We stayed in Douala for a while. My CRF1000 had blown a fork seal way back in Guinea. There have been some rough roads since then. The oil has pretty much stopped leaking out now. There is just enough coming out to wet the caliper but not enough to run down and drip onto the wheel rim. Despite having new brake pads before leaving the UK the left pads are down to metal and scraping the disc. The right side has been well lubricated with fork oil of course! We needed to get some new seals and pads sent out to us.

The previous weekend was the King's Coronation and consequently Monday was a national holiday in the UK, so the spares, although ordered on Saturday, were dispatched on Tuesday. With overnight delivery from the suppliers, Belinda received them on Wednesday and DHL'ed them the same day. They arrived in Douala on Friday morning which is amazing service on DHL's part.

Sadly that performance isn't matched on the Cameroon side. The customs do everything they can to prevent the timely flow of goods anywhere. We went to the DHL office the package was addressed to. No, it's not coming here said the counter staff. Try going to the airport.

At the airport office various staff looked at each other before a waybill was printed. They then motioned for me to go upstairs to a customs office. The three people inside sat at desks chatting. One motioned to take the paperwork. He put it on his desk and carried on chatting. After a lengthy wait he left and gave it to custom woman 2 to deal with. She put it on her desk and carried on chatting. A long wait later she looked at it, tapped a lot of keys and wrote a number down. 67% import tax.

Clearly extortion so I said no. She referred it back to customs guy 1 when he returned. He made various implausible excuses but eventually told her to recalculate, now it was down to 55% tax. After over an hour of this, that was as good as it was going to get. Downstairs to pay at the money counter. Cashier on her phone ignores everyone. A helpful local guy, who is familiar with the procedure, pushes my paperwork to her. She puts it on her keyboard and ignores it.

I wait and eventually she says it's not on her system. Customs is one system, the money is another etc. A long wait later she takes the 55% tax and adds another 2% to it for her services. Back up stairs to get the payment approved by two obnoxious customs guys in a different office. Neither is interested but one starts wanting more paperwork and shows a document of unknown origin which isn't necessary. I remain calm and through Google translate ask politely for help.

He motions to obnoxious customs guy 2 to do something. OCG2 can't do it so OCG1 comes over after stamping the receipt from the cashier. They motion for me to go downstairs. Back downstairs, next to the cashier is another kiosk. Woman takes all paperwork and copies it. She keeps some and gives me some of the copies and motions for me to go outside. Still no one shows any interest in finding my parcel, I ask a security guard for help using translate on the phone.

He motions for me to take a seat. Nothing happens. I ask him again and he goes off to look for someone. Guard comes back with a thumbs up signal which is hopeful. Sometime later I see a man with a parcel about the size I was expecting. Various scans, form filling and signing later he hands it over. 2.5 hours to collect a parcel. I relay this (somewhat boring) story to give you an idea of how things work out here and why it takes so long and costs so much, to ride through Africa. You can't rush it or change it and extortion, corruption, indifference and lack of work ethic in the government departments is just the way it's done.