Mount Cameroon

Just after the other volunteers visited, I headed to buea to climb mt. cameroon with a couple other volunteers. I was thinking that the mt climb wasn’t so bad, bc everyone climbs it, but just to be on the safe side, I wanted to climb with people that were at my level. Mt. Cameroon is actually an active volcano that last erupted in 2000, and before that 1999. It is the second largest mountain in Africa, behind mt Kilimanjaro. We were doing a 3 day trek up to the summit and over the other side of the mountain. I went with lauren and 2 volunteers from the NW province. We started our trek early in the morning, and the first few hours are through the jungle. It was hot and humid, so we took breaks every so often to drink water. We had a guide with us, and porters, so we didn’t have to worry about carrying our packs. We had to carry enough food and water for the next 3 days, so the bags were pretty heavy. We made it to Hut 1 before the rain hit. We hung out for a bit and finally the rain stopped so we could continue. After that point, things started to get a bit rockier. We left the jungle and started to climb up a rocky incline. As we continued there were more and more loose rocks that would shift as you stepped on them. By the time we reached Hut 1b, my hips were starting to hurt from the funny way we had to climb. Lauren was also struggling - she hurt her knee and wasn’t sure if she could continue. She decided to turn back before she got more hurt, so then we were down to 3. We continued climbing (slowly) and finally arrived at Hut 2 where we planned to stay the night. We paid our guide to cook for us, and right after a dinner of spaghetti, we went to bed. It was about 7:30 pm.
The next morning we got up at about 5 to start our climb to the summit. Since we were so slow, our guide didn’t think we could make it on the 3 day hike. He wanted us to go back the way we came. We really wanted to do the 3 days, ,and told the guide that we would push ourselves. His only condition was that we leave before sunrise the next day. So, we had a very early morning, and started our climb with flashlights. The night before, the cold wind came into the hut, and I woke with a cold. That made it even more difficult for me to climb. We watched the sunrise (kind of). We couldn’t see much because at this point we were above the clouds, but we just kept climbing. We each had a mantra that we were saying in our heads to keep going.. Mine was “just keep swimming”, just like dory in finding nemo. As we climbed, the weather got colder and colder. After a while, there were no rocks, and instead volcanic ash. It was just like climbing in sand. After that, there were more rocks up to the summit. I was cold, and the wind was practically blowing me over, but I finally made it to the summit at 4095m (13,000 feet). We snapped a quick photo, and headed back down the other side of the mountain. We were so happy to have our guide, as he gave us water as we were coming down the other side. Because of the dry season, the spring at hut 1 and 2 had been dried up, and we were running short of water. The way down was so much easier for me. One of the girls was really tough on the way up, but struggled on the way down. That made me feel a little better, since I struggled on the way up. As we passed through the ash again, it was fun. You could slide down it, just like on a sand dune. We then crossed grassy plains and then volcanic rocks. The rocks were hard on the feet. I heard it is the hardest rock in the world. The weather gradually warmed up and we took off layers. We stopped to see the craters from the 1999 eruption. They are still smoking, 10 years later. From there we continued to mann spring, our resting point for the night. We stayed in these grass hut kind of buldings, with no doors. I didn’t like the place, because there were bees everywhere. They would land on me and crawl all over. It was awful. Luckily though, there was water, so we could refill our supply. There was a spring, with not so clean water. Good thing pc provides me with aquatabs to clean water. Just before we went to bed all of the guides and porters danced. It was the initiation for the new porters. It was pretty entertaining.
On our last day, we started about 7am. We walked across the plains for a short time, until we entered the jungle again. It was warm, but it must have rained at some point, bc it was all mud. We were slipping and sliding. By now, our legs had turned to jello, so it was hard to climb anyway. My guide gave me a walking stick which helped. Around 11am we made it to town and completed our trek. I was so relieved to be finished. It was kind of fun, but I probably will not ever climb it again. I was happy though, that I could conquer the mountain. I definitely underestimated the mountain, but it was worth going. Every February, there is the mt cameroon race. People run up the mountain and back down. They do in 4 hours what I did in 3 days. Now that I know what they go through, I think their prizes should be larger. Anyway, as soon as we made it to town, I headed back to mamfe. Of course, when I arrived, light had just come and there was no running water. Figures.