Caboose

After a series of cryptic text messages (the first was “After 12 then”) Alex came round to take us on another hiking trip in the hills around Abuja. This time it was to be near Dutse and Dave, Marebec, Kate, Eva and Erin were going along.

The Harmattan dust has been quite bad the past few days, as you can see in these pictures looking down on the town of Dutse Alhaji. We’ve also had a few cold nights because of it, which means my shower water is getting pretty chilly in the mornings.

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After one last day of relaxing in Limbe Pete, Mary, Charles, Kay, Indar and I headed back to Nigeria. This time we took a speedboat instead of the ferry (the ferry didn’t sail on the right day), spending several hours hanging around the harbour waiting for the speedboat guys to bring their price down to something we could afford. We set off at about 1pm and had a mostly smooth ride, it was surprising how busy it was out at sea, even out of view of the coast. There were lots of tiny fishing boats and the occasional oil platform dotted around.

Three and a half hours later we arrived at Ibaka, a port on the opposite side of the river from Calabar. Pete dealt with immigration while the rest of us chartered a car for Ikot Abasi and stood around being stared at by the locals. By the time we got to Utaiwo, where the boats for Opobo leave from, it was dark but we managed to meet up with the group coming from Lagos anyway (Kim, Tammie, Tanya, Kate, Aine and Simon).

Due to our late arrival we had missed the boat regatta, so we sorted out who was staying where (girls at Pete & Mary’s, boys at Charles’s) and dropped off our stuff before going to Lady B’s restaurant for dinner. We moved to another bar for midnight, we had a chorus of “Auld Lang Syne”. The locals didn’t seem to notice midnight, they had been setting off firecrackers and guns all night anyway.

We had heard that nothing much would happen on the first, because it was a Sunday. Instead we went to greet Mr Bell-Gam and then Henry the boatman took us across the river to Ekereborokiri (I’d been before). This time the tide was out so we had to wade through the river mud to get to the village, where we were greeted once more by Steven Jaja.

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This afternoon we got back from our four day hiking trip on Mount Cameroon. It was lovely, although a bit of a slog in parts. Much more about it all once I get back to Abuja.

Hope everyone enjoys their New Year celebrations. I’ll be in Opobo Town with Pete, Mary and Charles.

An early start for the final day, a breakfast of Indomie, tea and hot chocolate and then off through more grassland, over low ridges, looking down on the clouds.

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Another bad night’s sleep, with the freezing draughts blowing across me. The view down onto the clouds from Station F was lovely though.

Fortunately day 3 is a short day, spending the morning walking from Station F down to Mann Spring. We passed the craters from the 1999 eruption, with a surprisingly varied landscape of cinder cones as well as grassland and patches of forest. Another surprise was how quickly plants are recolonising the eruption area, starting with lichens and mosses then the strange-looking “Mountain Flower”

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During a long night of tossing and turning, made complicated by being pressed up against Pete and Amy, I heard the pre-dawn departure of the two two-day tour groups. Few of us seem to have got much sleep, although Indar and Jonathan managed a fair bit of snoring.

We had tea and croissants for breakfast and set off at around 7.30am. It was a hard slog again, although some parts were easier than yesterday the air was getting thinner (hut 2 is at 2850m 9350 ft). The landscape above hut 2 looked almost mediterranean in the morning sun, just much colder! We were still stopped to rest more frequently than the guides wanted to.

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We took taxis to Buea, at the foot of Mount Cameroon, stopping along the way for our first view of (part of) the mountain. When we arrived at the Mount Cameroon Ecotourism Organisation the porters and guides were already there and packing. We had bags full of food and an enormous quantity of water to take with us but the load was eventually distributed and we squeezed into taxis to take us to the start of the walk.

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I started my day with a swim before breakfast and a trip up to the supermarket to buy some phone credit. On my return I discovered chaos among our group, Jenny and Karin had decided they would climb the mountain after all. I kept out of the way while they discussed what would need to be reorganised and decided to head for the market to buy boots.

The first group left for the beach only slightly late as a result, with me guiding them to Mile 11 beach. I phoned home, gloated a little bit about basking on the beach while everyone in Scotland was freezing and got a call from my granny in Norfolk. The beach was much busier than when we had scouted but was still lovely, warm water crashing over the chocolate-coloured sand. We had lunch, chatted, read and swam. Everyone enjoyed the Christmas cake that had made it all the way from granny to Limbe.

We wanted to be back before dark, so we left the hotel and waited for a taxi with the crowd on the Limbe road. The hotel security guard wasn’t keen to have a large group of white people hanging around on the road, so he phoned for two taxis and we got to skip the queue (again).

Dinner was back at the Miramare, I had their very nice pepper steak and then retired to my room to pack for our departure up the mountain.

After breakfast Charles organised the Grand Shopping Expedition. We had to buy all the supplies we’d need for our four days on Mount Cameroon. I was inclining more towards light weight food but the others preferred nice meals. We put in an order with the local 24-hour bakery for pizzas, quiches and bread then moved on to the nearby supermarket. Charles stood in the middle of the supermarket with the list, despatching us to find items. After that we went back to the market and Charlie’s shop for fresh fruit and vegetables and a few things we couldn’t get elsewhere.

I joined Pete and Mary for lunch at “L’Estaminet de Limbe”, next door to the bakery. It’s a nice little bar and the place where I ate snake for the first time, boa in a delicious sauce after a fish soup starter that would have done as a main course. After a quick return to the supermarket I had my personal supply of snacks for the mountain trip, Cameroonian chocolate and biscuits.

I spent most of the afternoon sitting and reading in the bar or by the pool. Jenny, Jonathan, Kay, Karin, Chantal and Irma arrived in the late afternoon after their speedboat journey from Calabar. They checked in to the hotel and joined us in the bar. Karin was still unsure about whether to join us for Mount Cameroon and hadn’t brought any equipment with her.

In the morning Amy and I walked along the road to the Limbe Wildlife Park. It used to be the Limbe Zoo and was apparently very run down and unpleasant. These days it’s a collaboration between Pandrillus (who we visited in Calabar) and the Cameroonian government. It has several large enclosures in a beautiful setting on the edge of town. I really enjoyed wandering around and looking at the gorillas, chimpanzees (complete with signs warning about them throwing rocks), drills, mangabeys and various other animals.

The next activity for the day was heading west with Charles to check out the beaches in preparation for Christmas day. First stop was Mile 6 beach, no charge for visiting it but also no bar and a fine view of the neighbouring oil refinery. Next we stopped at Mile 8, which is managed by a local hotel and they charge XAF 1000 to use the beach, which you can see Charles walking along in the leftmost picture below. In the end we decided on Mile 11 beach, by the New Seme Beach Hotel, it has a beautiful long beach with little table, a bar and your XAF 1000 fee is deducted from your bar bill.

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