Kingdom Djo

Kingdom of the Djo It was starting to get late and we still had not found a place to sleep.  Maybe it would have been better if we kept going. We immediately recognized the change in architectural style as we entered the Kingdom. Do you think the king lives in this hut? However, this is where he keeps his 120 wives and children. It's good to be the king. We found a quite place to sleep at last!  Or was it? Okay, three kids hanging out playing marbles.  We can deal with that. An hour later, word spread that the circus was in town.  It was pretty much like this until we left the next morning. Now it is just ridiculous.  It is raining, cold, and getting late but still no one went home.  Through the night, we had several visitors and the King even summoned me to bring him a gift for letting us stay on his land. By 3am, all the drunks had stopped demanding food and passed out in our chairs.  We were out of there as quick as possible the next morning. Robert J Kent Jr- robjkentjr@gmail.com Water Resource Policy Adviser www.robrasa.com Voice Mail: +1 (631) 458-1119 Skype ID: rob-rasa LinkedIn, Facebook, Plaxo Contact  |  Support Us  |  Home  |  Books              all content ©2006-2009 click to REMOVE your email Robert & Rasa's rubbernecking

Shopping

Shopping On a mission to find dried black mushrooms before leaving civilization again, we plunged into the city traffic to find the Super Marché Casino.  It is only the best expatriate shopping center in all of West Africa. The French do love their wine and Cameroon being a former colony, the locals seem to have kept the habit. We opted to get our vegetables on the road while driving out of Yaoundé.  They were all enormous and it was quite a change from Gabon, where nothing was grown. I can barely keep a hat on my head and have never ceased amazement with what people can carry. What you do not see is how steep this hill really is. Here is the colorful mobile refill station.  You can always find the color-coded shop you need. The houses are still the square European design.  Still no round grass huts but they are coming. We thought it would lead to a good campsite but found nothing except voracious bugs. Tomorrow, we enter the Ring Road mountain kingdoms.  The first king and all of his subjects we will meet is the Djo. Robert J Kent Jr- robjkentjr@gmail.com Water Resource Policy Adviser www.robrasa.com Voice Mail: +1 (631) 458-1119 Skype ID: rob-rasa LinkedIn, Facebook, Plaxo Contact  |  Support Us  |  Home  |  Books              all content ©2006-2009 click to REMOVE your email Robert & Rasa's rubbernecking

Yaoundé, Cameroon

Yaoundé, Cameroon After a successful border crossing, we headed to the capital town of Yaoundé.  We only got slightly lost before finding a wonderful place to stay. These are some of the main water towers for the city.  They were also the landmark that guided us to the hotel. We stayed at the Baptist Mission, a beautiful 150-year old building overlooking the entire city. Here is the view from our sanctuary on the hill.  Chaos reigns below. Here is another lizard watching me.  I am beginning to get paranoid. This was our first real downpour of the trip.  The rain is washing away all the wonderful dirt we worked so hard to accumulate. We quickly made friends with the kitchen staff so we could watch them cook.  Here, she is smashing garlic by rolling it between two stones. Almost every Cameroonian dish uses peanut sauce.  It starts here by grinding it to an almost flour-like consistency. Tomorrow we will hit the grocery stores to stock up on supplies and head off to the Ring Road.  We also come to the realization that camping in deserted areas is not possible in Cameroon. Robert J Kent Jr- robjkentjr@gmail.com Water Resource Policy Adviser www.robrasa.com Voice Mail: +1 (631) 458-1119 Skype ID: rob-rasa LinkedIn, Facebook, Plaxo Contact  |  Support Us  |  Home  |  Books              all content ©2006-2009 click to REMOVE your email Robert & Rasa's rubbernecking

Army ant invasion!

Army ant invasion! These critters prevented us from packing up our camp that morning.  We ended up having to throw stepping-stones down to get around the swarm. The rain brought them out and if left undisturbed, they are no problem to you.  But if you step on one, the whole column goes into attack mode. Once they get their mandibles in to you, they do not let go.  I left an ant head in my shoe for a week just to see if it would let go. Being out on the river for only 30-minutes, this fisherman did pretty well. Here is the Cameroon border crossing without the customs office!  We always need to pass immigration, customs, and gendarmerie to exit a country.  You would think it sensible to put them all in the same place. Here I am, 40km back in town, asking around for the customs office.  I also wanted to buy some donut balls, our favorite African snacky food. You thought the other bathroom was bad.  At least this one had toilet paper, which you could read while waiting. Some merchandise waiting to cross over the border. We made it into our third country without a problem, other than having to backtracking for an hour.  We are off to Yaoundé and as we were told, the best Chinese food in Africa. Robert J Kent Jr- robjkentjr@gmail.com Water Resource Policy Adviser www.robrasa.com Voice Mail: +1 (631) 458-1119 Skype ID: rob-rasa LinkedIn, Facebook, Plaxo Contact  |  Support Us  |  Home  |  Books              all content ©2006-2009 click to REMOVE your email Robert & Rasa's rubbernecking

Finding Cameroon

Finding Cameroon After leaving Lope National Park, we made great time to the border because we were finally on some decently paved roads.  When we got there though, we could not find any place to camp. This was our last morning in the wilderness of Gabon: a country where 70% of its 3-million inhabitants live in urban areas.  The remaining 200,000 seem to live right on the border of Cameroon. Usually, by following any road off into the jungle we find a good campsite.  This one just kept taking us deeper and further away from the crossing. We finally found a campment (with beer!) someone told us about in the previous town.  Directions: make a right on this path, find the football match, and ask someone to show you where the camp is. Rasa likes having a shower and toilet to use when possible.  It was debatable whether this was better or worse than a bush and shovel. I am always a fan of bugs and like to include them whenever I can. An ominous sign of approaching trouble but we did not know it would be a problem until the next morning. The first half of our night was spent relaxing by the riverside, looking at Cameroon across the water. The next morning we found an unexpected surprise crawling around our tent and car.  It made for some interesting acrobatics while packing up. Robert J Kent Jr- robjkentjr@gmail.com Water Resource Policy Adviser www.robrasa.com Voice Mail: +1 (631) 458-1119 Skype ID: rob-rasa LinkedIn, Facebook, Plaxo Contact  |  Support Us  |  Home  |  Books              all content ©2006-2009 click to REMOVE your email Robert & Rasa's rubbernecking