Cameroon
-
Jan/Feb 2008
Route
We spent 29 days
in Cameroon, travelling from the very south to the very north with a
detour to the coast. We entered from Gabon at the Bitam/Ambam border
and drove straight to Yaounde. From here we took the N3 west to Limbe
and Buea and, after climbing Mt Cameroon, we headed south to beautiful
Kribi. After a couple of days rest we went back to Douala and took the
N5 north to Bamenda before exploring the Grassfields. From the Grassfields
we took the N6 and N1 roads north via Foumban, Ngoundere, Garoua and
Maroua. Finally, we spent a few days in Rhumsiki before crossing the
very quiet Boukoula border into Nigeria. We chose the go north partly
to see the beautiful Mandara mountains, partly because we wanted to
go into Niger after Nigeria, and partly to avoid the troubled Delta
region in southern Nigeria.
Visas
We got our visa on entry at the Bitam/Ambam border, although
I understand that this is not possible at all borders. It was easy enough
despite being a bit time-consuming. Our 30-day tourist visa cost us
52,000 CFA each (about £60).
In Yaounde we 'legalised'
a photocopy of our visa and photo pages of our passports so that we
didn't have to show our actual passports at the police checks or carry
them on us in the cities. This entails taking the passports and copies
to the police station, paying them 1000 CFA per person and them adding
about six stamps and three signatures! The police station is at N03.52.119;
E11.31.029, near the prefecture, and the office you need is inside and
upstairs. There are loads of photocopy stalls along the wall outside.
Border formalities
and checkpoints
The Bitam/Ambam border was very quiet, although it has a strange
motorway-style road system which looks like it could take a lot of traffic!
There was a small police hut on the border. As we didn't have our visas
a lady from here came with us to an immigration hut down the road to
issue them for us. Customs were next to the immigration hut. Immediately
after the border there was a police check-point and then a toll (500
CFA). The checkpoint police were quite insistent on a cadeau but gave
up eventually.
We went through
loads of checkpoints on the road from Ambam to Yaounde - local police,
national police, customs, immigration etc. We were waved through a couple
but stopped by 23!! We didn't have insurance at the time but no-one
asked to see it, only passports and driving licences. Apart from the
first checkpoint near the border, none asked for a cadeau. There were
less checkpoints in the centre of the country and those that were there
generally waved us through.
Checkpoints in the
north wanted to see driving licences and passports (our legalised copies
were acccepted) and we also showed our insurance as we had bought three
months third-party with a carte rose in Yaounde for 28,000 CFA (about
£30). Many of the checkpoints in the north also asked for cadeaux
although we never gave one. If you drive at night note that the checkpoints
still operate and they wave their torches at you to get you to stop.
There are a few
borders across the Mandara mountains into Nigeria. The main one is at
Banki in the very north but at the time the fighting in Chad meant that
this was swamped with refugees and UN workers and so we went across
Boukoula further south. It was extremely rural - quiet, friendly and
slow.
General
driving conditions
The roads in the populated southern/central area are generally
OK but you have to take bad roads to get into Nigeria whichever route
you take: the Ekok-Mamfe road is notoriously difficult in the rain and
can take days to travel whilst the Foumban-Ngoundere road would also
be terrible when wet but was just very, very dusty when we travelled.
Yaounde is a big city which takes a while to negotiate but the traffic
is not terrible (apart from the taxi drivers!). There are many tolls
throughout the country which take 500 CFA each time you pass.
Specific
driving conditions
All times are 'time moving' from our GPS and so are driving time only.
- Oyem (Gabon)
to Yaounde. 7 hours. This road is perfect tar until 30km
south of Yaounde when pot-holes appear. The road signs and markings
are a joy after Gabon!
- Yaounde to Limbe.
5.5 hours. The roads are great apart from through Douala
itself where there are pot-holes and quite bad traffic jams. For Limbe,
you need to take the unsigned sliproad 15km west of Douala (the junction
at: N04.07.203; E09.35.150)
- Douala to Kribi.
2.5 hours, excluding negotiating Douala. The road
from Edea to Kribi is brand new perfect tar which even has hard shoulders
and crash barriers!
- Douala to Bamenda,
via the scenic Bangangte road. 6.5 hours. Very good (twisty
and hilly) tar road. There is a good Fons Palace to visit in Bandjoun.
- Grassfields roads
- see section below.
