Jan 26 - 28th
After nine hours of travelling from Bamenda, it was nice to arrive at Seme Beach Hotel in Limbe, even if their attempts at being a European-style posh hotel do sometimes contrive to give you the worst of both worlds (the restaraunt has all the formality of a posh restaraunt, but not the atmosphere or the food - the only really nice thing i've had there was a chicken biriani, bizarrely...)
It's lovely to wake up and go straight onto the beach though, and they have a fresh-water stream which runs into the sea. Hev, dad and I swam/drifted/fought our way through pond weed down the stream and into the sea (though it widens and gets shallow at that point, so we got a bit grounded on the rocks - not comfy) - great fun.
In the afternoon we went into Limbe itself. We had roasted fish for lunch on the beach front (apparently compulsory whenever you come to Limbe). We then had a walk through the Botanical gardens, I've been there a few times now and the haven't lost their appeal, beautiful place, lovely atmosphere. we then proceeded to the Wildlife centre. Unlike previous visits, this time we were given a guide. Not really sure why, but he was very good, speaking knowledgeably and enthusiastically about the apes and the monkeys, with various stories of rescues from hunters and interesting insights into the social hierarchy and systems of different species.
We then returned home to Buea. In the evening dad and I had our planned whisky tasting exercise. The two-quid fighter 8 did indeed compare unfavourably to the Talisker (surprise surprise). Dad had also brought me a bottle of Bowmore, which I'd never tried, but he thought I'd like - and I do! I'd never thought I'd say this, but it's actually nicer than Talikser, mostly because it tastes more Talikser than Talikser (if that makes sense...)
There seemed little point in me keeping hold of a litre botte of the stuff though, in addition to the quarter-pint of Talikser which he'd also brought me, so I decided to present it the football club for communal consumption, I figured they'd like that.
In the morning, Dad came with to football, where I played averagely badly. Afterwards, we didn't go to Figaros as anticipated, but to Helms' house (who's wedding we went to), for some SUFA Wedding-related function. It was good fun, they acknowledged Dad, and made him honourary President of Foreign Affairs! We then presented them with the Bowmore, whch went down well. We left soon after, but I gather it was all drunk!
We left so that we could go see the local traditional wrestling, Mum skipped it on account of exhaustion (Hev had walked her up to see Tole Tea while we were at Helms'), but I think Dad liked it. Afterwards we picked mum up and went to see Sheila in her new house in Molyko. She's not been living with us for a month or so now, after her and Marceline fell out, so it was good to see her, and for Mum and Dad to get to meet her.
So a pretty full weekend program really, next stop: Korup National Park...
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