Day 11: The Gods Must be Cacao (Nkongsamba)

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Day 11: The Gods Must be Cacao (Nkongsamba)

Written by Eric Mathurin

Monday, 12 November 2007

After a pretty decent sleep — David kept his snoring to a dull roar — we awoke to find Martin preparing a breakfast for us. It was simple — tea and bread with chocolate spread — but delicious. We left around 7:30 am but this time took 3 motorcycle taxis back to the house, passing by all the students on their way to class. As with last night, Martin graciously paid the drivers on our behalf.

The morning ride up the university road by motorcycle taxi.

A view from 4,600 feet.

At the house, we found another breakfast waiting for us — so I had a bit more food and cup of coffee. We hit the road soon after. The first portion of our ride involved a long, long descent into the valley, the same road that we climbed by bus at the beginning of the trip. The views were gorgeous and we could see clouds floating below us. It was worth wasting away our brake pads to stop several times along the way down to gawk at the landscape.

Taking a break on the descent from Dschang.

The ride eventually flattened out, although we had a bit of a headwind. We passed by many small agricultural operations: coffee and cacao, bananas and cassava, etc. An old man was drying some cacao in front of his house so we stopped to chat. He was very happy to discuss his crop with us and gave us a handful of dried cacao beans to take with us. We cracked one open and ate it — bitter, but still tasty. This is another one of the many benefits of cycling — being able to stop at will and investigate. We did the same thing a few times to check out coffee and then men working over steaming drums to extract palm oil.

The author and Julius Yongka.

We stopped for a break in a village along the way, while discovering we still had some ways to go. I was feeling pretty tired — my right calf and back were particularly sore. We drank our pops and I tried not to doze off (David did drop off for a couple of minutes sitting in his chair).

From that point forward the going got uphill and I was dying slowly. We eventually passed some gendarmes who asked me as I went by where we were going. I said, "Nkongsamba" and then I inquired, "Est ce que loin?" He replied, "C'est ici!" Thank goodness.

Close-up of a cacao bean.

We found David at an intersection. He left us to investigate some hotels while we waited for Il, Julius and Yau who were somewhere behind us. Fortunately a woman was selling bananas across the street so Gill went over and we had a well-needed snack.

It took a while for everyone to catch up — Julius had encountered bike trouble — so we spent some time chatting with various passersby. (One asked for my bicycle, which is a fairly common occurrence. I asked for his motorcycle.) They usually end up hitting on Gill and Il, and sometimes I'll then introduce myself as Gill's husband to much disappointment.

Farmer drying his cacao in front of his home.

We eventually met up with David and rode into town for a well-earned lunch. We had a great salad — full of cabbage, carrots, lettuce and avocado. We haven't eaten any salad up until now because, well, you're not supposed to. So we'll eventually find out if it was a risk worth taking. It was certainly delicious! That was followed by rice, spaghetti and crispy, fried snapper. Two old men run the restaurant (serving and cooking) and I was pretty impressed.

David says:
We found slim pickings on restaurants again, but all you need is one. We were directed to a sign-less door in need of painting, down an alcove, off a side street, away from the center of town. The single room had four small tables and a dozen chairs. Our little group took half of each. We were dubious at first. We weren't even real sure what we ordered, but the two older men who were the owned/staff the joint went to work with confidence. When the finished product was served we had big plates with large portions of fish, rice and salad, and a plentiful basket of sliced French bread. We left very satisfied.

We rode a little further into town. It's a government city so there's a lot of offices and gendarmes. There's some pretty nice architecture and people seemed friendly enough. The town is set against a high mountain so it's very scenic.

The hotel, too, is quite nice. I could hear Gill exclaiming from inside: "It's got toilet paper. And a toilet seat!" And a fan, too, which is a first. (And, blessedly, hot water. Both me and clothes cry out for it.) Gill changed her bandages — although her many big bruises look ghastly her cuts seem to be healing very well.

By the time we were freshened up it was raining heavily. We therefore decided to eat at the hotel for dinner, which we try not to usually do. Dinner was fine but portions were small and it took a looooong time to get the food. Then, to bed. Of course.

Readers have left 2 comments.

No.2 Re: Cheap

Ptrety cheap tourist huhh?

— George

Incredibly! However, staying at an international hotel (in, say, Douala) would have ensured that our tourist dollars would be sent out of the country. Spending local, albeit cheaply, at Cameroonian-owned restaurants and hotels supports local businesses and there is less isolation from the country and people I travel there to experience.

Eric Mathurin (Super Administrator) • 2008-12-31 13:32:26

No.1 Cheap

Ptrety cheap tourist huhh?