Robberies and Expensive Visas

We used a tiny border crossing to get into Cameroon and the roads were, as expected, dirt roads through the jungle. We’d gotten some info that once we get out to the main road there will be proper tar road thanks to China investing a lot in infrastructure in the country but it was still almost surreal to get from a small jungle road up onto a big highway that barely seemed used at all.

It was still quite a drive down to the coast and all parts of the road weren’t finished just yet. We’re also getting into rain season which means that some of the dirt roads turn to mud. Not that it’s too much of a problem for the truck to drive through but there are other vehicles on the road, a lot of timber trucks for example and they got stuck big time and blocked the whole road. We had to wait a few hours for a digger to pull the timber truck up, pull it up again when it got stuck trying to pass the other waiting timber trucks, and eventually for it to pull up another timber truck that thought he could get through. He couldn’t.

That night we camped outside of a church in the small town Manyemen. Some time during the evening some kids sneaked into the cab of the truck and grabbed a few bags belonging to the drivers. They must have been really quiet because we didn’t notice at all, and we were sitting just on the other side of the truck. At least they only got some electronics and a wallet, no passports, and they were nice enough to dump all credit cards from the wallet on the ground for us to recover.

The next day was a big driving day on everything from dirt and mud to good tar roads and even a huge modern bridge through the jungle (thanks China).

Late in the evening that day we arrived to the first planned stop in Cameroon, Limbé, a nice little town by the sea. We stayed there for a few days to relax and let people sort things out after the theft. I had a look around in the botanic garden, supposedly the second oldest botanic garden in Africa. Maybe not the most impressive botanic garden I’ve seen, especially since we’d literally been spending most of last week in the jungle, but still a nice place to stroll around.

The next stop was Kribi, also along the coast but a bit further south. It is known for having the only waterfalls in Africa cascading straight out into the ocean. It wasn’t really the big waterfall plunging straight into the ocean I expected but rather loads of small waterfalls and rapids making their way out to the sea. Still a really nice sight and a good walk along the beach.

The last and by far the longest stop in Cameroon was the capital, Yaounde, and again it was time for visas. Bad thing: we had to get three visas here. Good thing: these were the last visas to get on this trip! There’s also a new champion as the most expensive visa on the trip, DRC. At CFA100000 (€152) it beats even the Angolan visa! The other two visas we had to get was Congo (CFA60000 / €91) and Gabon (CFA80000 / €122). A lot of money for countries we’re mostly just going to drive through.

In Yaounde three people in the group also became victims of our second major robbery (there were also two smaller incidents inbetween but they’re too stupid or silly to be mentioned in detail). While the taxi they were sitting in stopped in traffic three guys, one with a knife, ripped the back doors open and snatched two bags. One guy in the taxi tried to hold on to the bag and ended up with a stab wound in the hand. Some more electronics gone but fortunately no passports or other important documents this time either. A few days later a camera got pickpocketed from another guy in the group…

Personally I’ve been lucky so far and not had anything stolen but within the group there’s quite some stuff gone. The visas took one and a half weeks and with pretty much nothing to see or do in the city it was probably the most boring time of the entire trip. We’re all pretty fed up with Cameroon by now so time to move on south!