That's not to say there is no wildlife. I probably couldn't name a single species, but the country is known for its magnificent diversity of birds. Gorillas and various other apes can be found in remote jungle areas of the south. In fact just in the last few years CNN reported on a previously undiscovered population of lowland gorillas on the Cameroon/Gabon border numbering in the tens of thousands. In the north there are numerous wildlife reserves where lions, hyenas, elephants, giraffes, antelope and a host of other creatures roam. I'm barely touching on it but in short the biodiversity within Cameroon's borders is astounding.
In the Extreme North I am not far from Waza National Park which is considered one of the best in the West/Central African region. Bogo is about 60km south of the park so elephants pass our town periodically throughout the year on their endless search for fresh watering holes. However the entrance to the park is on the western side. A three hour voyage through Maroua, north to Mora and yet farther north to the actual town of Waza is required to enter.
My second (and last) dry season here is almost over, and this is by far the best time to see animals in the park as they often congregate around the last few dwindling water holes. I imagine the animals are pretty miserable. Little to no water, terrible heat, and a bunch of sweaty people with cameras being a nuisance. Seeing as it's my last best chance to visit the park two friends and I rented a jeep for the day to go see some of these animals in their most trying time of the year.
Our plan was to leave Maroua at 5AM and get to Waza around 7AM. That might give us just enough time to see lions and maybe even elephants before they retreated from the midday heat into some of the more inaccessible regions of the park. Our driver was on African time so we didn't get out of Maroua until 6:30AM. No lions or elephants, but here's a play by play on what we did cross paths with.
1st Encounter- About 10km south of Waza the road is running parallel to the park. On the right is the park; wide open savanna with the occasional scrub tree. On the left is more typical of Northern Cameroon; fields devoid of any plant life as a result of the recent millet and sorghum harvest. Assorted goats and cows lazily drag their noses across the ground looking for anything nourishing. We slow suddenly and just to our right on the shoulder of the road sit two light brown monkeys, ribs visible, staring at us with a very glazed over look as if to inquire if we've brought them anything. I'm pretty sure feeding the animals is a big no-no at any park. They lose interest before we do and wander back towards the park.
Getting to the park entrance, we sign in and pay our fees. One of my companions is Cameroonian and pays 1500 francs. The third person and I are both Americans with residency in Cameroon and we pay 3000 francs each. There are different categories, with visiting tourists paying the most at 5000 francs per head (about 10 bucks). All paid up and signed in, a park guide gets in the car with us and we head into the park.
2nd Encounter- Not far into the park we spot the first signs of life. Slowing down so as not to spook them we come upon three giraffes around a cluster of acacia trees nibbling the leaves off the thorny branches. As soon as we begin to approach their gaze is fixated on us. They retreat gradually as we come closer. We obviously mean no harm but I feel a bit guilty about running them off from the shade of the trees. There is little to no tree cover here and at 8:30 it is already brutally hot. As soon as we turn off the road towards them they bolt. We continue down the cracked earth and sand track and the giraffes take off in a gallop about 100 meters to our left and parallel to our path. Their long gait gives the illusion that they are painfully slow, but as the driver continues to increase his speed and the giraffes continue to outpace us its apparent that's not the case. The distance they can cover with just one long stride is striking.
3rd Encounter- Just down the road the fleeing giraffes have set off a mini chain reaction. We approach a few patches of brush where a couple of antelope emerge spooked by the commotion and waste no time in getting as far away from us as possible. A few seconds later a gruff looking warthog of generous proportions emerges from the bushes ahead of us. He looks to be more relaxed in his stride and at one point turns towards the side of our vehicle and charges with his head down for a few steps before making his way to an adjacent bit of scrub forest where he joins with another adult warthog and a few youngsters. We try to get as close as possible but our driver and guide are hesitant to anger warthog parents around their offspring. Sure we're in a vehicle and the warthogs are by no means the most physically imposing creatures out here. But they are angry, don't seem to appreciate visitors and brandish razor sharp tusks that can do some damage.
Hard to see, but a warthog family eyes our approach
4th Encounter- We advance a few more kilometers into the park and turn off the main trail and in the distance the guide spots a large group of ostriches. With good reason all the animals in the park want nothing to do with humans. We want a close look at the giant birds up ahead so the driver inches across the clearing as slowly and softly as possible. Yet we are in a bright red Jeep which doesn't exactly help us blend in. Coming up behind them on their left we get within 30 or so meters of them and they decide they've tolerated our presence for long enough. The giraffes gave us a sporting chance when they were escaping our attention. These guys appear even faster and while still large in their own right, they display a lot of agility on the run. They weave their way through the thickening scrub and within 30 seconds are out of sight. Too bad, as I could've gone for an ostrich steak and fries for lunch.
