Remembrance of an old account on Steemit: Cameroon Cameroon Photo Blog #09 - Mount Cameroon - Above the rooftops of Westafrica

holgerwerner (59)in #travel • 7 years ago

This is the 3rd day on the mountain.

Go here to see how the mountain tour begins!

and here to learn about day 2 of the mountain tour!

Yesterday 2 years ago, I celebrated an extraordinary birthday on my way up to the rooftops of Westafrica.
Early in the morning, at 3 o'clock, the 10th of September 2014 Mjombwa and I started on our final stage to the summit. Alim was too exhausted to go any further. So it was only the two of us, Mjombwa and me who grabed our backpacks, with some food and water and started off in the middle of the chilly night.

It was pitch black up there, except for the stars which shone on the bright sky. Mjombwa knew the way and there was only one route, you hardly could miss, with white painted stones from time to time.
The route wasn't as steep as the day before, but the thin air made me some problems to breathe and so I walked very slowly, step by step.
At sunrise we had already mounted quite a bit and I saw a bright and sunny morning coming up. The scenery was so beautiful. I always thought there would only be rocks, ashes and black stone on a volcano. But the opposite is the case. In spite of the nourishing minerals in the ground, there grew many different sorts of grasses, heather and other beautiful plants I didn't know. I took every chance when I had to pause to take some pictures of this beautiful outlandish place.

Mjombwa was always ahead. What for him seemed as going for a walk, was a big struggle for me. I had to push myself with every step. I felt like walking on the moon or on Mount Everest, except there was neither moondust nor snow, only the black rocky ground beneath my feet and the beautiful green gras and heather around me.
But Mjombwa always walked some 50 or 100 m ahead to leave me time and tempo to chose for myself.

When we reached hut 3, the final hut on our trip, we made a pause and had our breakfast to gather some energy for the final stage to the summit.

Now the summit was very seizable, just over the next hill, some more steps up, right in front of me. But walking was so hard, I could only make three to four steps, then I had to pause. Another 4 steps, pause, 4 steps, pause.

I t was so calm and beautiful up here. The colors where fantastic. A mixture of different warm greens with yellow, brown, violett besides the black of the stone and the blue of the sky. Later Mjombwa told me how lucky we were to be here in bright sunshine with no storm, no clouds, no rain. You have that only one time out of 10 on the mountain. Most people struggle with harsh icy storm and rain, and sometimes even snow and ice. I couldn't believe it in this beautiful scenery, but the next day when we got down again, I saw how it could have been, when another group came up and it started to rain.

We where nearly there, directly in front of the last tiny hill, that took me only ten minutes to mount.

Done!
All the struggle was forgotten, when I stood on the rooftop of Westafrica, all the other peaks below our feet. The view was exceptional! Clouds covered all the lands and the sea beneath us. I saw the craters downhill on the other side of the mountain, deep scars and steep slopes, but I didn't find any good shot, except for Mjombwa and me.

We didn't stay any longer, for the weather might change very quick. So we made our way back down to camp 2, where Alim and Sundoria where preparing breakfast for us.
Half way back I took a little rest.

After this successful ascent we took some final group pictures the next day at intermediate hut. That was already day 4 on the mountain. Then we walked through the mystic, foggy woods again, back to Buea, had a shower, a cold beer and another wonderful dinner.

When there was a cloud-free moment, where we got one of the rare glimpses on the mountain, we saw that the water was pouring down on the same little path we all were climbing the mountain on the days before. Now it was impassable.

The next day some kilometers away at the beach in Limbe, we saw how massive this mountain was. 4095m high and ground base at least 10 times that length in diameter.
What a mountain! Thank you I was allowed to experience you!