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Well it feels like a lot has happened since I last wrote, im back in Yaounde now and it feels kind of funny to be back here, it's reminding me of my awful food poisoning!!I eventually recovered from that and on Sunday night last week went and brought my train ticket to go up north, it was very confusing but I finally got the lady to give me a ticket and came back that evening at 5pm.The train station was chaotic with people and baggage everywhere, when the train arrived I went to my room, it is an overnight sleeper train and I had booked a ticket in first class which is the safest option and you actually get a bed, in second class it was just seats like in a normal train and there were people lying everywhere, and so much baggage, I was glad I wasn't spending the night there!I shared a 2 bed compartment with an African woman, she wasn't there when I got there, but her bags were.Her bags took up every single bit of storage space in the cabin apart from one small area for my bag, I didn't mind but I couldn't help but think what if another African woman with equally as much luggage had come in here, where would it all go??She had bags of bananas and other fruit on the floor, bags of toys and god knows what else!People here travel with so much stuff, I just cant understand it, I hate with a passion travelling with lots of things and like to travel as light as I possibly can, this lady had so much stuff that she couldn't have even taken it with her all at the same time, she would have to do about 3 or 4 trips to move it all from place to place!! It would be like moving house by public transport - what a nightmare!!I was on the top bunk, it was quite comfy, the train departed at 6pm, it was good to get moving because the cabin was getting excruciatingly hot so the breeze through the window was very good!The train was fine except for 2 things, every time we stopped at a station it was like the driver was slamming on the brakes, it was enough to almost throw me off the bunk, and definitely enough to wake me up if I was sleeping, then it would get really hot in the cabin until we started moving again and while we were stopped there were street vendors outside selling all kinds of street food.The worst thing thought was the toilet, when you went in there there was a damp stench of urine and it was all over the toilet and the floor, the train was pretty bumpy so it was understandable that people would miss the bowl, it was so gross though!I managed to only have to go once in the whole 17 hour journey, and when I got back to my bed I could still smell the stink, it was like it clung to your skin!On arrival in the northern town on N'gaoundere I got my bag and was glad to get off the train, I was walking out of the train station trying to decide if I should stay the night in this town or jump straight on a bus further north to Maroua which is where I was heading, a man approached me and told me the bus was leaving in half an hour and I thought well I may as well get the journey over with today rather than leaving it until tomorrow.He was really helpful and helped me get my ticket, took me to where the toilets were (I really needed to go after holding on in the train) and made sure my bag was put on the bus and I got to my seat.The journey north to Maroua took 9 1/2 hours, it was really hot on the bus and I was squashed between the window and a big African mama who needed to go into her purse every 5 minutes which meant I got her elbow right in my face, it was hard to ignore as the road was potholed and bumpy and I was worried she might accidentally give me a black eye or something!!A few hours into the journey one of the tyres blew, its quite a scary sound when that happens, it sounds like your going to crash and the bus usually swerves around a bit so it gives you a bit of a fright!We had to stop on the side of the road while it was changed, a good excuse for a toilet stop in the bush!I couldn't believe the tyre when they took it off, it was completely ripped up, it looked like someone had slashed it with a knife!!The rest of the journey was pretty uneventful, except we did drive past a national park and we saw lots of baboons on the side of the road and hippos in a river, it was so exciting to see the animals in the wild, I forgot how exciting it is to see them so I decided that while I was in Maroua I would make a visit to Parc National de Waza which is the best game reserve in Cameroon.On coming to West Africa I had no intention on visiting any game reserves as they are better visited at the end of the dry season which is about March/April, and after the amazing parks in East Africa I thought I would probably just be disappointed anyway, but it was so exciting to see the animals I thought well I'll go anyway, even if I only see a few animals I'll be happy.The last 3 hours of the trip between Garoua and Maroua were truly hellish, the road was terrible, there were so many potholes and it was so bumpy and unpleasant!I wasn't the only one feeling like crap, I could tell other people in the bus were dying to hurry up and arrive in Maroua as well!We finally got there at about 8:30pm, I was pretty tired, that was a really long journey, more than 24 hours of non stop overland travel, I decided I didn't need to do that journey again to get back south, I didn't care of the cost I would take a plane!!I got a moto to the hotel I wanted