mud, wildlife and rain: central Africa

[netllama]

I recently returned from spending three weeks in central Africa, specifically Nigeria, Cameroon & the Central African Republic (CAR). It was a good trip, but a fairly chaotic one too. its a fascinating, vibrant part of the world, full of unique scenery, wildlife & people.  Its also very much developing, with all the challenges that come from that dynamic. To make it even more interesting, climate change has turned what should have been the dry season into a rainy, muddy mess. It rained several days in Nigeria, and nearly every day in Cameroon & CAR, when the reain would have normally have ceased weeks earlier. As we saw in Death Valley following the severe weather events earlier this year, when roads are dirt, rain really makes a huge mess. 

In Nigeria, I spent most of the time in the southwest corner, Lagos, and then within a few hundred km up as far north as Ilorin (with a day trip to the capital Abuja). Nigeria was mostly interacting with people, and cultural experiences.   
In Cameroon, I flew into the capital, Yaounde, then drove east overland, all the way to the Sangha River border with CAR, took a speed boat up river two hours, and then officially touched land just north of the tiny city of Bayanga, where I spent 4 days exploring the Dzanga Sangha National Park (which is buried in a triangle of land between Cameroon and the Congo). The drive across Cameroon was an adventure itself, through dense, remote jungle, on dirt/mud roads that even the locals referred to as "very bad".  It was the gorgeous, mythic jungle of people's imaginations, full of people (including pygmies), plants, trees, flowers, insects and wildlife. 
CAR was somehow even more of the same, with enormous wildlife diversity, including elephants & gorillas.  It was an amazing experience, but this was not easy travel by any means, driving as much as 11 hours in a day, and sleeping in very primitive places (including a spider infested convent).

Some photo highlights of the trip:




monkeys monkeys monkeys


beware



school time


Osun Osogbo

Abuja National Mosque

heading east


light mud

open on sundays


red dust

messy


hey kids!

school


Yaounde, Cameroon street life

sunday sunday sunday !


soupy

a sturdy bridge

where all the drinks are warm

stuck !


eastward


north on the Sangha river


to the elephants (Dzangha Bai)



greetings


kids just wanna have fun


spa day


family trip


the herd


to the gorillas


pygmy village


the mighty Sangha


sunset over the Sangha (plus jungle cat)

the biggest "adventures" of the trip:

• detained for nearly an hour one day by the Nigerian Navy, for not wearing a life jacket (nevermind all the Nigerians on boats who were also not wearing them), and then accused of photographing the naval base, which is a felony
  
• walking through sewage to reach the boat dock for the Makoko floating village
  
• seeing 68 simultaneous elephants at Dzhanga Bai
  
• getting charged by an enraged elephant while returning from the gorilla trek, and having to literally run for my life. it was basically this except substitute my legs for the jeep, and an elephant for the t-rex (yet it sounded nearly the same)
  
• not really seeing any gorillas, because they didn't care, and hid up in some trees
  
• watching a black mamba (snake) swim in the creek that we needed to cross to reach the gorillas.  the black mamba is one of the most deadly snakes, and most bites are fatal within 24 hours without anti-venom
  
• sleeping in a convent that was infested with spiders. i could hear them crawling around at night. also the convent had no hot water, and was rather filthy. this was the "good" lodging option in Yokadouma, Cameroon.
  
• my return flight home was cancelled 9 hours before departure.  had to call & fight with Air France for over an hour to rebook me on another airline to avoid getting stuck in Cameroon for an extra 24 hours. its a rare day when Turkish Air is a welcome sight at Yaounde's airport.
  

I've got a detailed trip report posted HERE. All of the trip photos are posted HERE.

thanks!