Racing to the Heavens on Mount Cameroon
By Juliana Ndolo Mbua, Agnes Fonkeng and Ernest Molua
They came, they saw and they ran. Excruciating pain, intense heat and profuse sweat are the harvests in racing up the Chariot of the Gods. Teething through itching and biting cold, scrolling on black ash, swashing through elephant grass on the backdrop of singsongs from colorful birds, the Mount Cameroon Race of Hope is neither for the hopeless or the faint hearted. The ordeal that breathed life at 7.05 am on Sunday, February 18, 2007, in Buea, Cameroon, even the youngest of them all, 12 year old Festus Winkar was inspired to expire his heart beat in conquering West Africa’s tallest peak. Men and women, athletes of all shades endured the evils of the stony track, the threat from untamed wildlife and exhaled all the way to the peak at 4095 meters above sea level, on the chariot of the Gods, where heroes have their names engraved on live elephant tusks and their sweat and saliva watering the rainforest track.
History by 71 year old Atangana Messi as the oldest on the track received no mercy from the Gods of Mount Cameroon. Endurance, will power, determination and assiduity on the tracks determined the winners. The 12th edition separated the men from the boys and the girls from the women. The proud and the manly, the elegant and the beautiful in spirit. The hard-hearted that conquered the duel on the treacherous mountain, and whose names have been enshrined in the annals of history for the February 2007 edition include:
Men (single) (Omnisport Molyko Stadium to Summit)
1. Januarius Bongkimyuy (Prize Money: 3.000.000 FCFA)
2. Mbacham Eric (2.000.000 FCFA)
3. Godlove Gasibwi (1.000.000 FCFA)
Women Single
1. Catherine Ngwang (3.000.000 FCFA)
2. Priscilla Kinyuy (2.000.000 FCFA)
3. Linda Shella (1.000.000 FCFA)
Relay (Omnisport Molyko Stadium to Summit)
1. Northwest province team (Prize money: 1.500.000 FCFA)
2. Rwanda 1 (1.200.000 FCFA)
3. Centre province (900.000 FCFA)
Junior (Molyko Omnisport Molyko Stadium to Hut One)
Female:
1. Navtila Nadege Winkar (Prize money: 200.000 FCFA)
2. Kinyuy Nuyverse (150.000 FCFA)
3. Lissette (100.000 FCFA)
Male
1. Sanda Hamadou (Prize money: 200.000 FCFA)
2. Roger Giya (150.000 FCFA)
3. Ernest Bakari (100.000 FCFA)
Veteran Race (Omnisport Stadium Molyko to Upper Farms - Mid Forest)
1. Maurice Nkengfac (Prize money: 500.000 FCFA)
2. Solomon Mbani (participatory reward: 10.000 FCFA)
3. Solomon Nkana (participatory reward: 10.000 FCFA)
Walking Competition (Omnisport Stadium Molyko to Upper Farms)
Men:
1. Ousman Loka Nganje (Prize money: 500.000 FCFA)
2. Messi Atangana (participatory reward: 10.000 FCFA)
……..
Women:
1. Frida Enanga (Prize money: 500.000 FCFA)
2. Efeti Njie (participatory reward: 10.000 FCFA)
3. Marie Junaya Magdalene (participatory reward: 10.000 FCFA)
Taming the stony beast, money is not the ultimate call, not the sole determinant of success. The Chariot of the Gods remains supreme, standing tall, dwarfing aspirants and the hopeful. Will the gladiators of 2007 come back in 2008 for the ultimate endurance?
© The Entrepreneur Newspaper 2007. All Rights Reserved.
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Mount Cameroon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
© The Entrepreneur Newspaper 2007. All Rights Reserved.
==================
Mount Cameroon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mount Cameroon is an active volcano in Cameroon near the Gulf of Guinea. Mount Cameroon is also known as Cameroon Mountain or Fako (the name of the higher of its two peaks) or by its native name Mongo ma Ndemi ("Mountain of Greatness").
Location, Recent Eruptions.
The mountain is part of the area of volcanic activity known as the Cameroon Volcanic Line, which also includes Lake Nyos, the site of the 1986 Lake Nyos tragedy. The most recent eruptions occurred on March 28, 1999 and May 28, 2000.
Description and Travellers´ Accounts
Mount Cameroon is one of Africa´s largest volcanoes, rising to 4,040 metres (13,255 ft) above the coast of west Cameroon. It rises from the coast through tropical rainforest to a bare summit which is cold, windy, and occasionally brushed with snow. The massive steep-sided volcano of dominantly basaltic-to-trachybasaltic composition forms a volcanic horst constructed above a basement of Precambrian metamorphic rocks covered with Cretaceous to Quaternary sediments. More than 100 small cinder cones, often fissure-controlled parallel to the long axis of the massive 1,400 km³ (336 mi³) volcano, occur on the flanks and surrounding lowlands. A large satellitic peak, Etinde (also known as Little Mount Cameroon), is located on the southern flank near the coast. Mount Cameroon has the most frequent eruptions of any West African volcanoes.
The first written accounts of volcanic activity could be the one from the Carthaginian Hanno the Navigator, who might have observed the mountain in the 5th century BC. Moderate explosive and effusive eruptions have occurred throughout history from both summit and flank vents. A 1922 eruption on the southwestern flank produced a lava flow that reached the Atlantic coast, and a lava flow from a 1999 south-flank eruption stopped only 200 m (660 ft) from the sea, cutting the coastal highway.
The peak can be reached by hikers, while the annual Mount Cameroon Race of Hope scales the peak in around 4½ hours.
English explorer Mary Kingsley, one of the first Europeans to scale the mountain, recounts her expedition in her 1897 memoir Travels in West Africa.
