The Vuvuzela Diaries

By Tony Webster – Hot out of Gabon!

I am sure this is the first time you have been asked this question, and you probably think you know the answer. Nevertheless, I was lucky enough to join the Vuvuzela Team in their quest to find out the truth…

Ted Grobicki and I set out on the most dangerous part of our visit to the Vuvuzellas (the road to Johannesburg International Airport) on Tuesday 11 May and joined up with the team in Libreville in the early evening. Part of the team had already departed from Libreville airport to prepare the welcoming supper and the remainder had forgotten that Ted and I would have bags AND a box of 30 footballs. This very quickly got us into the camping spirit, in realising that space was at a premium!

When we entered the camp-site in Cap Esterias I was amazed at the lockable gate, the mown lawns and the lapping ocean. I was assured that this was not normal, but a bit of a find for the hard done by campers! When we were presented with two huge fish beautifully cooked, I knew that this was the place for me!

The next night started to bring us down to earth, we could not find the Auberge Hubert in Ndjolé that we had been recommended – pity, as an Auberge sounded just right for me. So instead we bush camped up in the hilltops! Nevertheless, the Cordon Bleu cooking continued, this time with a perfect Banana loaf as the ‘pièce de resistance’.

On an early morning walk the following day we noticed that we had been visited by an elephant during the night (well it had been a hundred metres or so from us). On this discovery Andrew showed his spirit and decided to track it. This was unsuccessful due to the thick forest but it did at least warn us that elephants were around – we should have remembered this when the next day we spent the whole day in Lope National Park, with a guide, trying to find some elephants, only to catch a glimpse of them as the sun went down. However, nature has a funny way of taking you by surprise… We had decided to camp at the Lope Hotel Annex and, with just Paula, Laura and I setting up for supper that evening, we were again reminded of the presence of forest elephants. About 30 metres from the camp an ENORMOUS trumpeting deafened us. Paula admitted that her heart had stopped and I was glad that I had just been to the bathroom! In the silhouette of the dim light in the distance we could see the giants pulling up the vegetables in the garden of a local’s house. They had obviously been annoyed by our torches flashing in their eyes!

You may ask why only Paula, Laura and I were present at the tents – well that is another story, but let me begin! The remainder of the team were in the process of being duped. Not a sensible thing to do with two Accountants, one Actuary and a negotiator for Harmony Gold! It all began when we agreed up front that the fee for using a mandated guide to help us around Lopé National Park would be CFA10 000’. On our return, this was all forgotten and the guide’s fee increased eight fold! The re-negotiation took 2 hours after the trip as the night enfolded around the team and was resumed the next morning for another hour. We got a substantial improvement but we never returned to our originally agreed fee and we resolved to get things in writing the next time! So the financial boffins were off negotiating whilst we were being visited by the elephants. A cell phone call to them (the negotiators and not the elephants) got them returning at high speed but once again the elephants eluded the team as a whole!

For the 3rd day in Lopé we ventured out on a forest walk near the camp of Mikongo and this time we did not see forest buffalo, monkey (Putty Nosed, and Moustached) nor sitatunga (bushbuck) as we had the previous day, but we did see a Gorilla nest – the sleeping place of a gorilla from the night before. Unfortunately that was as close as we got.

But we did have a beautiful swim!

On Sunday the cars parted ways. The Grobicki’s headed off to Lambaréné, and the Webster’s stayed put; chilling out, fixing things and spending the afternoon in the pool at the Lopé Hotel. Cocktails in the pool seemed like the order of the day!

After spending some time giving away footballs the following day saw us all in Lambaréné and taking in a trip around the Albert Schweitzer Museum. Dr Albert Schweitzer, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953, spent many years in Lambaréné at a hospital that he established to fight Leprosy.

Monday night was our first hot shower in a week! We were in the grounds of the Mission of the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception – a wonderful place to camp on the lawns of the school. We were welcomed by the friendliest nuns who are doing an amazing job educating young people in their mission on the side of the river. That night we had a delicious meal of local fish and plantain which had been grilled by the side of the road – yummy.

Tuesday saw us taking a pirogue trip down the Ogooué River and visiting what was once a beautiful hotel on an island. There are still drinks in the bar and cushions on the couches but no guests. It has now become a skeleton of it former self and is being engulfed by the forest having been on the market for 2½ years following the death of its proprietor. It is sad.

