Bafoussam

Bafoussam is the main town of the western highlands, fifteen hundred metres up in a landscape of volcanic hills, coffee slopes and dense villages. The reason to stop is the chefferies, the compounds of the Bamiléké chiefs that surround it, where a gateway of carved posts opens onto a courtyard and a conical thatched roof rises over the assembly house. Bandjoun has the best known of them together with a museum of masks and beaded thrones. Bamendjou, Bafou and Baham are within an hour. The Sunday markets of the plateau sell arabica, palm wine and cloth. The road onward to Foumban crosses the Noun river into the Bamoun kingdom.