10/09/2026
Last summer I traveled through Central Africa for three weeks, but the most intense moment I experienced in Gabon. To see mandrills, the largest and most colorful monkey species in the world, with their bright blue and red muzzle and impressive group structures you have to go deep into the country, to remote rainforests where they usually hide far away. It's not a trip, it's a quest.
The first day we went into the forest with a guide who could read their sounds and behavior as if he were talking to them. I felt the tension in my body, every step, every silence. But we didn't find anything that day. The mandrills were too far away, too unreachable. That was swallowing. You're standing there, in the middle of the forest, full of adrenaline, and yet you have to return without that one moment you're hoping for. But somewhere I felt it wasn't done yet.
The next morning we went again. The air was different, the silence more intense. My heart beat faster than I wanted to admit. And then the guide suddenly stopped. He was listening. A low hum, deep between the trees. My adrenaline shot up. This was it. From the shadows they appeared: first one silhouette, then several, until a whole family of mandrills stood before us. Those colors, that power, that look, it was like the world was falling silent for a moment. I felt my heart pounding, my breath accelerating, my eyes almost tearing.
There, after two days of searching, after long journeys through remote areas, I was face to face with animals that hardly anyone ever sees in the wild. Our patience was rewarded with a moment that has forever stuck in my memory raw, pure, breathtaking. An experience I'll never forget.
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