Ebogo, Cameroon.

Site Touristique d'Ebogo, 2019-09-07/08. Relaxing on the Nyong river. Pirogue and cocoa farm.

Saturday, September 7, 2019.

The goal of the day is not far from the Mefou sanctuary. This is the tourist site of Ebogo about thirty kilometers as the crow flies. We reach without incident the national road that we follow in a southerly direction, passing the small town of Mbalmayo and stopping at Ekombitie to buy three beautiful pineapples (2000 CFA), oranges (500 CFA) and bananas (200 CFA).
At 11:30 am we find the well-signposted track that will take us in 8 km, covered in 25 minutes, to the tourist site of Ebogo. It is a narrow but not very difficult track on which we must, however, be very careful of the many electric cables which hang low above the roadway. They are usually high enough for us to pass, except the last one which will require the help of a villager. He clears our way by lifting the cable with a long stick.

Our camp above the river (photo of Sunday evening on the deserted site)

So we arrive at the tourist site where we are immediately directed to the parking lot at the end of the access road near the river.
I immediately register at the reception. They apparently are used to receiving campers. Camping costs 5,000 CFA per night. The receptionist presents the various excursions offered to us. The most interesting is of course the 2-hour canoe trip on the river. It is 30,000 CFA (€ 47.12) per canoe, guide included. A canoe can carry two people. We decide on this excursion, Boniface will be our guide and boatman. We will do it this afternoon to take advantage of the dry weather, we don't know what the weather will be like tomorrow. We set an appointment at 2 p.m., time for us to eat and have our coffee.

We go down to the pier.

We are ready when Boniface picks us up at 2 p.m. as scheduled. We embark on the canoe for a peaceful ride in virgin forest up the Nyong. It is the second longest river in Cameroon at just over 800 km. It has its source in the vicinity of the border with the Central African Republic. We go up it for 2.5 km along its left bank. It is a peaceful river measuring about hundred meters in width at our level, the current is not very strong and the surface of the water is as smooth as a mirror in which the large trees of the primary forest are reflected as well as the small flowers of water lilies floating on its surface.

On the Nyong river

The tall trees of the forest are reflected in the Nyong.

Nenuphars

The most magical moment is when we leave the bed of the river to enter the flooded undergrowth with the canoe.

Through the floating plants towards the undergrowth.

 

 

 

Direction the exit of the undergrowth.

Back on the river

 

After 200 m of navigation, zigzagging between the large trees and their aerial roots, we are back on the bed of the river. We continue on it while observing on the other bank in the distance a gigantic tree which seems to spring above the others in the forest.

This woman who lives a few kilometers upstream goes regularly to the village with her canoe

We dock on the opposite bank after an hour of navigation. After a 15 minutes walk in the dense primary forest, we reach the locality of Kossipo, this is the sacred place where the giant tree stands that we could observe a while ago from the river.

With Boniface marching towards the sacred tree.

 

This tree is over 1300 years old. It is 85 m high and has a diameter of 12 m. In fact, since its trunk is more oval than circular, I should rather say that its large diameter is 12 m while the small diameter should not exceed 4 to 5 m. Which still represents a trunk of impressive dimensions. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christine and Thierry at the foot of the giant tree.

After having photographed it from every angle and having gone around it, we return to the canoe by the same path.

Christine and Boniface in the forest.

Back to the canoe. Boniface.

 

We will now descend the Nyong along its right bank to find our home port at Ebogo a little after 4 pm.

 

 

We are approaching the lodge.

We go to the restaurant before joining Gandalf to order our meals tonight for 6.30 p.m. We would have liked to try porcupine meat but unfortunately there is no more and we are falling back on carp with fries.

 

 Saturday, September 7, 2019.

