The route took us round the Dja reserve, a UNESCO world heritage site and included visits to two logging companies and their operations, a couple of mining companies, the offices of the Ministry of Forests, WWF and meetings with other environmental organisations.
We started on a Monday and the first half day was on good tarmac roads down to Sangmelima and we made the most of it as we didn't see tarmac again until the following Saturday. Beyond Sangmelima and on to Djoum, the mud road turned rougher and the trees began to thicken on the roadside, getting taller and grander as we entered the primary forests of the Congo basin. There would be occasional clearings where people had staked their claims to land. Often the plots would include a large house in various states of completion - many senior government officials have land and family in the area.
We arrived at the logging company's sawmill just before dark and headed onto their guest house where, that evening, I had a crash course in forestry - in French. The next day we had a tour of the sawmill. The size of the logs being cut and the sheer quantity of wood being processed was striking but it wasn't until we went out deep into the forest itself that the real impact of logging could be seen.
Going out into the logging concession and actually seeing the trees being cut down and dragged by these powerful tractors to the road, crushing all the vegetation on the way, gave some idea of the damage logging does to the environment. This is not clear cutting - only certain trees are picked out and felled and the area is then not logged for another 30 years so is, in theory, sustainable but the immediate impact is severe.
From Djoum we went onto a village called Mintomb (marked Meyiboto on the map - no idea why). This village really did feel very rural.
There was one main square and accommodation consisted of a very basic room with outside long-drop toilet.
In the evening, the general store-cum-snack bar next door turned into an open air theatre showing the football on satellite TV. This started a competition between us travellers to find the most primitive hut on our route that still had a satellite dish on it - and over the next couple of days they really did get quite primitive.
A combination of quite a lot of wildlife in the room overnight and a stupendous thunderstorm starting at 3:00am meant a fitful night's sleep and did not bode well for the next stretch of the journey on ever more remote roads - this one heading to a tiny border post with Congo called Ntam. Sure enough, a couple of hours into the journey, we slid off the road and it took the best part of an hour to get us out and up the slippery slope opposite.
As the day wore on, the road dried out and driving became a bit easier but still slow. We passed a firmly stuck logging lorry and various other obstacles along the way.
We reached the entrance to an iron ore project at Mbalam which we had hoped to visit, yet to go into production but reputedly on one of the biggest iron ore deposits in Africa. Mining companies being a bit sensitive about their operations, we were denied entry but I picked up a couple of pieces of iron ore - and the extra weight is easy to feel.
According to the map we were at the end of the road.
But there was a track and after eight hours rough driving we made it to Ngoila and relative civilisation. We stayed at the WWF guest house and it was at Ngoila that we conducted the experiment that has gone down in local NGO folklore as symbolic of the impact of corruption on Cameroon's development. We visited the site of a new conservation office that had only, so far, had its foundations laid. Theoretically, a contractor had been paid a significant amount of money for these foundations but it didn't take my civil engineering experience to see that the quality left something to be desired. The cement was so thin and weak that I was able to drag my finger through the floor and tear it up.
After a more peaceful night in Ngoila, we set off for another eventful day on the road as we headed for Lomie, at the entrance to the Dja reserve. The road was much as it had been the previous couple of days, with one exception - the Dja river. The road crosses the Dja river near a place called Zoulabot II and there is a ferry. Unfortunately, the ferry's motor is broken and has been for about two years. Would be river crossers therefore have to pull themselves across the river. It is a pity we did not have a winch on the vehicle but we were able to make some use of its pulling power.
We gave a lift to a young trader who gave us a fascinating insight into the economics of the forest; the relationships between the Bantu Cameroonians and the Baka forest peoples; bush meat hunting; and local politics. James was relentless in his questioning and I worked out that he had asked something like 250 questions in the 2 hours we were all in the car together. The young man had earned his lift!
We stayed the next night in Lomie and had a chance to see the geologists at work for Geovic which has a mining concession in the area. This took me back to my civil engineering days as we looked at the geological maps, drilling equipment and went out to see a trial pit where the deposits of nickel, cobalt and manganese was being tested.
Our final night was spent back at a logging company house. This was a much more impressive operation than the previous company we had stayed with and you could see why they were FSC certified and the others not. I know that these certification schemes (and things like Fairtrade) can make a real difference to how companies run their businesses but it is not often that you get to see the difference for real. This logging company had its own town for its workers and it included the most beautiful church, entirely made of wood. We then headed home, finally hitting tarmac again for the last couple of hours of the journey.
All in all a very good trip. Next up is Chad.
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