5th Encounter- It's late morning at this point and I'm hypothesizing that Waza is on average considerably hotter than Maroua and even Bogo. Later in the evening we'll return to Maroua and hear from another volunteer that it was 118 degrees in Maroua today. I want to see African wildlife in all its beauty, but I question the sanity of any animal that wanders out in broad daylight on a day like this. Unfortunately for the animals the only remaining water holes are almost all in direct sun with very little shade. So sane or crazy they really have no choice if they want a drink. It may speak more to our insanity that we're out here trying to watch them scratch out an existence in a near dead land. We hit a watering hole; devoid of stereotypical african wildlife but full off the birds that Waza is known for.
6th Encounter- Nearly noon and we have scoured most of the waterholes and shaded areas for any sign of lions. Getting up to the park late gave us little to no chance to find them and at this point in the day they are most likely far out in the bush taking naps and waiting for the sun to go down. We approach one of the largest waterholes still remaining for one last shot. There is plenty of shade here but no lions. Yet in the watering hole and all the surrounding trees is a staggering number of large birds of 5 or 6 different species. In the water they are packed together very closely, standing on their thin stick like legs. There are no crocs in Waza so these birds have nothing to worry about when soaking themselves.
My eyes are beginning to burn from the hot wind coming in through the car window and we've decided an hour or so with a cold drink in hand would do us some good. Exiting the park we have a few dining options available. There's the upscale and touristy Campement de Waza which I've heard has excellent food, but we're not tourists and getting up to and into Waza was expensive enough for volunteers such as ourselves. Instead we go into town and have a seat at a bar where a few mamas are cooking over their stoves in the backyard under the shade of a neem tree. I've had problems with Cameroonian cuisine (as I may have mentioned) but when prepared well and with a minimum amount of sand it's really delicious. I order a large Top Pamplemousse (grapefruit soda) and we each ask for a dish of whatever they've got on the stove. We are in luck today as we each receive a big bowl of white rice and another bowl of beef in peanut sauce. One of the mamas brings me my soda and apologizes that is partially frozen from the refrigerator. This is really no skin off my back, I tell her. The food is delicious (and cheap), but even under the shade and with a grapefruit slurpee in my hand the heat is so much that I can only stomach about half of the dish. I curse my feeble stomach and go back to work nursing my grapefruit slurpee to avoid overheating. After paying the tab we head down the street and buy a few cold bottles of water. This morning we thought we were clever in bringing more than enough water for the three of us. Unfortunately after just a few hours in the park we could brew tea with our old stash of bottled water.
7th Encounter- Back into the park to the few remaining waterholes we've yet to explore. Always in search of the big iconic animals of African safaris it can be easy to miss the more diminutive but equally impressive. One of my companions identifies something not so diminutive but difficult to spot in a far off tree. We approach slowly and get almost to the foot of a large but leafless tree on its own out on the savanna. On one of the middle branches rests what I think I considered one of my favorite sights of the day. All alone sits a gigantic eagle of a light brown color. Judging the distance between us it looks as though he would be waist height to me and is impossibly broad chested. We spend what felt like forever just sizing each other up, hoping all the while that he doesn't fly off. He doesn't seem too concerned by us. The animal is about twenty feet up in the tree and looks as though he eats village children for breakfast. He finally swoops down and makes his way effortlessly across to another tree. Sitting compact on the tree branch he looked imposing. Now displaying his wingspan he looks more like a pterodactyl. I've seen eagles in the United States, but they look like weenies compared to this guy. Field mice and rabbits? Mere appetizers...I think the antelopes around here better keep an eye to the sky.
8th Encounter- By mid May Waza National Park is at the end of a 7-8 month period of no rain. What is soggy/muddy marsh and grassland during the rainy season is now a parched and cracked expanse of earth with some dry patches of grass waving listlessly in the hot wind. Entering the park at this time of year I was wondering how life can, not thrive, but just make ends meet in such an environment. I come to find out that the answer for some of the unluckier or perhaps less adept inhabitants is that they don't. Flying down one of the main tracks back towards an area we wanted to double check, we came upon a large object off to the right of the road. At first sight it was assumed to be a termite mound, but getting closer the guide pointed out that it was an adult giraffe that died two days before. Laying on its side, its belly faced our vehicle and had been opened up by whatever scavenger had happened upon it before we arrived. It was a full grown giraffe and there was still plenty of it left for the vultures, hyenas and jackals. The guide explained that it had died of thirst just two days ago. It seemed unfortunate, at least for the giraffe, as not two kilometers away we had just stopped at a watering hole plush with acacia trees. Yet the way the giraffe was laying indicated that he was moving away from the watering hole when he finally gave up and hit the ground.
