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Limbe
The coastal resort town of Limbe is a wonderfully relaxed
place to acclimatise to Cameroon. Founded in the mid-nineteenth
century as a colony for freed slaves, something of the town's
happy role in the ending of the slave trade lingers in the
air. Fishing is the lifeblood of Limbe; one of the best things
to do here is simply to hang out and watch the fishing boats
and fishermen at work, and soak up the atmosphere. End the
day at the Xplanade Restaurant on Down Beach
where the daily catch is barbequed right in front of your
eyes and served with fried plantains or cassava.
Limbe also benefits from endless stretches of chocolate-coloured-sandy
beaches where you can relax after a long day sight-seeing.
The sea can be quite treacherous, so venture into the sea
with caution.
Amongst those in the know, Limbe
Wildlife Centre, otherwise known as the Limbe Primate
Sanctuary, is renowned as one of the leading centres of
wildlife conservation in West Africa. Replacing a former zoo
on this spot, for the last ten years or so this place has
been a vital refuge and breeding centre for apes and other
primates rescued from Cameroon's bushmeat trade. You will
be able to get very close to some of the most endangered monkeys
and apes species in West Africa including mandrills, lowland
gorillas, drills, and chimpanzees.
Mount Cameroon
Towering above Limbe, Mount Cameroon, the closest African
mountain to any sea coast, is West Africa's highest mountain
at over 4000 metres (13,5000 feet). Recent lava flows make
it very clear that Mount Cameroon is still an active volcano.
The mountain is sacred to the local Bakweri people who live
on its slopes, and call it Mongo-mo-Ndemi - the Mountain
of Thunder. Remarkably, it's also the site of one of the world's
toughest sporting events, the Race
of Hope, a marathon up to the summit and back which
takes place every year in January or February.
A more relaxed way of reaching the summit is to trek up the
different trails. You access Mount Cameroon though the town
of Buea, a busier and cooler town than Limbe. Head
straight to the Mount Cameroon Ecotourism Organisation,
an NGO that will organise a mountain trek for you for a modest
fee.
Yaounde
Yaounde, known locally as the "City of Seven Hills,"
is attractively situated in the central highlands of Cameroon.
There's really no specific sights as such for the traveller
to see here but as the capital city Yaounde offers great nightlife
and entertainment. You can start your evening by tasting one
of the most popular foods in town: freshly cooked pork which
is so tasty and juicy that you'll find it difficult not to
gorge even more. It goes down well with Guinness and Coke
- a peculiarly Cameroonian popular drink. This will prepare
you for a great night of dancing on Makossa and Bikutsi rhythms,
some of Cameroon's best popular music.
Djoum
Djoum has the feel of a frontier town. Situated right in
the middle of the lush rainforest, it was set up by the Germans
as a base for many deforestation projects that are still going
on today. You reach Djoum through a red piste, badly maintained
and practically unusable during the rainy seasons. Once in
Djoum, you'll discover many derelict buildings, now pale souvenir
of the colonisation era. But there's more to Djoum than meets
the eye: around this small village and its dirt track road,
around 50,000 pygmies
still live today. The original inhabitants of most of the
country, they were driven into the forest a couple of thousand
years ago by various aggressive, taller Bantu tribes, and
have made it their home ever since.
Overnight Train Journey: Yaounde to Ngaoundere
The sixteen-carriage train on the route north to Ngaoundere
is huge compared to any other train in Cameroon. The reason
apparently is that the roads through the centre of the country
linking the south to the north are absolutely terrible, so
everybody who is going to the far north travels to Ngaoundere
by train and then continues their journey by road from there.
You can buy a first class ticket, with couchette, for under
$60. If you're travelling on your own, it's pot luck who you
share with. And you will be sharing, because this train is
said to be absolutely packed every day - so make sure you
book your couchette well in advance or you won't get one.
The night journey takes between 12 and 16 hours and you'll
easily go to sleep with the gentle rocking motion of the carriages.
The train passes through dense rainforest and bush-like landscapes,
home to the Gbaya people who collect honey from natural
and manmade hives and sell it at all the stations where the
train stops.
Extreme North (Sahel)
The isolated north, as you travel towards Sahel, is
generally much drier than the south and is characterised by
a parched, monotonous sand-colored landscape. This is especially
so during the dry season when harmattan, wind blowing
south from the Sahara Desert, can blot out the sky
with sand for days. Here you'll see mushroom-shaped termite
mounds and cone-shaped thatched-roof houses which are typical
of the northern territories.
Garoua
The wide Benoue River, which flows past the town of
Garoua, is the last large free-flowing river before
you hit the extremely dry Sahel landscape of the extreme north.
It's also home to a locally renowned colony of hippopotamuses.
For years this particular group of hippos has lived here just
on the edge of town, finding it a pleasant place to be as
they are fed by the locals and watched by the tourists. Hippos
are feared as amongst the most dangerous and unpredictable
animals in Africa, responsible over the years for killing
many people who've been foolish enough to get too close. Indeed,
two local fishermen were killed by hippos in Garoua just last
year. If you do decide to watch the feeding of these might
mammals, make sure you stay a safe distance away.
Tourou
The off-the-beaten-track town of Tourou is situated
on the Nigerian border deep in the Mandaran Mountains,
accessible via Mokolo. It takes a great deal of effort
to get here by public transport, across appalling quality
roads, and you'll have to share a battered pick-up with the
locals and drive for hours under a parching hot sun. But when
you arrive you will discover an authentic and ancient animist
culture.
Every Thursday is market day
and traders come to buy and sell from remote mountain villages
all across the surrounding area, usually having walked for
hours to get there. Here you will see all sorts of strange
foods, traditional medicines and Kirdi women who wear
helmet-shaped headgear which denotes their marital status.
Rhumsiki
As you approach Rhumsiki, the landscape really becomes
dramatic; weird volcanic rock skyscrapers tower overhead wherever
you look. The Mandaran Mountains are home to a hotchpotch
of traditional animist peoples, known as Kirdi or 'pagans'
by the Muslim majority of the plains below whose ancestors
drove the Kirdi up into these mountains centuries ago. Rhumsiki
is locally renowned for its tourist-friendly sorcerer who,
for a small fee, will tell your fortune using a crab as his
diviner!
Oudjilla
The small village of Oudjilla is half an hour's ride
by motorbike taxi up the hillside from the town of Mora.
Millet and virtually nothing else is grown on the terraces
up the hillside. Not only is millet used for food and to make
beer; the cone-shaped roofs of the houses are thatched with
millet straw. Every part of the crop is used and the locals
are know throughout Cameroon as 'millet people'. The chief
of Oudjilla is used to receiving occasional travellers and
tourists at his compound. People come here because of the
beautiful location and attractive traditional architecture,
but most importantly because of his remarkable polygamy -
the chief here has 50 wives and 112 children!
Waza National Park
Waza is just flat savannah and not much else, yet it's home
to some of the best wildlife in Cameroon despite suffering
from huge poaching problems. People come from all over the
world to get bitten by Waza's safari bug. Situated 80 miles
north of Maroua, Waza
National Park is the most famous and most spectacular
wildlife reserve in Cameroon. Set up in 1934, it covers an
area of 170,000 hectares. Wildlife to spot includes lions,
elephants, hyenas, antelopes, ostriches, and dozens of bird
species. The best time of year to visit is during the dry
season when the wildlife gathers around the remaining waterholes
for shade and water. |
