The train from was comfortable, I had two seats for myself and there was a lot of space for my legs. However if took longer than I thought: 15 hours. We arrived in Yaoundé after 10am.
The motos waiting at the station didn’t want to go to rond point Nlongkak for less than 500cfa. The solution to such is usually quite easy: walk out of the station compound on the street. The first moto wanted 300cfa and I took it.
On the street just outside the railway station I noticed a 4wd car, Spanish registration, inside a couple and a child. Overlanders. They had a map on the side with a rudimentary sketch showing their path and it ended in Nigeria.
Hotel Ideal by the rond point Nlongkak was listed in Bradt Guide as the only hotel in the range of 10,000cfa. And indeed, a room with fan is 10,000cfa, with AC it’s 15,000cfa. There is also an option to take a “siesta” for 2k and 5k respectively. The area around rond point is quite a lively one.
People on iOverlander rave about an orphanage run by a Polish missionary but it’s on the far outskirts of town.
I lied down on bed and… woke up 6 hours later. Ah, comforts of the journey.
It was already getting dark, I went out. There are plenty of fish barbeque stands around, I sat down at one, chairs and tables outside, mackerel with baton de manioc for 1000cfa. Beer was 750cfa for big lager but then I started hearing the familiar pas de monnaie. The waitresses were as indifferent to customers as they could possibly be without being unfriendly. They handed over small pieces of paper stating the amount they owed and demanded people came the next day to collect due change. It’s good I had some coins on me but they soon ran out.
Three men sat next to me and out of the blue they bought me a big bottle of Guinness. Then a very strong wind started – a sign of rain coming – and we went inside. Inside was already crowded and somehow I fell everyone in the bar is in their 20s.
I left the bar and went back to the hotel but later when the rain became weaker I went out again for a bottle.
I had no problems sleeping again at 11pm.
Monday was supposed to be the day I collect Gabon visa, yet it turned out Monday 20 May is National Day, an equivalent of Independence Day, when the two Cameroons (English & French) finally became one. So not everything would be closed but also traffic would be reduced and streets blocked – there was supposed to be a grand parade in city centre. TV was even showing military exercises, complete with hostage taking situations, helicopters were hovering about town the whole Sunday.
Both Rough Guide and Bradt Guide recommended a Sunday mass in a Catholic church in the district of Ndjong Melen, which is supposedly said in Ewondo language and features drums and singing.
But the mass starts at 9:30am and that was kinda too early for me. I left the hotel around 10am, sat at a street stand when I had delicious avocado salad and instant coffee for 850cfa and I took 1000cfa taxi to the Catholic church of Ndjong Melen.
I was dropped by a church, church of St Paul at a time where the sermon was given, in French. During the sermon those who came late were not allowed to enter the church, there were two men controlling that. Inside the church was very basic, not even half full, on the altar a painting of Last Supper whose participants looked Asian.
The psalm was sang by a woman and there were also altar girls, not just altar boys, dressed in white. There was singing from the choir, with drums but a lot of it sounded very churchy, I did expect something more local. I’m not quite sure if I was dropped by the right church but both guides don’t really tell the location of the church except saying it’s “Catholic”.
After the mass I hanged around the entrance and snapped some photos. Next door was a market of greens. I snapped some photos there too when a woman saw me and started gesticulating towards me. I didn’t pay attention to that, I was not really taking pictures of anyone in particular, just the general place but when I was about to cross the street she followed me grudging that why I don’t ask for permission, that those photos end up on social networks, in newspapers. I showed her the photo on which she featured. She didn’t even recognise the place she said I showed her another market. Obviously she couldn’t even recognise herself on the pic she was so small. I told her that with a phone camera nothing can be done but she said “no, you can do everything, it’s an iPhone I know.” Well, I left her already missing Nigeria, where noone minded photos.
I took shared taxi, 250cfa to the city centre, where the parade would take place the next day. The place was being set up, full of country flags and propaganda slogans, many praising the current president, who’s been in power since 1982.
