Cameroon

Yaoundé — the capital of Cameroon (“Africa in miniature” — a country of 475,000km² with every African landscape from Sahel to rainforest to highland, 28 million people, bilingual French and English after the 1961 union of French Cameroun and British Southern Cameroons) with the National Museum of Cameroon (in the former presidential palace, covering the diversity of Cameroon’s 280+ ethnic groups) and the Mfoundi market.

Cameroon is called “Africa in miniature” because it contains within its 475,000km² almost every major African ecosystem — the Sahel and semi-desert of the north (bordering Chad and Nigeria), the Guinea savannah of the centre, the montane grasslands of the western highlands (above 2,000m), the equatorial rainforest of the south and centre, the volcanic coast around Mount Cameroon, and the Atlantic mangrove coast of the Wouri Estuary. No other country of comparable size replicates this range.

Douala — the largest city in Cameroon (3.5 million people, the main port and economic centre) with the Doual’art contemporary art space (one of the finest contemporary art institutions in sub-Saharan Africa, with permanent installations in the La Bonanjo neighbourhood) and the Wouri Estuary (the largest mangrove system in Central Africa, home to Cameroon’s fishing and boat-building communities — a pirogue tour at dawn is the finest introduction to Douala’s river culture).

Doual’art (established 1991 in Douala — one of Africa’s pioneering contemporary art institutions, commissioning site-specific public artworks installed throughout the city’s streets and buildings) is the reason Douala is considered the contemporary art capital of Central Africa. The institution commissions African and international artists to make permanent works in the city’s fabric — the artworks function as interventions in the daily life of a working port city, not a museum context.

Mount Cameroon (4,040m — the highest peak in West and Central Africa, an active stratovolcano on the Atlantic coast that last erupted in 2012, the only mountain in West Africa visible from the Atlantic, rising from sea level to 4,040m in under 30km) with the Mount Cameroon Race of Hope (the world’s toughest mountain race, held each February — 75km from Buea to the summit and back in under 8 hours for the elite runners) and the forest-to-summit hike (2 days return, the finest mountain trek in West Africa).

Mount Cameroon (Fako in the Bakweri language) is the most active volcano in West Africa — it has erupted over 20 times since records began in the 1800s, most recently in 2012. The eruptions typically flow toward the sea (south and southwest flanks) away from the inhabited areas; the mountain is safe to climb outside of eruption periods. The Race of Hope (established 1973, held each February) is considered the most physically demanding short mountain race in Africa.

Bafut (a traditional chiefdom in the North West Region highlands, 17km from Bamenda — the Bafut Palace (a traditional compound of the Fon of Bafut, the paramount chief, with a UNESCO-listed sacred palace complex of thatched houses, carved wooden pillars and the dance house for the Abin’s secret society) and the Bafut Beagles — the small black-and-tan hunting dog unique to the Bafut chiefdom, made famous by Gerald Durrell’s book of the same name).

The Bafut Beagles (Gerald Durrell’s 1954 account of his animal-collecting expedition to Bafut in 1949 — he stayed with the Fon of Bafut and collected animals for British zoos in the Cameroon highlands) was the book that launched Durrell’s literary career and first introduced the Bafut chiefdom to international readers. The Fon of Bafut and Durrell became close friends; the bond between Jersey Zoo and Cameroon has continued for 70 years.

Waza National Park (the finest wildlife reserve in Cameroon, in the far north near the Lake Chad basin — 1,700km² of Sahel savannah with elephant, giraffe, oryx, lion, cheetah, kob and a high density of migratory birds — best November to February when the dry season concentrates animals at water holes) and the ancient sultanates of the Mandara Mountains (the traditional Muslim kingdoms of the north).

Waza National Park was inscribed as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1979. Its ecosystem is the southernmost extension of the Sahel — the acacia and grassland savannah typical of Chad and Niger reaches its southern limit in the Waza area. The park has one of the highest densities of giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) in sub-Saharan Africa outside of East Africa; the Waza giraffe population is one of the most studied in Central Africa.

Kribi (the finest beach town on the Cameroon Atlantic coast — white sand beaches extending 30km, the Lobé Falls (the Lobé River flowing directly into the Atlantic over a shelf of rock in a wide waterfall — the only waterfall in Cameroon that meets the sea directly, accessible by pirogue and swimmable at low tide) and the Bassa and Baka (Pygmy) villages in the adjacent Congo Basin forest.

The Lobé Falls (where the Lobé River cascades directly into the Atlantic at Kribi — the only place in Africa where a river falls directly into the ocean, the water fresh above and salt below the fall line — creates a unique transition ecosystem visited by elephant, buffalo and red river hog at the forest edge). It is one of the most unusual geographic features on the African Atlantic coast.

Limbé (on the Atlantic coast at the foot of Mount Cameroon — a small town with the Limbé Wildlife Centre (an IUCN-recommended sanctuary for confiscated primates — gorillas, chimpanzees, mandrills and drills rescued from the bushmeat trade) and the black volcanic beaches of the Ambas Bay (formed by ancient lava flows from Mount Cameroon, the sand and pebbles jet-black against the green Atlantic — the most unusual beach colour in Africa). Fly from Yaoundé (NSI) or Douala (DLA).

The Limbé Wildlife Centre (established 1993, now part of the Pandrillus Foundation network for drill and gorilla conservation) is the most important primate sanctuary in West and Central Africa, housing western lowland gorillas, chimpanzees, drills (Mandrillus leucophaeus — the most endangered baboon species) and other primates confiscated from the bushmeat and illegal pet trade. It is an important node in the conservation network for species threatened by the Central African bushmeat crisis.