Day 2 - Mount Cameroon

We left Hut#2 at about 8:30 the morning. Last night Iak continued to have the shits (for the last 3 days now) and I had a vommit session. So we were both broken men at the start of it all. So, hoe eet mens n mielie? Happie vir happie natuurlik! We decided to ascend the summit by relaying the heavy bag with the tent in 20min slots. This seemed to do the trick as Iak's bag was a bit lighter and gave enough time to get some energy back... the gradient was bearable this way and we made steady progress for the summit.

We reached Hut#3 at about 11am and after a good break, were ready to take on the beast. We followed the remains of an eruption (Mt. Cameroon is an active volcano with the last eruption in 2000) which made for quite painful trek up the summit. Here, nothing grows but moss and strange volcanic plant life! This lead us up many deceptively looking peaks that we, in our tiredness, continually mistook for the summit. We followed the jagged edges and surprizingly stumbled on the summit... there was no dramatic procession or deep stirring in the mountain or muffled drum beatings - just another peak and thats the summit... justice! It seems like the whole frikin mountain was the summit! We had the chance to write a message in the exclusive book on the summit for those who reached it.

But what goes up, must come down. That's just logic right? But not in this way surely... just a few meters from the summit we saw what waited for us - the same gradient we came up was the way down to the backside of the mountain facing the ocean (we obviously had zero visibility as we were above the clouds). And here started one of the toughest sessions of the trip. We were virtually running down the sandy mountainside, slip-n-slide style. The landscape flatend after a while and we were now crossing the remains of a lava settlement. The jagged edges were still very tough underfoot and we had to be careful to to twist ankles and knees. It almost looks like above-water coral reefs with strange moss and cactus like flowers forcing their roots down. This landscape flattened again to a grassland and we were hiking through waist to chest high grasses and then Canola-like flowers. After this, we hikied through the 1999 lava craters. Sulpher fumes were still coming out of the black mountain and this stretched for at least 3km, partly filled with vegetation. A truly remarkable sight... We ended the day, exhausted, in a sub-tropical forest where we will sleep in a very dodgy looking grass shelter tonight. Goid only knows what lives in here. But this ends a day where we walked through 5 different landscapes: 1. Summit; 2. Lava settlements; 3. Grasslands; 4. Black soil lava craters and 5. Forest.

summit

magma residue

Day 2 - Mount Cameroon

Limbe, Cameroon