A few weeks ago I took a weekend trip to Kribi with Martin, which is "the" beach town for Cameroon, and I can now see why. The beach goes for miles each way, is clean white sand and was almost deserted. We stayed in a hotel that was right beside the ocean, when you open the door there is a private beach right in front of you, and the sound of the waves crashing lulls you to sleep.

We also took a trip to the Lobé Falls, which has a set of falls just as the river joins the ocean which is quite unusual. We went in a ride in a pirogue (a fairly large wooden canoe, the guide sits at the very back and paddles it with a paddle that looks like a spade) along the beach and in front of the falls. Then we had shrimp that had just been caught in the water, the first time I`ve eaten shrimp here which is surprising since Cameroon originally got it's name when Portuguese explorers reached the coast in the 15th century and named the area Rio dos Camarões (Shrimp River), which became Cameroon in English. I've heard that lots of shrimp are still being fished but they are mostly exported and so cost too much for the locals. We also had a meal of fish at the port, where the fish come straight from the ocean then are cooked and served in a restaurant a few feet away. Plus a fresh coconut that was hacked open by a kid with a 2 foot machete for dessert.

Even the bus ride there and back was an improvement over some of my previous trips - both times it was the "squeeze 5 people into 4 seats" type, but for most of each trip there were only 4 people in my row so almost luxurious.