Lope National Park was our first destination after Libreville. We caught a train leaving Libreville in the late evening which rattled through the utter darkness for many hours before we alighted at Lope Station in the early hours of the morning. A short bumpy ride brought us to the excellent Lope Hotel on the edge of the park.
Lope NP is an amazing mosaic of grassland and forest patches set in rolling hills. Our local guide told us the forest is actually expanding its range and gradually creeping across the grasslands. Birding here was therefore a mixture of grassland, riverine parkland close to the hotel and dense forest patches. The forest patches are the home of many Forest Elephants which can be seen emerging onto the grasslands to forage. Whilst birding the forest areas you have to be constantly on guard for the crashing sound of approaching elephants as they are generally quite aggressive. We also came across a troop of Chimpanzees in the forest and the tracks of a Lowland Gorilla.