Central African Trip Report

Detailed Journal - Yaoundé (Cameroon) to Khartoum (Sudan)

11 December 2002 - 26 December 2002

The guide and I set off at 05h45, and drove for 30 kilometres, and then a 10 minute walk, so we reached the cave just after 06h30, but we were already too late. Even on that short a distance, my knee still hurt badly by the time we had returned. We returned to the office, and I then took my leave of Guillaume.

Before leaving Yaoundé I had to get the second tie-rod mount welded (we only welded the one in Kinshasa) and also fitted another set of front brake pads since they were already looking quite worn. However, at a cost of CFA 152 000, they were outrageously expensive.

Leaving Yaoundé at about 14h00, I drove west to Edea and then drove along the north bank of the Sananga river. The water level was very high, and there were very few sand-banks visible, and those that were were almost entirely grass covered. Nonetheless, I was able to find Grey Pratincole and Preuss' Cliff Swallow.

Although I only stayed there for an hour, I realised it was getting late, and I still had to pass through Douala. This was much worse than Yaoundé, and the traffic flow was not helped by the police having set up a roadblock on the city's main roundabout. Absolute chaos. It was dark by the time I left Douala, but since I had no idea where I could camp, I decided to continue on to Limbe, and found the Botanical Gardens Rest House (as recommended by Guillaume), where I could camp.

During the day I didn't keep full records, just a few key species.

Thursday 12^th December 2002

This was to be a lazy day, where I relaxed. Early in the morning I met the other people staying at the Guest House, who were a vet and some assistants working at the local zoo. They invited me down to confirm the identification of some chicks someone had brought in. I managed to make a complete fool of myself, because the three chicks were about 14 days old, and had not yet produced any feathers. They were all white, with a large prominent beak. They said the person who brought them in had said the parent was a black-and-white bird - and the palm-nut vulture was very common here. I said I thought that they probably were palm-nut vultures, but I would check in my book back in the vehicle. They were of course Barn Owls - almost identical to the middle bird on page 110 of Birds of Africa, volume 3.

When discussing with Guillaume what weather I could expect, he confirmed that the wet season had just ended, and they had had no rain for 2 weeks. So I was a little surprised when there were frequent rain storms. In fact the cloud level was always so low I never saw Mt Cameroon, which was only a few kilometres away.

One thing that I had noticed from as far south as Angola was the large number of large lizards around, and the guest house was no exception. At lunch time I went to the local restaurant called the Top Spot, which served good food. Offshore were some very exotic looking rocky islands (photo). I returned to the same place for dinner - which was excellent. Rounded of the day by joining the vets and various of their ex-pat friends for a farewell for one of them. It was a long evening.

Friday 13^th December 2002

I left just after sunrise, heading north to Kumba. I had decided to give Mt Cameroon a miss, as my knee was still too painful to risk on what was a steep climb. As a result I missed several key species:
* Cameroon Francolin (Pternistes camerunensis),
* Mountain Sawwing (Psalidoprocne fuliginosa),
* Mount Cameroon Speirops (Speirops melanocephalus),
* Cameroon Pipit (Anthus camaroonensis),
* Bates Weaver (Ploceus batesi), and
* Fernando Po Oliveback (Nesocharis shelleyi).
On my West African trip, I will have to detour via Mt Cameroon.

As a result I had decided to go to Korup next. After passing the Buea turnoff, the road was tar, but quite potholed, so progress was slow. Once at Kumba, I turned west on the road to Mundemba. This road began in a dreadful state, since vehicles had been allowed to use it after some recent rains, and the ruts were now deep and hard. However, after about 5 kilometres the road became smother, and after a further 20 kilometres it was actual quite good. I arrived at the park office in Mundemba at 13h00, but was unlucky that three groups had arrived earlier in the day, and so there were no proper guides left. I got Ferdinand. I also tried to contact Ken Flack who was suggested by Guillaume, but he had left for the US two months before.