Boniface appears a little before 10 a.m. this morning. We had agreed yesterday after the canoe trip to meet today for a visit to a cocoa plantation. We had the choice between a very simple visit to the cocoa plantation near the village at 2000 CFA (€ 3.14) per person and the one located in the forest on the other side of the river, apparently much more interesting at 5000 CFA (7, 85 €) per person. We opted for the second option.
We quickly put on pants and shoes and join Boniface at 10:05 am preparing the canoe. We first have to cross the river in 15 minutes and after a short navigation through the flooded undergrowth we land in the forest.

Crossing the Nyong.

 

 

Short navigation in the undergrowth.

 

It is a secondary forest, that is to say a forest where, unlike primary forest, humans have left their mark, for example by cutting down large trees. It was ceded a long time ago to Lebanese who have the right to fell trees there every 50 years.

 

We go deep into the virgin forest.

 

The void left after the trees are cut is called a "chablis". The "chablis" is quickly invaded by other fast-growing trees such as the umbrella tree for example. The umbrella tree is an unhelpful tree that gives a lot of shade to the plantations and consumes a lot of water, which of course does not please the farmers at all. Fishermen use its very light wood to make floats for their net and the trunks are used as logs for transporting canoes ashore.

An umbrella tree with its very characteristic leaves.

Boniface gives us some explanations about the trees and plants that we find on our way.
The maraccanga is a small tree with a trunk covered with long thorns that the natives use as a toothpick.

Maraccanga tree

Ngeck is the local name of a fruit which Boniface does not know the name of in French. It had its heyday in its day because it was central to a game invented by a priest, the "Balle à la Sagaie". A game which became extremely popular in Cameroon but which fell into disuse after the death of the priest. The game consisted of throwing the ngeck to the ground in front of you at some distance and then trying to pierce it by throwing small, sharp sticks.

Boniface explains the rules of the “Balle à la Sagaie” with a ngeck.

Ngecks on the ground.

After 600 m of walking we arrive at the edge of the forest where we find the cocoa plantation, the object of our little excursion.
The villagers have cleared the forest to plant these plantations because the land around the village is non-cultivable swamps. They therefore cross the Nyong in a canoe every day to come and work there.

We come out into the cocoa plantation.

Boniface explain the cocoa plantation to us in detail. First, what is immediately obvious: there are two kinds of cocoa trees. The one that gives the green then yellow pods when ripe and that we call the criollo and the one that produces the red then orange pods that we had already discovered in Kloto with Raphaël and that we call the forastero.

Criollo: green pods then yellow when ripe

Forastero: red then orange pods

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apparently there is indeed no difference in the beans, but Boniface says he prefers the red ones because they are much less sensitive to capsids. Capsids are flying insects that attack pods and trees themselves. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To combat them, the peasants spray an appropriate pesticide and skilfully dosed in three stages: first on the flower, then on the cherelle (young pod) and finally on the adult pod. It often happens that during the treatment of the pod the flowers and especially the cherelles receive too highly dosed pesticide and, in this case, the pod will no longer be able to develop and will end up rotting on the spot.
There is also a treatment for the trunk because the capsids lay there after drilling a hole. The worm that develops there will attack the interior wood and the tree will eventually die. 

The cherelle near the pod received too much pesticide

A pod attacked by capsids

 

These "cherelles" rot on the spot because they received too much product against the capsids.

The "décabossage" (stripping) is done on site. The beans are then transported to the village for subsequent processing operations. The first step is an essential step to obtain good quality cocoa, but it is a step that is increasingly neglected by farmers because of the pressure on prices since the privatization of the cocoa sector in Cameroon. This is one of the reasons Cameroon's cocoa does not have a reputation for being of good quality. This is about fermentation. To do this, the beans must be stored for two days in special boxes.

An open pod (stripping).

 

After fermentation the beans are dried in the sun for about a week and then roasted over the fire (roasted) in a pan to completely remove the white pulp (the mucilage) that coats them and release the 16 to 60 beans therein. The beans are then ground to obtain butter or cocoa oil. It is this semi-finished product that is then exported abroad to be processed into chocolate. This last stage of transformation into semi-finished products in Cameroon is quite recent, a few years ago it was raw beans that were exported. The more or less long term goal is to make chocolate locally. This is absolutely the right step, Africa must learn to manufacture its wealth instead of just selling its natural resources.

