Hi again,

Well, I ended up taking the ferry. The rain was just too much- the closer I got to Mamfe, the more I was told about how much rain they had gotten and even that some of the Chinese construction teams had stopped working until the sites drained a bit. It still feels a bit like wimping out, but whatever- I done enough mud in the last month or so.

So, the ferry. It's supposed to leave on Tuesday and Friday at 10pm, but always leaves around midnight. it cost 26,000CFA, plus 15,000CFA for the bike and 10,000CFA to load the bike (total about $100USD and they were very busy, so I didn't have much wiggle room- if they aren't busy everything but the ticket will go down). There is no food or water, but in the morning they pass out some buns and some kind of hot milk-like drink. You can hang out on deck, except when crossing the border when the captain especially doesn't want the border patrol to see white faces since they might expect (more) bribes. Around 9am you arrive and really have to work at getting a decent price for unloading. The first offer I got was 30,000N (about $200USD). I got it down by just waiting- my bike was blocking the front of the boat and slowing down the unloading of a huge number of bananas, after some threats they eventually did it for 4,000N (about $25USD).

The loading and unloading of the bike was terrifying- both times I was sure it was going in the water. If the ferry isn't too full of cargo and the bike can go in the back then loading/unloading should much, much cheaper (7 guys unloaded my bike, where if it was in the back I could have ridden it off myself).

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DRad
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