Our adventure climbing Mount Cameroon was almost 4 years in
the making. We first heard about it in
January 2014 in Congo when a friend sent us a review of a Cameroonian tour
company taking tourists up. As far as we
were aware, Mercy Ships had no plans to go to Cameroon, with the next Field
Service set to be in Benin. Obviously, a
lot changed in that time – the Ebola crisis happened – we went to Madagascar
for two years and then to Benin and finally we arrived in Douala, Cameroon in
August 2017. It was time to pull out
that email and have a look at whether this was actually feasible for our
family. And then to start training.
Jack and I started training on the sail to Cameroon back in
August. Experienced hiker friends suggested
lots of stair climbing, preferably two at a time – luckily we live on a ship
with 9 decks and lots of stairwells to train on. We worked our way up to about an hour’s worth
of stairs 2-3 times a week by the time we were ready to book our climbing trip.
Mount Cameroon is the highest mountain in West Africa at
4090m high (13,419ft). It is a volcano
with the last big eruption occurring in 2000.
There was a smaller eruption in 2012.
Fortunately, none in 2017 when we climbed over the last 3 days of the
year.
29 Dec 2017 – Friday
We met in the café onboard at 0545. Our group of 12 from all over the ship and
all over the world: Our family from Australia – except for Harry – Mick -
engineering, Tammy (communications), Jack (16) and Mark (13); a Dutch family –
Janetta (HR), Hugo (almost 17) and Micah (14); Yassine from Switzerland
(Information systems); Nikki (Operating room), Michelle (Dental), Sierra (Rehabilitation)
all three from US and Natascha from Australia (Hospitality). An awesome group to spend these three days
with – full of enthusiasm, a little trepidation and lots of encouragement.
Before 6, we’d left the ship and were confidently striding
towards the port gate to meet our vehicles just outside it. Two 7 seater vehicles and a nice even
distribution of baggage. We were
fortunate to each only carry a day pack – porters would carry the items we
needed overnight – extra clothing, plus all the tents, sleeping bags / mats and
food. I am 100% sure that I would not
have made it up the mountain if I was carrying all that extra stuff.
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| The start of the trek - we were well into the forest by the time this sign appeared |
After a semi eventful road trip, we made it to the starting
point in Buea. This is the Capital city
of the South West region and being at approximately 1000m altitude, feels quite
a bit cooler than Douala. We were all
keen to get going – so we did around 0830.
We started in the fields above the government offices. It was quite steep to begin with and we
passed through a small town / village which included a prison farm. Then we headed into the forest to really
start climbing properly. It was hot and
steamy with steady climbing. No
switchbacks – just different gradients of steepness if that is such a
word. And it was rocky. I don’t think I
realised how rocky is was until we came down two days later actually. We stopped at a very large, cavernous tree –
enough to shelter a few people in heavy rain.
We also stopped at a concreate Park entrance. Each stop meant a good opportunity to eat something
and take in more water. We were sweating
a lot. I was sweating so much I almost
overheated – Mick took my day pack and I took off my hat and cooled down. I was starting to worry that all my training would
be for nothing. It wasn’t too long after
this that we reached Hut #1 – about 1030.
We had most of our lunch there.
And drank a lot more water. Our
guides and porters had plenty of water for us too. We also crossed a small spring just before
the hut and were able to wash our sweaty faces and hands. It was pretty decent break at Hut #1 and
there was plenty of shade and places to sit.
We had all found a comfortable place in the single file of our hiking
group – our teenagers were at the front with Nikki and I was further down the
back with Sierra and Natascha. We were a
little spread out but all in good spirits.
The next most noticeable change was when we exited the
forest and started climbing in the grasslands – coinciding perhaps with
crossing the tree line. The grass was rough
and thick on the ground that still remained very rocky – full of loose, rough,
volcanic rocks. It was tough on your shoes
and I am glad I had a pair of hiking boots on though plenty in our group
survived in sneakers / running shoes. I
think the extra ankle support was a huge confidence boost for me in that rough
terrain.
