Lake Of Idool Tour

Beautiful Idool

Located at a distance of 70 kilometers from Ngaoundéré, in a village called Idool, the lake of the same name is below the backside of the high school. It is said to have the shape of the Cameroon map and it is not quite wrong if you look at it very closely. Wide at its basis, it grows smaller at the top just as the map of Cameroon. Created in 1958, by YAYA OUMAROU, the founder of the village, it is nowadays a place where to relax, swim, fish carps, wash or just get some fresh air, on the grass near the lake, and delighting in the spectacle of birds drinking, flying or landing together. It is worth going and enjoying.

Itinerary Tours in Northern Cameroon

Day 1(Saturday): Flight to Douala

SWISS: Arrival 18:25 hs. The climate here is almost all year round warm and humid. Overnight in the German-run "Sailors' Home" (Foyer des Marins) with good rooms and a pool under palm trees overlooking the harbor. (No meals included)

Day 2: Douala - Buea - Yaoundé (380 km) - train to Ngaoundere

Through dense traffic around the port and past palm oil plantations, we arrive at Tika. Railway enthusiasts can enjoy themselves here at the German plantation locomotive "Governor Ebermeyer" from 1914. We stay on the trail of German imperial history and reach Buea, app. 90 km, located above 1.000 m altitude at the foot of Mount Cameroon. After the end of the German colonial adventure in 1919, the British took over, and West Cameroon in Buea is the only Anglophone university in the country. The area is dominated

mainly by tea plantations. The old "Tea Road" is about a good 20 km down to Limbe on the Atlantic, with black volcanic beaches. We visit the Wildlife Center, a vast area in which many monkeys are orphans in large outdoor enclosures, as well as gorillas and chimpanzees.

We´ll drive back to Douala and from there to the capital Yaoundé on a very good, wide road. Yaoundé today covers far more than the original seven hills. We have a city overview of Mont Febe; lived in the nearby Benedictine monastery of "our" Pope during his

The departure of the train to Ngaoundere (800 km) is almost always on time, at 18:10 hs. The train consists of carriages with seats (2nd class) or cars with compartments, 1st Class. Overnight in a compartment of the First Class (with two clean beds); food in the compartment. The food on the train is not too great. Your guide stops at a supermarket - you get served with fresh baguette, cheese, and fruit, and may buy yourself also wine or beer (not served on the train, only soft drinks).

Day 3: Ngaoundere - Idool (80 km)

The train stops in the first 5 hours often at small stations. Then we drive several hours through largely uninhabited savannah. Ideally, we arrive at 8 am in Ngaoundere. You are now in the heart of the highlands of Adamoua, Islamized from the Fulbe cavalry; they established local rulers (Lamidos); these are the Lamidates until today. We´ll visit Lamido´s palace, 15 m high with a thatched roof. Continue about 70 km on the road to the east, before visiting the Chutes (waterfalls) of Vina and about 20 km to the Falls/cascades of Tello: the Vina river rushes into many cascades 30 meters into a canyon.

The Lamido and many residents are descended from the Fulani conquerors of Ousman Dan Fodio, the end of the 18th century. The Lamido is very friendly and open-minded. Overnight in the large courtyard in a tent.

Day 4: Idool - Garoua (370 km)

You are free for a little hike in the beautiful countryside or you can get a horse to ride from the Lamido. Return to Ngaoundere, along with the N 1, then through dense savanna north, passing the Bénoué National Park.

West Africa´s nature reserves cannot be compared with those in eastern and southern Africa, and therefore we continue to Garoua, the “capital” of the north. The late President Ahmadou Ahidjo ruled the country since independence from 1960 to 1982 and came from here. Garoua has a university and the only inland port in the country - but the Bénoué is only navigable from July to October.

Here is also the center of cotton cultivation is harvested in February / March. You´ll visit the traditional medicine market, including monkey and crocodile heads, claws, and many herbs. Hotel (probably the "Motel Touristique"), dinner.

Day 5: Garoua - Rhumsiki - Mokolo (220 km)

Scenic drive northwards, along the border to Nigeria and the Mandara mountains with cliffs and beautiful, traditional villages. The landscape of the volcanic rocks (basalt fillings of former volcanoes) of Rhumsiki is unique. The Parisian writer André Gide (1869 - 1951) euphemistically described it as "the most beautiful scenery in the world".You can attend the "crab-oracle" of the blacksmith, reading your future. We´ll continue after lunch to Mogodé, 14 miles north.

From a distance, you can see the distinctive volcanic cones. Our "Baobab Village" was initiated with the help of neighbors and volunteers from Heidelberg, Germany, in 2007. The previous six guest cottages are furnished in traditional style and thatched with straw - in a fantastic location between two dominant volcanic cones, overshadowed by baobab (monkey bread trees).

Our guests' village is not yet finished, and the financing of a solar-powered fountain - also important for the population - is still open . Mokolo, another 34 km away on the gravel road through spectacular landscapes, is the capital of the Mandara mountains.

A few miles east, there is still one of the least visible, restored clay kilns for iron ore, guarded by a fetish figure. Dinner and overnight at the pleasant "campement" of Mokolo with large round "cottages".

Day 6: Mokolo - Tourou - Mora - Maroua (220km)

Continue 35 km to the northwest on a track to Tourou on the Nigerian border. Today, on Thursday, here is a market - one of the most interesting of all of West Africa. Getting on the bad road is worth it: many women wear red, painted gourds as helmets on their heads. They are encoded by their different patterns: one (men!) can detect whether the wearer is married, single, willing, unwilling, or widowed.

The pass of Koza offers beautiful mountain scenery, and the craft cooperative of Djingliya baskets, gourds, and more. The gravel roads then wind steeply up to 800 m in height about 10 km to the village Oudjilah. The village chief of Podoko lives here with his 50 wives and over 110 children, surrounded by mud walls. Each wife has her own hut, two stores, and a kitchen with a quern and a fireplace.

