Ring road continued, Yaounde and beach holiday in Kribi

The previous blog entry finished when we were halfway through the ring road, we take any opportunity to upload the blog as Internet access is at best slow if available at all. Besides that our computer is still out of commission and we do not expect to be able to fix it until we are in Namibia.

Thanks to our French travel friends we can use their computer to upload photos (For those of you that have read the previous blog post you can now go back to see some pictures. We have also updated the page with the info per country with more links to pictures)

Anyway we finished the ring road and found nice and quiet wild camping spots for the other two nights. The middle part of the ring road was the most beautiful as there were less villages and part of it is even going through a reserve. We managed to stay outside the little kingdoms so we did not have to visit any kings or deal with spoiled princess demanding whiskey.

After finishing the ring road we decided to stay two more days in Bamenda. The mission of the Presbyterian church is pretty relaxed and the climate in Bamenda very pleasant.
One short story about the manager of the Presbyterian church:

When we checked out the first time we asked, out of courtesy, the manager whether we could use fill up our water tanks. Between the two cars we needed about 100 liters so we did not think this would be an issue. Mind you that in Cameroon we encountered our first rain in three months and in all the Sahel and Sahara countries it was never a problem to get water (for free, we never had to pay to fill up our tank).
So to our surprise the manager told us that it was not possible to get water because water is very expensive. So we told him that we were prepared to pay for the water even though we did not use the water in the room that they made available for us to shower and use the toilet. From here the conversation went like follows:

We: How much do you want for the water?
Manager (after thinking for 5 minutes): how much you want to give? ( that is a standard answer in Africa, somehow no one is able to come up with a price for something)
We: 2000cfa ( about 4$)
Manager: impossible water is very expensive in Cameroon
We: OK how much do you want us to pay?
Manager (after 5 minutes of preaching how expensive water is): 10000cfa (20$)
We (already thinking that 4$ for 100liter is already a lot): that is very expensive we can buy bottled drinking water for less than that, How much do you pay for water?
Manager: last month we paid 160 thousand cfa (320$). Water is very expensive in Cameroon.
We: but what is the price per liter or m3?
Manager: I do not know but I have the bill, water is very expensive in Cameroon. I will show you the bill.
We followed the manger into his office and he showed us the bill. The total for the month was about 320$ for 425m3. So we asked him to calculate the price per liter. The poor guy did not have a clue how to do it so we did it for him and told him that the price for 100 liter is only about 0.75$. He just did not believe us, he kept on repeating that water in Cameroon is very expensive. We explained to him that the price per liter is not expensive but that he is just using a lot of water every month and maybe he should have someone check the pipes. He just did not get it and he did not want give us any water. So here we are in Cameroon, the first rain in three month, it rains every day and we will have to either pay for water or find another place for water. (in the end we got water at the gas station without any problems, later in Yaounde we also had to pay for water at the Presbyterian mission, so we are concluding that the Presbyterian churches in Africa think that white people are all like Jesus and that we will turn water into wine and sell it with a huge profit)

So after two relaxing days in Bamenda we started driving to Yaounde. We were taking it slowly ( a lot of up and down the first 50km, not good for the average speed if you drive a unimog). In the evening we drove to a school and there we camped after getting permission. Since it was not windy we even got to play some badminton.

We arrived on Sunday evening in Yaounde, so on Monday morning we could apply for a visa of Gabon. We met another Dutch couple and a Canadian journalist who were going to try to get the visa for Gabon at the border since it sounded to them that getting a visa in Yaounde was too much hassle. We did not want to take the risk to arrive at the border and find out that it is not possible (later we heard that they got the visa at the border without a problem and it was even cheaper) so we went to the Gabon embassy the next day. We were in and out in 2 hours, unfortunately the visa would only be ready on Friday, so we had 5 days to kill before we could move on. We used the time well, laundry, oil change, fuel filter change (all outsourced to an "official" Mercedes service station, to indicate the level of expertise in the service station: Marc had to guide them step by step through the process of changing the fuel filter, cleaning the pre-filter and making sure that no air was getting in the fuel system).
Other than relaxing at the Presbyterian mission, walking through Yaounde and some shopping we did not do a lot.
On Thursday morning while wondering why so many people were doing nothing we remembered it was white Thursday and that Friday would be Good Friday. Even though the Gabon embassy had told us to collect the passports on Friday after 2pm we decided to go to the embassy that afternoon. It was good we did it because the embassy would be closed in the afternoon on Friday and our passports were already ready.

So on Friday we left Yaounde and drove a very good road to the beach town of Kribi where we have been lazing around for the last 6 days. We are staying at a relaxed hotel Tara plage right on the beach, the weather was perfect, the food was perfect and the water temperature was very nice. The area is still not ruined by too much tourism, not sure how much longer it will be like this as the Chinese are building a huge harbor 30km south of Kribi and a 4 lane highway to the new harbor.
Tomorrow the little beach holiday is over and we will continue our tour de afrique. We will probably be in Gabon before the weekend.

