We ran into Dirk and Saskia (The Dutch couple on bicycles) while picking up our passports at the Cameroon embassy this morning. They had just arrived from Nigeria. We filled them in on N'Djemena as they don't have a guide book for Chad.

We found the bridge across the Chari River and drove the 8 km to the border. The Chad side was a hassle, taking about two hours and requiring us to visit 3 officials in three different offices. One official has the laborious task of putting his initials next to the exit stamp applied by the previous official. Lonely Planet promised that they would demand a bogus exit fee, but fortunately that never materialized. The Cameroon side was much more laid back and took only about 20 minutes including the carnet. We arrived in Maroua at about 4:30 and checked into a campground.

The landscape is becoming more hilly and the vegetation a little less arid as we go south. The humidity is also increasing. It's getting later before it cools off enough to sleep and unlike the desert where sweat evaporated instantly, we're starting to feel sticky here. Beer is getting cheaper though, and we enjoyed a few cold ones at the campground before dinner.

We succeeded in locating "Party Central" in Maroua last night; the music didn't stop until very late. We went into town in the morning and after breakfast of veggie omelets (complete with peas and carrots in them) and went to change money. Every bank we stopped at would only change euros and we had dollars and pounds. Witt and Graham got very excited when they came across an ATM machine, and got even more worked up when it actually spit out money. We each took out 100,000 CFA, then went to the Total station and spent half of it on gas.

After buying fruit and veg (which is becoming cheaper and better as we go south) we headed for N'Gaoundéré. We enjoyed a grapefruit and a mango as a mid-morning snack. Graham and Connie spotted some hippos from a bridge over a river we crossed just before lunch. In the afternoon we started climbing and ended up in N'Gaoundéré which sits at almost 4000 feet. Thankfully it's cooler here at this altitude. We passed three overturned trucks and at least a half dozen that were broken down. Being a truck driver in Africa is tough. If your truck breaks down, it appears to be the norm to stay with it until you've fixed it. We passed one where the entire crankshaft had been removed from the engine!

Witt noticed a new noise coming from Rafiki today; Graham thinks it's the bearings in either the alternator or the water pump. We decided to head out to a "Ranch" on a lake about 35km from town to spend the night. The road was heavily corrugated and we were driving after dark, which made us wonder if we had made the right decision. We had. We arrived at the ranch and were amazed by what Graham described as being exactly like a Southern African hunting lodge. We ordered beer and gin and tonics, and they put together an excellent meal of chicken breast, meat balls, and green beans. We commented that the chick breasts seemed to be real, western-style, hormone injected, kept in a pen chicken breasts, not the tough, been-chased-by-too-many-cars African kind. We enjoyed our first taste of wine since ours ran out in Morocco. We all enjoyed an unexpected and much needed bit of luxury and fell into bed after showers.

Witt and Jen awoke this morning at 2am unable to sleep due to a huge dip in the center of the mattress. They packed up an migrated outside to our comfy tent. Shortly after crawling back into bed they heard some very strange noises right outside the car, like someone or something dragging a chain and shaking something metallic. Whatever it was eventually went away and we enjoyed cool sleeping weather for the rest of the evening.

After breakfast we went for a very nice walk around the lake. Graham commented that he had heard some strange sounds as well, and the French owners of the ranch seems upset by the whole thing. They were speaking in French but we caught the phrase "phantom du Lac." We thought about making like Scooby Doo and hanging around to investigate, but since we don't have a dog we decided to head out.

Shortly after leaving, the noise from Rafiki became much more pronounced. Upon investigation, the smoke coming from the alternator helped to narrow the problem. Fortunately a spare alternator was something that Graham had thought to include and made a great Christmas present from his parents. In order to spare the serpentine belt an untimely demise, Graham and Connie towed Rafiki back to the ranch where we could make repairs without inquisitive locals hanging around. We parked under some shade trees and set to work.

The first thing we noticed was that the new alternator wouldn't fit in the car. We believe that Shukers Land Rover in England sold us an alternator for a TD5 engine, not the 300TDIs in our trucks. I thought we were screwed, but without hesitation Graham pulled out a hack saw and set about modifying the engine to accept the alternator. In the end he hacked and filed at the engine block as well as the new alternator, and with a washer as a spacer it fit in perfectly. Witt, who was sawing away at the new alternator where Graham told him to, found the whole thing pretty amazing and made him glad (again) that Graham is such a great bush mechanic. Not wanting to spend another night with the phantom of the lake, we set out again at 2:30 and drove for a couple of hours before finding a campsite for the night.

