Morocco to South Africa on a Shoestring (A brother and sister… 40 years ago): 32. Cameroon: Limbe, Douala to Yaoundé

Over much of this trip we would try to hitchhike if we thought the private traffic would be sufficient. In most of the countries we passed through there were limited opportunities. Given how safe we felt in Cameroon, and the large number of aid workers, missionaries and businessmen, we decided to give it several tries. Unfortunately, the only sections of our trip diary that did not make it back from Africa are the 18^th and 19^th of February just below. We cannot now remember what happened on those two days, but we must not have been very successful hitchhiking, as we only got as far as Edea in two days. From Limbe to Douala appears to be about 40 km and from there to Edea perhaps another 50. We have no memories or photos of our passage through Douala.

The route of our trip through Cameroon in yellow. Base map from nationmaster.

Limbe - Douala, Cameroon, Friday, 18 February, 1983

(HELENA) We set off in good humor, having decided to try to hitch a ride until 10:00. If nothing happened by then, we’d walk the short way back to the taxi park. We decided just to enjoy our nice shady place by the road and to not worry. Hitchhiking here must be very uncommon because several people took the trouble to stop and tell us that we needed to go to the taxi park if we wanted a ride.

Several pages of the original diary on airmail papers did not make it back from Africa.

Douala - Edea – Yaoundé , Sunday 20 February 1983.

(DAN) We had good, cold TOP grapefruit drink, and walked another half hour till we got out of Edea and found a good shady spot to wait. All of Cameroon that we have seen so far is hilly or mountainous, covered with forest, crops, or bush fallow. Kumba has been the only flat town, and it was up against a mountain. Edea, as all the others, was set around and on these low hills.

We waited maybe 20 minutes (by now it was around 1230) and were turned down twice by huge dump trucks with COGEFAR written on the side. Then an 11-year-old Volkswagen rattled up and the driver told us to hop in. He was only going to km 22 of the approximately 170 we had yet to go. He was quite a character who works in, or owns, a screw factory. He was especially impressed that we were brother and sister and that Helena was a music teacher. He said he had a daughter of his own about twenty and surely hoped we were writing our father often.

He dropped us off at a little roadside house, went up and talked to the owner, had him bring out chairs, for us to wait. That was 1330. Three and a half hours and ten log trucks going the wrong way later we were beginning to despair. The road was reputed to be bad, dirt, and we were many hours from our destination. While we were waiting there the man of the house carefully sharpened his machete to the finest point we’d ever seen, then set off into the jungle with a gallon jug. About an hour later he came back, the jug filled with the cloudy palm wine and a blissful smile on his face. He had a couple of glasses, passed some around to his crop of kids, and of course offered us some. When we refused he said, "ah that’s right, you are Americaines, they don’t smoke or drink."

We had agreed that if a ride did not come along we would pitch our tent and keep trying in the morning. However a Land Rover came along at 1730. Though it looked suspiciously like a paying ride, we gladly hopped on. It was crowded, I sat in back on a wooden stool and Helena squished in with three other people in the second seat. It was a rough ride over a dirt road, apparently in the rainy season. The worst thing, though, was that we did not arrive at the outskirts of Yaoundé (the capital city) until 2230. The buses had stopped running and our instructions to the Presbyterian Hostel involved taking the No. 4 bus “to the end”. Fortunately a fellow passenger, a woman, knew where the mission was and sort of coerced the driver into driving us all the way out there. He did charge us 2500 CFA apiece, or the price of a bush taxi from Edea to Yaoundé, but deep down we were glad to be “home” if not “free”. The all-around effect was saving the fare of Douala - Edea and meeting a lot of interesting people.

It was not over, however. We knocked on the door we had been told was the mission and a very young very blond woman came out. We told her that we had been told we could pitch a tent in the compound. She said “who told you? and “who are you?” It turned out that this was not the hostel, but a house belonging to some missionaries, and that this woman, Lisa, a Canadian volunteer, was house sitting while they are on furlough. We were all rather taken aback, but she said rather than go down and wake up the hostel people at the late hour, that we could just pitch the tent in the back yard. That was what we ended up doing. Another long day.

Yaoundé, Monday, 21 February, 1983

(HELENA) Order of the day: embassy hunting.

