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The formality circus really began in earnest in Makokou. DFC Libreville had told us that we must report to the local commissioner of police and this set off a chain reaction: all local bigwigs had to be visited.
At the police, the governor, the local DFC inspector and the army everything went fine. Then I committed the blunder of allowing the so-called chairman of the council to wheedle 80 Euros from us. It was no problem to pay that to Gabon, but it should not disappear directly into the pockets of this character. And that happened - everyone was sure of that.
Bas was also in Makokou and helped us considerably by making the correct contacts for equipping an expedition team and hiring a pirogue (canoe). Everyone who wants to do anything with a pirogue on the Ivindo ends up in the Bakwele district of Makokou. The Bakwele are a fishing people who mainly live along the Ivindo. We managed to agree the rent of a pirogue (canoe) with boatman.
Our guide would be Jean-Paul, recommended by Sostene Ndong Obiang, the local man from the WWF at Minkebe. On Monday we purchased far too much: the complete equipment for our kitchen in addition to the dried food that we had brought with us from the Netherlands.
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