Arriving in Yaounde certainly made a change from the dry north, everything is lush tropical green and very hilly. I stayed at the homely Presbyterian Mission while thinking of a plan. I decided to put off thinking of a plan and instead thought I would go and visit the Ring Road area in Anglophone Cameroon, which is supposed to be another nice treking area.
There arent too many guides for this area, so while in Yaounde (the capital) I decided to visit the Cartography Institute for a map. I was greeted by the rudest woman I have ever met, she let me look at one map but it wasnt the one I wanted. After the first one she tried to charge me for every map I looked at, meanwhile she looked more and more like a fat bull dog chewing on a wasp, I told her where to stick the map and stormed out. Instantly regretting it because there is nowhere else in the country to buy maps.
I carried on regardless and took a very painful and cramped six hour bus ride to Bamenda the biggest town in the area. Its a very friendly place and English too which helps, predominantly the people speak Pidgin English, which is a crazy mix of English and local languages spoken very fast, you can catch the odd word and thats about it.
I decided to head up into the hills for a couple of days, packing enough food and water for one overnight stop. With no map I was relying completely on the GPS (thanks Paul), the plan being to catch a bus into the hills and then walk back to Bamenda. I leave the GPS turned on for the bus ride which draws me a nice map of where the road is, this I can use as an escape route if the weather gets too bad.
Arriving at a small village which was a good distance away I decide to start my walk, lower down walking is difficult due to all the crops, dense undergrowth and rivers, but it gets easier in the higher grass lands of the hills. The visibility was very poor due to the Harmattan (desert haze) which comes from the north and is still very bad at this time of year. This made picking a good line through the hills very difficult, and I ended up doing lots of climbing and descending to avoid sheer valleys and deep river crossings. The views arent too good either and I consider heading back to the road and calling it a day, but after a while I start enjoying the walking itself.
As the day draws on the sun starts to get low, so its time to start thinking about where to sleep. Fairly early on I find a rain shelter used by the Fulani Herdsman in the area, and decide to use this as a base, its not particularly comfortable but better than a tree. The hills are pretty sparsely populated and throughout the day I only saw a few other people and some quiet houses, no actual villages to speak off.
The few passing herdsmen seem to be fine with me staying there, so I get a fire started and cook up my tinned dinner. I finish just as it starts to get dark when a herdsman on horse back invites me to spend the night at his place. I take one look at the dirt floor of the rain shelter, pack my bags, and jump on the horse.
His house is only a short ride away and he sorts me out with a proper bed and gives me some nice fresh milk to drink, the first I have drunk since leaving England (milk is either powder or concentrate in this part of Africa). The language barrier makes conversation difficult, but we are obviously both tired so hit the hay. I get a good nights sleep despite a few ‘Larium’ dreams, in one my hosts turn into vampires, I awake with a shout and scare the crap out of the poor chap whose house it is.
The next day we awake before sunrise, like proper farm folk. My kind host nips out and milks a cow for some breakfast milk. I am very humbled by the hospitality but have very little to offer in return as I am travelling so lightly, I give a few sweets and offer some small money. He refuses the money, and I feel a bit bad for offering it.
The day is a hard days walking, through more hills and with still more climbing, river crossing etc, but eventually I reach my final destination very contented.
August 1st, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Dear Loard of the ring road. Your report about the walk sound very interesting. I used to live in Bafut for one year, and I also travelled the ring road by motorcycle. Now I am planning to make a visit back in the grassland, I would like to hike some parts of the ring road. Can you give some more information about the distant that you could make in one day? Where was the part that you travelled (in between Wum and Nkambe I guess.)
Thanks in advance for all infos.
Cheers