9th Encounter- We're back on a main track and I'm in a sweaty coma from the rice, beef and peanut sauce lunch, contemplating the hard luck of that directionally challenged giraffe. I'm jolted back to reality as the driver careens off the path towards two trees and the guide yells, “Laaru! Pobbi don haa to! Regardez ça! Il y a les hyènes là-bas!” Sure enough, two hyenas were tucked away under a shrub. At first sight one of them bolts for a second tree nearby surrounded by tall grass. The other stays where he is but stands up and circles the tree a few times trying to figure out what to make of this strange metal creature that's no more than 15 feet away. They are absolutely hideous looking with their dark fur, jet black eyes and bright red mouths filled with some impressively sharp teeth. When standing their sloping backs give them a bizarre posture. Their hind quarters look very small in proportion to the rest of their body but I don't think its so much that this part of their body is undersized but rather their head, shoulders and chest are massive. They are in full relaxation mode despite our arrival. The giraffe carcass is not far and I would imagine they have been eating very well the last day or so.
Hyena taking refuge from the heat
10th Encounter- Last stop of the day and we decide to hit the largest watering hole still remaining in the park in the hopes that the lions have started their evening activities early. No such luck. We come to the top of a hill, the only one I've seen all day, and as we come down the other side we set hundreds of antelopes into a panic towards the trees or the other side of the water. I'm sure if we hang around this herd for the evening we'll run into lion's soon enough. Unfortunately I don't believe normal visitors are allowed in the park after dark. I had wanted to stay atleast until dusk but after an entire day in this forbidding place I am ready to get back. Large wild animals aside, the road from Maroua to Waza is bandit territory at night if you are North of the town of Mora. Being relieved of my possessions would be a real downer, as meager as they may be, but we as Peace Corps volunteers are prohibited from traveling at night for good reason. The standard of driving is bad enough during the day. Add darkness to the equation and there is no reason, short of a life threatening situation, to be out on the roads at night.
So that was Waza for me. Amazing? Not quite amazing but I'll say it was definitely worthwhile. Wildlife excursions are hit or miss. I honestly don't blame the animals that stayed tucked away in the cooler confines of the more hard to reach areas of the park. I drank nearly six liters of water that day, plus another liter of ORS (Oral rehydration salts) upon returning to Maroua and my eyes were sore from the hot wind for two days after. I will say that everything we saw was inspiring. The massive eagle in the tree, the galloping giraffes, the thoroughly pissed off warthogs, the lightning quick ostriches, the frantic antelopes, and even the hideous but well fed hyenas. And to make it even better, we got back into Maroua just as the sun was setting, so there was no 11th Encounter with Kalashnikov-wielding Chadian bandits.
A Reverse Safari
If you ever come to Africa (and you should!), by all means visit a wildlife park or reserve. Virtually every country on the continent has some type(s) of exotic wildlife within its borders. Tourist dollars are obviously important to local communities, and can help better protect the many endangered species under threat from poaching and habitat loss.
But at the same time its a shame that so many people that visit Africa only go to these places, and do so in a manner that's completely out of tune with the continent. They fly into the country, stay at only the finest hotels, eat at the best restaurants, pay ridiculous prices for everything, get herded around the country in privately hired vehicles, and see the country from a car window. I stick out like a sore thumb everywhere, but you can spot these folks from a mile away. Reddened skin, sweating even more than me, and usually wearing something ridiculous that looks like it was stolen from Dr. Livingstone's wardrobe. Their contact with African people is limited to the help.
I remember last year I was biking out by the main road from Maroua where the pavement forks. One way leads into Bogo and the other way goes another 50km to Lake Maga. Maga, between November and April, is a popular spot for exactly this type of tourist. This man-made reservoir is a great place to spot hippos, and there is a hotel full with a bar/restaurant/pool that caters to large groups of westerners with far too much money. How do I know this? I've visited said hotel before and I think they marked me out as a grubby Peace Corps volunteer immediately. I bathed with soap that very morning and my clothes were at least respectable enough for a 2-3 star joint, but nonetheless I was treated like crap. The food and drink was astronomically expensive for an auberge out in the bush so I went out to the dusty streets of Maga for grilled meat and a cold beer for a fraction of the price. I'm not saying I'm too hardcore or too well integrated to spend my time in a tourist hotel. I just wanted to swim in the pool. What I am saying is that the smallest exchanges with people and the random things going on while I was eating freshly slaughtered cow washed down with a cold 33 Export were far more interesting than anything on a scheduled tour.