It seems that Gabon has not yet got its policy for tourism aligned with its desire to protect their species. The authorities seem to want to push their national parks for game viewing but have not yet resigned themselves with the fact that to do this guests need to be abe to see the game! There are evidently troops of up to 1 300 mandrills in Lopé but we did not see any! There are thousands of Forest Elephant and we saw 3 very briefly. They have a beautiful hotel on the bank of the Ogooué River with a beach and a view to die for, but when we were there they had about 5 guests! We heard the Chimpanzees but unfortunately we never saw any. Then there is Mikongo Conservation Centre, established in the Lopé national park in 1999 under funding from, initially, EDG (European Development Group), and latterly, ECOFAC (Conservation et Utilisation Rationnelle des Ecosystèmes Forestiers en Afrique Central), supported by the European Commission (EC) Funds for Development and recently by additional support and research co-operation from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL). We met with a researcher from a branch of the ZSL who told us that the habituation of a Gorilla family at Mikongo in the forest was abandoned as they realised that to do this, and then protect the family, it would require an investment in staff for up to 30 years. These staff would be required to continuously follow and guard the gorillas against poaching. Needless to say that although research is still conducted from Mikongo it is now closed to guests! In Rwanda and Tanzania the authorities have made this commitment and tourism is booming. Well, I will now get down off my soap-box, but with Gabon’s largest source of foreign currency, oil, due to expire in 2020 they are now left with logging and tourism. I think that their creation of 13 national parks is admirable, but if they want to secure a revenue stream to support the parks then the tourists will need to get a bit more than just trees to attract them!
By the way, coming back to the title of this blog, we were never sure of the answer as the only person who could provide it to us (and whose name shall remain in the depths of the forest and only be known to those present) fell into a hole in the ground in the centre of a gorilla nest and disappeared!!

Thanks to the Vuvuzela’s for their invitation to a trip which I thoroughly enjoyed and the memory of which I will treasure forever.

Finally, we had made it to that terrible road leading from Nigeria into Cameroon… the road to end all roads, complete with bottomless mud pits, drenching rain and belligerent local tribes… the road we had all been talking about for months in London. Oh how disappointed we were! After a slow but friendly border crossing over the beautiful Cross River we were met by a pristine, dry, dirt road which meandered through the forest as if a grader had just smoothed it over in anticipation of our arrival (in fact, we were in luck – the rainy season was late and only two months earlier a grader had indeed smoothed a new passage through the dense forest).

Later that evening on the 24th of April we arrived in Mamphe where we purchased 3rd party car insurance covering our route all the way to Congo since we were no longer covered by our ECOWAS insurance bought in Senegal. Then we settled down at the restaurant of the Data Club Guest House, where the very friendly staff were accustomed to overlanders camping on their grass. Before long a tremendous thunderstorm lit up the night as we were enjoyed our first Chicken Deja – a delicious meal of fried chicken and plantain with chopped vegetables and a mayonnaise sauce.

The drive to Buea the next day was very scenic and without incident despite the relatively poor state of the roads. On arrival at the Presbyterian Guest House we met up with Charlie who was joining us for the remainder of the trip and the eight of us headed off into town and found a great place for a few beers and tasty Suya (grilled beef/goat brochettes). Later that evening we drove up to the offices of the Mount Cameroon Ecotourism Organisation where plans to climb the mountain began in earnest!

We set off mid-morning of the 26th and, with one porter per person and a guide, it seemed that the hike up West Africa’s highest mountain (4,095 meters) would be the proverbial “walk in the park”. However, from the outset the going was tough as we walked straight up from Buea to Hut 2 where we spent the first night. In a matter of hours we had walked 7 km and climbed to 2,800m. The hike was exquisite as we first climbed through lush forest before popping out well above the clouds into open grassland with rocky volcanic outcrops. As exhausted as we were we found it incredible that our porters had lugged not only our own bedding, food, water and warm clothing but theirs too up the very steep trail, often choosing to carry our packs on their heads rather than on their backs! Needless to say that after a (seemingly) delicious hot meal of Soya mince and smash we clambered into our warm sleeping bags whilst a thunderstorm brewed on the peak above us.

