Cameroon

200 indigenous languages.

Islam and Christianity in good harmony amidst a cacophony of indigenous cultures

Football mad, loves its music, friendly with little history of unrest.

Dzanga Sangha Reserve Go to Dzanga Sangha web site

This is a truly once-in-a-lifetime experience - a 90% chance of seeing at close range habituated Western Lowland Gorilla and the opportunity to observe and follow a family for several hours as they move through the forest. This reserve also merits a visit for other reasons: for the excellent chance of seeing forest elephants and buffaloes for the pure beauty of the landscape or to catch a glimpse of the way of life of the various ethnic groups who have inhabited the region for tens of thousands of years.

Dzanga Sangha is actually in The Central African Republic (CAR), but it is most easily accessed from Cameroon, either by road or chartered flight. It is part of a Tri-nation forest reserve between Cameroon, CAR and Gabon.

Limbe and The Limbe Wildlife Centre www.limbewildlife.org

Limbe is the most pleasant town I have ever come across in Africa, and the base town for my trips. All of its clean tidy streets offer fabulous views of the rain-forested foothills to Mount Cameroon, the bay and towering Mt Malabo out at sea. Along the coast beautiful long sandy beaches separate the sea from the forest and mountains.

Limbe is home to one of the most important primate conservation projects in Cameroon - The Limbe Wildlife Centre (LWC) - which rescues gorillas, chimpanzees and all other indigenous primates from the bush-meat trade. The LWC is run by a conservation NGO - Pandrillus - who have another project across the border in Nigeria. Pandrillus will be our hosts for the conservation elements of any trip.

From Limbe :

-2-3 day trek up Mount Cameroon with a chance of seeing groups of forest elephant. Or a day’s trek up mini-Mount Cameroon.
-1 day trek up Mt Etinde or mini mount Cameroon
-Visit the Botanic gardens
-relax on the beautiful beaches
-BBQ fish straight from the sea on Down Beach
-visit the volcanic crater lakes

Pandrillus in Nigeria Go to Pandrillus

From Limbe by speed boat along the coast, through mangrove forests and Cameroon’s wonderful birdlife, to Calabar in Nigeria. Here we will be hosted by Peter Jenkins and Liza Gadsby, founders of the Pandrillus project. Their garden is a mini-LWC - the rescued chimps and drill monkeys arrive here and are socialized into groups before they travel to Afi mountain and the jewel in Pandrillus’ crown - Drill Ranch.

Drill Ranch is at the base of the Afi Mountain National Reserve. It has 8 large forest enclosures where the drills and chimps are able to live in semi-wild conditions, foraging for food on the ground and sleeping in the canopy at night. Looking onto these enclosures are our wonderful eco-lodges with only gauze separating you from the forest. Go to sleep with the cacophony of the forest meters away, and awake early to see, from your bed, the drills descending from the canopy to forage.

From here trek into the mountain reserve where there are unknown numbers of the Cross River gorilla. They are extremely rare and were only recently found to exist on the Cameroon/Nigeria border. These treks will be truly wild - there are no habituated gorillas here waiting for you. We will be tracking gorilla - the likelihood is you wont see one - but the thrill of the possibility, and seeing last night’s nests in the forest environment is truly exhilarating.

Esu - the kingdom at the end of the road.

Back across the border, up to the highlands of the north west province of Cameroon, a ring road weaves its way through the highland fongoms (kingdoms) of the Bamenda region. We strike off the ring road for 20 km when the road stops - at Esu, the ‘kingdom at the end of the road’. With no through road, the outside world rarely visits this ancient Fongom.

Esu is a collection of villages with a population of about 25,000 spread along a lush river valley. The Christian indigenous Esuans live very harmoniously with the Islamic Fulani and Hausa nomadic settlers. The chief is called The Fon and their land is extensive, stretching to the Nigerian border 2 days’ trek away. Esu has its own language. It is a classic example of a self-sustaining forgotten Africa, living without electricity and not so far removed from the days of their Bantu ancestors who were the original Bantu people who ended up colonising most of sub Saharan Africa.

Esu is lush, verdant and fertile with a pleasant dry climate.

In Esu you have a unique chance to experience at first hand the roots of African culture, and indeed all our cultures - the village. My favoured past time is just wandering through, greeting people, having a beer and watching village life. Or you can walk out to the surrounding Fulani cattle herders, take some horses to ride through the hills, or trek to the satellite villages.

Esu is inspiring. You come away slightly changed, in awe to the humility and happiness of the people of Esu, your perspective on life refocussed.

“All of Africa in one country”

Cameroon

Equatorial rain forest, coast, mountains, highlands, savanna, sahel, desert.