Mayumba National Park is one of the great hidden gems of Gabon's nature: a narrow strip of Atlantic beaches at the country's southern tip, almost on the border with the Congo, that hosts one of the largest leatherback turtle nesting sites in the world. Every season, from November to April, hundreds of these giant turtles — the largest on the planet — come ashore at night to lay their eggs on its sands, in densities that are among the highest anywhere.
It is a remote destination that is hard to reach: you get there after flights and transfers by dirt track and ferry, and there is no accommodation inside the park and no tourist infrastructure. That very remoteness is what keeps it wild and authentic. The landscape is a sandspit between the Atlantic and an inland lagoon, with the town of Mayumba — of Vili and Lumbu roots, and with a past tied to trade along the Loango coast — as the only base. Offshore, in the dry season, humpback whales and dolphins pass by.
This guide covers Mayumba honestly: how to get there (the hardest part), when to go for turtles and whales, what the night outings are like, where to stay in town and what to expect from a trip for naturalists and adventurers willing to trade comfort for one of the most impressive wildlife spectacles in Africa. This is deep, wild Gabon, the Gabon of leatherback turtles and end-of-the-world beaches.
Mayumba is a town on Gabon's south coast, of Vili and Lumbu roots, peoples related to those of the historic Kingdom of Loango, whose trade networks stretched along this coast. During the centuries of Atlantic trade, Mayumba was a slave-trade port, from which French, English and Dutch ships set sail. In modern times, its enormous natural value — above all as a leatherback turtle nesting beach — led the government to declare Mayumba National Park in 2002, as part of the simultaneous creation of thirteen parks that put Gabon on the world conservation map. Today it is managed by the ANPN. More on the Kingdom of Loango and the parks policy in the Loango National Park guide.
Read the full history ↓The coast where the rainforest meets the sea: elephants and buffalo walking along Atlantic beaches, humpback whales, the oil capital of Port-Gentil and the leatherback turtles of Mayumba.
Read the history of The southern coast and Loango →No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Mayumba sits at the far southern end of Gabon's coast, in the lands of the Vili and Lumbu peoples. These Bantu groups are related to the Kongo and have historical and cultural ties to the Kingdom of Loango, the powerful state that flourished on this stretch of the Atlantic coast between the 16th and 19th centuries. The political heart of the kingdom lay further south, in today's Congo and Cabinda. Its cultural and trading world, though, covered the whole 'Loango coast', which reached north as far as this region of Nyanga.
The Vili were coastal traders and fishers. Mayumba lies on a sandspit between the Atlantic and a long inland lagoon, which made it a natural meeting point between the sea and the routes into the interior. An old trade route linked the kingdom of Loango, to the south, with Mayumba. It tied the town into the trading networks that carried ivory, raffia cloth, copper and forest products.
In that coastal world, life revolved around water: fishing at sea and in the lagoon, sailing, and trade with neighbouring peoples. Once the Europeans arrived, there was also trade with the ships that began calling along the coast. Mayumba was a small but significant outpost on the long Loango coast.
As Atlantic trade expanded, the Loango coast, Mayumba included, was sadly drawn into the slave trade. During the centuries of the trade, Mayumba was one of the ports where French, English and Dutch ships loaded captives bound for the Americas. The old route between the kingdom of Loango and Mayumba was part of these trading networks, which carried enslaved human beings along with goods such as ivory and timber.
This dark chapter left its mark on the whole region, as it did on much of the Central African coast. The ports of the Loango coast (Loango, Malembo, Cabinda, Mayumba) became sadly well-known names in the Atlantic trade. Abolition and the suppression of the trade in the 19th century brought it to an end. The memory of that past remains part of the deep history of Mayumba and its people.
After the slave trade ended, France colonised Gabon and made it part of its empire. Mayumba was left as a remote coastal village in the far south, far from the centres of power and the main routes. That isolation kept it small and out of the way, and it also helped preserve the extraordinary natural setting around it.
Mayumba's great treasure is its nature. Its beaches are among the most important leatherback turtle nesting sites in the world. Along some 60 km of coast, from the town to the border with Congo, huge numbers of these turtles lay their eggs every season. They are the largest turtles on the planet and can grow to more than two metres long and over 500 kilos. On peak nights hundreds of females can come ashore at once, at densities of more than twenty turtles per kilometre. Those figures put Mayumba among the largest nesting concentrations of the species anywhere.
The leatherback has survived since the age of the dinosaurs. It can cross oceans and dive hundreds of metres deep. Even so, it is seriously threatened by bycatch, plastic pollution, egg collection and damage to its beaches. That is why nesting sites like Mayumba's are crucial to the species' survival worldwide.
Scientists and conservationists documented this value, and the Mayumba coast became a top priority for protection. Besides the turtles, its waters are home to humpback whales, dolphins and a rich variety of marine life. This adds to the ecological importance of the whole coastal and lagoon system in Gabon's far south.
In 2002, President Omar Bongo made the historic decision to create thirteen national parks at once, protecting around 11% of Gabon's territory. As part of that decision, the Mayumba coast became Mayumba National Park. Unlike most of the other parks, it is largely marine. It protects a narrow strip of beaches and, above all, the waters off them, in recognition of their role for turtles, whales and marine life. Management was given to the National Agency for National Parks (ANPN).
The park was created to protect the exceptional leatherback nesting site and the coastal and lagoon ecosystem from threats such as fishing, egg collection and development. Conservation organisations have worked on monitoring nests and tagging turtles. They have also raised awareness among local people, which is essential if protection is to work on the ground.
Today Mayumba is both a nature sanctuary and a remote, emerging ecotourism destination. It is hard to reach and has no luxury infrastructure. That isolation keeps mass tourism away and helps keep its beaches wild. Mayumba carries the heritage of the Loango coast and a past bound to the sea. It embodies Gabon's commitment to protecting exceptional nature. Here, every night of the season, one of the oldest and most moving spectacles on the planet plays out again.
