After breakfast yesterday, Valerie, Wisha and I headed to mile 17 to get a bus to Limbé. To any future volunteers coming to Buea you should know that Limbé is about 40 minutes away by bus and it is absolutely beautiful, it has the warm Atlantic ocean and spectacular black volcanic beaches.
We chose Atlantic beach and had some beer with the sand beneath our feet and the ocean and the islands streching out before us. As much as i love Portobello beach in Edinburgh it is made to look like a gravel-pit in my mind compared to this place. The water here is of a deep-blue hue and it both contrasts and harmonises with the browny-black sand of the beach. Fishing boats bob up and down in an organic rhythm with the tide. It's wicked.
The sun was scorchio though so we opted for some shade and some fish. It had probably been swimming in the ocean about an hour ago and it was so fresh it melted in my mouth, strangely enough, it went very, very well with some cold beer. I'm fond of a wee fish supper back home but i'm a bit worried as to how it's going to taste when i return home, enough brown sauce can make anything taste delicious when used liberally though.
As we dined we paroused the Bradt travel guide for Cameroon and it had suggestions on where to go from Limbé. We impulsively decided to go to the Boana Falls and Lake Debundscha. The book said we should head to the Botanic Gardens to acquire a guide. Two motorbikes were commandeered and we were there in no time. After a few inquiries we quickly met our guide Paul who arranged a car that would take us there and wait for us, all at quite a reasonable rate. He told us that it would not be visable to go to Boana Falls as the treck was pretty long and it was too late in the day for it, but the treck to Debundscha lake could be achieved in an hour. Okay, lets go.
We headed west of Limbé and seen the lava trail of the eruption from Mount Cameroon in 1997 and on through a massive palm oil plantation. We stopped by the beach and the driver went to pay the village chiefs of Debundscha for the privilage of visiting the lake.
We strolled along a beautiful beach with the strong waves lapping up on our legs. My flip-flop got washed off my foot and i thought our expedition was gonna finish before it started, but luckily the tide gave it back to me. We left the beach and into the thick coastal forest that climbed up and fell down through some specatcular scenery. The trail was pretty over-grown in places but was very accessible, it was only made difficult by the fact we all had flip-flops on. My feet took a battering.
We straddled the coast for a few kilometres with the relentless roaring of the tide on our left and the tremor of thunder to our right. We were on our way to the wettest places on Earth. We came to a flight of stairs that looked like the inspration for the temple of Doom and i relished my adventure as i felt like Indiana Jones. We climbed the chaotic stairs and reached an old abandoned German lighthouse and a new modern metal one that wasn't quite as aesthetically pleasing. Paul, our friendly guide, said we could climb the structure when we get back, but now he wanted to push on to the lake as he feared the weather was changing for the worse, as if on cue the sky rumbled in ominous aggreement.
The final treck was tough but we were spurred on by our anticipation of seeing the lake. One last push up a big knotted tree root and there it was - a perfectly spherical expanse of limey-green water surrounded by exotic trees. I gawped and gasped at the beauty of it and i sat in my own perspiration and basked in the tranquility of the place. As i took in the marvellous scene i thought to myself, 'it's good to be impulsive sometimes' We came to Limbé for a few beers, a bit of sun and a fish, but here we were, looking at an ancient, volcanic crater lake.
After a short while we began our treck back. We got to the lighthouse and Wisha and I climbed up the 40ft beacon. At the top we seen the jagged coast and the lush rolling green mountains in all their splendour and i got very trigger-happy with the old camera. The lighthouse began swaying quite a bit which was worrying enough to make us stay for only a few minutes. Then it was back to the deep waves crashing on the spectacular secluded beach.
A little shoal of tiny fish had been washed onto the beach and we ran to save them before they suffocated. We threw the wee tiddlers back in and i felt a deep sense of karma for having eat their big delicious Dad earlier.
We met the car and got back to Limbé and went for a pizza hunt and more beer. Pizza was sold out but a little thing like that didn't frustrate me after having experienced such a beautiful part of the world.
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