Burning Fish 2007

Over the weekend we went to a small beach party in Limbe. It was with a few of our fellow volunteers from Buea and around, to help the American contingent celebrate their spring break. We had a great time, there was burning (both skin and fire (not our skin though)), there was swimming, there was beer and palm wine, there was fish and there was sun - what more do you need? T-shirts - we even had them.

We stayed over two nights camping in tents, lit a fire each night and the workers of the park rosted fish for us. As volunteers in Africa we had to be very resourceful as there were not enough cups, so as you can see from the photo me an Hannah (from England, met her last week) are enjoying our palm wine out of two half's of a water bottle. Palm wine comes from the palm tree, here in Buea we drink the bottom wine, this means the tree is felled and the wine runs from the bottom of the tree, in other areas they drink the up wine, meaning the wine is tapped from the top of the tree meaning you do not need to chop it down unlike the wasteful South Westerners. Palm wine has quite a low alcoholic content so is great for sipping by the sea on a sunny afternoon, it is also pretty cheap we bought 5 litres for 500 francs (50p). If you are so inclined (which I was not) you can top up your palm wine with some fofo to give it an extra kick. Fofo is the local fire water - high in alcohol low in taste. Bill can tell you more about palm wine, or mutango as it is in pidgin.


Sleeping the in the tents was pretty hot and humid but a nice bath in the warm Atlantic soon freshened us up before we went in search of breakfast. However the second night there was a tropical storm, the rain was heavy the lighting was bright and the tents turned out to not be water proof. End result of being very wet, the orange colour of my sleeping bag staining a whole bunch of my cloths and not much sleep. I chose not to be in the crazy group outside watching the storm and shook like a hamster in my sleeping bag.

In the morning most went straight home as too wet and tired to contemplate another day on the beach but Joe and I decided to stay, the weather had improved slightly and the sea was so inviting so we spend the day relaxing on the beach.