Kribi is one place in Cameroon where you can experience beaches. The other place is Limbe & Idenao under Mt Cameroon – these are even more picturesque with the mountain backdrop and dark lava beaches – but at the moment I think these places are no-go due to the current situation in English part of Cameroon.
I took moto to the Transcam agency. The bus was just about to depart and even though there were seats available, the guys handling the bus told me to get into the next bus as I’d have to sit in those folded seats in the middle – and they are packing again five people in a row. Oh well. The fare to Kribi is 2000cfa.
I had rice and beans for breakfast, a woman was serving food right there at the agency stand. I miss bissap and ginger juices in Cameroon. They are there but people don’t sell them on the streets like in other Francophone countries. Pity.
It took a while to fill the next bus up, I got a seat in front.
The traffic out of Douala was heavy and there seem to be some roadworks, expanding the narrow highway, if it can even be called highway.
It went slow until Edea, which is roughly halfway between Douala and Kribi. The landscape around was incredibly green.
There are many hotels in Kribi, most of them not too cheap, it’s a popular weekend getaway for both Douala and Yaoundé peoples.
I looked through Jumia Travel and saw an auberge quite centrally located and cheapish, at 7000cfa. Obviously all the beach places were in the range of 20k-30k. Also, those places are usually our of town and I end up confined to their facilities, which are never really too nice for what you pay.
Motos in Kribi invariably cost 200cfa. I took one – I’m getting spoilt by them, taking them instead of walking – to the auberge, Le Fouquet. The auberge wasn’t too bad, on a busy road, the prices were 3500-5000cfa, nice, but it didn’t have electricity. Also its location wasn’t where Google Maps showed it should be and on the doors there was a different name.
Apparently the auberge goes by two names and there are two of the auberges under those names. The receptionist walked me to the other one, on an unpaved road just around the corner. There there was electricity and the prices were 3500-6000cfa.
Not quite sure what the difference between a room for 5k and 6k, of course I took the one for 5k. The room was dark, had a fan and shower with running water, toilet had to flushed with bucket, toilet seat situation – as usual. No towels given.
I went out to eat. I asked for ndole but instead I was directed to a Senegalese restaurant. There was not much choice there in terms of Senegalese food, I took what was called Senegalese rice (it turned out to be thieboudienne style, small piece of friend chicken, a carafe with water, 2000cfa.
As I walked back to the auberge my hawk eyes noticed… tiny coffee cups. It can’t be! But there it was, Cafe Abdou, a man with lots of tea packs and a small espresso machine. Life just became sweeter. Cameroon does its food very well but with all that coffee in shops there are no coffee stands Ivorian or Guinean style. Shame. I got my coffee, robusta of course, in a cup that felt too big and the coffee too diluted. I asked for one more in the smallest cup available. It still tastes a bit bland but anything is better than Indian instant coffee. It’s 100cfa per small cup. I’d be a frequent guest of Abdou.
It was getting towards sunset, I walked towards what seemed would be direction beach. Some boys asked me to buy them a football, theirs was getting flat. When I realised I was going actually away from the beach, it was already getting towards the sunset, I took moto to the town beach. The beach was very small and there were rocks in the water. People came out to see the sunset, which was beautiful, blue and pink.
What can one eat in Kribi for dinner. Roasted fish of course. Moto took me to a débarcadère, where women roast fish that is brought by the fieshermen to the beach across the road. Ah, the poisson du mer. I had a barracuda, 4000cfa with miondo, although it took me a while to get to that price, I even started looking at other women’s fish. The woman I bought it from told me later that fish is expensive and that price was a cadeau for me and the next day I should pay 4500cfa. A large (0.65l) bottle of Castel beer was 800cfa. The fish was delicious.
I took moto back to town which at night is a busy one, bar after bar, plenty of roasted meat skewers and of course more fish. I had a beer on one bar, then a beer in another. There were women offering their company but unfortunately there is a poster in my auberge detailing the fines paid when doing prostitution or even pimping, apparently both are illegal in Cameroon. Worry not, outside the gate of the auberge at night there were always 2 or 3 woman standing and calling out the clients.
I had a gizzard and kidney skewer. It’s called soya here, similar to Nigeria’s suya, but Nigeria does it better: there it is fresh from the roast fire, here it was cold and felt as if it was ready since morning.
Coming back to Maman 