This is part of the Seventh section of our around the
world trip.
Complete Trip Overview & Map
Coming from Gabon or read our previous visit
to Cameroon
4/1/01 Officials here a breeze, so different from their compatriots a few kilometres away. No customs check and we were able to avoid all police blocks, about 10, on the road to Yaounde. Perhaps the requirement for drinking money has receded since New Year.
5/1/01 Computer usage is catching on fast in Africa. Not
the computer at home that we know nor the level of understanding of the
available uses and workings that most young westerners would utilize a computer
for. But for internet and emails sent from computer centres where in Yaounde
there is one with over 50 computers (space for 50 more) most occupied continually
by local working young people sending messages home, or to different countries,
or cities, applying for jobs, sending love messages, trying to find
someone overseas to sponsor their visit to the west,
or just trying to find out what the internet is about. At $US1.50 an hour
it is not cheap for locals but a justifiable expense judging by its popularity.
We spent hours here updating our web site and watching the comings and goings.
A very economical internet for us.
6/1/01 In less than three weeks the really bad pollution in Bamenda had become intolerable. Now we could not see 300 metres and still they are burning the dry grass and the traffic is pouring out more into this basin in the mountains. Not till the wet arrives will its beauty return according to the locals.
7/1/01 Awoke snuffled and with a sore throat to more of
the worst pollution we have seen and decided to leave. The first 40 km
of the road out recently sealed but then it dropped off the mountain with
truck swallowing potholes and deep gutters as it wound its way down. Four
hours later and
we had done only 30 km (as bad as anything in Congo but
dry here), before it flattened out and onto Ekok at the Nigerian border.
Move with us to Nigeria
or go to our next visit to Cameroon
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Story and photos copyright Peter and Kay Forwood, 1996-
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