Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
By bus, Touristique Express and Alliance Voyages are the best, with several buses daily
to Garoua (CFA3500, five hours) and Maroua (CFA6000, eight hours). Kawtal Voyages
operates a battered Garoua-Boulaï (CFA4000, 12 hours) service most days from the
gare
routière
by the Grande Mosquée. Think twice before attempting this during the rains.
Equally strenuous is the appalling road south to Foumban, run by Alliance Voyages
(CFA11,000, around 15 hours).
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Garoua
Garoua is a pleasant enough spot to spend the night or wait for a vehicle transfer, which is
the extent of most people's plans here. You may need to make a stopover if you're over-
landing into Chad; pay a visit to the
Chadian consulate
(
2227 3128)
for visas, a far better
place to get a visa than the embassy in Yaoundé.
Near the port,
Auberge Hiala Village
( 2227 2407; Rue Cicai; r CFA5000-8000; )
has decent
self-contained rooms, with a good bar and restaurant.
Super Restaurant
(Rte de Maroua; mains from
CFA1000)
is a breezy place, with decent food and juices.
Several bus agencies run daily to Maroua (CFA2500, 2½ hours), and N'Gaoundéré
(CFA3500, five hours), while
Camair.Co
flies to Yaoundé and Douala.
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Maroua
Red and brown streets of sand run like dry riverbeds between rounded beige buildings
while a cast of Fulani and Chadians in robes of sky blue, electric purple and blood red
populate the chaos. This is Maroua, Cameroon's northernmost major town and its best
base for exploring the extreme North Province, particularly the Mandara Mountains, as
well as a good place to plan border crossings into Nigeria and Chad.
