Mountain Madness

Some said we wouldn’t make it.  Some said we were mad.  But we did it – we made it to the summit of Mount Cameroon, the huge lump of active volcano that looms behind the house here in Buea.  This is something I’ve wanted to do since as a kid I saw pictures of the mountain in a book that Dad left me on one of his trips to London - but I never realised how hard it would be.

Mt Cameroon from below in Buea

At 4,095 metres it is the highest point in central and west Africa and the sides of the mountain are so steep that the trail is like an endless step-machine rather than a walking trail.  Much of the terrain is tricky too – sharp volcanic rock and loose gravel, tree roots, tufts of grass and mud in places all make footholds difficult.

The weather was sunny all the way up so there were good views all the way to the second camping hut (called Hut 2 despite being the third hut up) at 2,850 metres where we were to spend the night.  We made it there in around six and a half hours including a few stops and relaxed in the sun enjoying the view of the upper slopes while we rested our tired legs. 

Still smiling on reaching Hut 2

When night fell and we had eaten our food, the temperature started to drop and with it the fun element.  We had an early start next day so we went to “bed” at 8pm.  To describe the Hut 2 facilities as basic would be a great exaggeration.  It has accommodation in the form of a wooden platform in a dirty, graffiti-covered hut with a corrugated iron roof with a mixture of straw and rubbish underneath that was clearly to the liking of the local rats.  They rustled around during the night and tried to find ways to get at our food without success.  The toilet facilities were holes in the ground within two further small huts and there was a kitchen – another hut with space to set a fire.  We zipped up our sleeping bags, used our rucksacks as pillows, left all our clothes on and failed to sleep for hours on the hard wood surface.

The inside of "the Buea Hilton" - Hut 2

The second day was unbelievably hard.  In order to get up to the summit and down in the day we left at 4am and walked for 2 hours in the dark with one torch between two of us.  The whole route is steep but after a virtually sleepless night in the cold of Hut 2 it seems vertical.  Walking without having eaten at 4am in the dark with limited light and air with low oxygen content was low on laughs.  Around 6am the sun came up – we pushed on and we were at the summit by 8am, very tired but happy to have made it. 

Made it! Now just 3,000 metres back down...

The downside of being at the summit was that we now faced a 3,000 metre descent back to Buea in an already exhausted state.  As we know from our mountain walks in Spain, coming down is faster but technically more difficult.  We found it hard to concentrate on where to put our feet and the legs weren’t really responding.  We both took tumbles on the way down but got home in one piece to a warm welcome (and quite a lot of admiration as hardly any of the locals have been up).  I can’t describe how stiff we were the next morning (and even worse today!).

Incredibly some people do actually run up to the top.  Every year in late February around 300 people run up the hill from the stadium in Buea to the point where we started our walk and then complete the same course as we took, up and down the best part of 4,000 metres, in just a few hours. 25 miles in all – incredible!  Unfortunately the mountain race has been postponed by a week and will be just after we leave so Suzanne and I can’t join them.  Shame!  Once is definitely enough.