These are Kamerun’s pages. Kamerun is the Afrinkong operator for Cameroon, based in Buea and Douala — the circuits, rates and people described here are theirs, and any enquiry sent from this page is read by them.
Somewhere else in Africa? Namibia — Namib SkylineUganda — Pearl Trails Uganda or start from the atlas.
Black sand and Atlantic surf, a 4,095-metre volcano, the Korup rainforest, highland villages, the palaces at Foumban, and the savanna at Waza. Kamerun brings all of it into one journey — small groups, licensed guides, 4x4s that have already done the road once this month.
You can cross five ecological zones in this country without leaving it. These are the six our circuits are built along, in the order you would drive them — height above sea level, and what stands on it.
Black sand at Limbe, the Lobé going over rock straight into the Atlantic, pirogues out at first light.
An active volcano straight out of the sea. Rainforest, then grass, then lava field, then nothing but cinder.
Korup: one of the oldest forests in Africa. Canopy bridge over the Mana, drill monkeys, 400 tree species.
The Ring Road, the crater lakes, tea at Ndawara, and villages that have stood a very long time.
Foumban, the Bamoun palace and a craft street where the casting and weaving are still work, not display.
The Bénoué and then Waza. Flat acacia country, elephant and giraffe drawn onto the waterholes from March.
You leave Buea in wet green at a thousand metres and by the second afternoon there is nothing growing at all — black cinder, old lava, and the sea a very long way underneath. Guides carry the water, porters carry the packs, and the pace is set by the slowest walker on purpose.
A sightseeing itinerary takes you past things. Ours put you in front of the people who know them — the guide who has walked the mountain two hundred times, the caster at his furnace in Foumban, the ranger who knows which waterhole is still holding water this month. You walk the landscapes rather than photographing them from the road.
Atlantic to Sahel, in the order you would drive them. Our longest circuit, and the one the shorter ones are cut from — the mountain on its own is three days, the coast and forest five, the northern loop nine. Take the whole transect or take one climate of it.
Land, meet the guide and the driver, and sleep in Bonapriso. Nobody starts a circuit tired.
13 m · roadBlack volcanic sand, and the Lobé going over rock straight into the Atlantic.
0 m · 2 nightsBuea to the summit cone and back down. Three days on the hill, porters carrying, grade 3.
4,095 m · on footThe canopy bridge over the Mana, drill monkeys, and four hundred tree species in one park.
150 m · 3 nightsThe Ring Road, the crater lakes, the palace museum and a craft street that is still working.
1,800 m · roadTwo days north, or ninety minutes by air, then the waterholes at first light.
320 m · 3 nightsEach one runs as a fixed departure with a set date, or privately on any date you choose from two travellers upward. Grades are ours and they are honest: grade 1 is a day out, grade 4 is a genuine expedition.
Three to fourteen days, connecting the landscapes, cultures and wildlife of the country. Fixed departures, six to twelve travellers, booked by the seat. The Grand Kamerun is the longest of them.
Explore circuits →The same guides and the same vehicles, on your dates and at your pace. Useful if you have eight days rather than fourteen, or one climate you came for.
Plan a private experience →One remarkable place without committing to a circuit. The Lobé falls, the Buea trailhead, Foumban’s craft street, a morning at the Douala market.
Explore experiences →The Guinness route from the Mount CEO office at Molyko: Hut 1 at 1,860 m on the first afternoon, Hut 2 at 2,860 m for the night, summit at first light on day two, then down the northern side through Mann's Spring. Cold at the top even in April — we lend the jacket.
Two nights on the volcanic sand at Limbe with the Botanic Garden and the wildlife centre, then south to Kribi for the Lobé falls, which pour over the rock directly into the Atlantic. Pirogue upriver to the Batanga villages, grilled bar fish at Ngoyé on the way back.
Fly Douala to Garoua, then overland through Bénoué National Park to Waza, timed for the weeks when the waterholes do the work for you. Two nights in the Mandara mountains at Rhumsiki, market day at Mokolo, and the road back through Maroua's leatherworkers.
The Bamoun dynasty has kept its records since 1394 and the palace at Foumban still houses the court. Behind it runs the Rue des Artisans, where the bronze casters, the embroiderers and the wood carvers work in the open and will let you stand in the doorway for as long as you like. We time the visit for a weekday morning, when the foundries are lit.
Nobody photographs the Lobé well, and nobody minds. You hear it before the track opens out, you stand on warm black sand while it happens, and then somebody sells you grilled fish and you sit down.
Circuit 04 · day three · no walking requiredThe south-west coast is among the wettest places on earth — Debundscha takes about ten metres of rain a year. The Far North is Sahel and takes barely one. Which half of the country you want decides your month, so book the country to the calendar rather than the other way round.
The one window where the whole country works at once. Best trekking, best northern game viewing, harmattan haze in the north from December.
Mar – MayNorth at its best
Hot — 38°C at Waza — and that is the point: the waterholes concentrate everything. Coast begins to break into storms by late April.
The mountain closes for good reason: the summit route becomes a river of scree. Highlands and Foumban stay entirely workable, and everything is green.
Rain easing, highlands at their greenest, prices lower and nobody about. Our own favourite month, with the caveat that roads in the north-west stay soft.
On the mountain, yes — the Race of Hope fills Buea in the third week and hut space goes early. We hold beds from October for February departures.
Comfortably in fourteen days if you fly one internal leg. In ten days you will spend three of them on the road, which we would rather you did not.
Unedited, with permission, from the feedback form we send a fortnight after every departure.
“Our guide turned us round two hours below the summit because the wind had got up, and he was right. That decision is the reason I would book them again.”
Trekking party of six · January, circuit 01“Everything happened in whichever language we asked in, and the driver knew every checkpoint officer between Garoua and Waza by name. It made a long road easy.”
Two travellers, Lyon · March, circuit 08“They told us in writing which days would be uncomfortable and they were the correct days. I have never had an operator do that before.”
Family of four · December, circuit 06Eleven guides, all from the regions they work in. They know which track is passable in October and which waterhole is holding water in March, because they were there last month.
Foumban is a working craft town, not a museum stop. Nothing on a circuit is staged for arrival, and nobody is asked to perform for a vehicle.
Each circuit is designed around what somewhere actually offers, and when. That is why the north runs from March and the mountain does not run in the heavy rain.
Park fees paid, porters on a fixed rate rather than tips, group sizes capped, and three per cent of turnover into the village fund at Buea.
This page is the journey we run. The portrait is the long read, the places are the individual things, and the experiences page is what each of them costs.
Every enquiry is answered by one of the two people who run the office, in French or in English, usually the same working day. If your dates do not suit the region you have in mind, we will say so rather than sell you the wrong month.
Kamerun