It's amazing how much the scenery has changed in the past two days since leaving Chad. From the dry, rather barren terrain of the Sahel, we are now winding our way along dusty red dirt roads through a forest thick with lush green vegetation. There are rolling hills with mountains in the distance. There are rivers, streams, and lakes.

We drove for almost 8 hours today, averaging about 25mph. For most of the day the road was corrugated and potholed. There are "rain barriers" in most of the towns, which close during the rainy season to prevent the road surface from being destroyed by people driving on them and forming ruts in the mud. By mid-afternoon the road had improved, and some sections were even paved. We camped outside of Mayo Darle for the evening.

Today's drive took us through more of the beautiful highlands of Cameroon. The weather was fairly cool and a little humid. The human population is much more dense here, and the dwellings have largely changed from round mud brick structures with thatched roofs to square buildings with tin roofs.

We rejoined the tarmac at Foumban and were happy to see less dust. We drove to Bamenda where we checked into the Baptist mission rest house for the evening. We met a woman staying there who is a peace corps volunteer working on a project north of Bamenda. She is just finishing her service and is getting married to a Cameroonian man in a week. Her family is coming from Minnesota to attend a traditional wedding in the village where she works.

We awoke this morning and had an excellent breakfast of bread, scrambled eggs, and fresh pineapple at the mission for just 1000 CFA. Rafiki had a low tire, which together with the flat from yesterday and a blown sidewall on one of the spares left us no choice but to go into town and have two tires repaired. The guy seemed to do a good job, and at the bargain price of 400 CFA per tire.

Graham found that the locking nuts for the hub at the right rear had loosened, so we went back to the mission and Graham disassembled the hub and tightened the nuts. A few young kids showed up to watch and we had a great time entertaining them with the digital camera and our two-way radios. We then headed for Yaoundé where we will spend the next few days getting visas for Gabon, and one or both of the Congos.

We stopped for lunch of fresh mango, papaya, bananas, and coconut at the grounds of a Catholic church along the road. The remainder of the drive to Yaoundé took us through rolling hills and forest that looks increasingly like true jungle. We crossed our largest river to date, the Sanaga. Every house seems to have a either a pile of mangoes or a pile of firewood out front for sale. We even encountered some bush meat on sale. We arrived at the Presbyterian Mission, but everyone was in another building singing and dancing, so after waiting for awhile we eventually drove back into town and got a room at a hotel, where we enjoyed air-con and cable TV.

Watch a movie of the kids at the Baptist Mission.

CNN announced last night that there had been a coup attempt in Kinshasa, DRC, which is exactly where we're headed. Our first priority was to apply for our Gabon visas, and for that we needed money, so first thing in the morning we drove to almost every ATM machine in town and eventually found one with some money in it. We located the Gabon embassy and submitted our applications. Next we found an internet cafe and wasted an hour on an extra-slow connection searching for more information on the Kinshasa situation.

We went to the US embassy after positive experiences with the embassies in Niamey and N'Djamena We first went to the wrong building, but didn't find that out until after three interrogations and metal detector wandings by various "Wackenhut" (a local security company) security guys. We finally found the right building and endured more Wackenhut interrogations only to find that the "American Services" person in the embassy hadn't even heard about the coup attempt. We told her about the report we found on BBC's website, which she pulled up on her computer and started to read to us. Duh. Next we asked for a point of contact with the embassy in Kinshasa. She had to ask her supervisor how to find it and he suggested a Google search for the US embassy Kinshasa website.

When we left we ran into an employee of the embassy arriving for work. She was from Deer Trail, Colorado, and was stunned to see the Colorado plates on our cars. We talked while the wackenhut guys searched her car for bombs. We told her we hadn't had much success at the embassy, and she apologized, saying that things "weren't very together" at the embassy. Next we visited the British embassy, and while they didn't have any more information, at least they knew about the situation. We got email addresses for both the American and British consular officers in Kinshasa and found a fast internet cafe (complete with air-con!) and sent them an email. We enjoyed some delicious brochettes at a local restaurant, and after we got used to the mangoes hitting the metal roof, had a very relaxing meal.