 

Blog update 4/12/13. Gabon

It took a little bit longer to get out of Cameroon than planned. At the last moment we decided to take a different road to Gabon. We met a Dutch person at the hotel who had been in Cameroon for over a year and just came back from visiting a national park south of Kribi. He told us that the road through the park is very nice and that the road is very good as it is being used by logging trucks as well. I guess when you have been living in Africa for over 10 years your definition of a good road changes. We looked at the map and we still thought we could be close to the Gabonese border before the end of the day. The first 70km, south of Kribi to Campo took us already over 3 hours. The road was not difficult just a dirt road full of potholes. At least we were in a truck and not like the German couple we met in Campo who had spend 3 hours on the back of a motorcycle taxi doing the same road.
In Campo we had to buy a ticket to be able to drive through the national park and just like anytime you need to get a stamp or ticket in Africa it takes time. We left Campo, had a quick lunch along the road and had 4 hours left to get to and through the park before 6pm. The road was better than the beach road and it was definitely beautifully driving through dense rainforest. We did not see any animals while driving through the green tunnel. Just outside the park we found a wild camp and just when we had parked the car a big rainstorm started and it pretty much rained the rest of the night. When we woke up we the truck was up to the wheel rims in water. When it rains in the rainforest it really rains.

this was our camping spot in the moring:


We did not have any trouble getting out of the mud pool but about a kilometer down the road a fallen tree blocked the road. Fortunately with the winch on Patrick's car we were past that obstacle within half an hour. There were a couple of more places were the road was partially blocked but we did not encounter anything difficult until the road got a lot better.

The road was very well maintained but suddenly there was a slide uphill of about 500 meters that was a complete mud pool. Three trucks and a car were stuck. We got out of the car and checked out the 200 meter bad stretch and decided to give it a try. Fortunately there was still a small space between the first truck and the side of the road and no one else had tried to pass there. Getting stuck next to the truck would mean that the road is completely blocked. The driver of the truck was nowhere to be found and he was on a part of the road that could easily be driven by any lighter car or truck.
With the unimog in 4 wheel drive and in second gear we pulled through the mud without any problems and Patrick's iveco could follow in our tracks without a problem. After this mud stretch there were a couple of other stretches were the rain from the night before had eroded the road or turned it into a slippery piste. I guess we were lucky to drive this road during the little rain season.
Shortly after we reached the tar road and after a pizza lunch at a decent hotel in a nice little town close to the border it was time to start with a typical African border crossing. In two week there are elections in Cameroon and the ruling politicians decided to give anyone who votes for them a job with the police, douane or gendarmerie. At least that seemed to have been the case as in a stretch of 5km before the border we had to stop and show our paperwork twice to the police, customs and gendarmerie. Everyone was very friendly and no one was asking for money but it was just so inefficient, as everyone needed to write down all the information again and again.
The Gabon side was a bit smoother but also inefficient. At the first stop we needed to fill out a form that we needed to keep with our passport. The police could not stamp our passport as that needed to be done in a town 30km further. The carnet got stamped without a problem and the gendarmerie wrote down all our information. By now it was late afternoon so we decided to find a place to camp and drive to Bitam the next day.
The next day in Bitam the police wanted us to fill out another form and make copies off our passport. When we asked why he did not know why, we told him that we already have a visa and he just needs to stamp the passport. In the end we did not have to get copies off our passport but we still needed to fill out the form. So now they had two different forms with the same information. Africans are the master of administration. I can just see in a million years how historians are wondering about all these forms when they dig up our civilization. What the heck are these forms for, did it give people status, were the people addicted to raffles or were they just practicing their handwriting.
After this we drove in two days to Lambarane, a town in the middle of Gabon at the river were Albert Schweitzer lived, worked and started a hospital. On the way to Lambarene we crossed the Equator line.

The town itself was a bit disappointing although it is beautifully situated along the banks and on an island of the Ogooué river. We stayed here one night to give Rosana some time to recover as she was hit by a stomach bug. Fortunately she recovered very fast by just sleeping a lot and some magic pills we got from our French friends.

Rosana then said: It is not too bad to get sick only once for being away from home for 7 months.
Marc's reply: Well, we are not really doing anything adventurous.

Really ???

After visiting Lambarane we had to backtrack about 170km to the turn off to Franceville. The roads in Gabon so far had been very good except for a stretch of 50 km along the river. Now after the turn off the road turned to bone rattling dirt track. Nothing difficult but just a slow going dirt road that had not been graded for a year. However the road was beautiful. All the driving in Gabon has been very scenic and now on our way to Franceville the rain forest was making way to patches of hilly Savannah with gorgeous views. After about three hours of driving 70km we found a very nice spot to camp.

 

The next day we drove all the way to Lastourville, passing the town of Lope and driving along Lope national park. Rosana saw a mandrill and we heard many other monkeys but never got a good look of any of them as they were very shy.

In Lastourville we stayed at the church were were entertained by some African singing and a local soccer match. Even though there were many people, this was the first time that we did not get bothered by anyone or stared at while were sitting in front of our cars. The next day we drove to Franceville on a nice tar road. In France ville we are staying at hotel Masuku were we can use the Internet, do laundry, swim in the pool and enjoy the pleasant climate. It is still humid but it cools down at night and in the hotel bar or on the veranda it is very nice.
Tomorrow we plan on driving towards the Congo border and visit the red canyon near the town of Leconi.