A huge pot of hot porridge, swirled with honey, gave us the sustenance to continue our steep ascent of the mountain the next morning. The landscape became colder and more barren as isolated trees became bushes, bushes became shrubs and then shrubs became dark, crumbling rocks. The weather was ominous with clouds obscuring both the sun above us and the land below us. After four hours of climbing, interspersed with frequent stops to catch our breath, we reached the summit. It was a momentous occasion and although this wasn’t the highest of peaks it had nevertheless been an incredible challenge to climb the mountain in such a short space of time and with no training at all! Now all that lay before us was the decent which in itself would prove to be a challenge. We spent very little time on the summit as the weather turned ugly and very quickly we found ourselves in a cold, gusty storm. Our guide hurriedly ushered us off the top and down a different trail. We descended quickly and thus we were able to enjoy lunch in warm sunlight at 3,000 meters with, bizarrely enough, a thunderstorm brewing below us! We descended through this storm, getting thoroughly soaked on the way, and then past the crater which was produced by the eruption in 2000 (Mount Cameroon is a fairly active volcano with 7 eruptions in the last hundred years). We skirted the crater’s black crumbling edge, peering over into the pit below, with the unfamiliar smell of sulphur filling our nostrils. As darkness encroached we arrived at Mann Springs where we spent our second night. We were absolutely exhausted! We had hiked 20 kilometres including a climb of 1,300 meters and a descent of 1,900 meters.

Before we began our hike back towards Buea on the third day we first joined our porters in a traditional ceremony to initiate one of the porters who was climbing the mountain for the first time. The locals show respect for the god of Mount Cameroon so as to avoid eruptions which signal that the god is angry. The ceremonious dance involved us all standing around a circle of ash, a fern-leaf grasped in each hand, whilst the young porter danced like a chicken-cross-peacock in the middle. At the end of the dance we all jumped up, threw our fern leaves over our backs and erupted into tremendous laughter and applause for the rather embarrassed looking young porter. Then came our turn to placate the god… Fortunately for the rest of us who were too embarrassed to dance, and for the entire town of Buea, Paula had the courage to step into the circle and perform the same dance with so much gusto and enthusiasm that there surely can’t be an eruption from Mount Cameroon for many many decades to come!

Although the final hike of 17km was more undulating than the previous two days it still took its toll on our rather frail bodies. We spent a lot of time walking precariously over the rocky lava flow from the 1999 eruption and then we were back down into the forest for the final stretch. It had been a very challenging three days in which we had hiked 44 kilometres and climbed 3,100 meters. So we retreated back to the Presbyterian Guest House to recuperate before heading to Limbe the next day. That evening we enjoyed another delicious traditional chicken deja and beer at a local restaurant, The Duke and Harvey, in celebration of the fact that we had now completed a significant milestone in our journey towards South Africa.

Keeping with the tradition of the trip, we celebrated Neil’s birthday in 2 phases!! We saw his birthday in (not quite, but close!) with a South African Braai followed by apple-crumble ‘cake’ on the Wednesday night. The next day, was the actual BIG day and Mik organised a breakfast with muffins. ( a real treat for us travellers!)

As if this wasn’t enough, lunch was followed by a chocolate cake courtesy of Shoprite, where Neil blew out candles that Mik had bought all the way from London!

The cherry on the top was the Brewery tour that afternoon- not a bad spot to spend your 29th B.day hey Neil! It’s tough in Africa!

Two months into our trip and it really does not take much to impress us! So when we arrived at the Green Turtle Lodge we were blown away! Palm trees, white sand, beautiful blue sea and a bar made from a large pirogue – what more do we really need? The lodge is run by a young and incredibly friendly English couple (Tom and Jo) who are aided by their New Zealand friend, Steve, and it can be found just past Dixcove. Our routine over the next six days mostly revolved around the delicious meals served under bamboo umbrellas dotted in the sand around the lodge: breakfasts of muesli and French toast soaked in honey with fried banana’s; lunches of sandwiches, paninis, pizza’s, salads and thick-cut chips; dinners of fresh swordfish and kingfish!

Why not have another G&T?

We broke our routine of eating, sleeping and reading to explore the surrounds. To the east we could walk for a good hour on the beach without seeing a single person. And a 20-minute walk to the west led to the local village, mangrove swamps and an old fort perched on the peninsular. We took a pirogue ride with the locals up into the mangroves and walked to a secluded beach. We were also fortunate enough to have Danielle’s parents, Alain and Helen, join us from South Africa for the week. Not only did they bring a welcome addition to our topics of conversation, but also supplies of chocolate which made Easter feel much more homely!

We were keen to continue handing out footballs and, according to Tom, the local team (who had recently renamed themselves to the “Green Turtles”) would be a worthy cause. So one afternoon we jumped onto the back of the Green Turtle bakkie and headed out to football practise! To get to the field we walked through the bustling village to the screams of “Obruni” (white man) from the local children who seemed to be congregating in their hundreds around us (and in particular Paula, who seems to have a knack of attracting cute little children!). We delivered the football and then joined the Green Turtles to play a gruelling hour of football – when we weren’t tackling each other on bare earth we were hunting for the ball in thick grass!

