Safety Tips in Gabon

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Falling trees
Trees falling on the remote roads are quite a common phenomenon and it is better to have tool in your car for clearing the road; you can see me in the travelogue picture using a chain saw and here lots of people help for clearing;

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In Gabon, most of roads are not sealed and as it rains a lot, the roads are slipperry; you need to be careful when driving, your own vehicle and take care of all other vehicles. One picture shows a grumier (log carrier) which slipped off the road ; the other picture shows the beginning of a traffic jam caused by a vehicle which slipped off the road and you need to be very patient , waiting sometimes one day before a rescue vehicle come to clear the road.

hahaha, my poor feet, they are in very bad condition afer some weeks walking the the marigots (the little rivers); I washed them every day with antiseptic soap, but afer too long time they got mycosis, which I treaded with fugicids and Kalium permanganate. This is the visible thing you can get in the tropical rainforest, but of course, malaria, filariosis, sleeping illness, amoebia, etc. . . are easy to get if you do not take care. Malaria prophylaxis and good hygiene (washing with antiseptic soap) are the minimum you can do for your health there.

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the grumiers are the log carrier trucks (grume is a tree trunk); the wood is one of the richness of Gabon and is probably overexploited; the most used tree is the Okoume, a rather soft wood used generally for plywood; these enormous trees are transported to the rivers (here to the Ogowe) where they are assembled as rafts and they float until the lower part of the stream where they are sorted and loaded on boats bounded to Europe. These trucks are very dangerous on the roads specially when going downhill, as they are loaded with about 60-70 tons going fast on a slippery road; a warning car (convoyeur) generally is preceeding the convoy, warning the other road users who must stop on the road side and wait till the convoy has passed.

Make sure that you have injections against hepatitis B, Malaria, etc. Enough paludrine and nivagine(pills), against malaria. Ask you local doctor or hospital witch actions you have to take. Eet only well cooked food, be carefull with raw eggs and mead they can make you ill.