Days 100 to 113 - Week 16 & 17 (12th February 2007 to 25th February 2007)
Finally reaching Limbe, our first stop in Cameroon, and camped in hotel grounds overlooking the ocean. As we had been bush camping for a few days, most of us had a lot of laundry to do, and in our typical fashion we set up a shanty town of tents and clothes lines in the hotel yard, much to their annoyance we think. In Limbe the plan was to either chill out at the beach for a few days or climb Mt. Cameroon, which nine people opted to do. Limbe was a small town, but there were a few different things for all of us to do - from nice beaches close by, to the botanical gardens and the monkey sanctuary which had chimps and gorillas.
A few days after our arrival, the trekkers left for Mt. Cameroon. The arranged transport, being Africa style bus taxi - needed a little push start before they were on their way. The first days climb was a bit gruelling with all the volcanic stone making the steep hill difficult to manage, but everyone managed to make it to the first hut. Being as tired as they were made some found it easier to sleep in the huts that were a little rat infested with not too much bother from the little critters.
It was an early start on day 2 up the mountain, with everyone seeming to be doing well except for Terry who had some pains in his knee and Pru. The 2 of them opted to come down the mountain with one of the porters rather than carry on to the hardest bit of climbing. The other 7 pressed on to the peak at just over 4000 meters. Unfortunately for them the effects of being on Doxy and not enough sun cream left everyone with very burnt faces, and all of them suspiciously developed" lip herpes" as well - nice !!!. We are still not sure exactly what happened on those cold nights up on the mountain ?????
Down in Limbe the rest of the group had been relaxing and enjoying a few days off the truck, but stresses were developing after hearing some news about trouble in the DRC. There had been fighting in the area that we were hoping to drive the truck through, and it was starting to look like things might be bad enough that we would have to fly over and leave the truck behind.
After about a week - we left Limbe with no real guarantee of what was going to happen. We were all hoping that the fighting would clear and it would be safe to drive through when we arrived in the vicinity. We had good roads all the way to the capital - Yaounde, where we were camped in the grounds of the Presbyterian guest house on a hill over looking the city. The best thing about this place was its close proximity to the best bakery we had come across; ice cream, pastries, cake, pizza, sandwiches... I think that we all gained a little weight there. It was also very close to a little local street bar which made everyone happy. The craft market in Yaounde was one of the best we had seen so far, it had a huge selection of masks, carvings, and jewellery. They must not have seen tourists too often because they were all pretty desperate to sell at really cheap prices.
Our main mission in Yaounde was to get a few visas for the countries ahead - mainly being Gabon, Congo, DRC, and hopefully Angola. At this point most of us were counting on the fact that we would be able to safely pass through these countries - but in saying this we had no better choice but to go ahead with getting the visas - even with the realization that we may still need to fly over. However, a few of the group decided to try out other options on their own. Max and James, our Seattle boys, decided to fly over to Nairobi to join another Oasis truck heading south. Dan flew to South Africa to build a bicycle that he would then travel up to Nairobi with on his own, and Beccie and Frankie also decided that they wanted to give the solo travel a go and left for South Africa as well. It was hard to say goodbye to so many at once, and the truck felt a lot emptier without them.
We continued to have a few sick people in Yaounde, Mark came back from the doctor with typhoid and a string of other worrying health dilemmas, and Holly was still feeling very ill - a few weeks running now. John had a recurrence of his leg swelling up again, as it had in Ghana and Togo.
We ended up getting 3 of the 4 visas we needed, Angola was not going to happen here. Good news came however that things had calmed down in the DRC and we would be able to drive through as long as everything stayed quiet. Everyone was a lot happier after that, although we were still sad to say goodbye to our fellow travellers, as well as the patisserie.
A little bit of a hitch with our Gabon visa (meaning that we could not enter the country before a certain date) saw us visit Kribi, a nice beach resort where the water was clean and they sold fresh fish to us on the beach. We had intended to only stay here a few nights, but both Brendan and Lisa came down with malaria again, and as our trusty driver was too sick to even get out of bed we stayed a few extra days. No one really minded too much though, as it was one of the nicest places that we had been at in a long time.
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