Travel Guide Port-Gentil

Port-Gentil, or POG for the initiated, is located on the island of Mandji. From Lambaréné, the Ogooué receives multiple tributaries, before flowing into the Atlantic south of Mandji, at Ozouri.Built at first on the seaside, the city has expanded behind the coast. To make the flood zone habitable, the city had to be drained by digging canals that empty and fill up with the tides. The districts concerned are linked by bridges that pedestrians use to move between the islands thus formed, while some Port-Gentillais go to the sea by this waterway.The atmosphere on the island of Mandji is typical of island life. Bound by a kind of isolation and therefore proximity, people easily mix and one is easily carried by the quiet rhythm that characterizes this exiled part of Gabon.The landscape of Port-Gentil is contrasted: seaside at the place where the sea is limpid with magnificent white sandy beaches, but industrial just a step away from the oil terminal where the tanks are enthroned and where the offshore platforms are profiled on the horizon. Inland, a little further on, heading towards the centre, still on the seafront, the timber port recalls a period in history when the local economy was based on logging. As you go deeper into the city, the markets and the bustle of life beckon, as in many African cities.If you go to the side of Cap Lopez, a former major trading port of Gabon where the lighthouse erected at the tip has not been working for a long time, you will meet Togolese and Ghanaians. Settled here for a few generations, they arrived about fifty years ago, recruited by fishing companies.Thanks to its clear and fishy waters, the area around Port-Gentil remains a privileged place for big game fishing and scuba diving.Port-Gentil is not a major tourist attraction, except for the flight over the region by plane, which is impressive because of the particular landscapes drawn by the numerous ribbons of water winding through the forest, and their meeting with the ocean, revealing golden sandbanks at low tide. But it is an obligatory passage to start the visits of the tourist points of Ogooué-Maritime. As such, one comes there inevitably. So, you might as well stop for a while and let yourself be lulled by this typically insular and truly singular atmosphere..