Travel Guide Bafia

You can refuel in Bafia, a sleepy, long town. This crossroads town lies along the N4. Just before the Total station, turn right to enter the town. You'll find banks here, but there's no guarantee that the ATMs are working, or if they are, you're likely to face a serious queue, the hallmark of ATMs isolated for miles around.On the sloping main street, you'll find a number of small stores selling basic (or less urgent) necessities.At the top of the slope is a small market selling everything. Apart from the indispensable PMUC office and the New Palace hotel, there are no major sights in Bafia. On the outskirts of town, we come across a small hotel, the Fidji Hôtel, which is very small, but competitively priced and rarely visited. Comfort is basic. The village and the countryside are intimately linked. The houses, in fact, are not grouped together to form a village, but scattered. Zebus graze peacefully on the smallest patch of green. There's plenty to eat in the heart of Bafia, and the menu is no exception to the region's classic: kebabs and cassava sticks. Alternatively, as you leave town off the N4, numerous vendors cluster around the toll booth, selling peanuts, mangoes, lemons, pineapples and kola nuts. Transactions take place through the windows of the vehicles, and it's always impressive to witness the agility with which the vendors conduct their business while running at full stride to keep up with the passing cars. And in all this, not a coin is lost, not a peanut falls off. By the side of the road, cocoa, manioc and corn are drying in the sun. The cocoa has a distinctive aroma that's bound to catch your eye. After Bafia, continuing towards Bangangté, the terrain rises, with hills and mountains surrounding the road. The big, beautiful houses you see in the middle of nowhere belong to city dwellers who have succeeded enough in business to afford a pied-à-terre in the countryside. They spend very little time here, saving these homes for their old age.