Cameroonian Beauty....

Alas.... Photos are not going to happen here I fear. After discovering a mass of viruses on my SD I was able to clean them off but my photo files remain hidden. Perhaps there is something I can do later for my next post in Cameroon. Land of infurating internet!

But let me tell you of the last few days at least. Sadly, this is one place where the photos would have spoken volumes. I took a bus ride to Kribi, in the south and on the coast after two short nights in Douala. Kribi is a nice little town with perhaps only one decent restaurant and some nice beaches. The bus ride was predictable for Africa, full of colour and life, talking, excitment, through some amazingly thick forest - make that true African jungle! So exciting! The only draw back was really the fact that no-one was keen for windows to be open much, and so a fair bit of sweating ensued.
Kribi is in the French speaking part of the country - which in fairness is most of it. The room opened out on the Atlantic ocean, and so the location made up for the plainess of the room and the mosquitoes (I am reliably informed there is little malaria at this time of years by locals. Well, it will prove reliable if I don't get it again!), but not for the price. I am finding accommodation in particular much more expensive here than in other parts of West Africa I have visited. Half the daily budget just disappears to it!
Anyways. I am travelling with a friend now which makes it easier and well, affordable. My budget would be shot if I was on my own! We journied around 8km south of Kribi one day to see the Lobe waterfalls, very pretty and on the beach. Lots of fishing boats around as well, lots of interesting lizards and remarkably large bats also!
Then we took a pirogue ride to what we were told is a pygmy village along the Lobe river. The trees were up to 30 metres high at a guess, and the sounds of the jungle provided an amazing soundtrack to our boat journey. However, the village was small and everyone was out on a hunt! I must an ignoramus, but I thought Pygmies were short of stature. Not at this village...

Yesterday we took a bus back to Douala, shared with chickens and some boxes of fish in the hold that leaked water and now our bags have a wonderful fishy aroma... it's not too bad, definitely faded considerably over night.
We braved the slow moving Douala traffic and now we are in Limbe, near the largest mountain in this region - Mount Cameroon. It pelted rain last night but no mosquito bites = good night. We can see oil rigs not far at all from shore, the hills are amazing but the clouds are low and we can't see far. It is very humid here too. But beautiful.
Also, not so far from the Nigerian border, we are in the Anglophone part of the country - yes, English is the main language. This morning a visit to the Botanical Gardens. Not so amazing really, a few cool trees and interesting plants, but also far too many mosquitoes!
So from here we should see Mount Cameroon tomorrow, and then we are moving about every day or two trying to cram as much into my final week as I can!
hopefully I can update soon! Au Revoir for now!