The path from the start was generally quite narrow – hence why
we ended up in single file for most of the time. It was fairly obvious trail – though once in
the grasslands, we started climbing in earnest – it was much steeper and I was
glad of the 2 steps at a time training that I had been encouraged to do
beforehand. There was a pleasant breeze
and we appeared to be above the dust haze that settles on the city during
Harmattan. We still had clouds so the temperature
was great for steady exercise. The
challenge was just finding a rhythm, taking the time during breaks to admire
the incredible views and of course, to keep hydrated and energised with
food. I didn’t feel hungry at all and
had to keep forcing myself to eat snacks – knowing that I would run out of
energy otherwise.
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| Volcanic vent on the way up - very cool inside and deep |
The area of grasslands between the end of the forest and Hut
#2 was for me the most challenging part of the whole trip – on the way up and
particularly on the way down. It seemed
to go on forever and required a lot of concentration and mental energy. We saw others hikers and rangers coming down
and they told us that we were very close – only a 100m or so. It is important to realise that all the
guides, rangers and porters only refer to how far something is in terms of
altitude – so 100m is 100m climbing which could mean 100m to be walked or
1000m. Once we understood this was
started to ask the question in terms of time rather than distance.
Finally, we made it up to Hut 2 –
2850m - a significant achievement on its own – the highest mountain in Australia
is Mount Kosciuszko at 2228m. So, we had already climbed higher than we
could at home. I was totally knackered –
having not had enough water in the latter part of the day. We had a dinner of
spaghetti with a spicy tomato based sauce with small pieces of fish in it –
cooked over an open fire. It was
delicious and much needed calories – helping us all to recover strength and
hydration as well. We could have as much
as we wanted – which is always a huge advantage when there are four teenage
boys in your group with hollow legs.
That kind of message is music to their ears.
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| Dinner day 1 - so good! |
When the sun went down, it was crazy
just how quickly it cooled down with a light breeze accompanying the night
sky. With not a lot of warm clothes, the
most sensible decision was to get into bed and quickly. I received a Fitbit for Christmas which tells
me that I was asleep at 1923 (7.23pm). Clearly – I needed it.
30 Dec 2017
Saturday
We woke close to 6am having to be
ready to go at 0800 and breakfast available from 0700 in the cooking hut. It was chilly but not as bad as I expected it
to be. Mick and I shared a tent – as did
the teenagers and the women were divided into two tents. Poor Yassine was in a
tent by himself and struggled to get warm all night. Mick and I were cosy in our tent next to him.
For breakfast we had hard boiled eggs,
bread with choice of mayonnaise or Tartine (like Nutella) on it and Tea, coffee
or Ovaltine. It was delicious and
everyone ate heartily – keen to build up their energy reserves for the day ahead. There was a couple of hole in the ground
toilets at Hut#2 – though plenty of our group preferred to go “bush”
instead. As long as you went first thing
in the morning, the toilet was not too bad.
We were on the path at 0800 ready to
attempt to get to the summit. After feeling pretty awful at the end of the
first day, I found a good night’s sleep and dinner had me feeling up for the challenge. Hugo had vomited on the first day and we did
not think he would even attempt the summit – but he also woke up full of
enthusiasm to try, feeling much better.
Our group was so encouraging of each other – it was randomly chosen
through a Sign-up sheet in the Activities Binder onboard – but I am so glad I
got to climb with all these people. No
one got cross or frustrated – or if they did – I certainly wasn’t aware of
it. Everyone wanted to get to the top
together.
The climb started much like Day 1
ended – fairly steep grassy, rocky path.
We seemed to be going a little slower and a few people began struggling
to get their breath in the thinner air.
Our guides did a good job of pacing us and using time instead of
distance to let us know where we were at.
It seemed like it wasn’t too long at all before we were at Hut#3. The reality was it was about 3 hours of
steady climbing to get there.
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| Steady climbing on steep, rocky grassy paths |
We were informed that the summit was
only 45 minutes more from Hut#3. This
was when I really began to believe I was going to make it to the top. I hadn’t had any trouble breathing at all
which was why I had trained so hard. For
a change – I was closer to the start of the group with the teenagers and Niki still
setting the pace. The grasslands opened
up into a strange volcanic landscape with hardly any vegetation and the path
was more like a meadow path with smaller pieces of rock – sultana-size instead
of the larger ones. It was easier to get
a rhythm going and we could virtually see the path right to the foot of the
summit. It was really exciting and
tempting to speed up.
