Located in the southwestern region about 80 km from Douala, Limbe was founded in 1857 and was name after Queen Victoria by Alfred Saker a British missionary. Limbe has approximately 100 000 inhabitants, a pleasant climate and consistent temperatures of between 25 and 30 °. Limbe has black sandy beaches due to Mount Cameroon which last erupted in 2000. You can swim, stroll and relax along the various beaches and because of the incredible waves here, surfing is a dream.
Limbe Botanical Garden
Located in the southwestern region, it was created by the Germans in 1892 and served as a study centre and acclimatization for plants species such as quinine, rubber, coffee, cocoa and banana. The goal was to feed local populations and other German colonies. It covers an area of 200 hectares and is now used exclusively for education, science and tourism.
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Limbé Wildlife Center
Limbe Wildlife Centre was established in 1993 as a cooperation project between the Cameroonian government and NGO’s Pandrillus Foundation with the aim to provide shelter to the primates of the region. The limbe wildlife Centre is today home to about 15 species of primates, including gorillas, chimpanzees, mandrills, several species of birds, reptiles, and most of these animals are released back into their original habitats. The Limbe Wildlife centre receives about 45,000 visitors a year, strengthening the importance of the development of environmental awareness to the population. A visit to the Limbe Wildlife Centre generates useful resources for the survival and the improvement of living conditions for animals.
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Korup National Park
Located in the Southwest region, Korup National Park was created in 1937 as a forest reserve and declared a National Park in 1986. It covers an area of 126,000 ha, the southern part of which is almost virgin. It is one of the oldest and richest tropical forests in Africa in terms of flora and fauna diversity. The park is 50 km north of the Bay of Biafra and shares a 15 km border with Cross River National Park in Nigeria. One of a kind for its diversity, it is considered one of the oldest tropical rainforests in the world. It survived the Ice Age and today looks like a museum over 60 million years old.
Vegetation
Korup National Park is one of the wettest and most isolated remains of the Atlantic Coast Forest. The park is generally considered a Pleistocene refuge. A semi-deciduous lowland forest marked by the dominance of large species of gregarious Caesalpiniaceae. Populated by many tall trees that give rise to new leafy cover every year, Korup National Park is dominated by a closed canopy plains forest with a high diversity of species. Species commonly found in the northern part of Korup National Park include: okoume (Coelocaryon preussii), framire (Terminalia ivorensis, palm (Elaeis guinensis), ilomba (Pycnanthus angolensis), Emien (Alstonia boonei), mapepe (Albizia zygia), African rubber (Funtumia africana), Dabena (Piptadeniastrum africanum), and Evoula (Vitex grandifolia).
Climate
Korup has a pseudo-equatorial climate with two seasons: a pronounced dry season from December to February with an average monthly precipitation of less than 100 mm and a prolonged and intense rainy season from May to October. The average annual precipitation is around 5,272 mm. The heaviest rains usually occur in August (some years exceeding 10,000 mm). The temperature varies throughout the year, with the average monthly maximum temperature during the dry season being 31.8 °C and during the rainy season 30.2 °C. The northern parts of the park receive much less rainfall. (2500–3000 mm).
Topography
Korup soils are generally coarse-grained, sandy, well-drained, and poor in nutrients. Their acidic character and low organic matter content make them unfavorable for subsistence agriculture and cash crop plantations, explaining the low levels of agricultural disturbance in the park, which remains essentially a primary forest. Most of the park (82%) is between 120 and 850 m above sea level. A dense network of streams drains the Korup region into three major river systems: the Korup and Akpassang rivers, the Ndian river, and the Bake-Munaya river. Most of the small streams inside the park are dry during the dry season.
Flora
The forests of Korup are ancient and rich in paleo-endemics. Having survived the dry period of the Pleistocene, the vegetation is dominated by Caesalpinioideae trees, a subfamily of legumes. There is no evidence of major historical human disturbance and the southern part of the park is likely primary forest. The National Park is very rich and has more than 1,100 species of trees, shrubs, herbs and lianas with high levels of endemism (about 30%). Large emergent trees, up to 50 m tall, puncture a mostly continuous but uneven canopy layer, consisting mainly of Annonaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Leguminosae, Olacaceae, Scytopetalaceae and Verbenaceae trees. The understory layer is quite dense with both lianas and small trees (dominated by Rubiaceae species), while the herbaceous layer (mainly Acanthaceae, Araceae, Commelinaceae, Graminae, Marantaceae, Rubiaceae and Zingiberaceae) is mostly sparse.
Fauna
Korup National Park is one of the richest forests in Africa in terms of wildlife diversity. The National Park has 161 species of mammals belonging to 33 families, several of which are threatened with extinction, such as the elephant (Loxodonta africana cyclotis), the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes), the drill (Mandrillus leucophaeus), the leopard (Panthera pardus leopardus), the buffalo and several species of antelope. The National Park is a site of major importance for the conservation of primates, it is home to a quarter of all primate species in Africa. There are also 410 species of birds belonging to 53 families (a popular destination for bird watching), 82 species of reptiles, 130 species of fish, 480 species of butterflies, 3 species of crocodiles, 55 species of bats, 55 species of snakes, 47 species of rodents, 89 species of frogs and toads, 15 species of lizards, 2 species of land turtles and 2 species of aquatic turtles.
Bimbia
On the shores of the Atlantic not far from Limbe, there is an old slave station found over thirty years ago in 1987, during a groundbreaking for the site of a new church dedicated to the memory of the missionary Alfred Saker. The site still bears indelible traces of the slave trade throughout the buildings where the slaves were kept. Padlocks, chains and other utensils used by the slavers were found on this site. In the 18th and the 19th centuries, thousands of slaves were taken from Africa to work the farm of the new colonies. Between 1776 and 1838 approximately 2,393 people, 42 % of those were children, were boarded at Bimbia and shipped out to North Carolina, Brazil, Guyana and Jamaica. The story is that around 2,078 reached their destinations. There is a cannon, that at that time, faced the sea and was pointed at Nicholls Island where slave where imprisoned not only to prevent unwanted ships from docking but also to discourage slaves on the island not to escape.
Other Tourist Attractions
In addition to Limbe and its surroundings, the Southwest region is full of many other important tourist sites such as Bakingili which is a wonderful resort in Idenau, located in Cameroon’s border with Nigeria. It’s a small regional port with beautiful beaches and lots of fishing canoes. Our guides will show you around this wonderful area and its interesting sights.
