When entering Cameroon our mouth fell open because of the beauty of the country, it was all green around us. Also we had a perfect new tar road, what was extremely nice after the horrible roads in Nigeria, there was nearly no traffic. Cameroon is one big jungle with a two big cities Yaounde and Douala. The rain season was about to start and the first rain already fell down we could see next to the road.
We had a long and hot border crossing so we really wanted a shower. We went to the first little city, is called Mamfe, to find a hotel, Kevin and Emma came with us. We stayed at a cheap place with just a half working fan in the room, a shitty bed, bucket shower and a lot of animals around us. But in the night we figured out this was the best decision we could make as the raining season showed it self really bad, rain and thunder all night long.
We had a couple hours of sleep and in the morning we decided to go to Lake Awing James recommended this place to us, we had about 10 kilometers off road after the tar road what I really loved to ride, in the middle of the jungle some hills, some mud but nothing to crazy I was having fun and she starts to have more and more fun with riding these roads as well. We arrived at a really peaceful lake and decided to stay there for the night, it was up in the mountains and for the first time since Morocco we felt cold again in the night, we where happy finally a night not so sweaty and rainy.
Next day we went to the d’Ekom Nkam waterfalls, we passed a horrible tar road. This one they forgot to replace I think, after that we came to a mud road luckily for us it didn’t rain the day before and when we where riding there. This road brought us through a lot of small villages we stopped at some places to have a taste of the local life what was amazing to see, all people are very friendly and welcome you with open arms.
We ride about 50 km through all these small villages, after that we did see Kevin and Emma again and together we ride to the waterfalls. We arrived at sunset so we set up the tent and enjoyed a meal together, next morning we had a small hike to the waterfall and took a well-deserved bath in the small river next to it. Suddenly, the rain started like a shower and didn’t stop until afternoon. So, we leaved here a little late to hit the road.
Now it was time to head towards the coast line, we decided to go to Limbe there is a big volcano next to it called Mount Cameroon, the beach is black and you can see Equatorial Guinea from the beach. From d’Ekom Nkam waterfalls to Limbe was only 217 km. but we couldn’t make it in a day because we started to ride late and rain. We found very narrow road and ride there to find a place to wild camp. We were lucky. We set up our tents with Kevin under the palm trees and just one km. from the main road but nobody could see you and the road didn’t use for local people.
When riding to Limbe I got my first flat tire on the trip. Luckily it didn’t got down so fast so we could ride to our camping spot and from there I went out to find a place to repair it. This is easy in Africa as so many people ride motorcycles and they never change tires, I repaired it together with a local at his shop asked him what I owned him and he gave the best answer ‘what you want to give me’ I know the price is about 500 cfa but I gave him 2000 cfa fro the job (3 euro) we where both happy. We stayed 3 days at the beach to relax a little before we started running towards Gabon, we don’t want to be here when it will be raining all day.
Actually, we were planning to hike Mount Cameroon but the weather didn’t allow to us, was foggy and rainy. Also, we had a plan to go southwest of Cameroon to Mboro. Other two overlanders rider (Nicholas and Olaf) were in front of us. They sent message about to road and crash motorcycles. The road was terrible because of the rain season. Unfortunately, we could want to take risk and skipped it.
We passed Douala without stopping and stayed in Yaounde for one night but we didn’t see the city, we don’t like cities. They are crowded dirty and there is basically nothing to see, also more dangerous than road and villages. Next day we ride towards the border and just before we entered the place we wanted to stay for the night it started to rain extremely hard and we had the full load, we arrived totally wet at the hotel. Good we are heading south and leave the rain season behind us.
Cameroon is a beautiful country what deserves more time to stay in and more to explore, the quality of the country is much better then what we passed before so if you are looking for something else try Cameroon (and Gabon). We had to pass Gabon fast because we got our Congo visa in Togo and when we stayed in Lagos more than two week, because of all problems , our visas were running out.
FS