- Jakiri to Foumban.
3.5 hours. It's a scenic route but the dirt road is terrible
in places. Foumban, and the place museum in particular, are well worth
the effort however.
- Foumban to Ngoundere.
15.5 hours (the Foumban to Banyo section took 5.5 hours).
We did this road over two days and bush-camped undisturbed in the
woods between Banyo and Tibati (N06.38.510; E12.04.115). This road
was the dustiest we have been on in Africa! You can see the massive
holes the trucks make when it is wet - there are some diversions around
these but it would be a very challenging road in the rains....Even
in the dry we averaged 25km/hr up until Magba and 55km/hr after. The
Bankim-Banyo section had intermittent tar over the mountains and then
the road deteriorated again after Banyo. There is a short bit of tar
around Tibati but not as much as the 2002 Michelin map shows and after
Tibati we had to ask for directions constantly as both our Michelin
and Map Studio maps were wrong (we went east to Mambal and then turned
north; OK dirt roads all the way).
- Ngoundere to
Maroua. 10 hours. OK bumpy tar with a few pot-holes as far
as Garoua. Garoua is dusty and uninviting but has a fairly good market.
There were roadworks north of Garoua and the road deteriorated into
axle-breaking pot-holes.
- Maroua to Rhumsiki.
3 hours. There is a very good tar road to Mokolo after which
there is a small but OK dirt road over the mountains. Rhumsiki is
in a beautiful setting and is only teeming with tourists in December.
Accommodation
We found Cameroon quite expensive to camp and often we would just be
in hotel car-parks. Bush-camping is possible in lots of places and sometimes
the rooms are only slightly more than the camping price and worth considering.
- Yaounde. Most
overlanders stay at the Presbyterian Mission. It's very central and
they have a big lawn although there's not really any security and
no access to a toilet at night. We paid 4000 CFA for two people and
the car. N04°52.783;
E011°31.346 - when you get close turn off the main road and go
to the water tower.
- Buea. The Presbyterian
Guest House was friendly and cheap (1500 per person). Find it by going
to the top of the hill, past the police roundabout and look out for
the Presbyterian Synod Office sign. N04.09.610; E09.14.005.
- Limbe. Lots of
overlanders stay at the Park Hotel Miramar (2000 CFA each). It's in
town, by the sea and has a (green-looking) pool but you are just in
the car-park. We preferred Mile 11/New Seme Beach Hotel, on the road
out west towards Idenao. It's a large, ugly building but you can camp
at the front of the complex on a grassy area and there's a great beach.
There are also a lot of sports activities on offer - tennis, kayaking
horse-riding etc - which could mean that it is very busy at the weekend.
More low-key camping is supposed to be on offer at Mile 6 but this
was shut when we came through. We also looked at rooms in the Victoria
Guest House which were very nice for the money (from about 6000).
- Kribi. We camped
at Tara Plage which is off the dirt road which runs south out of town
towards the Chutes de Lobe. It's in a lovely spot and has a very relaxed
feel although food and beer is expensive. They charged us 4000 per
tent for camping and there's an OK outside loo and shower. If you
fancy a treat there are a lot of lovely auberges in Kribi.
- Bamenda. There
is camping at the Presbyterian Mission but it was pretty terrible.
The ablutions were filthy and there was an annoying security guard
who kept coming round to beg from us. The rooms looked OK. Alternatively,
we stopped at Awing Crater Lake for lunch but in hindsight should
have camped. It's about 20km south of Bamenda on the Douala road and
is beautifully set amongst the hills. Turn-off the main road at N05.50.934;
E10.09.658 and it's thirty minutes down the dirt track. There is a
security guard who will come and collect fees.
- Foumban. There's
not a lot of choice in Foumban. The Beau Regarde hotel by the market
is OK and good value but we weren't sure about the security of the
parking. We stayed at La Prunier Rouge instead which was friendly
but tatty. As you come in on the road from Bafoussam look out for
the La Fourchette restaurant sign on your right and then stop and
ask - it's down a small road and hard to find.
- Ngoundere. We
stayed in the Hotel du Gare (predictably down near the train station!).
It was very clean and had secure parking and hot showers for 7,500
per double room. N07.20.165; E13.35.219.
- Lagon Blue (near
Garoua). This hotel is on a very pretty site on the lake and they
let you camp on the beach for 5000 CFA per vehicle. The outside loo
and shower were filthy but they let us use theirs inside when we complained.
