Mt. Cameroon with Mr. Hans

Atop the mountain



Still steaming craters from the 1999 eruption:



I wish I could post pictures (I just did!), because climbing Mt. Cameroon was really incredible. It's the tallest mountain in West Africa, and an active volcano to boot, erupting as recently as 2000! To climb it, you have to get permits and hire a guide and porters, which sounds as if it would be expensive, but the total cost for 1 guide and 1 porter for 3 days for Isaac and I was 60,000 CFA, which is only $130! We also really lucked out, because the guide we got was Mr. Hans, the head guide for the main Ecotourism company for Mt. Cameroon.

So, aside from the name, Mr. Hans was in every way what you would imagine a local hunter turned ecotourism guide would be. He grew up in the area, and used to hunt on the mountain everything from giant rats to mountain elephants. He knew every single plant, its name, its use and its Latin name. He knew the history and geology of every smoking crater and old lava flow, and he knew all of the mythology surrounding the mountain. Besides that, he was a stud, hiking in hard plastic sandals and eating only bread. I could go on and on, but he was sweet.

It was pretty tiring hiking to 4095 m, and we brought too much stuff, but we had a fun time. We were pretty glad that we had a porter, too. His name was Marcos.