Confession: I love traveling around Africa, but find Big Five jeep safaris rather boring. Don’t get me wrong, I love those 5 AM game drives and Amarula sundowners as much as the next hack, but after a day, the routine starts to feel too curated, too rehearsed, too... commodified?
That’s exactly what drew me to little-visited Gabon, where tourism is still in its infancy and I arrived with no idea of what to expect (just how I like it!). Yes, it’s a far cry from the polished lodges and seamless transfers I’ve grown used to, but what it lacked in ease, it made up for with raw wilderness, home to forest elephants, western lowland gorillas, and endemic birdlife that’d make an ornithologist’s head spin. Did I find ‘Africa’s Last Eden’, though? Yes... and no — read why in my latest piece for
@travelandleisure , which made it to the cover!
A huge thanks to A-list travel advisor Nicola and
@theexplorationscompany for putting it all together, the T+L dream team —
@florastubbs ,
@pbbrady1 ,
@jacquigiff ,
@scotthallphotoeditor and everyone else — for shepherding this piece to the finish line. And of course
@softlife_manager , Dmitiri, Abdoul and team for making the trip such a joy.