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| Volcanic meadow |
We arrived at the summit about 1230 –
fully elated at what we had achieved.
The whole of the mountain was visible below us – as well as the clouds
and fortunately the Harmattan dust. We
felt like we were on top of the world and all that was left to do was to keep
encouraging our group to join us and get the photo proof of our achievement. Oh yeah – and to climb back down…
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| Our group - We are one at the Summit! |
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| Top of the world view |
After the excitement of summiting, going
down was a let down and quite a struggle for me. There was no goal – after the initial “volcanic
meadow” – we returned to the steep, grassy path covered in loose rock – that did
not seem so terrifying on the way up. I
was very concerned about rolling an ankle and took a very long time to get back
down – being the last person in to Hut#3 and then also Hut#2. I
thought that I had prepared really well for the trip but realised that my focus
had been constantly on going up and relatively nothing on going down. Not too worry – only 1.5 days of going down
to go!
Finally, I did arrive back at our camp
at Hut #2 after 4pm on Day 2 – the very last one in our group. We had a lovely dinner of chicken in a peanut
curry sauce on rice. Again, as much as
you wanted to eat. All still really
pleased that we made it to the summit and back. Knowing only one more day of climbing
to go – and it was all down.
Mick and I decided to get to bed early
again as the temperature dropped with the fading light. We were a little wiser than day 1 and made
sure to go to the toilet before zipping up the tent so no midnight trips were
needed. We then realised that we were in
our sleeping bags and ready to go to sleep before 6pm. After a short conversation of whether this
was actually appropriate or not, we were asleep before 7pm and awake at 5.30am
the next morning.
31 Dec 2017 –
Sunday – the last day of 2017
So same schedule as the day before –
breakfast at 0700 with the plan to get started on the way down at 0800. This time with any packing up also needed to
be incorporated into our time. I felt
quite stiff this morning – which I hadn’t the previous day – it was going to be
a challenging day.
Poor Janetta had rolled her ankle in
the last part of the previous day and it was really swollen. I didn’t know how she would even make it down
those steep slopes but one of our guides had made her walking sticks. Sierra had strapped her foot as well. And what other choice did she have? It is one of my most lovely memories of that
morning to see Micah helping his mother climb down that mountain – he was so
careful in picking her path and stayed with her on that really steep part. It was a joy to watch.
Between Huts #1 and #2 was an
intermediate hut which I don’t really remember much about on our first
day. However, I think it marks the start
of the really steep part of the path between those huts. Because on day 3, we could see it for a very
long time - sitting tantalizingly close below us. It was so steep on this
section leading to the Intermediate hut that it felt like you could “cardboard
surf” down the mountain in a matter of seconds and be at the hut. Of course, sitting on a piece of cardboard,
hurtling down a very steep slope covered in fist size volcanic rocks, was not
an option so we just had to carefully pick our way down – hoping that the hut
was actually eventually going to appear to be at a manageable distance. And finally, it did.
The rest of the hike was tough due to
fatigue – we returned to the forest – where there were many more loose rocks
than I remembered. It was pleasant to be
in the shade and to know each step was closer to the end. I knew that there was hut in the forest
somewhere and a spring near it. We were
also seeing people heading up – all fresh and enthusiastic. We were not at all fresh – filthy from the
volcanic dust, sweaty from the exertion and tired from the trip overall. It was very satisfying to know that the end
was near.
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| Back into the forest |
We had a short lunch at hut#1 and were
told it would be about 2 hours from there to the end point. And it was.
The teenagers were almost running down the last section – Mick had a
burst of youth to catch up with them.
Again, I was one of the last few, keeping the rhythm going and wanting
to finish as strong as I could without falling or rolling ankles.
Mick and the boys made it down in a
little over 50 minutes – I was much closer to the 2 hours estimate and back a
little after 1300. We took some shots of
the group and then thoughts turned to the journey back to the ship and day dreams
of 6-minute showers to remove the ingrained dirt! We were home before dinner – tired, but very
happy to achieved this feat. It was
tough - some sections were more difficult than others. It was a real rite of passage and we are seriously
proud of our boys in climbing this mountain.
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| Achievement - now where is that shower |
By Tammy