On our last evening we played one finally volleyball game with Bash and Justus (two Americans we met who are travelling our same route to SA by motorbike) and then bid farewell to the Green Turtle. On our way to Accra we stopped at the town of Elima to visit the Elima Fort which is the second oldest fort in Ghana. Originally built by the Portuguese, the fort was used to imprison slaves under the most horrific conditions before they were shipped out of West Africa. We were taken on a detailed tour and our guide excelled himself in offering a profound and insightful analysis of the fort’s past. The history and beauty of the Ghanaian coast certainly left an impression on us, and we were sad to move on.

Unfortunately the time came to leave African Safari, the lodge just outside of Mako. We had spent two fairly luxurious days lounging by the pool and taking in the wildlife around us. Hippo’s grunted below us in the Gambia River whilst monkeys fought in the trees on the opposite bank. It was the 10th of March and we were heading into Mali. As usual, we were taking the scenic route…

From Mako we drove East and crossed the border into Mali near Saraya. It was a scorching hot day, definitely the hottest yet on our trip. Nevertheless, the border crossing was pleasant enough and immediately we felt very welcomed by the Malian people. From Saraya we drove towards Kenieba. From the various maps we had available to us (MapStudio, Michelin, Lonely Planet, Rough Guide and Bradt guide) we were aware that there was a piste leading over the escarpment and towards Kasama. However this route certainly wasn’t on Garmin’s Tracks for Africa and so we relied on many locals and passers by to point us in the right direction. At one point we had a group of people telling us to go in different directions, an indication as to just how scenic our route was! We headed north on the road to Mahina and eventually we found a road to Batama at the bottom of the pass. From there we began the challenging trundle up the steep rocky escarpment. This was a road solely suited to off road vehicles (and the occasional local on a motorbike)! Near the top of the escarpment we stopped to set up camp for the night. We had an incredible view encompassing the small village of Batama and the planes beyond. In fact, it was the perfect moment for Paula and I to whip out some ice cold G&T’s!!! Paula had snuck off to buy them earlier in the day and we had cunningly hid them in the bottom of the fridge. Like manna from heaven, they went down “like a home-sick mole”!

We set off early on Thursday, 11 March, and continued up the pass. At the top of the plateau we passed through the village of Kassama where we handed out a football (in fact one of the signed footballs from our farewell party!) to some very excited kids. Although the road had levelled out it was still rough going as we travelled from village to village. As we passed through one village we heard the sound of drums and singing and we decided to jump out the cars to investigate. Before we knew it we had been swept up in a colourful wedding celebration! The girls were pulled into the centre to dance while I was handed a large drum to beat! Again the Malian’s warmth and hospitality amazed us!

The road improved as we arrived at the dam wall on the north of Lake Manantali. We continued on through Kita and then turned off the road to find a spot to camp for the night. As we drove through the bush we came across a group of young boys playing soccer with a small, pap football. We decided it needed replacing and so we jumped out our cars, pumped up a new ball and soon we were playing a dusty game of soccer!

We arrived in Bamako on Friday the 12th of March and took our first look at the magnificent Niger river. Our first stop was at a shopping “centre” to stock up on some much needed supplies. We then drove on to Camp Kangaba which is an excellent campsite south of the Niger and about 10km out of town. We had sundowners on their beautiful deck which is set high up above the campsite.

We used Saturday morning to try to establish the strange clunking noises that were coming from the underside of both cars. The camp manager kindly called a mechanic out but even he was perplexed. Eventually we resigned ourselves to the conclusion that it was just worn-out bushes that were causing the problem, but we weren’t convinced. In the afternoon we took a worthwhile trip to Musee National which houses a stunning collection of textiles, masks, statues and archaeological artefacts. We also visited the Fetish Market in town which went some way to explaining the lack of wildlife in any of the parks we had visited thus far. The stalls held a stomach-churning array of medicines and cures including hyena heads, dried chameleons, snakes, chimpanzee hands and feet and dead parrots.

That evening we thought we would try get a taste of Mali’s renowned music scene and so we headed off to Exodus, a bar/restaurant on the sides of the Hippodrome horse racing track. The food was decent and the live music was entertaining albeit a bit short. The Hippodrome itself though provided a lot of entertainment as we watched young boys race horses bareback around the incredibly dusty track.