cameroon log

Saturday September 13th:

first day in Lomie

Saturday September 13th:

A full day of travel started with 3 hours at the bus depot in Yaounde. The (small) bus held 21 people, children included. It was the size of a large econoline van. I kept my backpack with my precious electronic cargo on my lap to prevent it from getting whacked to bits. The road leaving Yaounde was totally passable. Paved and in pretty good shape. The main arteries of Cameroon are well tended. Both Charlie, and Eric traveled with me, so I had some minders to make sure that I didn’t go astray. The countryside was stunning. Cameroon is one of the richest (resource wise) places I have ever seen. Food pretty much falls from the forest. Things seem to grow well. The red earth is moist from the rains, and it seems easy to till. We drove for 3 hours in the van to Among M’Bang, the junction town between Lomie and Bertua (the regional capital, clocking in at a whopping 8,000 people and apparently an internet café). We paused, and all of the luggage was handed down (including the goat) from the roof where it had been meticulously placed before. It was pretty easy for the locals to spot the White Guy gear and hand it to me. We paused for a few hours in town waiting for the van to Lomie. I was introduced to Olivier the external controller who verifies the books for GECEC. We chatted, while the new van was loaded, and then we were loaded. This (smaller) van held about 17 people. In front we were crammed in 6 across. I was one of those. The road to Lomie was not paved, and it started to get pretty bumpy, but all in all still much better than I had expected. Apparently the rainy season is starting late this year. We drove for about 4 hours through some amazing jungle. The road was wide enough for the logging trucks, but that was about it. I was touching… or rather the jungle was touching me, through the open window. Darkness fell (and I do mean fell.. it goes from daylight to darkness in about 20 minutes here), and we were still about 50km from Lomie. We started to see the hunters returning from the forest with their catch. We stopped a few times to inspect it.. and the driver and Charlie both got Porcupines. The last hour of travel was shared with a few fresh carcasses, and the odor of wild animal. We got to Lomie at around 8:30. A total journey of around 12 hours. Remarkable timing. I was then carted off to Charlie’s house where I went to sleep.