Nachtigal Falls

A few weekends ago we took a nice drive out to the Nachtigal falls, which is about one hour northeast of Yaoundé. I enjoy taking day trips outside of the city. Too often you get caught up with the hustle and bustle of the city that you oftentimes forget the beauty that surrounds it. Our trip down was fairly uneventful minus a minor road blockage that caused us to wait for ten minutes. Eventually, we arrived at part of the Sanaga River where we caught a glimpse of the river barge that takes cars back and forth across the river.

A few of us daring folks decided to take a piroge (canoe) ride across the river to get a close up view of the waterfalls. Initially, we were quite skeptical of the ride, but it turned out to be quite a journey. I rode in the canoe with Claudette. Within the first few minutes both of our behinds were soaking wet from the water that was seeping through the boat. At one point I even saw water spouting out of side, at which the canoe owner’s response was to use a machete to stuff the hole with cloth. So, Claudette and I took it upon ourselves to shovel out water as we road closer and closer to the waterfalls. This wasn’t an easy task because we were surrounded by mosquitos and bugs which people call moot moot (I know I’m spelling this wrong). So, as we are shoveling water out we are also slapping away bugs and trying to stabilize the boat. I know we were a funny site. Once we got to the falls, we were met with a great close up view. We stopped off on a bank to take in the site before our ride back to shore. The following morning, my back was itching like crazy. After a few minutes of confusion, I realized that I was itching due to those bugs that were swarming the canoe.