to stay at but they were full so I went to another place had a much needed shower and a very good sleep in a nice comfy bed!!The following day, Tuesday, I met a guy who could arrange trekking in the Mandara Mountains for me at a reasonable price so got that all set up to set off the following day.I met a couple from Belgium while I was at a different hotel to the one I was staying at, that's where I met the guide, this hotel was nicer and had a bar and restaurant.I sat down for some lunch and got talking to this couple who were in Maroua for work.The man owned a dredging company and they were dredging the rivers in the region and doing some work in Lake Chad, the woman was a family friend of his and as she spoke Flemish, French and English, was working as his translator (he spoke English but no French).They had a lot of information on Lake Chad which I was really interested in, the lake is slowly getting smaller and smaller due to desertification and there are millions of people in Niger, Chad and Cameroon that depend on the water from it.They told me about a project where they are planning on re-routing a river from the Congo Basin in Central African Republic to bring water to Lake Chad, they had so much fascinating information on it and I spent all afternoon talking with them about it.The man had spent most of the last 7 years working in Port Harcourt in the Niger Delta which is the most dangerous part of West Africa and where all the kidnappings of oil workers happen.Due to this he had quite a marred view of Africa and Africans, he had told the woman so many scary stories (of which there are many coming out of the Delta region) that she held a very similar view to him.They were very cautious and suspicious of the African people in general and I thought they had a very colonialist view of Africa.For example the woman said to me "don't tell the Africans about the problems with Lake Chad, it will just make them worried about it" I totally disagree with that, first of all I don't think that they are so ignorant that they cant see that the water is receding and the lake is getting significantly smaller and I think they should know why it is happening, what they can do about it and what the regional governments are doing about it!They didn't trust any of the African people, when I had finished talking to the guide about the trekking they called him over and the woman had a few words to him in French about my safety and his credibility as a guide, it was well intentioned by her, but I couldn't help but feel a bit offended as it was like a criticism of my judgement, I felt like that quite often in their company actually as most of the things I have done while I've been in Africa they (especially the man) told me I should not do.They couldn't believe I take the moto taxis in the towns, they never take them because they think they are too dangerous, and they would never take a bush taxi anywhere.There are a lot of expats that are like this (not all) but many that drive around in expensive cars with tinted out windows and often have drivers, they never take public transport, they live in houses with major security and a couple of round the clock guards and only eat at places that other expats eat and buy all their food from expensive western style supermarkets all the time thinking that everything outside the security of their little world is so dangerous because this is Africa!When they hear of my trip alone on public transport, cheap hotels and street food they think im crazy and that its so dangerous and why would I do that and I cant help but feel quite annoyed at their ignorance, how can they live here and be so removed from it all, they are missing the best of it, there is so much to Africa right on their doorstep yet many of them hold this colonialist view and don't stray far from their routine and "safety" of daily life.The Belgian woman was really worried because the following day that I was with them, the man was taking a flight back to Nigeria early that morning and she was taking a flight back to Europe but not until midday, and she was really worried about being alone for the morning in Africa by herself, she said she just wasn't going to leave the hotel and when it came time to go to the airport she would get their driver to take her there.I had to try not to laugh,Maroua was so laid back, if she had dared to step outside the hotel for even 5 minutes all that would have happened to her is someone would have said 'bonjour madame', that's nothing to be scared of. Most crime against foreigners in these countries is targeted at expats rather than tourists, I don't know the complete reason why this is, there are probably many reasons, but I think one is because of their display of wealth, and probably because they are so reliant on drivers and guides and helpers everywhere they go that if they do ever find themselves on their own they don't know what to do.Well that's just what I think anyway, and I don't want to generalise and say that all expats are like that, but there are a lot that are (in Africa), especially middle aged men from Europe. The Belgian couple were so cautious to the extent that after showering they would rinse their mouths out with bottled water just in case any local water from the shower got in their mouth!In my view, that's just going way over the top!And they were very disapproving when I told them I ate the street food and had tried the millet