Photos

I just come back from a short trip to the north-west of Cameroon. It was an attempt to complete the "Ring Road" anticlockwise tour starting from Bamenda.

This tour about 400 km north-east of Douala was very interesting. I met very different things from Douala.

First, there is a spectacular climate change since we are facing a nice dry climate. In the evening, the temperature may drop to 12-15°.

Second, We were not stopped a single time by the police asking for money ! Instead, people on the road were nicely waving or smiling at us.

Third, this is a very different lanscape from Douala. Altitude is between 900 and 1800m high ranging from ricefields to sugarcan fields. Most of the road is made of this red texture you can see. You may encounter many waterfalls along the road.

Populations are quite mixed over there. You have a mix of Bamileke people, Nigerian ones and Bororos pastors leading caws and catles on the hills. Bamileke people are extensively growing vegetables in the lower part of the Ring Road. Nigerian people are everywhere since the border is quite close. And you can meet Bororo in the most remoted rural areas.

Quite strangely, we drove through many places where people fired the fields, the prepare the ground for new cultures. Even in so-called "protected reserves" like "Kimbi Fauna Reserve" in the northern part of the Ring Road we saw large pieces of land burning like you can see in this picture.

We also visited a strange place called Nyos lake where military people where burning a complete hill just to keep their installations cleaned...