Hi,

I'm in Limbe right now and am trying to figure out my route to Nigeria. I was planning on the Mamfe road, but based on what I've heard and with the amount of rain it's been/will be getting I think it just might not be an option.

What's the best way to get north assuming that it's wet pretty much everywhere? I was thinking of going North-East from Yaounde to Garoua Boulai and then up to Ngaoundere, but I here it's a disaster in the wet as well. Same goes for the Bafoussam to Tibati route... I know I'll be hitting crappy roads, but I'm hoping to limit the depth of the crap..

Thanks all!
David

P.S.
If you like terrible food, stay at the Seme Beach Hotel just outside of Limbe. Last night the special was:
Starter of boiled eggs and beans in mayo.
Main of fresh Barracuda drowned in a mushroom sauce (yes the kind you make with tinned condensed mushroom soup) with tinned peas and soggy fries...
Desert of condensed milked cooked to make 'cream caramel'.
All for the low, low price of 9000CFA. Maybe this time I'll remember to just stick to the fantastic and cheap street food...

__________________
DRad
http://gsguy.wordpress.com

Hey David,

Since you are in Limbe, you can also take the ferry to Nigeria. Not as exciting, but in true rainy season it's a very feasible alternative.

Couple of passenger ferry companies run out of Limbe. You should go down to the port to ask what their departure days are.

If you have a day to kill, you can ride north up the road for a couple of hours to see what shape the earthern road is. If it is wet, it's like pig snot, it dries pretty quick though so if you are lucky and it's dry-ish, you could potentially make it the whole way to Mamfe fairly quickly. This will give you an idea about the feasibility of riding the Mamfe road, without having to backtrack all the way to Yaounde and then around. Having said that, keep in mind that it's a very high rainfall area around Mt. Cameroon so it might not be exactly representative of how the Mamfe road would be which is further north.

And if it doesn't look like fun, just turn around and the ferry option is a fall back position. Overnight and you'll be in Nigeria. There are a couple of ferrry companies, one just past the game farm on your left and the other a few kms out of town, you'll see a port sign. Small boats so there is some hoisting and screaming and the dock workers will want to charge you at both ends. Face value of a ticket is something like 26,000CFA, although you can negotiate them down to about 23. The docks workers will want to charge you 10,000 or so to load, and at the other end, you get to negotiate with the Nigerian dock workers. They will start very high, just laugh and you should be able to get it down to about $10-$20 or so. You'll want to take the ferry that looks to have the easiest on loading and off loading options to minimize hassle.

Ride safe!

Hi!

Thanks for the info. I'll check the ferries out over the weekend (hmmm... is it just me, or did that sound bad?). I figure I'll have to make a try at Mamfe or something before taking the easy route- I really don't like the idea of not riding when the option is there.

I was looking at the actual Mamfe weather forecast (from weatherunderground and a couple of other places). The average makes it 30-40% chance of rain everyday for the next 2 weeks and about the same for thunderstorms, 2 days out of 3...

Ah well, if it was easy, everyone would do it! Or worse- there'd be tonnes of overland 'adventure' companies doing it!

__________________
DRad
http://gsguy.wordpress.com

Hey Dave,

Yep, most riders would agree with your sentiments. If all else fails, you have a fall back plan.

Not sure of the accuracy of the weather forecasts for the region, the localized weather patterns will be the key. You'll be able to tell pretty quickly by riding north on the N8. The pavement ends after a couple of hours and either the road is dry-ish and you'll be fine or it'll be wet and it'll be a nice slippery ride.

The locals in the villages are a great resource, many are farmers and they'll quickly tell you if they expect it to rain in the mornings or not at this time of year. Doesn't sound like you are time constrained, so you can take your time and work your way up. If wet, you'll have to slow down to a crawl and use your feet to keep yourself upright with a few spills along the way, if partially dry it's not too bad and if perfectly dry a dead simple ride and you'll wonder what all the fuss was about. The conditions are widely divergent based on the level of rainfall, here's hoping for a couple of days of sun for you

Hi again,

Well, I ended up taking the ferry. The rain was just too much- the closer I got to Mamfe, the more I was told about how much rain they had gotten and even that some of the Chinese construction teams had stopped working until the sites drained a bit. It still feels a bit like wimping out, but whatever- I done enough mud in the last month or so.

So, the ferry. It's supposed to leave on Tuesday and Friday at 10pm, but always leaves around midnight. it cost 26,000CFA, plus 15,000CFA for the bike and 10,000CFA to load the bike (total about $100USD and they were very busy, so I didn't have much wiggle room- if they aren't busy everything but the ticket will go down). There is no food or water, but in the morning they pass out some buns and some kind of hot milk-like drink. You can hang out on deck, except when crossing the border when the captain especially doesn't want the border patrol to see white faces since they might expect (more) bribes. Around 9am you arrive and really have to work at getting a decent price for unloading. The first offer I got was 30,000N (about $200USD). I got it down by just waiting- my bike was blocking the front of the boat and slowing down the unloading of a huge number of bananas, after some threats they eventually did it for 4,000N (about $25USD).

The loading and unloading of the bike was terrifying- both times I was sure it was going in the water. If the ferry isn't too full of cargo and the bike can go in the back then loading/unloading should much, much cheaper (7 guys unloaded my bike, where if it was in the back I could have ridden it off myself).

__________________
DRad
http://gsguy.wordpress.com