beer.You have to expose yourself to some local germs to build up a resistance, and part of visiting a new country is trying the food and drink there, what's the point of going anywhere if you're going to be that cautious and just going to sit in your hotel room and eat at the same expensive restaurant every night because you didn't get food poisoning the first night you ate there!Ok, that's enough on that subject, I didn't tell them my views on all of this because I could tell the man was very set in his ways and would not be persuaded otherwise and apart from all that, they were nice company.I spent a nice lazy afternoon chatting to them about Lake Chad and life in the Niger Delta (which I should point out, the culture there is significantly different to the rest of West Africa, the man even admitted that), then we had dinner and they insisted on paying for me which was really nice, they gave me their contact details and made me take a taxi back to my hotel which they also paid for, there was no way they were going to let me take a moto at night!The next day, Wednesday the trekking guide met me at my hotel and took me on his moto to the bus station, we got on a minibus to a town called Mokolo then changed to a different bus down a bad road to a town called Rhumsiki.Rhumsiki really is in the middle of nowhere and really isolated!It is the starting point for lots of trekking in the Mandara Mountains, I spent Wednesday night there and my guide and I set off early on Thursday morning after buying my 6 bottles of water to keep me going for the next 3 days.The first day of trekking was mostly along level good tracks, we went to a town where it was their market day, I got sooo much attention!! I constantly had a crowd of kids following me and wanting to hold my hands.My guide and I wandered through the market, then sat in the millet beer areas which is where everyone goes to drink and socialise, there are two types of beer, red and white, we sat and had some red beer which I had tried before and tastes ok if you ignore all the flies that crawl inside the bowl you drink it from, then we went and drank the white beer which is hot and I hadn't tried that before.Apparently people drink it for breakfast because it is so filling and gets them going for the day, I didn't really like it so we went back and drank the red beer, my guide left me there to drink and be stared at while he caught up with his sister.That night we stayed at a local family's house just outside a different town that was also having a market that day, we only visited that market for a short time because I found it quite exhausting and claustrophobic having so much constant attention on me and children crowding around me.My guide annoyed me a bit that night, I asked him where I was sleeping and he pointed to a room that had a double mattress, that was fine, then I asked him where he was sleeping and he pointed to the same room, I had a feeling that he might do that so I told him that I had to sleep alone because my husband would be very angry if he knew I had slept in the same room as another man, he was fine with that and straight away said he would sleep in the room next door, but I was really annoyed that he didn't say he would sleep in the other room in the first place, why did he think we would share a room?!I really wanted to put him on the spot about it but he got really confused when I tried so I just gave up and raved on endlessly about my "husband", I was really pissed off that he did that though, and I was feeling tired of having so much attention and being stared at, it really does get exhausting, so I told him I was going to go for a walk up a hill to watch the sunset, while I was telling him this he was preparing my dinner, he had a bloody chicken crawling with flies that he was pulling apart and taking the intestines out of, it looked absolutely disgusting, I told him I didn't want any chicken but that created a problem so I just told him to put it on the side of my plate as I had no intention to eat it, it looked so gross!!I walked to the top of the hill and there was a magnificent view of the region from up there, unfortunately I was followed by local kids and they just sat and stared at me like I was a zoo animal.I don't want to sound harsh, but I find it kind of hard when they just sit and stare at me, I don't really like it, so I was a little annoyed that the kids had followed me and I couldn't be alone, I was in a bad mood cause of what my guide did and cause I was so hungry and dinner looked BAD and I just wanted to be alone for 5 minutes.I went back down and sat with the family of the house and waited for dinner, it was interesting to watch all the people leaving the market and heading home, everyone greets you as they go past.When dinner came out I was so hungry I got straight into the chicken and it was delicious!!!I can easily say that it was some of the best chicken I have eaten in West Africa!The sauce and rice were just as good, I completely forgot about the flies!There was no electricity or running water so no shower, and because there are no lights after dark not only is there a stunning night sky but everyone goes to bed really early as there is not much else to do.On Friday we had a really long walk, we passed a few villages and lots of people working in the fields, everyone was really friendly and would wave out, I learnt to say hello in the local language which usually made