CAP LOPEZ

Cap Lopez, about thirty minutes from downtown, is located at the tip of Mandji Island, in the Ogooué Delta. It is now a district of Port-Gentil, after having been the administrative post and then the most important port of the region from where goods left for Europe, and the slave ships at the time of slavery. The only testimony of this glorious past is the lighthouse of the cape, rusted to the bone, but still standing. From the 1910s, thanks to the export of logs from the Ogooué region, the port was able to maintain its importance, while administrative responsibilities were transferred to Port-Gentil. Today, commercial activity is concentrated in Port-Gentil and Cap Lopez has become the oil terminal of the Total company, on the right bank when you arrive at the Cape.

On the left bank, contrasting with the industrial landscape opposite, extends a beautiful beach lined with coconut trees where the inhabitants still practice artisanal fishing and where the Port-Gentillais go en masse on weekends. You can eat either in the two restaurants worthy of the name, or in the huts stamped with the name of their company where you bring a cooler and grills for a barbecue. You go to Cape Lopez by boat (for those lucky enough to be invited on board by a lucky owner), by car or by taxi (around 2,000 CFA francs a ride) along a long pipeline, tracing the route to the cape.