Yaounde, Cameroon

its been a while, but i think the last few weeks have probably been

the best so far....

we left the Sheraton, thank heavens. it was horrible there; although i

did get to play soccer with some local boys on the soccer pitch behind

the hotel. a bit flippin hot for running around even at 6pm.

We bushcamped for a couple of nights on our way to the Cameroon

border. Very glad to have mozzie net/hat as there were lots of bugs

around. i may have looked ridiculous but i reckon i could have sold it

to any of the others for 20 bucks that night.   Stopped in a random town

and a lady was cooking ommelette at the roadside so she got unindated

by hungry overlanders. We brought our own dishes and ketchup from the

truck, would have looked funny to the locals.

As expected, the Nigerian immigration people tried to give us a hard

time when we left; telling us we needed documents that we didnt have, then taking

us in groups of five into a small dark room to fill in poorly photo

copied random forms. They tried to get money off us and when we said

no they wanted our books from the truck library but after about 3

hours of nonsense they let us through to Cameroon. We camped at the

border in a hotel car park.

Next day we started on the infamous logging road. We knew it would

have lots of holes and during the rainy season it could take a week to

do 80kms. As it is the dry season it only took a day and a half but we

certainly got to do some digging. There were a few huge holes that we

had to cover over so the truck could get through, especially as the

fuel tanks are quite low to the ground. We had 5 spades, a useless

pick axe and a couple of big crow bars. Most people got stuck in and

it was great fun attacking the road. I was mostly hammering the crow

bar into the edge of the road to break it up and use it to fill in holes. It took 20

of us a few hours to fix some of the holes. And a few of us ran ahead

of the truck on scouting exercises to find the next hole. It was lots

of sweaty fun and good team bonding! At the end of the road we bought

hard-boiled eggs with bread and homemade chilli sauce. Yum.

We were in no hurry so on consecutive days we camped near waterfalls.

This meant that we could have a wash and swim and enjoy the scenery.

Apparently no crocs, but we stayed in the shallows anyway. It was a

great place to chill out and be at one with nature! I had expected

more of this kind of thing on the trip rather than all the towns.

Happy days. Another time we camped under a big road bridge and walked

to a couple of waterfalls, not really knowing where we were going

through the bush and the river. But we made it, high-fived, whooped

and swam. I ended up with one mozzie bite; i am very lucky that they

dont really like me, cos some of the others get heaps of mozzie bites

and other bites.

Next stop was the seaside town of Limbe. Oasis, the other overland

group, was there so it was good to catch up with their gossip; i like

hanging out with them when we are in the same place, which is quite

often. Limbe is also the place from where we started the 3 days hike

of Mount Cameroon. So on day one, the ten of us were up at 6am and

started climbing to the 4200 metre peak. Apparently the porters had

been out the night before so they struggled a bit with our bags but

they were cool. The walk was really tough. Its all uphill, obviously,

but there were just no flat bits and with the altitude too we were

moving pretty slowly. At one point we walked 1km up and only 3 across.

We had quite a few reststops and kept together at the same pace. We

arrived at 2800 metres on the first night, where we cooked vegie stew

in the bush. There was a cabin so we slept in there. It wasnt long

until we heard mice going through our food; well, luckliy not my food.

They chewed a hole in Kiwi Phils backpack and the metal lid on his

bottle of peanuts and got to see a mouse climb out of his cup. My

runners were used as ammunition.

We were woken by Mayumi at 6am banging on the cabin wall and telling

us all to get up! Her improving English has its downside! More very steep

climbing on day 2. I started off pretty well but the altitude was hard

to deal with. Lots of heavy breathing and it got colder so we wrapped

up. I was a bit burnt out and happened to be at the back of the pack as we

reached the summit, but it was great when we were all stood on the

summit after a day and a half. We started the long walk down; a

different route. The scenery in the afternoon was excellent. Lots of

different coloured landscapes and cold mist coming across us as we

walked. We also went to the top of some craters that were formed in

the 1999 and 2000 eruptions, in which nobody was hurt, and the resultant lava flow.

Camped that night in a clearing. Tasty vegie stew again.

Day 3 we carried on down, now through dense forest for five hours. It

was a bit slippy and the path had lots of holes and branches and roots

to fall over. We were a bit over it by the time we finished, in a typical small African village. 50kms in " days. Ten exhausted people but satisfied with our conquering of Mount Cameroon. We rewarded ourselves at the Pizza Restaurant. In the evening a few of us went to a local bar to watch the Champions League, they had two games on at the same time, so we sat there and sweated and drank beer, watching the footy.

Spent the weekend in Kribe, camped by the beach. On the way the checkpoint people asked for 250 dollars for us to go over a bridge. So we reversed through the traffic and found a policeman who came back with us and told the checkpoint people to get lost. Anyway, the sea was actually warm so not very refreshing but we walked along to the waterfalls which run into the sea. In the evening we went to town, but its about 7kms. There were some mototaxis around but i was a bit unsure about that, some didnt have lights. So we carried on until Mac flagged down a big tipper truck. The driver was cool. Four people in the cab with him, and four of us stood up in the back, in the empty tipper bit. He drove us to the pub, and wouldnt accept any cash. We had a good night out, a few drinks. Got a taxi home down the broken road. We crashed into the ditch about 200 metres from home. We helped to get the taxi out and sent him on his way.

Left Kribe and bushcamped along the way. Bushcamping is the best. We are normally out in the middle of nowhere, just a few locals looking on. Sometimes we have a look around and often have a river or something to hang out near while the cook group gets busy. Unfortunately this bushcamp wasnt so good as Mayumi had her bag stolen from her tent when she got up in the night. Someone must have been watching. So she has lost her passport etc. We searched all along the roadside looking for her stuff but it wasnt there.

In the small villages we passed in Cameroon the local kids would rush out and shout "white, white, white" at us which is pretty funny. We started shouting "black, black, black" back at them.

Played soccer at the campsite here in Yaounde last night which was very competitive and fun. We played in bare feet so the top of my other toenail has finally come off! Painlessly. I think we are playing again tonite, after baking cookies.

I bought a couple of t-shirts cos mine are getting wrecked. With the sweat, it is hard to get t-shirts off and mine started to rip so i bought a bright orange one and a yellow one, much to the others amusement. No danger of them losing me.

 

So Cameroon is definitely my favourite place so far. The people are kind and helpful, the logging road was fun; the natural landscape is lovely and the Mountain was a great experience. We are here in Yaounde waiting for visas until the weekend and then to Gabon, Congo, DR Congo and Angloa in the next month. These countries will be more of a challenge so just going to enjoy relaxing here for the rest of the week.

Thats all