We drove to the east bank of the Korup river, where I parked. We then crossed the bridge, which was quite an experience - it was much steeper than I expected (photo). Once over, I did not feel I could walk far, so started on the Nature Trail. Ferdinand couldn't be bothered to join me (even though it was compulsory), so I had to find my own way (which was easy enough). I got back to the bridge at sunset, and spent some time watching various birds hawking over the river in the evening, and then some nightjar activity. I crossed back at dusk, and set up camp, where the river flies were quite bad.

Saturday 14^th December 2002

At sunrise I was back out on the bridge - and Ferdinand couldn't even be bothered to cross over this time. I walked down the river trail and found a nice spot next to the second suspension bridge. I spent about four hours here as a series of birds passed through, including White-bellied Kingfisher, another of my "problem" birds from Zambia.

At about 13h00 I returned across the bridge, and reviewed my options. Ferdinand wasn't going to be able to help me at all, since he knew nothing about birds, and the remaining species I wanted to find was going to need some expertise. These included:
* Yellow-footed Honeyguide (Melignomon eisentrauti)
* White-crested Bittern (Tigriornis leucolophus)
* Lesser Bristlebill (Bleda eximia)
* Wood Warbler (Phylloscopus sibilatrix)
* Black-throated Malimbe (Malimbus cassini)
* Rachel's Malimbe (Malimbus racheliae)

By this time I had also missed out on the Congo basin lowland forest species, including:
* Red-fronted Parrot (Poliocephalus gulielmi)
* Black Spinetail (Telecanthura melanopygia)
* Cassin's Spinetail (Neafrapus cassini)
* Fernando Po Swift (Apus sladeniae)
* Sandy Scops-Owl (Otus icterorhynchus)
* Shelley's Eagle-Owl (Bubo shelleyi)
* Akun Eagle-Owl (Bubo leucostictus)
* Shelley's Eagle-Owl (Scotopelia bouvieri)
* Maned Owl (Jubula letti)
* Sjöstedt's Owlet (Glaucidium sjostedti)
* Chestnut-flanked Sparrowhawk (Accipter castanilius)
* Red-thighed Sparrowhawk (Accipiter erythropus)
* Tessmann's Flycatcher (Muscicapa tessmanni)
* Lowland Akalat (Sheppardia cyornithopsis)
* Yellow-bearded Bulbul (Criniger olivaceus)
* Capuchin Babbler (Phyllanthus atripennis)
* Red-belied Malimbe (Malimbus erythrogaster)
* Woodhouse's Antpecker (Parmoptila woodhousei)

So I left Korup, and returned to Mundemba and then back to Kumba. From there I took the dirt road towards Loum, and turned off to the north towards Nyasosou, the base camp for exploring Mt Kupé. I arrived at sunset, and was first directed to the house of Chris Wild, only to find that he had gone to Yaoundé for the week-end. So I ended up at the office, where one is allowed to camp.

Sunday 15^th December 2002

In the morning, the deputy manager came and arranged for a guide to come and take me on one of the trails. At first I thought of the nature trail, which did not climb the mountain at all, but then decided on Max's trail, as there would be all day to go up and down.

Anyway, Kingsley only arrived at 10h00, and then took me on the trail - except it was the Nature Tail, but even so quite a few species were seen. We returned at 12h00, and then he vanished for the rest of the day - even though he had been paid CFA 7 000.

I spent the afternoon resting (my knee was still sore) under the most amazing shade tree I have ever seen (photo). I also suffered from the Korup River fly bites - not as spectacular as the Lékoni bites, but they certainly itched. I am not sure why these two insects attacked me so much, after so long in Africa I am relatively immune to most insect bites. Anyway, I spent the afternoon birding around the office. Also at the office were two birds recovering from injuries: a Barn Owl and a Wood Owl.

I again camped at the office.

