Mt Cameroon

Mount Cameroon was really beautiful, but definitely A LOT more difficult then I had been expecting. I guess I should have known that climbing the highest mountain in West/Central Africa would be more difficult than hiking the Adirondacks with my family, but the guidebook made it seem like anybody with a relative amount of fitness could handle it. We started off in the more jungley climate last Thursday morning. Then when we hit the treeline, it became really sparse and the hike all of a sudden became 100% vertical. It was difficult even to get your footing because the trail was really just following these volcanic rocks that kept slipping out from underneath your feet. Of course our Cameroonian guide and porters are all wearing jellies and running up and back down the mountain, while holding all our gear. Actually, my porter won the Race of Hope in the year 2000. That is an annual race up Mt. Cameroon which he completed in about 3 hours! (While we were scheduled to hike the same route and back down in 3 days, Pretty nuts.)

We spent the night at "hut 2" on the mountainside but really we brought tents and sleeping bags since the huts themselves are pretty dirty. My sleeping bag zippered down the middle of the front, and it was broken. This made for a very cold and miserable night sleeping on the mountain. When we woke up I had snuggled so close up to Janelle the two of us were in this one tiny corner of the tent. This was Christmas morning, and we were both like hmm this is not actually very much fun at all. So, we decided we'd start our return trip down instead of continuing upwards. Going down was probably worse than going up though, especially that steep part and our legs got sooo sore. But we listened to Christmas tunes the whole way down which boosted spirits a bit. Then we showed up on the doorstep of Janelle's family friends who were in Buea town working at the hospital. They graciously took us in for Christmas. They had a real house with a real Christmas tree and decorations and ornaments and peppermint bark and cheesy old Christmas movies and it was delightful!