Mount Cameroon

Tom, Leo and I have just stumbled home from our expedition to the summit of Mount Cameroon, the third highest peak in Africa and the highest in West and Central Africa. It took us 21 hours walking in total, but we took a longer route back to look at the incredible volcanic craters and lava flows. The route up was via three huts, and only hut 2 we slept in. This is the most direct route up (The Guinness track), and every year there is a race (named the "Race of Hope") where athletes run up the mountian and back as fast as they can. The best times are a little over 4 hours 30 minutes. Amusingly, people don't believe this to be humanly possible, and accuse them of using black magic. I guess they take that as a compliment?

Anyway, our trip began on Tuesday morning, which, unfortunately, was the morning of a rain filled day. The rain poured and poured and continued to do so all day. After a good 4 hours of self-amusement, including coin wars and scaring Tom with my horrible yellow balaclava as he exited the toilet (hilarious, but you had to be there), We decided to leave the Ecotourism office at about midday, and excitedly hopped into a taxi (5 people per taxi+baggage) to take us as far uphill as the roads would allow. After brief introductions with our two porters, and our guide, we began to climb.

We began at 1100 metres above sea level, and the peak is at 4095m tall (or 4.095m as the certificate says! Working out at a little over 40cm per hour climbing! How flat is Africa?!). The hike is split into discrete terrains and ecosystems, the first of which is montane Forest. Our guide pointed our fig trees, which parasitically grow up and around existing trees, eventually killing them, leaving a hollow tube which appears as the trunk of the fig. This section was at low enough altitude to see pumpkin and cocoa crops, accessible to the locals. During the montane forest, we climed to hut 1, which we used as a rest point. We had a look at all the names graffiti on the walls over the years, and headed on up towards the savannah, the next type of terrain.

The savannah is steep grassland, and this was the hardest part of the walk so far. It was long and arduous as we aproached the infamous "Magic Tree".

This tree was named by Mark Hunt (we think), who won the Race of Hope on many occasions, and he thought it was magic because for however long he ran, he could not reach it, and it never appeared to come closer. I could imagine how he felt, this hill did seem endless. But eventually, we reached hut 2 and found our rooms. There were three rooms, about 5x3 metres in size, and half of the room was like a stage. It was here where we placed our mats, bags and rucksacks and went to the "kitchen" (another hut). Minutes later, we were called back to our room by our porter, Stephen, who had spotted our first wild animal of the trip, the rare and exciting "Rattus rattus", which Leo bonked on the head with a stick as it munched on our sugar nuts. Dirty little ratty rat.

We cooked spaghetti with tomato puree and sardines, and after burning our socks in the fire, went to get some well deserved rest. I have been sleep talking a little this holiday, and this evening was another exciting instalment. "IT'S DOWN AND LEFT, TOM, YOU STUPID IDIOT", is what I yelled, repeatedly. Absolutely no idea why.

The next morning, after a sound nights sleep and hearing about my hilarious outburst, we boiled up some water for the tea and munched on last night's dinner. Pretty ghastly tea because water boils at a lower pressure at the high altitudes. Spaghetti wasn't great either.

We left late, at 9am, and we 3 and a half hours for the summit. I might just add, up to this point, we had seen no views, been surrounded by cloud and it had rained 80% of the time. This day didn't disappoint, and the view from the summit was like that seen inside a big white sphere. The photos tell the full story.

We spent an anticlimactic 3 minutes at the summit, just enough time for my fake duracell batteries to die. Visiting the shop the day before, I chose to buy twice as many fake batteries for the same price as 4 genuine ones, with the hope that they last over half as long as the genuine batteries. Unfortunately, the second set took, literally, about 4 photos. Awful purchase, lesson learnt Collins. Fortunately Tom had his camera so all was good.

So after the compulsory, yet barely visible photos of the summit, we started to gallop/slide/fall down the mountain. A little underwhelmed, but proud of our acclompishment, nonetheless. From here on, the descent was dreadful. We were all soaked to the bone, cold, and the descent was not as painless as we'd hoped. But, as the sun came out, we became increasingly aware of the depressiveness of wind and rain.

After a good few hours of descent, the sun came out and we arrived at volcanic craters of 1999. I was completely taken aback, mind blown. I had never witnessed geothermic activity like this, only geyser in Lake Nakuru National Park, Kenya. Steam was rising from the craters, and the ground around us, and the air smelt of sulphur.

In the 1999 eruption, the main vent had split to form 23 craters, from which emerged ash, volcanic bombs and acidic lava of low viscosity. What was previously undulating savannah, was now covered by huge mounds of jet-black volcanic rock. In the sun, the black rock against the greens of the grass and algae were astonishing. I was increasingly regretting my poor battery purchase the day before.

I found a sweet little spherical pummice stone which I was going to keep to give my mother (cute hey?), but in my excitement over its regular shape, I lost it rolling it down the sand hills. It was irreplaceable, and searching for it was useless among the sea of its irregular shaped friends.

This was the second day, and we walked for 9 hours, 4 uphill and 5 down. We arrived, completely exhausted at our second camp. We were sleeping on the ground this time, in triangular thatched huts, at Mann Springs, a natural spring. Unfortuntately, and irritatingly, because we were climbing in the the off-peak season, the maintenance of the camp was poor, and it was infested by soldier ants. Although, all was fine when they fled as Tom (our guide) poured boiling salted water on them. Although, I predictably had nightmares about being covered by ants. Presumably nightmares...

Speaking of salt, Leo told us about a great little trick he plays on his friends. When they are asleep in public situations, he fills their mouth with salt! Absolutely hilarious, and I look forward to finding my first victim.

The next morning we rose and were left by 7.30, with the hope of reaching Buea by 1pm. The weather was kind to us today, with no rain, obviously surrounded by clouds. Standard. It was a long day, but we did get home, wet, but happy and proud of our achievements.

We went for a few beers, and some fish from barbeques on the street, which finished the day off nicely. It's a pity we can barely walk up the stairs to our room!

We leave Cameroon on Monday 18th. I will be home early Tuesday and Tom will arrive in the afternoon of Tuesday. Our next few days will be spent visiting the Zoo, botanical gardens, beaches and uninhabited islands around Limbe, as well as fishing with the locals, with enough persuasion.

Photos of our trip added here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=28176&l=e5c66&id=511649878