Mount Cameroon at Porter Pace
on The Road Less Travelled (Cameroon), 09/Mar/2010 20:15, 34 days ago
I was one of the selected volunteers who got to travel to Yaounde to attend the national HIV/AIDS meeting for VSO. Greg and Caroline also attended and the three of us decided we deserved a bit of a vacation. So as an add-on to our already planned trip south we decided to visit Buea to climb Mount Cameroon. The morning after the meetings we left Yaounde by bus on a journey that would take us to Buea through Douala. The journey lasted about 9 hours, but at least 2 of those hours we were entertained by a travelling medicine man who was selling concoctions on the bus. He was selling such as ginseng powder which was guaranteed to stop HIV/AIDS and any other disease, it was quite amusing until we realized people were actually buying his stuff and believing what he was saying.Porters and guide getting readyWhen we finally got to Buea we met up with the staff at the Mount Cameroon Ecotourism Office where we organized the itinerary and menu for the hike which would start the next morning. We arranged to rent tents, sleeping bags and mats from the office and the porters were going to do our cooking for us. After all the arrangements were done we headed to our hotel– Hotel Paramount – looking forward to a shower and an early night. Note to all future travellers to Buea: DON’T STAY AT HOTEL PARAMOUNT. They didn’t have water, but didn’t bother telling us this, so we never go our showers. Also the standing fan in my room caught fire during the night (probably because it was 100 years old) and they wouldn’t get me another one from another room because “they were full” but they weren’t because when we checked in they told us we were the only ones staying there. Anyways, needless to say the morning wouldn’t come fast enough.Journey up to Hut 2Hut 2We started our trek at about 8:30am. We had 3 porters– George (who was also the cook), Aloisio, and Fritz. We also had Samuel as our guide. They are all from villages around Buea and do portering/guiding to supplement their incomes as farmers and hunters. We hiked for about 2 hours up to Hut 1 through the rainforest on a quite nice path. I kept up pace with Fritz and the other porters. Greg and Caroline were a bit slower because poor Greg had gotten a bit of a stomach bug the night before. After lunch at Hut 1 we continued our journey upwards to the intermediary hut and then reached Hut 2 where we would stay the night. The leg between the intermediary hut and Hut 2 was the most brutal leg of the whole trek for me, almost vertical, with loose lava gravel. The next day we hiked onwards to Hut 3 and finally to the summit.Journey to summitSummitFritz crossing lava fieldsMe on Lava fieldsInstead of going down the way we went up we chose a more difficult route through Mann Spring. This took us an additional 20 km from the simpler route. We ended up walking through large lava fields and we also got to see Craters from the eruption of 1999. We camped the night at Mann Spring and then the next day we hiked down to the village next to Buea called Bokwango. It was amazing. I would definitely recommend the trek for those who are in good shape. It was definitely demanding but I was super proud of myself for staying at porter pace for the trek.Me on the side of a crater from 1999 eruptionLandscape on day threeFritz and I (me carrying porter load)Villagers in BokwangoEnd of Hike celebratory drinks