"Mini-Africa" Cameroon

Hello everybody and sorry for the time between posts. The internet cafes are around me plenty but the speed is insanely slow and I have so much to say it can be mind boggling.

Well I last wrote in from Togo, which contrary to State Department warnings was a wonderful place with wonderful people.

In order to obtain a visa for Cameroon I opted to skip the long trek to South Eastern Nigeria and instead opted to go to Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. Malabo is the capital of Equatorial Guinea although it is on a small island called Bioko while the mainland borders Cameroon, Gabon, and Congo (the good gone). Americans don't require visas for Eq. Guinea so I figured I'll head there to obtain my Cameroonian visa.

Equatorial Guinea is the only place in Africa where Spanish is the official language which was nice to hear although the nation is very much a police state. It is a nation covered in oil and you have a massive community of Chinese, Americans, and Arab oil workers as well as the refineries that light up the night to prove it. Unfortunately it is very expensive and there are no ATMs so I was in and out.

I arrived in Cameroon on the 21st of last month and I instantly recognized it as my favorite country so far. Known as Mini Africa, Cameroon has everything to offer that one would associate with Africa. From Savannah elephants and even lions in the far north to pristine and almost untouched rainforest in the Southeast Congo Basin that has large Gorilla and Chimp populations and the northwest Bakassi peninsula (just re-acquired from Nigeria) is one of only two places where one can find a drill which is a fancy and very colorful looking monkey similar to a baboon.

Cameroon is officially a bilingual country though here in the economic capital of Douala you will be hardpressed to hear a word of it though if you drive 35 miles west you won't hear a word of French. 2 of the nation's 10 provinces are Anglophone and they comprise roughly 35-40% of the population and each English speaking Cameroonian makes it a point to let you know how badly mistreated the Anglophones are.

I went for a few days and climbed West and Central Africa's highest mountain, Mount Cameroon, it stands at about 12,000 feet and the summit was near freezing as it rained just when I got to the top and for about an hour I was sure I was going to lose a few toes to the cold. The climb left me very sore and blistered. The hike up the mountain was beautiful as it starts at rainforest and turns to Savannah and then very rocky at the top.




I did not see much in the way of wildlife though I didn't expect to see much there anyway. I do plan to go to the Southeast a rough place and not for the faint hearted though my mission has become a sighting of gorillas or at least chimps and sanctuaries don't count in my book.

Northwest of here is the "Ring Road" which is a 367 kilometer circle of towns at around 5,000 feet that is rich in tribal culture and grassy scenery. I plan to make it there as well.


This is the first country where fish in the national diet and it is cheap and fresh and available everywhere and tastes excelllent.

Here is a picture of me at 4 in the morning right before the final climb

I will send out updates as I load up some pictures, it can take hours.