Mount Tingaling hike

I went for a beautiful hike in the chain of mountains that run east and north of Garoua, from around Pitoa to Gaschiga. The day was gorgeous, very clear, fairly cool, no harmattan. We aimed to hike up at one point, walk along the flat tops, and come down to go to Gaschiga. We made it up, walked along the top, could see Gaschiga, started to head down when it started getting dark, and somehow ended up getting turned around, heading down on the same path up. Unfortunately it wasn't until we were a good bit down we recognized it. So all the way back the way we came. After clammering through fields and gulleys for hours in the dark between the foot of the mountain and the nearest little village, we finally found the village. We went to the nearest house to ask for water, and as I was sitting in the dark, a woman came out and said "Elizabeth?" It turned out to be one of Jessie's homestay moms. How she recognized me in the dark I don't know, except perhaps that there's not an excess of white people around, especially not ones who would be wandering around en brousse in the dark. It was her nieces wedding, so she took me to see her, and we ate some good rice and sauce, before limping to the road to head back to Garoua. That serendipedous encounter made up slightly for the sadness of not getting to Gaschiga, but we'll attempt it again another day.