Visiting Albert Schweitzer II – Zu Gast bei Albert Schweitzer II

27 pictures

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The present Albert-Schweitzer-hospital is a kind of flagship for Gabon, but at the same time it is a constant struggle getting the money together for keeping the hospital going. It is located on top of a hill only 100 or 200 metres from the historic hospital. The latter has been preserved in the condition of the time of its famous founder and is nowadays a museum. In Albert Schweitzer’s house, photographs and other documents are on display as well as the private rooms of the doctor and his wife – including the piano he had transported to the jungle because he had also been a musicologist publishing on Johann Sebastian Bach.

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Strandhaus – Beach house

Libreville, Gabun/Gabon

Zu Gast bei Albert Schweitzer I – Visiting Albert Schweitzer I

18 pictures

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Lambaréné liegt südöstlich von Libreville am Oogué, dem „Kongo von Gabun“, bevor dieser sich mehr und mehr verästelt, zahlreiche Seen speist und sich etwa 100 Kilometer weiter westlich bei Port Gentil in einem gewaltigen Delta in den Atlantik ergießt. Lambaréné liegt – wie zu Albert Schweitzers Zeit – mitten im Urwald, auch wenn die Stadt heute bereits gut 30.000 Einwohner zählt und durch asphaltierte Nationalstraßen mit Libreville im Nordwesten, Oyem im Nordosten sowie Mouila und Ndendé im Süden verbunden ist. Darüber hinaus pendeln täglich Boote auf dem Oogué zwischen Lambaréné und Port Gentil an der Küste.

On the beach – Am Strand

Libreville, Gabon/Gabun

Lopé I – The transport issue – Die Sache mit dem Transport

43 pictures

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The next morning, we got picked up past eight. We drove to the National Park office next to a park entrance on the other side of La Lopé where we had to inscribe our data into a big book. On the way, we had picked up our guide, a short and stocky guy who was working for the researchers most of the time. He didn´t seem too convinced of the concept of tourism but at the same time, he was a very friendly one. We already knew the entrance books from the parks in eastern Africa, but in Lopé were only two or three visitors recorded per day. That was something completely different compared to eastern Africa, and Lopé is not the remotest park in the country, it is Gabon’s highlight, by far the most famous and most accessible park. (Apart from that, using the words Gabon, Lopé and accessible in one sentence feels sort of unnatural to me.)

Pasteur Exorciste

Libreville, Gabon / Gabun

The Q-Files: Rock garden – Felsgarten

Lopé I – Die Sache mit dem Zug – The train issue

26 pictures

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Wir hatten Glück, denn der Van brachte uns tatsächlich ohne Thrombose, Quetschungen oder sonstige Verletzungen nach Ndjolé, an dessen Marktplatz wir gegen fünf Uhr feststellen mussten, dass unser Ziel auf der Straße an diesem Tag in keinem Fall mehr zu erreichen war. Also fuhren wir zum Bahnhof, der einige Kilometer außerhalb der Stadt liegt. Es hatte zwar keine Fahrkarten mehr von Libreville nach La Lopé gegeben, aber vielleicht war es möglich, für die viel kürzere Strecke zwischen Ndjolé und La Lopé, was nur wenige Stationen waren, eine Mitfahrgelegenheit im Zug zu bekommen. Dessen Ankunft wurde irgendwann nach Mitternacht erwartet.

Libreville – No way out

14 pictures

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When you get off the plane as a northern or middle European in Libreville, it is like walking against a wall. It is the extreme humidity that hits you like a weight packed upon your chest. At least I felt so when we arrived at Libreville at half past seven in the evening, after a long day with flights from Frankfurt to Paris and Paris to Libreville with Air France. After having watched former Rugby players throwing around our luggage on the airfield of Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. Just before we discovered all the holes in the rain covers of our backpacks as well as in my backpack itself.

The Q-Files: Summer sunday