The centrepiece of the western coastal region is the majestic Mount Cameroon, which dominates from a height of 4,090 metres, an area of natural beauty and interesting traditions in a part of English-speaking Cameroon.
The main peak is called Fako, while the massif is known to the local people as Mongo ma Ndemi (Mountain of Greatness).
The magic and mystery of this volcanic land that is still active permeates everything, from the landscape scenery of the peaks shrouded in an eternal mist, to the atmospheres that show the devout respect of a population for what they still identify as the “chariot of the gods” that can destroy everything. If eruptions of the crater are rare, when they do occur they are not at all merciful and, recently, the lava flow has reached as far as the coast, burying the plantations in which the fertile, volcanic land is rich and crossing the coastal state road.
The indigenous Banyangui and Bakweri people believe that the reason for the volcano’s wrath is the influx of tourists eager to climb to its summit and enjoy the breathtaking views. Every year in February, a competition is held to climb and descend its imposing peak, the ‘Course de l‘Espoir’, a marathon that was initially open to experienced mountaineers and has now become a sports competition with prizes.
Taking the rural road, known as the ‘Tea Route’, opens up lush scenery in which humid tropical forests have given way to vast expanses of tea, hevea and oil palm plantations. It was precisely the richness of the fertile soil that drove Germany, England and France to compete for its control and exploitation in past centuries. On the coast between Bimbia and Limbé, the region’s first trading ports at the time of British colonisation, many legacies are still visible, swallowed up by the tropical vegetation, evidence of the slave trade that was practised in exactly the same way as the palm oil trade or the export of tea.
From the Buea, once you have passed the vast plantations, you take the newly marked path that crosses the Mount Cameroon Park, through a ring of primeval forest, with tall trees in which numerous primates and forest elephants still live. As you climb in altitude, the natural scenery changes, gradually thinning out into highland vegetation, to give way for good to alpine grasslands above 2,000 metres, interspersed with the lunar scenery of dark lava flows, still steaming with sulphur.
An extraordinarily diverse landscape that also includes former minor craters, transformed into small rainwater lakes, including the Barombi Mbo and the coastal Debunsha, not forgetting the spectacular Ekombé waterfalls.
The descent back down to the valley towards the coast is just as exciting, following the lava tracks that have reshaped the landscape into surreal and desolate morphologies, covering what was once lush vegetation in an enormous pitch-black tongue, as far as the very dark beaches that lap the coastal landscape between Limbé and Idenau, an old German port. In addition to the visual emotions that fill the spirit, the trekking is rewarded with a feast of fresh fish, freshly caught by the coastal communities or a good dish of ndolé (a typical plant that loses its bitter taste when cooked) and shrimp harvested by the women’s cooperatives.
