HIKING THE JUNGLE- KORUP NATIONAL PARK

For some reason I was in the mood for physical punishment, so I kept my end of the bargain and got on a bus back up to Kumba to Cathy's house. The next morning, we got up early, did a final check of our bags, and headed out to the store for a little shopping. We had decided to concentrate on tunafish, cous-cous (really easy to prepare) and oatmeal. Following our success, we headed out to the car park to get a vehicle up to the village of Mundemba, the entrance point for Korup.

Entering the car park, one realizes exactly what happens to all those Toyota Corollas when they "die" - they're reincarnated as taxis here in Cameroon. We purchased our tickets, which were quite expensive- comparatively speaking- and waited for our car. Almost two hours later we were ready to go (after a little bit of hassling about our bags which they wanted to charge for since they were convinced we were tourists and could get a little extra money). There were eight of us, including the driver in a standard five-seater Corolla. The worst part was that it took over three hours on a non-paved dusty and extremely bumpy road. When we arrived, I was already tired, but it was about 2:30pm and Mundemba is a small village. We talked to the guy running the park office and he told us that he could find a guide and porter in an hour, if we wanted. We decided that camping inside the park would be more fun than a run-down hotel, and it might give us the opportunity to see more or take a slower pace if we did, so an hour later we were on our way.

Cathy and I and our guide and porter piled in a Land Rover with all of our stuff for the next three days and were driven to the entrance of the park, on the edge of a palm oil plantation. The park could only be reached by crossing a wide river by swinging bridge. It appeared to be well built, with strong, thick cables supporting it, so we ventured across. That isn't to say that one bad step wouldn't have sent you plunging into the rapids below, but slowly we made it- asking our guide and porter to go ahead so they wouldn't cause too many vibrations while we were crossing. I took one nice picture looking down at my feet standing on the planks of the bridge with the river rushing underneath. The adventure had indeed begun.

An hour of hiking through the forest led us to our camp for the night. There were all kinds of bird and animal calls throughout, and our porter (who had gone ahead) told us there were monkeys near the camp, but had left before we arrived. The park was developed by the World Wildlife Fund about 15 years ago. It was the WWF and their money who built the bridges, trails and campsites, and I have to say they knew what they were doing. It was all well done. Sadly, the WWF left the park about four years ago (presumably because there aren't enough animals left to save) and they handed over management to the government which has failed to maintain the facilities. The first campsite though was still fairly nice and was situated not far from one of the many mountain streams. So, throwing caution to the wind (many streams here carry harmful bacteria), we took our sweaty, dusty, dirty selves to the stream and took a bath. It was truly one of the most refreshing things I've ever done. It was also quite beautiful with the large trees hanging over the stream, large rocks creating ripples, and a small pool large enough for bathing. Afterwards, we fixed dinner of tuna sandwiches and went to sleep- or at least tried to. The cabins were furnished with bunk beds without mattresses on which I put my sleeping bag. Its at that point you realize the necessity of a sleeping mat, or an extra twenty pounds- neither of which I had.

We woke up the next morning to a knocking on our door. I sat up and saw the porter outside. He was pointing up to a large tree next to the camp saying there were monkeys up there- where he had seen them the day before. We crawled out of our beds as quietly as possible (me still in my boxer shorts) and looked up to see what appeared to be Colobus monkeys playing around, going from branch to branch. They were too far away to show up in photos, but it was pretty cool and a good way to start off our day in the African jungle. After a breakfast of oatmeal with raisins (tasty), we packed up our stuff and headed off to see the waterfall. It was an hour down, over streams and through the woods.

Being our first day in full daylight, we took time to take in the new trees and mushrooms that were along our path. We also discovered the most painful animal of the jungle first-hand: fire ants. I can tell you with much conviction, that, short of being mauled by a panther, fire ants have to be the most scream-inducing creatures of the jungle. The first time, we were naive, maybe a little arrogant given the obvious size differential. And maybe we disturbed their work or just maybe they have an inferiority complex. Regardless, we walked through them, and they fought back. Among their many powers, is a speed and tenacity that defies comprehension. For the rest of our time in the jungle, we became very aware of these monsters, and when we couldn't go around, we ran through them with great speed and long strides.

