Intro

Africa is a place of longing and as such surely addictive. After a memorable journey through Mali we then made Cameroon the center of our interest. This country does unite all the landscapes to be found in Africa. Deserts, mountains, prairie, savanna, grassland, rainforest and coastline. Furthermore, it is home to countless ethnic groups who are as different as the swaths of land in which they live.

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Tarzan and Jane

Having left the western region, we head south over the cliffy coast of Dschang. The Bamilike grow coffee, coconut and yams. Large herds of cattle cross our path and the landscape becomes flat along the way.

Passing Melong we suddenly find ourselves within a fairytale landscape and nestled within a sea of palms which lie by the Ekom Nkam waterfalls. It is the entry to paradise. As if nature has been created by a most gifted painter, almost too perfect to be true. We can hear the water swooshing and a little further ahead, towards the slope, we can see the waterfalls. To be precise, all we can see at the time is one waterfall. Its female counterpart will be joining during the rainy season.

Our way to the villa Luciole – where we will spend our next two nights – is paved by a remarkably well built tarmac road. Our assumption that there must be one of the presidents leisure residences nearby isn‘t far fetched. One of the former presidents`s ministers who was also in question as successor for the presidency is from the region. During the planning for a road westwards, it was he,who, without further ado, ordered the works to take place just here. A fatal mistake for it would cost him his presidency later on. This is Africa.

The villa Luciole is a paradise on its own. An old colonial main house and some small, tastefully decorated straw huts with wonderfully good beds – a true rarity. This hideaway seems to be a coveted getaway. We even order a bottle of rosé, the kitchen is that good. Our commensals grew up in Cameroon. Their fathers were French and German and used to work for the German Corporation for Technical Cooperation (GIZ).

They found each other again through the internet, after all those years. Nowadays, they live in the U.S. and France. Meeting each other in the midst of Cameroon is like wandering on childhood paths. Like them, most of the travellers in the region have good reasons for being here. People from Europe who’d like to get to know this country are few, too few.

 german version http://voyage-voyage.net/?p=636