Wandered down to the falls for an early morning spray but the water pressure noticeably less than last night. All alone so revelled in that again.
All packed up, we set off in search of the "recognisable track" on our map. Finally finding an alternate route through directions from a local man we picked; his wife, we presumed, sat in the back with us and his pushbike stood in the aisle. The woman was reserved and didn't try to chat until Stanley started bucking again on the rough road, tossing us about, and she started to giggle.
Long journey across dry, rolling "downs" with the odd tree before the greenery started to increase; drove through a couple of villages of huts with beatnik roofs, gardens full of banana palms and towering trees. The roads were mostly-smooth red dirt, and the roadside plants - and very quickly us, too - were covered in red dust raised by passing trucks. Encounter Overland were now way behind us, with Kel pushing for the border tonight ahead of them.
More and more trees, with the valleys and the hills now heavily greened and the become slightly humidg a fraction more moist. All of us were by then red with grim and the Cascades a fond but distant memory.
Most of the villages we passed had high-rise chicken coops with steps up to conical grass houses with doors held closed by a rock suspended from a rope. The houses in one gorgeous village were decorated with painted animals, some impressive artworks, others childish sketches; one animal looked like a kangaroo! Other villages along our route were in various stages of whitewash, the women spattered with white from coating the walls; we saw a woman sitting on the ground applying a layer of brown mud with her hands.
Having successfully found eggs in the border town we arrived at the Cameroon-Central African Republic (CAR) frontier about 4:20. Paperwork but no search and quickly through the Cameroon formalities, in time for another flag-lowering ceremony, this flag in much better repair than last time. Long slow passport check but through and into CAR late.
Camped off the road in a pit of red gravel. Had a welcome open-air wash looking down on Stanley before a late dinner. Wrote a letter to the sound of frightfully British voices from some lads in a van below us.
Bats again visible against a star-studded sky. Saw a jackal near the truck.
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