Mount Cameroon

Mount Cameroon is pretty big, 4095m sounds kinda large but i wish i took my protractor as we estimate that a lot of it is a climb of about 60 degrees +.  So steep. to say the least. It is certainly harder than any other mountain I have done before.  But……

Because I like a challenge I thought that the night prior to departure I would have a few sociable libations and at the time a 2am bedtime didn’t sound too bad, even though I had to be up at 4am for the 5am departure.

This turned out not to be a good idea after all.  The first 1000m was ok and I powered ahead making it to hut one in really good time, with a hangover and 2 hours sleep.  I then made a fatal mistake.  Being incredibly thirsty and ignoring my better judgment I decide to drink from a very slow moving stream without filtering my water.  But…whats good for the locals is good for me.  Following a spot of lunch and a nice long break we began our hike to hunt two, another 1500m which was incredibly steep.  About 30mins or less, into the trek I felt sick, really sick.  So bad in fact I could hardly move and try as might I could not force myself to puke up the bad water. (mixed with some drink as well I suppose)  This made the hike intolerably hard especially as it was so steep and uneasy under foot.

However, I slogged on and finally made it to hunt two at 2pm where we stopped for the night.  About five minuets after arriving I was incredibly sick and was left thinking I had nothing else left to give, but I was wrong and the puking continued for about 5 mins.  After which I felt much better and was really pissed that I couldn’t make myself do that early as I was now full of energy and walking around was no trouble at all.  So onwards and upwards and the summit was the next day and then a long arduous walk back to hut one for another night camped on the mountain.

The last day was an only a few hours walking back to the base.  We arrived about 1030.  Following which Matt and I decided we had earned ourselves a refreshing beverage.  And as chance would have there was a bar open at the foot of the hill.  It was decided the precise time was now Beer O’clock and the aching legs and sore feet where soon a distant memory.

We then shared a cab back to the house where we all longed for a bucket shower.  Not something any of us thought we would hear ourselves saying.  And that was Mt Cameroon.

As you may remember from my previous post I made a comment about the girls being wimps thinking that Mt was hard.  I’m not going to retract that statement as I did it with 2 hours sleep, a blinding hangover and then made myself sick by drinking contaminated water.  But it still is pretty hard. However I did manage to keep all my toenails.

Lastly an update on the ensuing Battle of Britain.  Good news.  We won.  Again.  Julian has returned to Germany after about a month.  Was a shame to see him go as I no longer have my smoking and drinking partner, but I do have a room to myself again; so not all bad.

This weekend I’m back in Douala for more food and too much wine.