Cameroon Photo Blog #15 - From Yaoundé to Ngaoundéré: Travelling with Camrail, the only railway in West Africa

Hi Steemians,

welcome back to my Cameroon Photo Blog!
Today I want to acquaint you with the Cameroonian way of travel.
There are three ways to cover longer distances in Cameroon, by plane, by train or by bus.
The plane is too expensive for local people.
Traveling by bus is another story which I will tell you another time.

The third way of transport is the only railway in West Africa. Camrail gets you from Duala via Yaoundé to Ngaoundére. That's about a 500 miles distance on a one-rail route by 40 miles/h speed.
So the train takes off at 6 pm and arrives in the morning about 9 am the next day.
When you travel 1st class, which I recommend, you have a sleeping wagon, otherwise you're sitting the whole night on benches in a wagon packed full of people with all their luggage, bags and sometimes even chicken or whatever is allowed to travel.

It is a exceptional journey! And funny thing also!
I remember when I first left Yaoundé at the airport, going to Frankfurt, I had a 5-times passport control, by some security guard or who ever felt the need of controlling somebody. In Frankfurt one of the biggest airports in the world, not even one guy asked me to show him my passport.

It's the same with the railway.
To travel by train you need to buy your ticket in the morning before journeying, waiting for about an hour to get it. Then in the evening you wait another hour. To get on the platform you have the first control where the 1st of 4 section of your ticket is ripped off. The next section you hand over the conductor's assistant when you enter the train. The 3rd section is controlled by the main conductor in the middle of the night and the 4th and last section of your ticket you have to give away, when you exit the train station at your destination.

Is that weird?
Not at all, not in Africa!
Every compartment has it's own security guard!

When I first took the train to Ngaoundéré in 2013, I was totally on my own, not knowing the country and its rules.
Of course as passionate photographer I was taking pictures of everything, also the train station, when security gurad came jumping at me, that it's not allowed to take pictures of the station and any other public buildings.

The second time I took the train Alim was with me and we where waiting at the platform for all the passengers to find their seats. So we were enjoying the outside air, because nowadays all the compartment are air-conditioned, and where rolling some cigarettes with natural American Spirit Tobacco.
Again a security guy came to us, almost arresting us, for he didn't know natural tobacco. So he brought us to his sergeant officer, saluting, and proudly announced that he caught us preparing these drugs. After the inspector assured that what we where smoking was plain tobacco he released us, of course without apology.

Traveling 1st class has also the convenience of a room service. We got a nice dinner and breakfast in the morning served directly to our compartment. It wasn't what you would expect travelling first class, but we had some eggs a bun and a cup of tea or coffee.

Another interesting impression on the train is that all the local people at the stations, even at night, sell their local products. You get lots of fruits, honey, and bâton a cooked mesh of manioc rolled up in banana leaves. The communities at the rails live to the most part with the train passing by.

At 6:30 am the sun is rising and you can enjoy the view out of the window, passing different vegetative zones.
But in the end we where really happy to lastly see the navel hill of Ngaoundéré and to reach our final destination.

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