Two buffalo saunter along white sands to splash in the Atlantic Ocean before disappearing into a thick forest stretching down to the beaches of Pongara National Park. In a country where an estimated 88% of the land is still primary forest, wildlife encounters like this soon become all too commonplace.

Welcome to little-known Gabon, the African country that’s home to two million people, 95,000 elephants and thousands of lowland gorillas and chimpanzees – and which is attempting to position itself as an alternative safari destination in 2023. Launching itself to the world in January as “The Last Eden,” Gabon is where the lush forests of equatorial Africa collide with the crashing surf of the Atlantic.

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Look at a map of West Africa and you can pick out the large land mass of Gabon (which has some 100,000 square miles of rainforest, mountains and coastline) between Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon and the Republic of Congo. This former French colony is one of the most biodiverse destinations in the region, with 13 national parks protecting 11 per cent of the country’s nature and wildlife.

Spot mandrills in the wild in Gabon © Shutterstock / DSlight_photography

For the adventurous traveler looking to get off the well-trod safari circuit, Gabon delivers extraordinary wildlife to spot. Gorilla trekking is possible in Loango National Park (where permits, at around $900, cost less than in Rwanda or Uganda). Large troupes of mandrills (the world’s largest species of monkey) are found in Lopé National Park, while Gabon’s unusual “surfing hippos” can be spotted on the Atlantic Coast. (The…

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