Well, we’ve booked our flights! After a lot of discussion and trying to find the best price around the time we wanted to travel, we have, at last, booked our Air France flights to Gabon, where we will stay with our son, Ian, for a couple of weeks or so in and around Port Gentil. It’s roughly ten hours flying time from Edinburgh to the capital Libreville via Paris, and not a flight that we would normally sign up for. But for this we have good cause! Libreville is a 35-minute flight from Port Gentil, and Perenco have seats available on these flights for staff and family. We are very grateful.

Gabon is a country in West Africa that is half the size of France, with a population half the size of Scotland. Most of its inhabitants live near the coast, and much of the country is rain forest. Many of Africa’s gorillas live in Gabon. At the beginning of our trip we are hoping to encounter some of  the country’s wildlife.

Ian is a Petroleum Engineer with Perenco ( https://www.perenco.com ), a French/British oil and gas company. After a few years working in their southern North Sea base of Norwich, he was given the opportunity to move to Gabon to widen his experience and increase his responsibility and transferred there in January 2023. Since then, he has shared in a lot of hard work preparing reports for senior staff in relation to plans for the maintenance of existing assets and plans for future investment. In August of 2023, while he was out of the country, there was a presidential election that resulted in a bloodless military coup. Internet access was cut, and the borders were closed for some time, but by the time Ian was due to return the borders were open, internet access restored, and the main day-to-day effect of the coup was a curfew. Although that is still in force, it is greatly reduced to relatively few night-time hours.

Being on the Equator, there is little change in daytime hours, and many plants can grow outdoors that would need greenhouse heating here. Ian’s garden is flourishing with all the attention he gives it. The produce includes bananas, mangos, cucumbers, cornichons, tomatoes, and he has even managed to germinate a lemon seed into a small tree that will hopefully grow to one that will produce fruit.

As you can imagine, Jane and I are very excited about this adventure, but before then there are things to prepare. I have already expanded my travel insurance cover, and we are in the process of arranging the necessary vaccinations. But all this fades into the background with the anticipation of being able to experience the kind of living conditions in which Ian lives from day to day. We are excited about the market, the beach, the possibility of seeing the whales and gorillas.

We have no idea how long he will be there, or to where he will transfer from Gabon (Congo is an option), but we are looking forward to this new encounter with Africa. Jane has already been to North Africa, but I have never visited the continent before. I look forward to it. People say that once you have visited Africa, it will steal your heart. Who knows? Let’s see.