I digress. I was mentioning that a year or so ago I was out on my bike by the main road. I was returning to Bogo from a nearby village in the late afternoon and someone I knew was in a nearby field. There were no crops in the field, he had a confused “now how did I get here?” look on his face and I couldn't find any evidence that he was doing any work there. Nevertheless there he was in the field, and he began smiling and waving. I stopped my bike, he came closer to the road and we exchanged pleasantries. Cameroonians have a gift for the obvious. Asked what he was doing he said “I am in the field.” Yes, yes you are most definitely in the field, I thought. Nothing more to add. He was just in the field, and I was satisfied with this explanation. At this point I was not far into my service but all around Bogo I would run into friends and acquaintances in odd places out in the middle of nowhere where they really had no logical reason for being. Inquiring as to what people were doing (not where they were) I usually got answers such as “I am under the tree,” “I am in the room,” or my favorite a very demonstrative “I am supporting,” which I take to mean that he was “hangin' in there!”
So I am on the side of the road speaking to my friend who has graced this field with his presence today for no apparent reason. As we are talking a large bus approaches. Its going fairly slow and doesn't have anything attached to the roof so I'm thinking something is wrong with it. Funny how if I see a bus here that isn't loaded down with cargo and moving at light speed I assume that something is surely amiss. Passing us by slowly I see that this is not your average bush taxi. Its full of nasarras (white people), presumably French or German. I'm surprised to see them out here and my buddy nearly goes into shock from nasarra-overload. Its only after they have almost passed us by that I see from their confused look that they are equally shocked. I think I saw someone actually pull out a camera. They are now back home showing their loved ones this dirty white guy they happened upon out in the middle of the Sahel. It felt like a reverse safari trip for me. Should I approach the window and beg for a sack lunch? Should I run off into the field in terror to confuse them even more? I took the middle ground and waved to them. I received a few halfhearted waves back, but mostly just blank stares. I can only assume that they then yelled “don't stop!” to the driver.
One thing I find funny is that many of my Cameroonian acquaintances think that I know all white people. For example, I've given up trying to change their minds and have explained to a number of people here that, yes, I am indeed on a first name basis with Jack Bauer from the '24' TV show. After the bus filled with tourists passed us by my buddy inevitably asked “Who were they? Your friends?” If my friends passed me by on a dusty African highway I would hope they could at least stop to say hello and maybe inquire as to what I'm doing out here. I am at the side of the road! My friend is in the field!
So if I haven't made it clear by now, Africa is available to you and waiting for you to visit. Preferably while I'm still here to show you around! If you do take your chances of course you should pay attention to the safety information available, but don't let all the disheartening stories on the news keep you from seeing strangely beautiful places full of welcoming people. Stories about millions of Africans going about their daily lives with no problems whatsoever just doesn't make the news. Traveling here on a small budget or in an adventurous fashion is admittedly not for the novice, and I would never hold it against you if you chose instead to see Africa from posh hotels and the windows of air-conditioned cars. Just see it anyway you can. And if you see me out on the road while you're on safari feel free to toss me a sack lunch from the window.
An Afterthought
So it turns out that I didn't need to go to Waza National Park to see hyenas. Just the other day almost a week after our trip to Waza I was speaking with a friend in Bogo about what we had seen. I rattled off all the wildlife we had caught a glimpse of and then, perhaps because it was the most exciting moment of our trip, I mentioned that we had seen hyenas. He wasn't impressed in the least. Here I was feeling very proud of my hyena sighting, and he was having none of it. I almost felt insulted. In hindsight I have no idea why I felt so proud about my encounter with hyenas. We were in a wildlife park where one would tend to run into wildlife. It wasn't like I was stalking the beasts through tall grass carrying a spear.
I kept restating the fact that we had seen “hyenas!,” but he remained unmoved. This is because, as he nonchalantly told me, very late at night or early in the morning in Bogo hyenas come out of the bush and into the central market in town to look for any meat scraps lying around the butcher tables or food areas. He moved on to another topic as though large carnivores wandering our streets at night was a minor annoyance like something akin to, say, racoons in the trash bins or squirrels in the attic.