Monday 16^th December 2002

After the assistant manager had heard what happened the previous day, he sent me out with Paul, who did not claim to know birds, but at least knew the right track. We took the track very slowly, which was, of course, good for bird watching. This probably was my best day for lifers that I am likely to have in Africa, with a total of 21. Because I was wary of going too high (my knee hurt much more coming down than going up), we only went to just over the 1 400 metre mark (a GPS is invaluable for walks like this). It was a highly successful morning, and I saw virtually everything I hoped to, except for the two bush-shrikes - Mount Kupé Bushshrike (Malaconotus kupeensis) and Monteiro's Bushshrike (Malaconotus monteiri).

On reaching the bottom of the mountain and returning to he Landrover, I knew I would be unable to go back up the next day - it would be several days before I could walk downhill again. So I decided that I might as well move on - especially since Chris Wild still had not returned from Yaoundé.

I left at about 13h00, and drove back to the main road and then on to Loum. From here it was tar all the way to Bamenda, and I reached the Bafut-Nguemba Forest Reserve just before 17h00. Between then and sunset (which was around 18h00) I saw many of the endemics restricted to the area.

That night I found a nice spot to camp above the picnic site on the edge of Lake Awing. It was very cold that night, and I needed my sleeping bag as well as my more normal duvet. As I said, probably one of my best ever days bird-watching, and almost certainly the last time I will be able to see 21 new species in a day.

Tuesday 17^th December 2002

I spent about an hour continuing birding in Bamenda and found the remaining few species I was looking for.

At 08h30 I started the long drive heading first of all south again to Bafoussam on tar, then east through Foumban to Banyo which was all on quite good dirt roads. The good dirt road continued from Banyo to Tibati, but from there for the next 40 or so kilometres it was very bad tar, with plenty of nasty potholes. However, at Mambal I turned north on a poor dirt road, but this improved when I was able to turn east again to Ngaoundéré. By this time it was after sunset, but I decided to continue on to Ngaoundaba Ranch anyway, and am very glad I did. On the last 35 kilometre stretch (which was good dirt road) there were plenty of nightjars (the following were identified: Plain Nightjar (Caprimulgus inornatus), Long-tailed Nightjar (Caprimulgus climacurus climacurus), Pennant-winged Nightjar (Macrodipteryx vexillaria)).

I reached the Ranch at 20h30, and was the only guest there. They kindly prepared a meal for me, and I went to bed exhausted - in order to make the trip in the day, I had had to drive at close to the safe limit.

Wednesday 18^th December 2002

I had breakfast at the ranch, and found there were some "guests" there, but Raymond and Francine Chalons were simply there to check out the place before buying it. I pointed out that for someone of my height the beds were very uncomfortable. Perhaps that will change. Anyway, after breakfast, I spent the whole day at the forest along the stream halfway between the Ranch and the main road. This was another good day of birding.

The evening was spent at the Ranch, in front of a nice log fire (necessary), and with a great meal. However, I slept in the Landrover.

Thursday 19^th December 2002

I got up just before sunrise, with the aim of finding Schlegel's Francolin (Francolinus schlegelii). Having driven about 500 metres, I stopped, and before I could even get out my CD player, one had called, and I got a good sighting of it.

Hence I was able to leave just after sunrise, and reached Benoue (although I had to use the central entrance - the southern entrance being closed) by 11h00. I drove in slowly, since large areas had been badly burnt recently - there was virtually no green areas at all - including the trees. While Abyssinian Rollers were very common, the second bird I saw in the park was Emin's Shrike - an unexpected bonus.

After a pleasant lunch at the restaurant, I arranged for a drive with the local guide who was best on birds (called Taoulwe). This drive along the river (to the north) produced all sorts of unexpected birds, and I nearly drove over a small flock of Four-banded Sandgrouse, and found Stone Partridge in area which I did not think was their normal habitat.