It could be very busy at the weekends. The hotel is about 15km off
the main road along dirt tracks - follow the signs to 'Lagdo' just
south of Ngong.
- Maroua. We camped
at Relais Ferngo which was fine - plenty of room and use of the toilet
and shower attached to the quiet bar. 3000 CFA for 2 people.
- Rhumsiki. We
camped at the beautiful Campement Rhumsiki. The camping is just on
scrub-land near the gate and you use the pool shower but the views,
the pool and Markus (the owner/manager) make up for it! 4000 CFA for
2 people.
Climbing
Mount Cameroon
This was really great
but quite hard. It's walking rather than climbing but it is quite steep
and you can get quite breathless from the altitude. The most popular
route takes three days and goes through forest, savannah, lava-flows
and ash fields - the huts are very basic and there are not many water
supplies so take plenty. The best people to go with are the Mount Cameroon
Intercommunal Ecotourism Board as they have great guides and include
a community tax in their fee. They have a tarif of fixed prices which
includes a guide and porter and you take your own food to cook on fires;
we paid 73,000 CFA for two people for three days. If you don't fancy
the mountain they offer a lot of different walks and treks, including
some on the flat! Their office is at the top of the hill in town - take
a left out of the Presbyterian Synod Office and walk for about 15 mins.
Note that there is another tour company who may come to the guest-house
to offer you trekking and their office is on the same road.
Touring
the Grassfields on the Ring Road
We, like most people,
started this in Bamenda. We first went west and up the road to Bafut
- this is good tar all the way. The Fons Palace in Bafut was quite interesting
from the outside but they were asking too much money for us to visit
inside with a guide. We then came back down to Bamenda and took the
road east through Ndop and Jakiri then north up to Kumbo. There are
small patches of tar through Jakiri and Kumbo but otherwise it's poor
condition dirt roads. It's slow-going - Bamenda to Jakiri took us nearly
three hours - but the scenery is great and the people surprisingly friendly
considering it's quite touristy. We wanted to bush-camp but it was quite
populated so we ended up going about 10km north of Kumbo and asking
locally if it was OK. We camped by a telephone tower and had a trickle
of locals coming by to introduce themselves. It was a really great experience
and we wished we had time to carry on north around the road into the
more rural areas.
Food, water
and beer
There is loads of fruit and veg for sale in Cameroon and it is very
good. What is available and the price depends on where you are as the
climate and terrain change quickly. We got great pineapples on the Douala-Bafang
road, good tomatoes and potatoes in Buea and tasty mangoes in the south.
Oku honey, from the Grassfields region, is the best I've tasted and
you can buy ovaltine-jarfuls from the side of the road for 1000 CFA.
Peanuts are everywhere and are grown in the Mandara mountains or imported
from Nigeria.
The street-food
is very good and mostly consists of kebabs, meat roasts and fish on
BBQs. The best way to eat is to sit outside a local bar, order a cold
beer and ask the local stall to bring you whatever they have.
By far the best
sit-down meal we had (maybe in Africa) was in Kribi marina where you
choose the fish from a bucket and take a seat to watch the fishermen
whilst your fish is grilled. Our red snapper was fantastically fresh
and came with a platter of plantain chips, a couple of good home-made
sauces and cold beer! La Fourchette in Foumban and Duke & Harveys
in Buea were also very good for filling, local food like ndole (meat
in a suace made of greens).
Cameroonians like
a drink and there are lots of different african lagers available - flag,
castel, beaumont. These cost 500 CFA for a large bottle in local places
and much more in hotels. We also saw some draught beer but at very high
prices. We had no trouble getting good water at any of the places we
camped although the mission in Yaounde theoretically charges for it.
Money and
fuel
There are ATMs which take foreign cards, including debit cards,
but we experienced some problems. My card was swallowed by a BICEC machine
in Buea and the bank insisted on sending it to their head-office in
Douala. This meant we had to hang around for nearly a week so that we
could go and pick it up!.The most reliable ATM we used was SGBC. You
can change Euros in banks and foreign exchange bureaus but it's best
to do it in the cities - when I tried in Buea I was told by several
places they 'didn't want Euros' that day!
There are fuel stations
in all the towns. Diesel cost us 535-545 per litre (63p).