North of Mora, the landscape is completely flat: Lake Chad has once been a sea, and this is the button. We´ll turn south and pass more traditional villages surrounded by huge rocks; mountains are covered with round

stones. With shady avenues and many mud houses, Maroua still retains a rural character. Here are many craftsmen as weavers, tanners, and ). Dinner and overnight (run by Germans) at the cozy Hotel Porte Mayo, with good food.

Day 7: Maroua - Pouss - Maroua (200 km)

We´ll drive eastwards. Pouss nestles at the Logone River, which forms the border with Chad. We visit the palace (Saré) of the Sultan (Lamido). Outside the resort, we still see traditional, huge dome-shaped huts of the Mousgoum tribe.

The Maga lake flooded rice fields and is used for extensive irrigation. The lake with palm tree-dotted hills and huts reminds us of the Okavango Delta in Botswana ... here we take a two-hour boat ride. We drive back to Maroua and enjoy again the comfortable Hotel Porte Mayo with a good dinner under old neem trees on the terrace.

Day 8: Maroua - Garoua (260 km)

In the morning you can visit "Avenir Femme", where young women catch up on basic knowledge and receive practical training. The project was financed by the German Christian organization BREAD FOR THE WORLD. Alternatively, you can visit the handicraft center or the traditional working dyers who prepare also large skins of Python snakes.

Near the village of Guider (140 km) Mayo Louti flows after the rainy season (October) through a narrow gorge of black and light gray basalt rocks, "Gorge du Kola". But even in the dry season, it´s a good place for a picnic lunch. From here, continuation to Garoua, dinner, and overnight again as the fourth Day.

Day 9: Garoua - Alantika Mountains (200 km)

In Ngong (43 km southeast of Garoua) we´ll branch a small track southwest to Finyolé; the mission there was established in 1951. The trail leads through the hilly, barren, beautiful bush landscape, where tourists usually do not go and we´ll probably not cross another vehicle.

Even from far, you can see the jagged chain of mountains Alantika. The pinnacle of Saptou dominates the wide, stark landscape like a giant figure from Galapagos. The "palace" of the Lamido of Wangai, at the feet of the Alantika mountains, is an old, dilapidated mud house with corrugated iron roof and after the death of the last Lamido orphaned several years ago.

The new, too young Lamido is very personable and has notorious money problems. We pay him a camp fee. For the Koma tribe, we´ll buy simple soap and tobacco, rice, etc. Erection of our tents in the quiet courtyard under ancient fig trees, while the cook prepares a delicious dinner.

Day 10: Visit the Koma

With some local porters and the basic necessities for a night, we´ll take the mountain path uphill first, for about two hours on the plane to the village of Bimlerou Bas. We´ll walk up on a small path for two to three hours to Librou, the first mountain village of the Koma. Here you get the first impressions of the authentic archaic way of life of these almost-forgotten mountain people.

Almost all women wear skirts sheets and smoke self-made, beautiful clay pipes (also for sale) with home-grown tobacco. The people are perfectly natural and we ask, especially when photographing proceed cautiously and not immediately pull out the camera take your time.

Depending on your condition, continuation for another two and a half hours - this time quite steep - up to Nagamalou village, situated in a rock basin. Descent of about one hour, or overnight camping in Librou in Nagamalou.

Day 11: Alantika Mountains - Bénoué National Park (170 km)

We´ll leave up to 7 clocks and walk about 3 hours back through the beautiful landscape to Wangai. Return again via Finyolé and Poli, from there 36 good gravel roads to the paved road at Gouna. The National Park of Bénoué borders the main road for about 60 km.

You almost always see antelopes and monkeys, with luck, giraffes, buffalos and elephants, lions with a lot of luck. Drive about 70 km in the National Park to "Buffle Noir". It is a rustic bush hotel with bungalows in the wilderness on a "Mayo" (dried-out the river in winter). You almost always see hippos in the river bed. The national park is now open year-round.

Day 12: Bénoué National Park - Ngaoundere

(190 km plus rides in the National Park) - train journey The road leads up to the Adamoua

plateau – we came from the other direction at the beginning of the trip. We meet again Peulh (Fulani or Fulbe). Once fully nomadic, they are of slender build, relatively light-skinned, the beautiful women are have often body tattoos. They are known as Bororo nomads in Niger and celebrate there every year in September the Gerewol-wedding parties. Other groups have settled in the highlands of Guinea.

The departure of the train to Yaoundé (800 km) at 18 o´clock.

Day 13: Yaoundé - National Park Mfou - Return or Extension

After arrival (approximately 8 to 10 o´clock) and after a double espresso, we take a trip to the small national park of Mfou, 30 km southeast of Yaoundé. Here different primate species live in semi-freedom - gorillas, chimpanzees, mandrills, etc. – many infant monkeys, whose parents were killed. Here they are recorded and maintained. After the barren north, we are now again in the tropical rain forest.

After a picnic lunch, we drive back to Yaoundé and get into a hotel to shower and rest.

Return flight with SWISS from Yaoundé by 21 o´clock via Douala to Zurich.

Day 14 / Friday: Arrival SWISS

Arrive in Zurich at 06:25 and onward flight to your final destination. Services: Program as described, full board except for first and last dinner; local, German-or English-speaking tour guide; detailed map. Additional fees: flights, dinner on day 1 (Douala) and day 13 (Yaoundé); Visa fees for Cameroon, insurance, drinks (eg mineral water), for example, photo fees at village visits, gratuities.

The single supplement does not contain a single compartment in the sleeper to Ngaoundere. If one compartment alone is desired, the surcharge is an additional cost.