Pygmies and Northern Markets – Cameroon

Arrival at Yaounde Nsimalen International airport. Welcome by our guide who will arrange transfer to Hotel Merina for dinner and overnight stay in double room.

Breakfast and departure in the direction of Dja reserve, recognized by UNESCO as a world Heritage site. More than 500 000 hectares of primeval rainforest, home to chimpanzees, mandrills, buffaloes, elephants and gorillas (all difficult to spot). Lunch on the way to local restaurant. Arrival at somalomo, preparation for the expedition on foot in to the forest, where after crossing a Dja river in a dugout canoe and walk of about 1 hour, we arrive at a pygmies Baka Camp. Accommodation in our tented camp, picnic dinner and overnight stay in a doubleS tent.

Breakfast at the camp and a day dedicated to discovering the daily practices of the Baka pygmies within the Dja Reserve, a hunter – gatherer people who have managed to adapt extraordinarily well to the harsh conditions of forest life, maintaining a profound, almost symbiotic, bond with nature. Moving on foot through the dense vegetation, we will follow the tracks and footprints of animals and learn the techniques of hunting (tortoises, pangolins, fallow deer….) and fishing, assist in the collections of palm caterpillars and honey, acquire some rudiments of traditional pharmacopoeia, and observe the construction of mungulu, the typical igloo-like leaf huts where the Baka families take shelter at night. Picnic lunch and dinner at the camp. After sunset we attend ritual dances around the fire. Overnight stay in a double.

After breakfast, we depart by dugout canoe in the placid waters of Dja River until we reach somalomo, where we pick up our car. We continue on to Yaounde and lunch on the way. Arrival, accommodation at Merina Hotel or similar and overnight stay in double room with services.

After breakfast, we drive to airport in time for the camair-co flight to Garoua. On arrival before drive to Maroua we take a lunch, Maroua it’s the capital of the far North Region, accommodation and dinner at the Relais Porte Mayo, overnight stay in double bungalow with services

Breakfast, transfer north, stopping to admire the artisanal fishing activities on the maga reservoir arriving in Pouss, we head for banks of logone river, which marks the border with chad. Here, in a continuation bustle of pirogue shutting between the Cameroonian and Chadian banks, the Bororo women ferry their wares, in a spectacle of colors and images that is not be missed. We enter the famous and very popular Tuesday market, animated by the ethnic Musgum, Moundang, Haoussa, Massa and Arabe Choa vendors, recognizable by their piercing on their noses. Lunch (sandwich and fruits). Continue to Mourla to visit a characteristic Musgum clay House, a masterpiece of raw earth architecture. A traditional house is usually composed of five constructions, connected by boundary walls, forming a circle in the centre of which is the granary. Return to Maroua in the afternoon and onvernight stay at the Relais Porte Mayo in double bungalow with services.

After breakfast, we take a scenic route through the hills to the Oudjila Chefferie, home to the Pdoko tribe, where we visit the traditional Chief’s Saré, a

fortified building protected by high walls of thatch and mud. Inside is a veritable royal palace where, until a few years ago, the local leader lived

with his children and his 70 wives, each of whom had a hut, a granary and kitchen. We visit this intricate maze of buildings. The audience hall, the ancestral tombs and the stable of sacred cow, which is said to spend two years in darkness before it can be sacreficed. This is followed by a stop at the

bustling Wednesday market, where the inhabitants of the Oudjila district and neibourring village come to get supplies. Return to Maroua, lunch in a

restaurant and visit of this town with its typically sahelian character, with its dyers quarter, traditional medicine market and craft center, famous for its

leather goods. Arrival in Mokolo and accommodation at Campement le Flamboyant or similar, dinner and overnight in dooble bungalow.Day

Breakfast and transfer to the Koza Hill, on a bumpy but definitely suggestive track that crosses, in a continuous, up and down of hills and valleys, surprising landscapes dotted with the small agglomerations of sharp-roofed huts of the Mafa, an animist population that in ancient times perched on these hills to escape the Islamic invasion from Nigeria. We continue to the village of Tourou, to take part in the lively Thursday cross – border market, so close to the border that the currency most commonly used is the Nigerian Naira. Here we meet the Hidé women, recognizable by the geometrically decorated calebasses they use as headgear, who come in large numbers to the market to barter wares, exchange next and trade bili –bili, a traditional millet beer. Continue southwards along the Mandara Mountains, lunch on the way. We will cross the lunar landscapes of the Kapsikis, a deep valley separating Cameroon from Nigeria, characterized by the presence of series of rock and granite formations up to more than 1 000 meters high, culminating in the peak of Rhumsiki, which gives its name to the village where we will spend the night. Accommodation at the Campement de Rhumsiki, dinner and overnight stay in double bungalows.

After breakfast, a walk will allow us to admire the majestic views of the Rhumsiki valley, which extends as far as Nigeria, only 3 km from here, and we will visit the village: the small weavers cooperative, the potters workshop, and the sorcier aux crabs, an elderly soothsayer who is said to be able to read the future by interpreting the movements of the crab enclosed in a jar. We will also witness a traditional dance. Departure for Garoua, stopping at the Kola Gorges, bizarre rock formations eroded by the waters of Mayo river that reveal all their beauty during the dry season. Lunch on the way. Arrival in Garoua, accommodation at the Saint Hubert or similar and overnight stay in a double room with services.

Breakfast and departure to Poli, to attend the weekly market, frequented mainly by Bororo women, recognizable by tattoo-like scarifications on their faces and the intricate braids. Continuation to the town of wangai, picnic lunch. In the afternoon, we begin our exploration on foot of the Atlantika Mountains (the land forgotten by Allah), stronghold of the Koma tribe, currently represented by about 4 000 individuals who, thanks to their isolation, have been able to keep alive the centuries ancient animist traditions linked to the customs of their ancestors who, during the period of the great Muslim invasion and the slave trade, took refuge in the highlands to escape the forced islamisation of the kanem bornou. Accommodation in our tented camp near a village. Picnic dinner and stay in a double tent.

After breakfast at the camp, we attend a dance by Koma women, with their characteristic counché, the pipes they never part with, and the leafy skirts.

We continue our trek towards other Koma villaes, composed by many saré (in the Fulbé language literally family), cylindrically shaped huts built from benches and covered with thatched or wicker roofs. With luck, we may meet a Bamlerou, a feticheur intermediary between the visible word and that of the ancestors, return to Wangai and picnic lunch. In the afternoon, we reach Gode for tis weekly market, frequented by Bororo women who come to sell fresh milk and butter, and to visit a peculiar animist burial site, where skulls are preserved in earthenware amphorae and dug up periodically to perform proprietary rites. Accommodation in basic auberge in Poli. Dinner and overnight stay in double.

Early in the morning, after breakfast at the motel in Poli, we continue towards Ngaoundere through the vallée des roniers and a scenic road that crosses the navel mountain up to altitude of around around 1 300 meters. Lunch and day use rooms in hotel for a shower. In the afternoon, we visit the palace of the Lamido, the spiritual head of the head local Islamic community, built in 1830. After passing three pillars containing the remains of men who were buried alive to consecrate the site as a royal residence, we will enter an impressive complex of low, circular based buildings with thatched roofs, some of which still serve as customary law courts. Transfer station to board the train that connects Ngaoundere with the capital

Yaounde in about 12 hours. Overnight stay in first class compartment

Morning arrival at Yaounde train station and transfer to Merina hotel. Lunch in the restaurant out of hotel and we can start our city tour of Yaounde, the capital of the country, with the interesting National Museum and the Museum of Forest Peoples. Back to hotel and evening transfer to airport and end of stay.