Day 70… Saturday 10th June
After a delicious and substantial breakfast we headed to the Cameroon border. I was sorry to leave Centre Touristique de Nkolandom and could have easily stayed longer. Very easy road to the border with very few cars on the road. Eerily quiet for several miles. The border crossing out of Cameroon was very easy. Ushered into a wooden hut with 6 police officers in uniform sitting at their desks. They were friendly and we had no problem getting stamped out of Cameroon despite that fact that we never got a stamp in our passport for entering the country. Carnet stamped out by an official having a pedicure with his feet in a bowl of water. The lady washing his feet left the room while we chatted about football (he was wearing a Manchester city t-shirt) and Allen passed him two stamps. Football talk works wonders with officials. At the Gabon border in 4 separate buildings, we had our yellow fever certificates checked and carnet/passports stamped in. Gabon have recently waivered the visa requirement for G20 countries but the official phoned his boss to check. 2 hours later and all paperwork sorted, we drove to Oyem. Only a couple of police stops on the way and they wanted to look inside Greta and check passports. All very friendly. The rural villages we drove through were very tidy with well maintained grass areas and flowers had been planted. The houses were largely timber construction with small pitched roofs. The community buildings (schools, churches) were painted bright green, blue, yellow or pink. Hardly a passing vehicle on the roads. Very green and tropical landscape with vegetation growing into the roads. Our hotel for the night in Oyem was a little rustic but it had hot water, a bar and restaurant.
Views on Cameroon
- Frequent power cuts.
- Motorcycles are the preferred mode of transport.
- Stunning mountains and lush green vegetation.
- Tropical climate – hot with frequent rainstorms.
- An untapped tourist market in the rural areas where hospitality section is strong.
- City/town life hectic with cars and mopeds beeping, people trying to cross the streets and many police officers.
- Corrupt police officers in Yaounde insisting the paperwork for Greta is incorrect.
Allen’s perspective…
Another joke of a border crossing. On the way we passed a hut with several officers all very jolly and clearly pissed as a fart, waving bottles of wine at us in a cheery manner. Further along we had to have our car details written down to mark us out of the country, odd but all normal, except this was being done by two ladies sitting by a table in the shade underneath a giant earth mover. One of the best bits was the chap at the Gabon border who had checked with his boss about the procedure to let us in, he got his colleague from across the road who was slumped in a chair doing nothing to come over and complete the paperwork. Thankfully the whole crossing was very easy, just a little weird!
As for the accommodation when we arrived… it was certainly not glamorous and the owner / manager was particularly grumpy for some reason.