Cameroon: Fix your roads!

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After several hours at the Nigerian side of the border trying to exit that country, we ended up spending the night at the Cameroon border post as we were already hitting night fall by the time entry was being sorted out. This is the real disadvantage to group travel, because border crossings take 10 times longer when you're trying to get 20 people and a large truck across.

Christmas day was one to remember. We drove a total of 36km in 8 hours, the roads were that bad. This, after several locals and police men had told us the roads were very good. In fact, they were good because they were dry. During the wet season our truck would not have had a chance at getting through.

We made it the rest of the way to Mumfe (total of 60km from the border) on the 26th and were optimistic as we were told that the road past Mumfe was graded all the way to Kumba. We didn't make it to Kumba that day... The roads get a grade of 'F'.

Finally reached Kumba by the afternoon of the 27th and decided to push for the beaches at Limbe. Again we were told that the road gets much better past Kumba. It was paved...about 10 years ago, and it appears that zero maintenance has been done since. Some of the pot-holes were as large as the ones between Ekok and Mumfe. About 40km north of Limbe the roads actually do get better and we made it by about 7pm.

The room upgrade at the beach is expensive, but totally worth it for the air conditioning, running water, and flushing toilet. Thanks Mom and Dad!! After 5 days of sweating in the jungle and digging out the roads without showering it's amazing how the simple things are so pleasing!

Limbe is a very pretty town at the base of Mount Cameroon. The beaches are black volcanic sand from the mountain and are very beautiful. We're going to enjoy ourselves here until the 30th when we are dropped off in Douala. On the 31st we will be flying to Cairo via Casablanca to start our trek down the Eastern side of Africa. Back to the desert!

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Photos

And the roads get better...
The "much improved" roads following Mumfe took almost longer to cross than the mud holes from Ekok to Mumfe.

Stressed out driver
Oh no, not again...

Bad roads 1
Sometimes the path around the mud holes proved worse than actually going through them.

Dead cobra
This was identified as a spitting cobra. The dead snake was not scary itself. The scary part is that because there is a dead one, it means there are also live ones out there in the bush. Watch out before you pee!

Bad roads 7
How the locals manage to get through, we have no idea...

Clean again...sort of
It was nice to take a dip in the river to rinse off after about 4 days without showering.

Convenient bush camp
There just happened to be a clearing along the side of the road each night we needed to camp. The trees towering over the tents give a good sense of scale. It's unfortunate that a lot of the large trees have been selectively logged for timber and the rain forest is merely a shadow of what it used to be.

Largest bridge in Cameroon
Or at least the largest one that we crossed... ;-)

Comments

[Anselmo]

You're on Daphne with Driver Ben!!
I happened on your blog by chance, and noticed that you're traveling on Daphne, and with Ben. That's fantastic. I spent two months in Central Asia last summer on that truck with Ben, and had a great time. Please say hi to Ben from Anselmo. Enjoy your trip!