I caught the fairly civilized yet cramped bus down to Kribi, its a pretty special place with lots of small sandy coves and palm trees. Its also home to the second houses of most of the Cameroonian government. Cameroon was once voted the most corrupt country in the world, coming to Kribi its pretty easy to see. There is some pretty amazing houses, with some awesome ocean views, and these are the ministers second houses!? (Tony Blair would be in deep trouble if he had a house this big) Its certainly interesting to see how their humble wages spread so far. Fortunately the people in Cameroon generally like to get vocal about it over a pint, rather than the Nigerian method of shooting each other.
I was on the search for a cheap place to stay, as the town itself is pretty pricey. My guidebook recommended a place that had tents for hire, unfortunately a change of ownership meant no more tents. I looked at sleeping just in the mozzie net under a plam tree as I have done before, but being the start of the rainy season that would of been a bad idea. The price of rooms was pretty high, I got chatting to a builder that was working there, he said his uncle had a place that I could probably get for cheaper. So we jumped in his massive truck and headed up the coast. His uncles place was pretty damn sweet, so I took a room on the beach for a fraction of the price, complete with A/C and television - awesome!
Being just above the equator the sun just drops straight down and into the sea, its a beatiful place to stop and watch it for a few hours. During my first swim I got stung by a jellyfish, presuming I had about two minutes left to live and in some considerable pain. I quietly sat on the sun lounger to enjoy my last few minutes alive. After an hour or so the pain subsided and I carried on with a new joy for life.
Just south of Kribi are some nice waterfalls (whose name ive forgotten - Chutes de Lobè?), I took a moto taxi down for a look. At first I thought we’d accidentally driven into a rebel stronghold as people came running at a us screaming as we approached the falls. Then I realised it was just the normal guides who do their best to spoil a place like this. Despite them it was pretty nice and one of the few places where a waterfall drops straight into the ocean, not a big high drop but a few smaller gentle chutes meandering in between the rocks and trees. Its possible to clamber around and dip into some of the rock pools, in amongst the locals who go there for shrimp fishing or to do their laundry. My moto taxi driver was pretty cool and I persuaded him to come in for a dip and cool down too.
