Yesterday we drove towards Ngaoundere, from a tarmac, pretty easy road, in a fully green scenery. There was nothing exciting till we met Jarle Auset, a Norwegian overlander of Africa, who is driving from Cape town to north cape on the wheel of an old Defender.

Jarle is on the road for 17 months now, so meeting him and talking with, was pretty exciting for us. The guy has so many stories to tell as he traveled from S. Africa to Djibouti, turned back and now heads north again, aiming to visit all the countries of Africa, in order to make a book about children of Africa. With Jarle we exchanged some information, GPS points and he encouraged us a lot to cross Congo (not so bad!) and Angola.
It’s a petty we follow the same route opposite ways – we could make a nice company with this easy going fellow.
So, have a nice trip Jarle!

In N’gaoundere, we searched for a decent place to overnight, so Akis could write his monthly article for 4Wheels. So we needed something comfortable and… inspiring. We found the place, following the Lonely Planet guide, 35 kms. south of Ngaoundere, on the gravel road to Garoua Boulai and Yaounde. “Ranch de Ngaundaba” was the referred name. We took the little road at right and after 3 km. we entered paradise.

A French style, stone walled, lodge in a beautiful green surrounding, beside a crater lake. “It must be closed during rainy season”, we said, but a gentleman appeared smiling to us. It was Pascal Eyt-Dessus, a French, hospitable guy, with Mariette, a real gentle woman, offering us a cup of tea. After 10’ we decided to stay here at night, taste the wonderful onion soup Mariette prepared and sleep in one of the comfortable rooms of the place (16.000 CFA only!), all overlooking the crater lake, 200 m. further down.
This morning, despite we had decided to leave, we said “why not, let’s stay”! So we will spend a second night here, listening to more stories from Pascal, about his father who was a pioneer in safari tourism in the whole region of Adamaoua, as he came here right after WW2. I wish we could stay here for more, but after Akis finishes his article (that he started, thank God!), we have to go on, to Yaounde._V.Netou

Thursday 12/7/2007, Total km. 16.064, day km. (yesterday) 298 Overnight: Ranch Ngaundaba, Cameroun, Tip of the day: if you come to Ngaoundere, stay 1-2 days at least at the Ranch Ngaoundaba! Highlight of the day: meeting on the road, Jarle Auset, the Norwegian overlander with the old Defender.