Clinging tenaciously to the volcanic ridges of Mount Cameroon, high-perched Buea first came to prominence as the capital of German Kamerun in the early 20^th century. The town of today is still peppered with the dilapidating remnants of that period, rising up in age-stained neo-classical frontispieces between the tin-shack conglomerations and haphazard mountain homes of the city’s outer districts and sprawling market bazaars.

But despite this one’s curious backstory courtesy of the Kaiser and von Puttkamer, most travellers who make their way here today, do so in search of a Buea tour guide to take them up to the soaring heights of Muont Cameroon. One of Africa’s highest volcanoes, it rises above the city in a medley of otherworldly craters and protrusions, ringed with metamorphic lava flows and criss-crossed by some truly breath-taking hiking trails. Below, the resort town of Limbe beckons too—a place of volcanic beaches coloured with black sand, a stately green garden, and a sprawling wildlife park echoing with the calls of baboons and gorillas.