Where Beer Can Even Be Made of Millet

From Douala we literally run for the plane to Maroua and plunge straight into the lunar landscapes of northern Cameroon. On the road to Waza, groups of men armed with spears and arrows line the roadside, frantic horsemen galloping flat out; we think it must be some festival and stop, hoping to take a good photograph. Immediately they advise us to get back in the car and leave: we are in the middle of a tribal war, a cattle theft has ended with the killing of 2 young men and people are preparing to attack the neighbouring village held responsible. It looks like a film, but it is all damn well real, like the bodies of the two boys lying lifeless a few dozen metres from us.

Anyway, the journey continues Tourou Tourou is a small village on the border with Nigeria where every Thursday the region's inhabitants converge for the very lively weekly market, one of the most typical in northern Cameroon. Utterly unusual is the millet-beer section run by the Hidè women, recognisable by their distinctive headwear: a decorated half gourd.

Oudjilla A difficult and rugged track climbs to Oudjilla, known for one of the most curious and enormous "saré", the home of a Podoko head of family famous in the region thanks to a display of about fifty wives who have enriched him with a large offspring. Since each woman is entitled to four huts, built of stones and mud and covered by a conical straw roof, his family occupies an important area.

Waza The park was created in 1934 to protect giraffes and antelopes and is the most visited and best equipped in Cameroon. Its 170,000 hectares, populated by pachyderms, ungulates, birds and felines, are one of the most important attractions of the north of the country. It certainly cannot boast the richness of the East African reserves, especially during the rainy season, when the wildlife leaves the savannah. Here you have to search for the animals with your eyes among the grasses, surprise them near waterholes, glimpse them through the vegetation; you have to savour the pleasure of discovery, helped by a little luck, and sometimes settle for merely "sensing" their presence through tracks and other tangible signs. Dinner and overnight stay at the Campement de Waza, magnificently set on a hill overlooking the plain.