Cocoa beans.

Here, as in many other sectors, it is the producers who benefit the least from the trade, since they sell their harvest for 400 CFA per kilo (0.63 €). A kilo which, after passing through a large number of intermediaries, ended up at 2,800 CFA on the international market.
Boniface explains to us that the peasants practice polyculture to diversify: papayas, plantain, sweet bananas, sugar cane, macabo, corn and peanuts are also cultivated in the cocoa plantation.

Bananas or plantains. For us always so difficult to differentiate. Here: plantains.

Bananas are very popular because they have the particularity of absorbing and storing rainwater when it rains and redistributing it to the environment during the dry season. What the plantain does not do for example.

There are two kinds of sugarcane, the modern one called "American," which is easy to peel and very sweet, and the old one which has no particular name.

Boniface in front of a sugar cane

Christine examines a sugar cane. The "American" is easy to peel.

Macabo, a plant similar to taro (which we know from having tasted it in sauce at Sabine's in Ghana), produces an edible tuber. These young leaves are used to prepare a sauce for the foufou or the "pâte", a less viscous sauce but also less digestible than that prepared with taro.

Boniface shows us a macabo plant.

Young shoot of macabo.

In a new plantation of plantains freshly won over the forest, the peasants started by sowing a little of everything, not knowing what will work best in this new land: macabo, corn, peanuts, etc.
There is no need for seed banks here, even for cassava, as we have seen so frequently elsewhere. The laterite, which is not fertile, is 3 or 4 m deep while it outcrops elsewhere (not even 20 cm).

 

 

 

 

In the new plantain plantation.

 

 

Papaya trees

... and papayas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Raphaël in Kloto, Togo, told us that when yellow flowers appear on peanut plants it means the pods are ready for harvest. This is not quite correct, it only means that the pods are formed but they are not yet mature. It is necessary to wait until the leaves wither and black spots appear on them. Only then are the pods mature and can be harvested.
The visit to the plantation is now over, we learned a lot from Boniface because he is not only a guide but also a farmer from the village. He was able to answer all of our questions very competently.

On the way back in the forest.

We accelerate our pace to return to the canoe because the rain threatens. Unfortunately, we will not be fast enough because a heavy downpour is falling on us just as we arrive at the canoe. The crossing of the Nyong is done in the pouring rain and it is soaked to the bone that we find our camper at 12:20 pm.

We return with the rain.

The rain did not stop until around 2 p.m.

We had decided to cook for ourselves tonight but Christine is too keen to try the porcupine which is available again today. She will therefore order a portion for 6.30 p.m. that we will eat in the motorhome.
When it's time to take our traditional aperitif, Boniface comes to greet us at the motorhome. We invite him to come up, he is very honored because it is the first time that he has been offered it. He is very impressed with the comfort he never suspected in this small box, when seen from the outside.

Boniface visits us in the motorhome.

He is very interested in our ornithology guide which he finds more precisely documented than those used during the training of the guides. He also explains how to peel and suck the sugar cane on the little stick Christine brought back from the plantation. He then explains the origin of the name of the Ebogo site. The place was already known to settlers in the 30s of the last century, they came here to fish and buy pineapples from an old man who had a small plantation here. This man had pain in his hip from the work in the pineapple field. "Hip" meaning "ebok", the local expression meaning "where a man has a sore hip" has been translated into "Ebogo", a name that has stuck.
Boniface ends up taking his leave. Christine goes to get our porcupine dish at the restaurant. Instead of a single serving, we were prepared two and instead of fries we were served plantain which does not really please Christine who does not like it too much. The portions are generous and we will not be able to finish everything. Porcupine meat is a bush meat with a fairly strong taste but not unpleasant, far from it!

Christine is eating her porcupine.