The birds that took my greatest effort here were separating the various Cisticola species. There were at least 9 species that could occur in the area. I started on my Cisticola hunt from soon after leaving the Ranch, and identified Red-pate Cisticola, using my CD player. Once into the park, I was able to identify three more species using my CD's. This was the only time I spent studying Cisticolas in this way.

Later, we returned to camp, and drove just to the south, from which we walked down the Benoue River (which was only just flowing), although we failed to find the Bearded Barbet (Lybius dubius) (it is only common in September, when the trees are fruiting around the camp). However, we got good sightings of various other birds. I then camped at the camp (which throughout Cameroon was free - except for the Limbe Botanical gardens).

Friday 20^th December 2002

Having found everything that I thought I was likely to see, I left early in the morning. The drive out wasn't spectacular for birds, but for mammals it was the best of the trip. I saw African Cat, Giraffe, Buffalo, Roan, Reedbuck, Elephant, Lion, and more. I continued north to Garoua, where I checked the vehicle, and changed the front brake pads - although they had hardly worn any more since leaving Yaoundé. So I kept the old pads in case of problems. Whatever the problem had been, it was now solved (although why is a mystery to me). I also had a puncture I picked up at the Ranch repaired. Once fixed, I put it on the vehicle, where the tyre only lasted 10 kilometres before it failed again.

After leaving Garoua, I continued north to Maroua, and then on to Waza. About 20 kilometres before the town I started serous bird-watching in the few pools beside the road. However, it was very dry, and there were not the birds I was hoping for. Nevertheless various birds were seen.

I reached the Waza Campement (photo) by around 17h00, and it was full (almost entirely of people driving to Nigeria - a huge convoy of Nigerian vehicles was stopped at a road block, while I was just waved through). There was no sign of any water or even wetlands from the hill. So I decided to concentrate on the arid species, and not to actually enter the NP itself.

I was able to camp at the bottom of the campement (again free of charge), and ate at the restaurant there.

Saturday 21^st December 2002

In the early morning I returned to the pools south of Waza, and tracked down a few additional species. At about 09h00, I started north again, and reached the Chad border by 11h00.

Obviously I had missed species in Cameroon, such as:
* Ring-necked Francolin (Scleroptila streptophorus)
* Blue-bellied Roller (Coracias cyanogaster)
* Violet Turaco (Musophaga violacea)
* Common Gonolek (Laniarius atroflavus)
* Pied-winged Swallow (Hirundo leucosoma)
* River Prinia (Prinia fluviatilis)
* Goldbreast Indigobird (Vidua raricola)
* Black-faced Firefinch Indigobird (Vidua larvaticola)
* Bar-breasted Firefinch Indigobird (Vidua wilsoni)

After one false try (I followed the signs to N'Djamena not realizing this was for foot passengers - the only crossing was via dugout canoes!) I found the correct route. On the road up to the bridge were the Immigrations and Customs buildings next to each other - a rarity in Africa. Not only that, but everyone spoke English. They also understood how a Carnet de Passage worked, but were prepared to ignore everyone else's ignorance, and stamped the form "out" which I had last had stamped while entering Congo!

Once into Chad, I had no real problems, except that after passing immigrations and customs, I was stopped 4 times within 100 metres to check that my customs documents were properly stamped.

From here I followed the new Taiwan-funded N'Djamena bypass, which eventually lead to the main road to the east. The agricultural potential of the area was not great (first photo), and villages seemed to be located irrespective of agricultural potential (second photo). There were several large pools beside the road, one holding several hundred Garganey - another bogey species for me.

This dirt road was actually in good condition - for a desert road (first & second photos) - and I continued east throughout the rest of the day - not even bothering to take the southerly route from Ngoura to Mongo which had been advised beforehand. By sunset, I was close to Ati, and camped in the bush just off the road (third photo).

Sunday 22^nd December 2002

Leaving at sunrise, I soon passed Ati. It was then a long drive through the day, and just after 13h00 I reached Abeche, where I had to register with the police, and where they stamped my passport. I then continued on to Adri, camping just before the town at sunset.