people smile or giggle when I greeted them.We stopped at one village at had a rest at the house of the chief, at the house were a young couple and their baby, we approached them so my guide could talk to them and the baby who was about 2 probably, crawled behind his father so he couldn't see me, when I moved so I could see him again he burst into tears, the poor thing was so frightened of me, he had never seen a white person before!We also stopped and talked to some young boys on their way home from school, they showed me their school work where they were learning English, the unfortunate thing here is that the kids don't have enough pens to write with, and when the parents buy their child a pen the big kids usually steal it off them and their parents wont buy them another one so they have to ask tourists for them, the school doesn't provide pens.We walked most of the day, and straight through the midday heat only stopping for a half hour lunch under a tree, somehow the heat was bearable and I could handle walking in it, although I did notice that same old annoying itchy red rash developing on my feet!In the afternoon we descended into a steep valley, we walked down a goats trail and sometimes there wasn't even any trail at all, I got covered in cuts and scratches and there were many thorn bushes!The house of the family we stayed with that night was nicer than the one before, not any flasher, just cleaner.The houses in the mountains don't have toilets or bathrooms, people just go in the bush, when I asked why don't they dig a hole for hygiene reasons my guide told me its because it stinks so they would rather go in the bush, which is understandable, but they don't use toilet paper and washing is just in the dirty river.Also the goats, chickens and cows all live in the house with the family, I wanted to know why they didn't build separate pens for the animals and they kind of do have separate areas from the animals but they still live in very close quarters with the people, apparently people don't mind that according to my guide?!The house was near a dried up river that had a bit of water in it like a pond, the water was so filthy just sitting there, not moving, full of green slime!My guide washed the cutlery and plate that I was going to eat with that night in the river, then he washed himself in the river, I couldn't believe it, the water was so filthy!But that is the water that that family uses for washing clothes, themselves, their food, everything!I was really hot and had no option of a shower that night, and had the itchy rash on my feet so eventually gave in and rinsed my feet, legs and arms in the water and put a tiny bit on my face, it felt really refreshing for my feet!!That night dinner was maize which is like a tough dough, with sauce, it was good because I was starving!The night sky was incredible!!I lay and looked at it for ages, the whole family was in bed by 8pm.On Saturday morning we visited a man making some artwork to sell in Rhumsiki,then we walked across to the other side of the valley passing many women at work in the fields, in one field we stopped to talk to the women and one woman handed me her hoe thing, and everyone stopped what they were doing and watched me hoeing the ground and pulling out potatoes, that woman had to walk 6km to that valley every day, then back to her village every night, I cant imagine doing that all day every day, they are bent over all day whacking their hoes into the ground, I doubt they stop for lunch (most people in the mountains don't have lunch, just breakfast and dinner) and there wouldn't be any chance of a nice cold sprite in a bar at the end of the day, that woman would have to go home and prepare dinner for the family and collect water and firewood, they have a really hard life there.Also because it is the dry season all the rivers have dried up so there is not much water around, most villages have wells though, or some kind of stream or pond nearby, like the place I spent the night.A lot of the women we stopped and spoke to wanted to know why I was here and if my country was like this, because they don't travel abroad they don't really understand the idea of travelling that well and why would I come here?So they thought my country must be very different for me to come here and look at their country, people are glad to see tourists though and my guide told me that I had made one woman's day because she had walked to work this field from Nigeria where they see very few tourists so it was really interesting for her to meet me because she hadn't met a tourist before. We then proceeded to walk out of the valley into Nigeria, it was a pretty big valley so was quite a strenuous walk, especially since we were pretty much scrambling up the side and only occasionally sticking to the goats trails, I got many more cuts and scratches.The view from the top of the valley was really good, and from there we were in Nigeria and could see where the border with Cameroon was.We continued on to a village in Nigeria (because we were so isolated in the mountains there was no need for border formalities or visas), the village was quite big and had nice cactus lined walkways, people spoke English there, although the village was pretty quiet as most people were out in the fields working.We went to someone's house and had some lunch there amongst many flies, my guide knew lots of people in the region as he had been a guide there for