Saturday, December 15, 2007

Paradise Found

After another long ride on half tarmac, half not tarmac roads from Yaounde, and stopping along the way to eat lunch at a roadside cafe where we tasted Boa snake and crocodile - both looked great on the plate in some black sauce but neither tasted of anything in particular - we made it to Kribi. We found a wonderful place to stay in, the Tara Plage Auberge on the edge of the forest with a large beach all to itself, hammocks hanging from trees and one step from the shore bungalows to sleep in and immediately jumped into the warm sea, Palli and I in our bike gear (they needed washing anway) and all decided that we should stay there forever!
Well, at least 2 days anyway....
In between relaxing, swimming, drinking and eating the best shrimps ever we managed to fit in some filming for Courier and a wonderful canoe trip up the river Lobe to visit a Pygmy village. On the edge of the river in the forest we met 20 or so Pygmies who performed some traditional dances for us with songs and drumming and after giving them some cigarettes, sweets and some money of course we took our pictures with them (even I looked tall!)
We then made our way back down the river and paid for our canoe ride, where we got totally overcharged (8000 CFA per person instead of 5000) walked back along the beach feeling rather annoyed but passed the beautiful Lobe waterfalls, which are small falls crashing down into the sea.

Sadly Monday arrived too soon and reluctantly we packed up our stuff, left paradise behind behind and rode away to reach the border of Gabon. (After being told that we would need to collect the Gabonese visa in Yaounde on Monday we luckily managed to pick it up on friday after a 3 hour wait at the embassy before leaving for Kribi. )

We didnt make it to the border at Ambam on Monday as the road east from Kribi to Ebolowa (170 kms) through the stunning rainforest was nothing but thick wet mud.... the rainy season had just ended in Cameroon. We spent many hot sweaty hours splashing through deep puddles and pushing my bike out of the mud a few times.... my bike chose this day to have some problems with not starting and cutting out alot.
At one point the road had completely washed away and while some local men seemed to be doing their best trying to pour dry mud into the gap we had to negotiate our way around it, i dropped my bike coming a bit too fast back onto to dry mud, but unharmed except for my pride we carried on ready to see what was next.
Next was an overturned lorry stuck in thick mud, with many other lorries backed up behind it.
The many people standing around, who were waiting for a crane to come from Yaounde and pull out the lorry, all assured us that other vehicles had been passing between them for the last 2 days with "no problems" at all!!!!! Ha ha ha, if there is one phrase thats really starting to irritate me on this trip its "no problem".
But not one to give up easily and after watching both the jeep and Palli pass through, the jeep needing a push, I rode on.
Almost through the gap between the lorries when i got stuck in a hole. Palli rushed to my aid and we managed to turn the front wheel back in the right direction, i revved hard and with Palli pushing we got the wheel out of the hole only to get it stuck again ontop of a mud ridge with the back wheel stuck on top of another behind...and my legs dangling down in the middle. In one of those laugh or cry moments i laughed, gave in and let Palli take over. A second later he manouvered my bike out of the mud and we carried on breathing sighs of relief.
Enjoying splashing through puddles by the end of the day and covered in mud once again we made it to Ebolowa (meaning 'rotten monkey') for the night and cleaned off with bucket showers...yes, that's cold dirty water in a bucket style!
Tuesday, we set off early for the border having been promised tarmac roads and crossed the border easily. We were asked for a carnet for the vehicles, but admitting we didnt have one for any vehicle the customs man was not sure what to do about that, so he just let us go, no fine no questions asked and we made it to Bitam, the first town in Gabon in time for lunch.
Totally proud of ourselves for reaching our final country on this adventure we celebrated with large cokes, steak and chips!
We continued through the rainforest to Mitzic where we found a rather dingy hotel to stay in, rather unaptly named 'Bel Air', with no running water, no food and some rather nasty looking bugs in the rooms.
Wednesday, and we continued towards Libreville crossing the Equator again- a tough day - no breakfast or lunch much to speak of, over exhaustion of the last 3 months starting to hit me and the road varying between bad and very bad. But we did stop for over 3 hours in the sweltering heat in the forest and film the last scene for Courier - with some rather hilarious moments of endlessly waving flies away from our faces.
With Libreville only 100 km's away we spent the night at a very nice friendly hotel called 'Les 4 Freres' in Kango. The boss Paul made us feel very welcome and even gave us some fresh shrimps for free with our dinner.
Slept, fed and watered we set off for the last ride to Libreville, which was a terrible road and included a stop and a fine by the police for not having local insurance for the vehicles....oops, it ran out a week ago. But the price rapidly dropped from 450,000 CFA when we said we only had 40,000 left in our pockets, which was not a lie and they took the 40 looking very pleased with themselves, and waving it proudly at trucks passing.
We got away lightly all things considered, and we have not had to buy a Lasse Passe for any of the vehicles in the last 3 countries and been extremely lucky that we have not had one fine or bribe throughout the whole trip....well Palli gave his sunglasses to one policeman and Haukur gave a couple of postcards from Iceland but thats it, not bad really.
So if you are not exhausted yet by the length of this blog, i'll just let you know that we are in Libreville, at Hotel Bananas, looking into selling the jeep and bikes or shipping the bikes home (not having much luck so far) and hopefully once we have all this sorted out we can go to the Mikongo centre at the Lope Nature reserve and trek through the jungle, before getting on a plane home on the 23rd.
But right now we are all feeling extremely pleased and proud of ourselves for making it this far. Since leaving Morrocco we have had no major problems - no breakdowns, no accidents, and amazingly no punctures all trip, we have all been ill only once with stomach bugs and apart from being covered in insect bites we are all still standing!
Unbelievable!! What an adventure!!

4 comments:

Mum & David said...

You must be absolutely exhausted but what a great acheivement. Congratulations to you all.

I expect you all have very mixed feelings. Great excitement at having made it, but a little sad because your trip is nearly over.

We are terribly excited at the thought of seeing you very soon.
Can't wait.

Well done again to all four of you.

LOL
Mum & David
xxxxx

TT said...

Congratulations all of you its amazing that you have been so far without any major problems on a journey most people would never ever attempt, you will dream about all that mud and terrible roads when you are tucked up in your nice warm comfortable bed, and a flat tyre on the M25 will seem nothing, at least for a while! enjoy the rest of your time and I cant wait to see you _ what time at Heathrow??? Love TT XXXX

JP said...

Congratulations!
The countdown to hot baths and ice cold beers can start now. Can´t wait to see you safe and sound.
Enjoy the triumph and your last days in Africa.
Best to all you.
JP

Ibbi said...

Great adventure! Me and Arngímur have been looking at the pictures. He is not quite convinced yet that it is his former nanny riding the motorbike. Looking forward to seeing you in Iceland.
Jólakveðjur til allra. :)