Throughout the road was quite reasonable, and I was able to average between 40 and 50 kilometres per hour - generally it was impossible to go much faster due to the twists and turns in the road. Why there should be such turns always baffled me - the landscape was totally flat and almost featureless (although in one area there were some pretty flowers) - I suppose it was simply that vehicles sway slightly in the sand, and these build up over time into the current configuration.

Monday 23^rd December 2002

Again leaving at sunrise, I passed Adri (looking for any sign of Immigration and customs as this was the last village before the border. However, there was nothing so I continued, and then crossed a large sand river (similar to photo) and found myself at the police border post - I was in Sudan.

The only species I had wanted to see in Chad that I couldn't find as easily in Sudan was Niam-Niam Parrot (Poicephalus crassus) but this was never likely to be seen as it occurred well the to south of the road I took.

There I was welcomed in English, filled in a police register and was directed on to the town of El Geneina, which was 35 kilometres to the east. Here I found the immigrations and customs with a little bit of difficulty - everything was written in Arabic. But once there, it was very straight-forward. A policeman was assigned to take me in to town so I could change some money to pay for the permit - which amounted to about $20. This covered all my permits to drive right through to Ethiopia. Unfortunately, there was a catch - as I was to discover later.

Here I filled up with diesel as it was much cheaper than Chad, although still there were no pumps - all fuel was from 20 litre cans. Once on my way (at about 10h00) there was a short stretch of badly potholed tar before reaching another short stretch of really good dirt road. Unfortunately, after about 20 kilometres of this, the road deteriorated into a more twisty sand road, and speed was again back to 40 kilometres per hour maximum.

I tried to take the turn-off towards Kalu-Kitting in the Jebel Mara (photo), but I think I got the wrong track. Anyway, it went a short way up into the mountains - I reached about 1800m or so - and I was able to camp there and see some of the interesting local special birds.

Tuesday 24^th December 2002

I spent about two hours birding before returning to the main road. By 10h00 I passed through Nyala, and then the road continued to the south-east (according to the map in a bit of a loop, but in actual fact it was absolutely parallel to the dead-straight railway line). The road started to become more difficult to follow, as it looked more like a braided stream - there must have been up to 10 different tracks, some of which were nearly impassable, others much easier to follow - the art was to pick the right one (it was very hard to photograph - the photo might give a small-scale view of the concept). I also passed a village where there was a Baobab growing in the sand, and with its roots all on the surface.

By 16h00 I had reached Ed Da' Ein, and continued through there following the railway line. Just 20 kilometres outside the village, I hit some more serious sand, and there was a loud banging noise on the floor of the vehicle and it ground to a halt. After a quick inspection, it was clear that I had a serious problem - the front prop shaft had broken. This meant that I no longer had 4-wheel drive - in fact, once I engaged diff-lock, I was restricted to one-wheel drive - if one rear wheel started to spin, the other wheel would not even turn.

At this point I was well and truly stuck, since the vehicle had grounded. When one had four wheel drive it was (usually) possible to drive through these situations - well at least I had been lucky enough to do so. Now, there was no way I could get out - but luckily - since it was late afternoon, and vehicles were congregating to the local village - a truck was able to pull me out, so I could turn around and return to the village. Sadly, I had only gone about 3 kilometres before I picked the wrong track, and got stuck again. Again, within 10 minutes, another truck passed by and pulled me out - and this time I was able to make it back to the village.

Once there, I found the local mechanic, who looked at the damage and said, no chance of repairing it here, but perhaps they could in Nyala. So I started back towards Nyala, but since it was so late, I only got about 10 kilometres. That night I gave the issue serious consideration, and realised that even if I were to get to Nyala, and they had no part (which was likely - it was not a major town) then they would have to fly the part in from Khartoum. Since it was about 180 kilometres back to Nyala, and about 400 kilometres forward to the tar road to Khartoum, I decided to reverse direction the next day, and try for Khartoum. I had actually seen quite a few birds along the way.

