Saturday, April 28, 5:30 am:
I wonder why we had this crazy idea to enjoy this weekend for four days to climb Mt Cameroon. By dint of view from our window, I told myself it would be nice to see our view from the summit.
I wonder why we had this crazy idea to enjoy this weekend for four days to climb Mt Cameroon. By dint of view from our window, I told myself it would be nice to see our view from the summit.
road to Buea, therefore, with a friend in Yaounde at the foot of the volcano to take a guide and 2 porters and yes ... we must take with us all our food for three days of hiking and the water, plenty of water. The porters take our bags (15kg each regulatory ...) and even when we wear our little bags with needed for the day.
At 9am, we begin the ascent from 1000, the goal is the first refuge at 2800m.
We go through the forest, beautiful, very dense.
After a lunch break, well deserved, we leave the forest, the mountains to attack more seriously. That's when the one that realizes that the first party in the forest was a little warm-up.
The slope is very steep and it is very difficult to impose a steady pace, we walked some sod and very rugged volcanic rock.
Our porters and our guide are impressive, they walk in tongue and carry our bags over their heads (like what the chercheurs qui ont conçus nos sacs de randonnée, super ergonomique, confortable, léger, en toile super résistante se sont bien planté!!)
Arrivé au premier refuge, la vue est magnifique, limbé, la mer, toute l'embouchure du Wouri, Douala, Malabo et de l'autre coté, le Mt Manengouba un autre volcan de la région. Il faut d'ailleurs que l'on se renseigne sur le volcanisme dans la région, pour mieux comprendre l'alignement de tous ces volcans.Nous avons emporter avec nous une bouteille de vin pour célébrer notre première journée de marche et pour accompagner nos raviolis en boite...on est français ou on ne l'est pas!
Nous nous are attacked by mice that night, they nibble my bag to eat the cakes that I kept inside ... mice live here too Tourism!
The next day, the start is at 7am, after 4 hours of walking we reach the top, lots of wind and fog, but satisfaction is there. 4090m, only to Kilimanjaro in Africa is better. We're a few minutes the men of the highest hilltop in West Africa ... awesome!
The hardest and most beautiful also yet to come: the descent. We descend the other side of Mt into a valley filled with a multitude of craters or less recent.
We walk through ancient lava flows.
The scenery is magnificent and change in a few hundred meters, sometimes volcanic, savanna and sometimes also a vision of Auvergne somewhat lower (strange to find in Africa, at almost 3000m altitude craters alongside verdant craters still active).
The walk is long and difficult, 10h in the day (from 2800m to 4090m and 2400m at the summit for the second shelter), but our knees when we begin to let go, we come near the eruption of 1999 where 3 craters are still assets. May have felt the heat and see the bottom of one of the craters in the image rippling effect of this heat. A strong smell of sulfur is released and you can see some fumaroles ... all our sorrows are forgotten.
We're on another planet, the moon can be. Landscape unimaginable to overlook a sea of cloud, with the distance that emerges Malabo and ending up in sand dunes and black volcanic slag.
The second shelter is on the edge of the forest, we sleep in a hut of wood and straw. Knees and feet are hurting us.
The next day we hit the road at 7am through the forest of Tarzan. We make our way through vines, tree ferns and giant trees.
After 6 hours of walking we finally arrived in Buea exhausted, but happy to have seen such things and to have conquered the summit.
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