhino and Buffalo.
And these new parks represent the frontier of African safaris because of the vital habitat and animal life they will eventually make available to travelers, offering everything from sea turtles and whales to forest elephants, rhinos, gorillas, buffalo, and numerous plant and bird species found only in Gabon. And up near Mvadi, and in other reaches of northeastern Gabon, there is the chance to develop gorilla safaris.