This bothered me in a number of ways. Firstly I had just paid money to roast my ass off all day looking for animals. Now I'm learning that a large predator of the African savanna strolls my town's market looking for midnight snacks. The hyenas were obviously the highlight of my day in Waza and now my friend has put it in no uncertain terms that I wasted a lot of money. Even with this new information at hand I would say Waza was still worth the visit. What bothers me a whole lot more is that I moved to Bogo in December of 2008. This conversation took place not long ago, in May 2010. If you are not picking up on my point yet, it took about one year and six months for someone to get around to telling me that hyenas frequent the marketplace at night!
I am usually in my home and most likely sleeping by 10PM at the latest. Depending on my work schedule I often find myself hitting the pillow not long after the sunset at around 7PM. Yet there have been a number of times when I've been on the Bogo streets later than usual. Walking back from the bar (through the market!) after a few drinks with friends on a Friday or Saturday night, returning from a dinner at a friend's home (also through the market!), or even being out and about for the occasional late night concert/soiree. I guess I can say no harm no foul on this one, but I know that if I lived in a town with this most unpleasant of nocturnal visitors I would let the out-of-towners know that they might want to keep their distance from the areas where hyenas may or may not be looking for a meal! Its not as if they were overwhelmed with other things to tell me about Bogo. “Hi Dan, welcome to Bogo. Here's the post office, here's the stadium, this is the bus station, this is the bar, and here's the central market. Oh and by the way, the hyenas come at night so don't come through here late or do so carrying a machete.” That's all I would have needed.
As a result of this unsettling discovery I've been casually slipping the topic of hyenas into the conversation at inappropriate times. Someone will ask me how my work is going or how I'm dealing with the heat, and I'll say something subtle like “Did you know that hyenas have some of the strongest jaws in the animal kingdom?” or “You know, when being chased by a pack of hyenas you should climb a tree, as they are not known for their tree climbing abilities.” Anything just short of getting upset because no one told me what I would consider to be very important safety information when living in Bogo.
Oh well, water under the bridge. I was never really too upset about it. Maybe just caught off guard. In fact I'm thinking it would be pretty sweet to spend the night in a tree at the market and catch a glimpse of them. Although I just recently watched the Lion King for the first time in I don't know how many years, so I'll be let down if the hyenas in the Bogo market don't sound like Whoopi Goldberg and Cheech Marin. Don't laugh, I downloaded movies from another volunteer and it just happened to be amongst the collection. To preserve my masculinity I'll say I was really just downloading the Bourne Trilogy and Generation Kill. But when the Hakuna Matata song came on I somehow instinctively knew all the words.
And Finally:
Seeing as how teaching Americans about the place where I live is a part of the job description of a PCV, today I'm providing you with a wildlife language lesson in fulfulde! My fulfulde is nothing short of awful, but I've gotten to the point where I can go about my day in village speaking almost nothing but the native tongue. I'd say that currently I speak it on the level of a six year old. I know you are all very excited to learn about a language that you will never have any use for, but I realized during the Waza trip that while I knew most useful phrases and expressions, my favorite being the verb meaning nothing other than “to milk a cow,” I knew no names of animals besides chicken, cow, dog, goat and sheep. With a little help from native speakers and my french-fulfulde dictionary here are the fulfulde names for some of the wildlife in my neck of the woods (although most don't roam the marketplace). Note that here fulfulde is translated into french so some sounds are a bit different. You will be quizzed on this material next month.
Rough fulfulde pronunciation
a and aa- “aah”
é and ee- “ay”
i and ii- “ee”
c- “ch”
ɗ- not quite certain...imagine saying “d” but cutting it off halfway through
ŋ- long n
English- Fulfulde(singular/plural)
Animal- ndabbaawa/dabbaaji
Big Antelope- kooba/koobi
Little Antelope- hamfurdé/kampuré
Bird- sondu/colli
Eagle- dutal/duté
Fish- liiŋgu/liɗɗi
Giraffe- tireewa/tireeji
Hyena- fowru/pobbi
Leopard- cirgu/cirɗi
Lion- mbarooga/barooɗé
Lizard- pallaandi/pallanɗepallaaɗé
Monkey- waandu/baaɗi
Mouse- domburu/dombi
Plant- fuɗŋgo/fuɗŋgooji
Scorpion- yaaré/jahé
Snake- mboodi/boɗɗé
Tree- lekki/leɗɗé
Warthog- gaduuru/gaduuji
Wild animal- takkeré/takké
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