“I can't carry the tickets Mr. Chris, but I can carry you!”

News arrived that Cameroon's Indomitable Lions would be playing their first competitive match at the new Chinese-built stadium in Limbe, so we decided to go check it out. The match was an African Cup of Nations qualifier against South Africa in the end of March.

The pidgin English says it all.

We made our way to Limbe the day before to buy tickets. By that time the cheap seats were full, so we picked up a pair of 10,000 CFA tickets from the Ministry of Sports and Youth Development (after it turned out the vendor at the City Hall was not in yet).

View of Mt. Cameroon from Down Beach, Limbe.

We then passed the ensuing time walking around Limbe, visiting the Botanical Gardens, and eating grilled fish at Down Beach enjoying views of Mt. Cameroon (which is frequently obscured by clouds).

"Temporally out of use:" the swing and jungle gym have seen better days.

The Botanical Gardens were enjoyably tranquil, if a bit dilapidated. They featured an "amenity" for children, a cemetery for World War II combatants, an amphitheatre, and many impressive trees. The toilets were quite nice too.

Amphitheatre at Limbe Botanical Gardens.

In a change of pace from our usual beach-based Limbe stays, we stayed at Park Hotel Miramare, which had a pool as its shoreline was rather rocky.

The most popular feature of the pool was the sole inner tube.

The main event arrived and we began to look into transport to the stadium. We rode a moto whose driver alternated between blaring his horn and blowing a trumpet for the entire 15-20 minute drive as he weaved through traffic and smacked the trunks/boots of cars that got to close to us. (By this time, many fans had abandoned their cars at the side of the road.) We only collided with one vehicle, but soon reached an impassable area and were forced to walk.

Approaching Limbe stadium.

While the stadium is mostly complete the access road, though graded, was not yet paved. We had anyway alighted by some of the slag heaps where materials had been stored and constructions vehicles parked. With the stadium set above us, the trek reminded me of the walk to Mordor as various spectators scampered up the hill.

The final clamber!

Upon arrival we crossed a river of plastic bottles, crashed a line (these were pleasantly orderly) then made our way through security and into the stadium. We had packed water and snacks, although this was unnecessary. There were of course no stadium-organized concessions, but their place was enthusiastically taken up by vendors hawking drinks, Congo meat, yogurt, meat brochettes, etc.

The stadium was in quite good condition, had ample bathrooms, and a good sound system (powered by generator since the lights were out). There were nice views to the north and south of the stadium, and a good-sized scoreboard (which used Microsoft Windows).

There were some difficulties when it was time to switch between the scoreboard and player lineups.

The match ended in a 2-2 draw (with one sensational or deplorable goal, depending on your rooting interests). The Cameroonian fans were a bit dissatisfied with the result, although the Indomitable Lions remain on course to qualify for the Cup of Nations.

Confirmation that the stadium was Chinese-built.

Gabon is hosting the tournament in January 2017, so hopefully we'll be able to make the short flight for a game or two. Cameroon, in turn, is hosting the women's edition this October/November so we have a lot of international football in our future.

View of Ambas Bay from the stadium.

The African Cup of Nations

For the last couple of weeks I've been watching the Cup of Nations in Ghana. Living with Ghanaian friends, I am in a fairly partisan crowd ("The Egyptians are cheats and thieves") but we usually give credit where it is due, and begrudgingly acknowledged that Ghana didn't look good. Still, there was lots of good offensive play in the tournament as a whole.


Here are a few observations from the tournament:

1) I was excited to see my friend and former drumming teacher Francis performing in the opening ceremonies. I looked but didn't find him during the post-final awards ceremony, perhaps because the victorious Egyptians had taken over the drums.

2) Ghana's Black Stars were to be put up in some nice digs - the Golden Tulip or a similar high class hotel. With demand for tournament accommodation rising, though, the hotel found higher-paying customers and the Black Stars were left without rooms.

3) During the tournament, the Confederation Africaine de Football (CAF) selected Didier Drogba of Cote d'Ivoire as the African Player of the Year, and summoned him to neighbouring Togo to collect his award. It was a strange decision, since all the players, many CAF officials, and international media were already in Ghana. Given that Cote d'Ivoire's base was in Takoradi, an eight hour journey from Lome, Drogba hoped to send someone to pick up the award on his behalf. CAF promptly announced that Drogba could not have the Ballon d'Or trophy, and Drogba said he had no interest in future CAF awards.

4) In the Cameroon-Ghana semifinal, a bizarre event took place in the match's dying minutes. With Cameroon up 1-0, the medics came onto the field to attend to an injured Indomitable Lion. While they were doing so, another Cameroon player ran over and shoved one of the medics to the ground, earning a red card (and missing the final). Nobody really knows why Andre Bikey lashed out, including his victim.

5) I like the tournament ball.



6) Finally, the closing ceremonies of the tournament (after Egypt's 1-0 win over Cameroon) featured some unfortunate medal errors. First, the ribbons on the medals were broken so the first few fell to the ground after they were put around the Cameroonians' necks. They handed out the rest. When the Egyptians came, CAF turned out to be one medal short, so the coach gave his to the goalie.