Libreville (the capital of Gabon) did not make much of an impression on us. A typical African metropolis it was disorganised, dirty and had little interest for the traveler. If not for the delay in obtaining our Cameroon visas, we would have left earlier.

Once on the road again we stayed ‘off the beaten track’, overnighting in roadside villages wherever possible. It’s these villages that trully reflect the nature and character of a particular country. They don’t have electricity or running water and conditions are very spartan, but the people are upbeat and happy to see us. One thing the villages don’t lack is alcohol. There will always be a bar selling locally brewed beer and imported spanish wine. As in most poorer countries alcohol is cheap and readily available.

We’ve never had any problems when camping at a village. However, we always consult the village chief before pithing our tent. In one particular village the chief greeted us with a sling in hand. Apparently he had just been hunting…. birds! According to him bird soup is “Very gooood”

In the northern hemisphere the rainy season has just began. Torrential rain falls almost everyday and makes riding on the red clay roads almost impossible. We need to get used to it as it’ll be like this for the next 2-3 months, all the way to Morocco

We are now in Kribi. A coastal resort town (well sort of…) with a laid back atmosphere and good seafood. Cameroon is a lot more vibrant than Gabon and its people very open. They’re always yelling or making kissing sounds when we ride by, wanting to get a closer look at the bike. It stands out somewhat when compared to the Chinese 50cc motorcycles on the roads…

From Kribi we’ll continue up the coast to Mt.Cameroon. Our plan is to climb the still active volcano (with a summit of around 4,000m a.s.l) then make our way to the capital Yaounde to get onward visas to the Central African Republic (C.A.R) and Chad. In C.A.R we want to go gorilla hunting and visit Africa’s ancestors (and smallest people in the world) - the Pygmees. At this stage we’ve decided to skip Nigeria, preferring to ride around Lake Chad and onto Niger.