First try: I think people from the USA can stop complaining about all of the holidays that OTHER people take because this is the second time we’ve gone to a USA embassy only to be told that it’s a holiday and no one is on duty. The first time it was 24 December, this time it was to celebrate George Washington’s birthday. Oh well, at least a man there was able to direct us to the Central African Republic embassy.

Second try: we walked back to a roundabout not far from home and walked for a good while before realizing that the right-hand fork we’d taken was brand new and didn’t figure on the map Lisa had lent us. Back to the roundabout to try the other right-hand fork. From there it wasn’t far to the embassy. For once it was easy to find. BUT, when asked, the secretary coolly told us “2 photos and 10,000 CFA.” That’s more than $30.00! Dan asked why, but naturally she didn’t know. We gulped and sat down to write down our expenditures for the day.

We didn’t have that much money with us, so we left and started to look for a good solid lunch. Just a block away, we saw the Congo embassy sign, so we decided to try that just in case. When we found that there is no reason we should be denied a visa, we cheered up and decided that we’d rather go through Gabon and Congo to Zaire rather than pay the outrageous price to go through the Central African Republic. Not only would the terrain be more interesting (we’d have gone from Bangui to Kinshasa on a probably not very varied river trip), but this would maybe allow us to visit and Argentine contact that we have in N’Kayi, Congo.

So we set off in search of lunch with “hope in our hearts”. It had been ages since we’d had a good solid meal, so the rice and beans (and a cold Coke) were a big treat. We were so pleased that we later discovered that we’d gone off and left our spoons lying in the plates. That kind of burst our bubble because lately we’ve lost several things through carelessness (the bandana Ann gave me, the neat Hawkeye cap Price gave Dan, and a t-shirt).

In the afternoon we went to the roundabout and took the left fork in order to find the Gabonnaise embassy. Closed, but we saw a really neat-looking Greek Orthodox Cathedral nearby.

This morning we talked things over with Lisa. Since she’d invited us to stay on, we’ll be camping here at no cost, using her water and bathroom. She seemed to encourage us to do it because there have been robbery problems at the “real” Presbyterian Foyer. She is gone all day as she is working for four months at the “American School”. She came to Cameroon originally on a four- month exchange program. Then this opportunity came to substitute for an English teacher and she took it. Later I found out that her mother is from Finland and her father from Sweden. After she leaves Cameroon, she’ll go home to Canada for the summer and then go to Finland for a year to teach at a night school. She had spent a year there on exchange and had really liked it. (DAN) The school has hired a night “guardian” for her and the owners of the compound have a big, feared dog, so our things should be safe.

Lisa and the big feared dog.

Once again the Presbyterian church appears to own an entire hill here in Yaoundé. They have a foyer (hostel), church, large school, hospital, and a lot of housing. Apparently it has had a bad crime rate lately because though it has a large expatriate community, they are not the rich ones, and cannot afford day and night watchmen.

Yaoundé, Tuesday, February 22

In the morning we went up to the Gabon embassy and got the wheels rolling for a visa. Just before we talked to the man in charge, he sent four young men (Cameroonians I guess) packing because they did not have: 1. letters of invitation and 2. onward tickets. With us he just took our forms and passports and smiled. You never can tell which way people are going to discriminate. Sometimes it is against whites, others against blacks. At the Central African Republic embassy first they asked us what nationality we were and then told us that it cost $30 apiece. I’m sure it is not that much for other countries.

Helena washed some clothes and we went back to our rice and beans stand to retrieve our spoons and get another hearty meal. They had our spoons wrapped in a piece of paper and waiting for us. The stand is a phenomenon we have seen a little in other French countries, but it is really common in Douala and Yaoundé. They mainly serve several kinds of omelets, sometimes other food. This particular stand sells about five kinds of omelet combinations of rice and beans, bread and beans or plantain, etc. The beans are 3/4 inch long and very dark. They cook them by the tub full.

In the afternoon Helena washed the rest of our clothes and I went downtown to change money and mail letters. We are also looking around for ingredients to make another large batch of granola. It is going to be rainy season in Gabon and Congo and no telling how long it will take us to traverse the two countries on mud roads. Food will be hard to get so we are going to take quite a bit with us. I splurged and bought a Cameroonian chocolate bar to celebrate 5 months (and 6 days) of travel. Lisa has lent us a small optymus pressure stove so we have been enjoying frequent cuppas.