There is a museum I wanted to see. Blackitude museum. It’s not exactly easy to find and anyway it was closed, would only reopen on Tuesday and it’s only open 12-6pm and costs “3000cfa and more”.
The Yaoundé city centre didn’t look nice. On Sunday it looked half abandoned and seedy, plenty of moneychangers around offering 670cfa for euro. I wouldn’t want to be there after dark.
I found a coffee shop. And a nice one. Maison du café, double espresso 1000cfa, nice interior, friendly staff. They roast their own coffee but they don’t sell it cheap. 500g of arabica is 3000cfa, arabica and robusta 3300cfa, because “robusta is not ours.”
From the coffee shop I took 250cfa shares taxi to supposedly the best patisserie in town, patisserie Acropole. There I splurged on croissant aux amandes, 550cfa but it wasn’t very good, there was no cream inside.
From patisserie I took shared taxi back to Nlongkak, this time the driver demanded 500cfa and he was adamant that was the price. I think he took advantage of me but ok.
Afternoon I went to Mond Fébé, in the North of town. There at the Benedictine monastery there is a museum of Cameroonian art. Taxi to and fro cost 4000cfa and I had to negotiate a bit although it was not too far. Anytime the drivers don’t know exactly the place I am asking for they inflate the price. Quite the opposite of what it should be since it’s effectively me who’s showing them the way.
The monastery is in a very quiet place and it has a guesthouse. It would be nice staying there but only with one’s own transport.
The museum is only three rooms but the artefacts are beautiful, wooden carvings, bronze statues and pipes, very intricate in design and form, ivory objects. There was noone inside, I dropped 1000cfa donation. The last guestbook entry was from a week before.
In the evening I met with Pierre who lives here. Pierre is an English teacher in government school but he lives off private lessons he gives to people. From what he said there is a stage in Cameroon before you get confirmed as a teacher and only then you get paid a salary. Pierre’s been waiting for confirmation for 6 years. I don’t know how he can manage like that. But we had quite a lot of Guinness and even though I slept early, at 10pm, I woke up the next day with… hangover.
There was a lot of uniformed people on the streets until afternoon, the parade, the rond point lies on the road to presidential palace, only a few cars and taxis on the road. But the nearby shop was open, I bought water and pain au chocolat and a few food stands were open too. I had again avocado salad and instant coffee, 850 CFA. The salad is nice – it’s 1.5 of those gigantic avocados in it plus carrots plus cabbage plus tomatoes and onions – but there is quite some mayonnaise involved in the sauce and one has to be careful – people ask for milk in it and the seller pours condensed milk from can over the bowl.
After the breakfast I went to keep recuperating in the hotel. I finished reading “Tomorrow died yesterday” by Chimeka Garricks. It has raving reviews on Goodreads but I didn’t quite enjoy it. It’s about people from Niger Delta who struggle and scheme against oil companies destroying their motherland. I started reading “Behold the dreamers” by Imbolo Mbue, about life of Cameroonian immigrants in USA. It’s advertised as Oprah’s book club choice. Not sure if Oprah works on me.
I went out to print hotel booking in Libreville for my visa. The cheapest hotel I found was $30/night and it has an average rating 2.5 out of 10. Yay. The next one is $50/night. I’m not sure I’ll be in Libreville at all. The 2017 reports from iOverlander mention that someone wasn’t allowed to the embassy in shorts and t-shirt. I should have taken my ripped trousers from Calabar and worn them. The iOverlander reports also mention an immigration man in Gabon who checks the hotel reservation and even calls the hotel to verify it. It doesn’t get any simpler.
In the evening I had both avocado salad for 600cfa and a mackerel for dinner, with baton it was 1300cfa. Large Guinness depending on the joint is 1200-1500cfa per bottle.
Tomorrow I wanna go to Douala in the afternoon but it’s at least 5hours on the 250km journey according to Google. But there is nothing to do in Yaoundé and Douala is sentimental to me and has a very nice marché des fleurs, with some nice masks. My favourite masks at home I bought in Douala.
Coming back to Maman 