I only recently discovered that Korup National Park, in the South West province of Cameroon, is one of the only forest regions in the world that survived the ice age. I was absolutely blown away by this piece of information. That means the flora and fauna in Korup Park has been preserved for over 60 million years. Isn't that phenomenal? A trip to Korup Park was, without a doubt, at the top of our to-do list. The first thing we did was hire a car to take us there.
Cameroon is not particularly a touristy country despite having all the climatic conditions and natural attractions found in the entire African continent. Weird I know but in my opinion, that's a good thing because you can truly immerse yourself in the culture without the distractions of modern tourism. However, the one negative aspect about not being a touristy country is the lack of tourism infrastructure. There are literally no tarred roads to get to Korup Park so you need to hire a sturdy vehicle capable to surviving hours of dirt roads and pot holes. I personally won't recommend a trip during the rainy season because the roads would be virtually impassable. My buddy and I hired a who guy claimed to have been to Mundemda (the city where Korup Park is found.) He said the journey was going to be about 4 hours, so we planned on doing a day trip: getting there, looking around, and then make our way back home. My buddy was only in Cameroon for about two weeks so we didn't have time to waste. Well, we soon discovered our driver had never been to the area so the journey ended up taking about 7 hours. When we got to the city of Mundemba, it was late in the afternoon. Driving on those crazy dirt holes at night is a terrible idea, so we had no choice but to spend the night.
Late afternoon lunch in the city of Mundemba. Here is my buddy eating achu like a true Cameroonian.
Crossing the bridge into Korup Park. Our driver almost shit himself.
Prince Charles was here
Treading the jungle. If you want a thorough exploration of the forest, I reckon you do a three days tour or even longer. Then you will be able to properly explore, see chimpanzees, lots of flora and fauna and so many other cool animals. We were only there for a few hours so all we saw were a few monkeys and did some bird watching.
The city of Mundemba is a small village so this was the only "hotel" we could find on such short notice.
My buddy is scared of roaches so I had to murder this little fellow. RIP Mr. Cockroach. After settling in, we hit the streets, found a dodgy place to eat, drank a lot of booze, chatted about life, race, politics and all the good stuff and then returned home. We woke up at 4 A.M and began the odious journey home.
About 6 hours later, we stopped at the town of Kumba for some breakfast. My buddy is completely covered in dust. That's what happens when you spend 6 hours on dirt roads.
Had breakfast in this shed
After that, we headed to the car wash
We finally made it home and had an amazing dinner with friends and family.
THE END. That was an awfully long post wasn't it? I know, I know, I'm exhausted too. So Summer is finally upon us. What are you guys doing for the summer? any exciting travel plans? I anxiously want to know. I think I have two weeks before the semester comes to an end. As usual, I am incredibly busy. My summer has been sorted, so I am looking forward to an incredible adventure. Ok friends, stay safe, one love. XoXo
my word, your friend is a trooper, the stuff you put him through. All kidding aside, he won't ever forget Cameroon- thats priceless
ReplyDeleteAwesome!
ReplyDeletewhat a beautiful place, very impressive.
ReplyDeletehaha that bridge looks indeed quite scary :-)