We made it to the waterfall, which was beautiful, took lots of pictures, rested for a little while and then returned back to camp. We rested a bit, ate some lunch and hiked onto the next camp where we would sleep that night. It was a fairly uneventful, but pretty hike. One of the highlights though was a tree that has evolved so that its exterior is spiked, sort of like a gigantic rose stem, which protects it against animals like forest elephants who like to push trees over, especially smaller ones. Go tree!

At the park office, we had run into a father and son hiking group from Sweden. They were extremely nice, and coming into the second camp, we discovered that we would be sharing the camp with them that evening. We all took turns taking baths in the stream, washing clothes and filling up water bottles (and purifying them, of course). We had a relaxing evening talking about American politics and Swedish technology.

We were off again the next morning, all headed in different directions. Cathy and I tried to express to our guide the desire to see everything of note in the park (a map of highlights existed, but sadly we didn't have a copy, but we had seen it). He assured us that would happen. We did have a nice day of hiking and saw some of the interesting aspects, including "The Big Boulder", which was exactly that (about forty feet tall, and clearly separate from the ground) and a hunter's cave which was used up until about twenty years ago. There were no cave drawings, sadly, but it was kinda cool and Indiana Jones-ish with thick vines coming down the sides of the giant granite rock. There were no snakes, but plenty of bats and large spiders to make up for it. We also went chasing monkees a couple of times, and were rewarded with a large group traveling high up in the treetops, probably red colobus. They were too far away to show up in photos (at least with my camera), but it was neat to see them and hear the rustling of leaves as they moved around. One last highlight was an overlook that was cleared by volcanic rock and up high enough that we could see the treetops for miles around. It was really hot, so we didn't stay out too long, but we could see the top of what we had been hiking under. At one point during the day, we ran across a village woman wondering through the forest. Inside the forest, there are about four small villages, and since the park borders Nigeria, there are also the occasional illegal immigrant comes down the trail. This woman was looking for her mother and two small children who were "lost" somewhere. Needless to say, she was a bit distraught, and our guide attempted to calm her down. After she moved on, he told us that people get lost all the time, which I believe. After a while it all startes to look the same.

The last camp was poorly maintained which was made worse by the presence of hundreds of bees, which, as we quickly discovered, are quite attracted to sweat. Having spent all day hiking in the rainforest, we had plenty of that (on numerous occasions, I had to wring out the canvas hat I was wearing since the sweat had saturated it). We escaped with another swim in a nearby stream, and stayed inside the cabin much of the rest of the day. Our porter did come across an attractive orange (probably poisonous) snake on another of the cabins. Of course, I promptly grabbed my camera and took lots of pictures. He's pretty cool looking, and I hope to figure out what it was, exactly.

Our last day, we threw everything into our sacks and headed out. We had a rendez-vous with the driver at 11am which we had to meet. On the way, we ran across a couple families of tourists out for day hikes (why they would come all the way out there for just a couple hour hike was beyond me). Some of them already looked tired though, so its probably best they weren't in it for longer. About a half kilometer from the bridge to exit out of the park we came across a sign proclaiming the spot as the furthest Prince Charles had ventured into the park during his visit in the early 90s. I suppose if he came to visit the park, its nice that he actually went in it, but I wouldn't say he's hardcore...

We found a car relatively quickly (we returned to the park office with the Swedes) and decided that we'd pay the extra couple bucks to have a more comfortable ride back (we bought a seat). It was worth it, and after much inhaled dust, we arrived in Kumba. After showers and clothing changes, the four of us had a great dinner of cheeseburgers, fried chicken and beer at the "American" restaurant in town and returned early to sleep. We felt good, as we had survived three days in the jungle...