years and was from the mountains.Because there are not many tourists in Nigeria, especially ones that go this far into the middle of nowhere I got so much attention from the kids there, they just sat and stared at me like I was a TV, and if I made the slightest movement or did something like put lip balm on or scratched my leg then there was lots of hushed chatter about it from the kids, it was quite funny really.They all want to sit close to you and will slowly edge closer and closer towards you until it becomes too claustrophobic and I have to move, then the crowd of kids moves and position themselves in the best place to view me from, I got a good photo of me with the kids all sitting behind me, watching me, imagine a group of kids sitting around completely engrossed in a movie, well in these villages I was the movie!After lunch we walked back to Rhumsiki on a good level road.Back in Rhumsiki we went to visit the local witchdoctor who tells your fortune by looking into his bucket of crabs.That was my last day with my guide so we said goodbye then I went up the road to a local restaurant for dinner.I had met the restaurant owner at my hotel and told him I would come up for dinner later.When I got there he had laid out a nice table for me outside with candles, he then explained the menu to me and recommended the bread and pizza which I ordered.I don't know what he did to the bread but I think it was the best bread ive ever eaten!!!It was sooo good, the pizza was also beautiful!He had a book that he got happy tourists to write in so I gave him a glowing review and left him a tip and he gave me a necklace in thanks, he was so nice and so friendly, it really made my evening!By the time I left it was dark, he told me it was safe to walk along the road back to my hotel so I did, I had brought my torch but didn't even use it, the night sky was amazing, I walked alone down this deserted mountain dirt road back to my hotel under the stars and felt completely safe.Back at the hotel I think half the village was gathered around a TV watching a bad soap opera, everyone was jammed into this room completely engrossed in it!The soaps they watch here are truly terrible!The acting is so bad its funny, and the plots always revolve around love triangles and seeking revenge and some kind of criminal, they are usually Brazilian dubbed into French and always involve men in Speedos and women in bikinis and everything takes place either next to the pool or in a nice restaurant, its like watching a comedy they are so bad, but people here love them!On Sunday morning it was the market day in Rhumsiki, I left my bag on the roof of the minibus that was going back to Maroua and went in search of some fruit in the market, my lunch and breakfast for the last 3 days had been stale white bread and plain tuna so I was craving some fruit!I was followed by kids everywhere, even when I was just standing next to the bus in the shade waiting for it to depart, they just stand there and stare at you.Eventually we left, it took most of the day to get back to Maroua.On Monday I didn't do too much, just booked my flight from Maroua to Yaounde because I wasn't going to do that 24 hour overland journey again!Visited the market and the artisan workshop and just potted around really.On Wednesday I visited Parc National de Waza, I tried to keep my expectations low as it's not the best time of year to visit but I was still really excited!We left Maroua in a 4X4 at 6am and witnessed a beautiful red sunrise, we spent all morning driving around the park and saw heaps of giraffes, some warthogs, antelope, monkeys and ostriches, we also saw lots of elephants poo but no elephants, apparently they had gone to a section of the park that the vehicles couldn't go to.That's ok thought, it was great to see giraffes, the animals would run away when you approached them though, they are not used to humans like the animals in the parks of East Africa are.I had left my laundry to be done by my hotel so when I got back that afternoon I went to collect it, my towel and shirts were hanging on a washing line above a massive pile of rubbish, I had to walk across it to get them, I was wondering where my underwear was and then the man pointed it out to me to check it was mine and there all my underwear was sitting on the actual mountain of stinking rubbish cooking in the heat, drying, god it was disgusting!!!!I couldn't believe it!!But not much I could do, ohh it was so gross though, you should have seen this pile of rubbish, I could not believe they had dried my underwear on top of it, that's just so wrong!Today I took my flight from Maroua to Yaounde, the airport was slightly confusing, I just copied what everyone else did and ended up on the plane so it worked out ok.Back in Yaounde now, I have only 15 days left in Africa, its really funny to think of the distance ive covered and all the places ive been and the things ive done, I can't believe my trip is coming to an end.I am heading to a town called Foumban next, then from there to the English speaking part of the country for the last couple of weeks.Well that's about all my news for now and I think this blog entry is more than long enough!!I could write so much more about the Mandara Mountains, it was such an amazing insight into how people live there, but I won't because I have been typing for long enough now!!Will update again soon…
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