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Yet the thrill of the Transgabonais for those who work on it lies in its perils and challenges. "It is very dangerous work," says Fidele Mouendo, 36, a Gabonese bulldozer operator. "I've been working on the Transgabonais for ten years, and I've had trees fall right on the steel cab of my machine." Peter Sharp, a 41-year-old British engineer, recalls the day when he was "crawling in bees from head to toe." The wilderness, says Michel Roussel, a stocky middle-aged Frenchman, follows its own agenda of torments: in the rainy season, the heavy equipment is sometimes buried cab-deep in mud; in the dry season, clouds of dust blind the eyes. Concludes Roussel: "Long live the bush!" That hearty sentiment is seconded by André Faillon, 56. "I've spent my entire life smashing through the rain forest," he says. "But this is the most dangerous. I'll keep going till I'm 60, unless a tree falls on my head."
Or something worse. For the Gabonese, the greatest peril of all is represented by the evil spirits they believe inhabit the green mansions. Even a rifle, they say, is no defense. That is invitation enough for Luigi, an Italian engineer, to go off into the forest in the dead of night in search of the black panther. "In the dark," he says, "the forest explodes with a million sounds. At first your soul turns white with fear. But after a while, you too become a beast of the forest." And well enough prepared, no doubt, to push back the unknown for another hard mile. --By Pico Iyer. Reported by James Wilde/Booué