Day 161: Doula – Tsaben Beach Hotel
A day of mixed emotions.
Yesterday evening we received news that an Italian motorcyclist, whom we met with his wife and a camera team in Guinea, had a fatal accident in Angola. How sad.
Today we are woken up around six by the church service. Not unpleasant.
Today we lose 300 euros at an ATM. The transaction goes through, the card comes out of the slot again – but unfortunately no money. But we can see on the account that it has been debited. The bank manager doesn't want to or can't help us. Barclays needs to clarify this.
We use the fact that she wants to get rid of us again as a means of pressure to exchange the last somewhat acceptable dollars – she turns this from the private wallet into the official rate.
The “3smotors” workshop, on the other hand, is terrific. The oil change is smooth.
One of the three guys there asks the authorities whether the part of the coast we want to go to today is safe. It is.
We can also transfer a larger amount of money using our credit card and receive the difference to the invoice as cash. We had talked about the debacle with the bank and our mistrust of using the credit card at another ATM.
We refuel, fill up water, visit a Super Spar.
We just can't get the gas bottle filled up. An official bottler is completely uninterested in our small, single bottle. Let's see, …
Driving out of Douala is a torture. And if the way of driving a car is synonymous with society, this one is brutally selfish and inconsiderate.
Unfortunately the weather is not good and Mount Cameroun's 4,095 m is covered in clouds. Maybe we have to get back on the slopes sooner than we thought and go straight through the two Congos.
We get a delicious fish and French fries in Tsaben Beach, where we have a wonderful campsite, and rush back to the car before a thunderstorm arrives.
We hear from Simon and Justine that they have arrived safely in Banyo. Wonderful. A great performance with their Sprinter without a lifted suspension and four-wheel drive.
Catherine and Ian are already halfway there and Domi and Lio want to tackle the border crossing tomorrow. Hopefully everyone of our travel family will have arrived safely in Cameroon at the end of the week.