Thus far on the trip Rafiki has lost two tires to blown sidewalls, and one to excessive wear. One sidewall was unavoidable, due to a sudden blowout at high speed in Morocco (which leaves the rim running directly on the side of the tire. When you re-inflate the tire, it has a huge bulge in the side of it). The other was Witt's fault, thinking that he had a vicious crosswind until it was too late and the tire was completely flat. Duh. Witt decided that Yaoundé was the place to get four new tires for Rafiki, and saw a very professional looking tire shop along the road to the embassies. We stopped there yesterday and were happy to learn that they could get Michellin XZLs. The only down side is that they cost 132,000 CFA each (about 260 dollars). Witt and Jen decided that new tires for the trip through the mud would be a good idea. The shop didn't take VISA, so we decided to try to do a cash advance on our credit cards the next morning. So we went to the bank first thing this morning, but they wouldn't do a cash advance, telling us to use the ATM machine outside. They said it would give up to 300,000 CFA per day. So we used our ATM card and both of our credit cards to get 750,000 CFA from the machine. Graham tried to use the ATM machine after we were done, and we had apparently taken all the money out. I guess we know why the cash machines were all empty on Monday morning.

So now we're carrying around this two-inch thick wad of cash worth $1400. It's a tough transition to what is essentially a cash-based economy. Anything you buy here you buy with cash. Almost no businesses take credit cards. I was in line at the bank behind a man who pulled out several six-inch stacks of cash, which probably totaled several thousand dollars. I feel much more comfortable with plastic.

We dropped our visa applications off at the Congo-Kinshasa (DRC) embassy where Jen and Graham spoke at length with the Congolese representative there. She said that we should have no problems with the border being open, and that the coup attempt was rather pathetic and had been contained. We also enquired about the roads and routes and were assured that with proper vehicles (ours qualify, apparently) we would have no trouble. Meanwhile Witt headed to the tire shop to unload some cash. Replacing the tires took about four hours including waiting for the new tires to arrive by taxi. The owner of the shop was a very smartly dressed man who said he had seen a tire shop in Atlanta and modeled his store after it. He had done a good job, his staff seemed competent and professional. Most of his clients seemed to be the more wealthy citizens; we saw several Mercedes SUVs come in for various services. After a test drive we had the car washed of the several layers and colors of dust that have accumulated thus far, then we went back to the Mission where Jen cleaned the inside of the car, Witt caught up on updates to the website, Connie did laundry, and Graham made repairs to his rear suspension, which also seems to have been poorly designed, although less so than the front.

As I write this, I can hear a group of people nearby singing, playing drums, and sounding like they're having a great time. Together with the crickets chirping, it really feels like Africa.

At the internet cafe this morning we learned that according to the US consul in Kinshasa the border between Brazzaville and Kinshasa is closed but is expected to re-open later in the week. He didn't know anything about other borders between the two countries. We ended out calling Richard at the US embassy in Niamey on the sat phone and asking him to contact the consul in Kinshasa. He was very helpful and sent me an email later the same day. There are no reports of new violence, so we have decided to press on.

Vicky, another overlander about a week ahead of us, is in Libreville and is planning to travel down the coast through Cabinda (in the Angolan enclave in Congo). Her group is currently sorting out their visas. We departed Yaoundé at about 10am and after the usual navigational challenges of trying to leave the city on the correct road with no sign posting, we were on our way to Gabon.

We camped early about 50km before the border and found what we thought was an excellent camp site. We were enjoying gin and tonics and some peanuts when a young man and a boy showed up with a 3-foot monitor lizard that they said was for dinner. They watched us for awhile and left. They must have gone to get the rest of the village because about 15 minutes later a group of about eight people showed up. They stayed and watched us cook dinner for about an hour. We entertained them with the digital camera and the video camera. Showing people pictures of themselves always elicits gales of laughter. Witt felt like he was the host of a TV cooking show with 8-12 people all standing about 10 feet from him watching him cut up potatoes and carrots. When dinner was ready, we told them that we didn't have enough food for everyone and that we were going to eat. They seemed to understand and wandered off, promising to return in the morning. We enjoyed our meal in peace for about 15 minutes before another group of six arrived. They watched us finish our dinner and clean up. Witt got out the laptop and gave an impromptu geography lesson with the Garmin mapping software. They got very excited when they could identify local villages on the map. When we told them we were going to bed they asked what time they should come back in the morning. We said ten o'clock and they promised to be here at six. Looks like we may be eating breakfast on the move tomorrow.

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