> Visa delays
Day 117 – Mon 25 Jan – 11,470km, Ekok, Cameroon
With my banana and bread consumption adding a new threat to the captive drill & chimps survival, I had to say goodbye to the wonderful Afi Wildlife Sanctuary and continue southward towards a reunion with my old man, who is flying out to climb Mount Cameroon later this week. After a protracted Nigerian exit which included visiting four different immigration huts, I arrived in Cameroon to realise my worst fear – that my visa was invalid. Threatened with a ride of 220 km down to Calabar back in Nigeria, the immigration chief has kindly agreed to issue me a new visa here at a significant expense! With everything suspended for the Cameroon v Egypt Africa Nations match, including the border post, my visa woes have been put on hold to enjoy the footy. Apparently my visa stamp will have to be collected tomorrow from over 200km away, so given ‘Afrcan time’ it looks like I’ll be getting to know this small border town of Ekok intimately.
Comments:
Mt Cameroon - take it seriously!!!
Rob, This is what Wikepedia says about Mt Cameroon!!
Mount Cameroon is one of Africa's largest volcanoes, rising to 4,040 metres (13,255 ft) above the coast of west Cameroon. It rises from the coast through tropical rainforest to a bare summit which is cold, windy, and occasionally brushed with snow. The massive steep-sided volcano of dominantly basaltic-to-trachybasaltic composition forms a volcanic horst constructed above a basement of Precambrian metamorphic rocks covered with Cretaceous to Quaternary sediments. More than 100 small cinder cones, often fissure-controlled parallel to the long axis of the massive 1,400 km³ (336 mi³) volcano, occur on the flanks and surrounding lowlands. A large satellitic peak, Etinde (also known as Little Mount Cameroon), is located on the southern flank near the coast. Mount Cameroon has the most frequent eruptions of any West African volcanoes. The first written accounts of volcanic activity could be the one from the Carthaginian Hanno the Navigator, who might have observed the mountain in the 5th century BC. Moderate explosive and effusive eruptions have occurred throughout history from both summit and flank vents. A 1922 eruption on the southwestern flank produced a lava flow that reached the Atlantic coast, and a lava flow from a 1999 south-flank eruption stopped only 200 m (660 ft) from the sea, cutting the coastal highway.
Good to see your direction is now strong south!!
Travel (and climb) safely and all the best to 'the old man'
Love Clem & Sue






