Cape Town
After having popped the news that we have arrived at our destination the whole adventure feeling is a bit lost. We know for the coming month where we will sleep, wake up and have our car safely parked. There is wifi and electricity mostly 24 hours a day and the toilet actually flushes properly! As matter of fact, our apartment even gets cleaned every week! Clean linen and towels and about a million tv channels. A garden with green grass and the thing I missed most was having a couch to hang on in the evening. Luxury that I got used to and bored of after a couple of days again. I get homesick (can you say that?) of traveling just looking at the pictures and video’s that I am editing for the website. I am ready for the road again but there are still many things to do before we will leave.
First things first. There are so many stories to tell since our last story that was written when we just arrived in Cameroon. It seems ages ago! There is probably too much to tell for anyone the is just reading a blog, therefore I think it will be a good idea to cut up the story in multiple chapters. Lets start with Cameroon and work our way down the coast.
Cameroon - Ekang
We were in euphoria and confusion whether we actually entered the country or not. Prepared by other stories we packed for 2 weeks of camping here. Only after 3 hours we crossed the immigration post at the other side of the little bridge running over a gorge. This was so far the most stunning geographical border crossing we have done in our trip. By the time we pass and come at the customs office further down the road, it started getting dark and raining with buckets at a time. This was our first tropical rain and man were we happy when the customs lady said we could camp out back of the office. We agreed on doing the whole customs process the next morning to save out on working with flashlights and finding stamps in the dark.
After having popped the news that we have arrived at our destination the whole adventure feeling is a bit lost. We know for the coming month where we will sleep, wake up and have our car safely parked. There is wifi and electricity mostly 24 hours a day and the toilet actually flushes properly! As matter of fact, our apartment even gets cleaned every week! Clean linen and towels and about a million tv channels. A garden with green grass and the thing I missed most was having a couch to hang on in the evening. Luxury that I got used to and bored of after a couple of days again. I get homesick (can you say that?) of traveling just looking at the pictures and video’s that I am editing for the website. I am ready for the road again but there are still many things to do before we will leave.
First things first. There are so many stories to tell since our last story that was written when we just arrived in Cameroon. It seems ages ago! There is probably too much to tell for anyone the is just reading a blog, therefore I think it will be a good idea to cut up the story in multiple chapters. Lets start with Cameroon and work our way down the coast.
Cameroon - Ekang
We were in euphoria and confusion whether we actually entered the country or not. Prepared by other stories we packed for 2 weeks of camping here. Only after 3 hours we crossed the immigration post at the other side of the little bridge running over a gorge. This was so far the most stunning geographical border crossing we have done in our trip. By the time we pass and come at the customs office further down the road, it started getting dark and raining with buckets at a time. This was our first tropical rain and man were we happy when the customs lady said we could camp out back of the office. We agreed on doing the whole customs process the next morning to save out on working with flashlights and finding stamps in the dark.
Taking the shortcut to Buea we arrive at Mt Cameroon, an active volcano and 4th highest mountain in Africa at 4000m high. At our arrival we found the giant tour bus we have been hearing about for a week. Almost all the police stops and at the border posts we have been hearing about a group of English and Australian people traveling ahead of us. They were traveling the same route as we were so they must have been overlanders. Talking to some of the passengers we found out that there were not 1 but 2 tour buses. Finally we meet some other travelers doing the same thing! Most of the other passengers were climbing the mountain as we anticipated, but we soon found out that to climb you need a permit, a guide etc etc etc. The costs started to rise way above our budget so we decided to just enjoy the views and head to Limbe, known as a resort for local and international tourists. Arriving at Mirimar, the one and only place to camp in the city we found the other truck too. As we were staying here more and more passengers were coming back from the climb. Every hour we were meeting more and more travelers. For weeks we meet no one and in just 2 days we meet about 40 people. It started to get a bit overwhelming so we were a bit baffled by the time they left us 2 days later. Now we were truly able to relax after traveling through Nigeria. The sun was shining, there's cold beer, a pool and Wifi. Unfortunately there was no shade where we were parked and employees were acting weird about giving us the keys to the toilet. They kept pointing us to a toilet that was half constructed instead of just giving us the keys to a bungalow as agreed. I’m not doing my business in front of everyone else walking by, so this ended up in a few confrontations. Very frustrating so we ended up leaving quite fast.
Changing the shocks in Benin we noticed one of the front springs was snapped, so we bought a new set driving through Nigeria in Benin city. So I changed them in Buea and it was obvious that these were way too short, we were driving on the rubber bump stops now. Every little stone was felt in your spine I can tell you. On the way to the capitol Yaounde we had a look in Douala to find a new replacement. Having the original with me now, made it a lot easier. It was quite obvious now how hard it was to find the right one as we had to leave the parts market and pull one off of a wreck.
