Take On Africa

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Time to hit the hills.
Time to take on Cameroon’s Highlands.
Top Speed
I cycle out of Bamenda, refreshed after the rest. The road sweeps around the green hillsides and I look out down the valleys into the distance. I am reminded of an English summer on a crisp, clear morning before the sun warms the [...]

Uphill to Bamenda
End of the road
I decided to take the high road, up to the hills surrounding Bamenda. Told that the tarmac road would end at a bridge after 10km and from then on it is ‘a road is under construction’, I was unsure how hard it would be. The last ‘road under construction’ was [...]

The dirt road even turned to tarmac in the town of Mamfe. But Mamfe was disappointing and I didn’t want to stay there. Instead, I cycled a little further to the junction village of Basuo-Akagbe. At this stage I was still undecided whether to persevere with the poor roads and attempt the hill up to [...]

Scene 1
The dirt road from Ekok wound its way round and up and down through the thick, overgrown forest. Everything was big. Trees competing to grow the tallest, to reach out above the canopy and feel the sunlight on their leaves. Hillsides vanished into a mass of green where fast-flowing waters rushed loudly, out-of-sight, cutting [...]

Ever since originally planning this Africa trip I had wanted to see the highlands of Cameroon. The guidebooks say it is beautiful. My map shows the roads as ’scenic’. My map is flat. The countryside is definitely not. But I didn’t have to worry about that in the comfort of my own bedroom in England.
Finally [...]

Just a few photos from Nigeria and Cameroon’s Highlands….

Out of Abuja
From leaving the Abuja, it was nearly 600km and five full days of cycling to reach the Cameroon border. But first, back to Nigeria. I had entered Nigeria with some trepidation. I knew little about the country, but two words above all others I associated with it. Corruption and Kidnapping.
If I had confined [...]

I met many Nigerians in the couple of weeks I travelled through the country. In a country of 140 million (one in every five Africans is a Nigerian), this is not surprising. I met Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, Fulani. I met policemen, customs officers and many other government officials; students, professional engineers, teachers, preachers, international businessmen; [...]

Officials in Uniform
My first full day in Nigeria was a long one. All 161km of it. The day was broken up with checkpoints. 21 of them. But no-one wanted to see my passport. Customs men wore grey uniform. Police were in black from beret to boots with automatic rifle slung across the shoulder. Immigration had [...]

I arrived at the border to Nigeria, wondering just exactly what would be in store for me. I cautiously changed my remaining CFA into naira, the Nigerian currency, expecting to be fleeced on the exchange rate or conned with forgery’s. On the contrary, the rate was good and I have since spent all the naira [...]