Wednesday 25^th December 2002

At sunrise I returned to Ed Da' Ein, and then continued for a short way driving close to the railway track to ensure that I kept moving in the right direction. Having crossed the railway track twice (the various tracks were always crossing from one side to another), I realised that I had another option. What I then did was clearly illegal, but was also probably the only reason I got through this stretch of road. I decided to drive down the railway. Although there were some difficult patches, it was certainly much easier than the real road, although a lot of care was required to ensure that one did no damage to the tracks (photo). Every 20 or 30 kilometres there was a station, which forced me to drive off the tracks (due to the fact that there were points and a siding (for trains to pass each other). Anyway, the road to Babanusa was dead straight, and I was able to cover the 190 kilometres in about 5 hours. I just hope I didn't do any damage to the tracks. During the whole drive I only passed one train and it was at a siding at the time.

One curious fact I can relate here. About midway between Ed Da' Ein and Babanusa I tried to see where I was on my GPS. It didn't matter what scale I used, there was not a single landmark displayed - until I took the scale up to where it showed the eastern and western borders of Sudan - spanning a distance of around 1000 kilometres. I certainly felt I was in the middle of no-where.

Once at Babanusa, I turned north started towards En Nahud. This road was the same twisting braided sand road, and I was lucky enough to pick the right track most of the time. However, in the end my luck ran out, and I got stuck (grounded the vehicle again). However, within 10 minutes the first vehicle I had seen in 3 hours passed by, and was able to tow me out. If this sounded easy, it was only because as soon as I got stuck I pulled out my 30 metre heavy chain, and fixed it to the vehicle's towing point, so it only took a few seconds for the other vehicle to pull me out. However, there were no problems with this, as I had been pulling others out of trouble in Gabon - it was just bad luck for Sudan that it was their turn to repay the favour. I reached En Nahud at around 16h00, and so I continued on to the east.

I managed about 60 kilometres in the next two hours as the road was generally quite good (the first photo shows what is called a good road, while the second shows what a bad road looks like - the reason this was bad is that the centre sand bar is close to being high enough to ground a Landrover - these tracks are primarily used by large trucks, which have a much higher clearance). Anyway, I got stuck again. This time it took an hour before a vehicle was passing at dusk, and although it was unable to pull me out - they were on a different track about 100 metres away - 20 or so people helped push me, and combined with the winch, I was able to get back on to better ground. I then camped there.

Thursday 26^th December 2002

Again it was an early start - it was sufficiently cold that I started just after dawn - about 20 minutes before sunrise. Within two hours I had reached the next village. On reflection (and the GPS wasn't overly useful at this stage) I had actually taken the wrong track out of En Nahud, and was in the village of Nebelat el Hagana. This was not difficult since - as I mentioned previously - there were up to 10 tracks available at a time. If one asked anyone if this track lead to X village, the answer was always " Yes" because - given time - it would. What was not possible to ascertain was whether it was the "best" track.

So at this point I drove south-east towards what I hoped would be the village of Khuwei. However, after about 20 kilometres I noticed a high level ridge on my right. I drove towards it and found a tarred road! I have a terrible feeling that this new tarred road actually reached En Nahud, and I could have saved myself the last part of the drive. Anyway, I was on tar, and now it should be an easy drive to Khartoum. Although I reached the tarred road at about 10h30, it was still an hour's drive to reach El Obeid, and then a long haul through Kosti before turning north to Khartoum. Checking the roadside vegetation around Kosti, I was able to find the endemic Cinnamon Weaver.

The road was excellent, although badly potholed around Kosti. However, the last 20 kilometres into Khartoum was very busy with lots of vehicles, but I was able to reach my destination - the Hilton Hotel - shortly after sunset (19h00). A hot bath and good meal (lobster no less) was most welcome - although a nice cold beer with it would have been even better!