Changing the shocks in Benin we noticed one of the front springs was snapped, so we bought a new set driving through Nigeria in Benin city. So I changed them in Buea and it was obvious that these were way too short, we were driving on the rubber bump stops now. Every little stone was felt in your spine I can tell you. On the way to the capitol Yaounde we had a look in Douala to find a new replacement. Having the original with me now, made it a lot easier. It was quite obvious now how hard it was to find the right one as we had to leave the parts market and pull one off of a wreck.
Driving towards Yaounde being stopped by another one of the police checkpoints we were this time being charged of speeding. We got used to being stopped for many reasons so we just waited it out until they would let us go. We had to pay them 50000 CFA (76 euro) as a fine, but we knew that would just end up in their pockets. This time they didn’t let us off the hook and kept holding on to our registration papers (coloured copies do very well here). 2 hours later we were still there reading our books and we were getting annoyed because it was getting late, meaning we would have to find a camp in the dark. Another half hour later it was their time to go home as it was getting dark and we were still there. To my surprise a man showed up with a lasergun showing a picture of our car doing 90. I was stunned. This was the first time in Africa I see a police officer with evidence. Apparently in Cameroon even the smallest bridges are to be crossed doing 60, no one ever mentioned that. We thought we were calling their bluff for evidence but now the whole picture thing change the situation. We had no other option to show some money so Jasmin pulled a 10000 (15e) note and the officers eyes just turned like dollar signs and kept trying to grab the money from jasmins hand. It was like a game as jasmin kept pulling it away on time. Shes a tough one, demanding to receive the papers (copies) first. After some hesitation he handed them over and the deal was done. No receipt, no fine, the money was gone and so were we. Off to Yaounde!
We arrived late at the Presbyterian church mission guest house, but what a place! We entered the city in the dark and the traffic was everywhere. It took us 2 hours to get into the city and arriving at this place was an escape from the city. There was green grass, big trees and it was quiet as we were the only campers. We knew straight away we were going to stay here a while. The next day we applied for the Gabon visa, but they sent us away with a list of documents and papers they demanded. It was a big list to copy so we decided to give the Congo visa a shot first. This was a lot easier but very time consuming as they said it would take 7 working days. This meant we would have to stay in Yaounde for 2 weeks if we wanted to do both applications! Of course there was an express application for double the price, which was ridiculous but for us still cheaper than staying 2 weeks. We would be able to pick them up after 3 working days, which was a lot more reasonable as would then be able to leave a lot faster. Coming back to the guest house, who do we see there? It was the first tour bus again! They were camping there for a few nights, this meant we would have a bit company again. Great to spend some time with other travelers. This group had a great blend of young people, from English to Icelandic and Canadian to Australian.
We arrived late at the Presbyterian church mission guest house, but what a place! We entered the city in the dark and the traffic was everywhere. It took us 2 hours to get into the city and arriving at this place was an escape from the city. There was green grass, big trees and it was quiet as we were the only campers. We knew straight away we were going to stay here a while. The next day we applied for the Gabon visa, but they sent us away with a list of documents and papers they demanded. It was a big list to copy so we decided to give the Congo visa a shot first. This was a lot easier but very time consuming as they said it would take 7 working days. This meant we would have to stay in Yaounde for 2 weeks if we wanted to do both applications! Of course there was an express application for double the price, which was ridiculous but for us still cheaper than staying 2 weeks. We would be able to pick them up after 3 working days, which was a lot more reasonable as would then be able to leave a lot faster. Coming back to the guest house, who do we see there? It was the first tour bus again! They were camping there for a few nights, this meant we would have a bit company again. Great to spend some time with other travelers. This group had a great blend of young people, from English to Icelandic and Canadian to Australian.
After collecting all the required documents and receiving our Congo visa, we applied for the Gabon visa. The lady behind the desk made us wait for an hour and was being a real pain in the ass for trying NOT to understand my French and English. She knew what we wanted but simply kept trying to discourage us indirectly from getting our visa. After finding somebody to ‘translate’ for us, she provided other stupid reasons like our hotel reservation wasn’t valid because it didn’t have the right stamp on it. Or our travel insurance from the German ADAC wasn’t good enough. We simply didn’t want to put more energy in this person and decided that Gabon can go fudge themselves. Too bad for them and a good opportunity for us to go and discover the true Congo jungle. This also meant we were going to do the notoriously famous muddy road in Congo. We fixed the suspension, bought ourselves a shovel, put the mud tires on and we were ready!
The road to the border was amazing. The road conditions were gravel but much better than most of the potholed highway. We got a bit lost after we drove a bit to far, ending up at a closed gate to a mine. We had to ask directions in French and getting up closely to the villagers, that’s when we actually noted how small these people were! They actually look like children being about 140cm tall but have full grown adult faces. Very strange and yet funny. I was a bit frightened asking directions in French from a group of jungle villagers, but they must have been spooked by a 185cm giant.
Soon after we found the right way, apparently we raced by the turnoff, and started the immigration-customs process. We were the only ones at the border together with the officials, so they were very interested in our story and our car. Checking out was actually pleasant I must say. Actually our whole Cameroon experience has been surprisingly very pleasant!