Chutes de la Métché

Chutes de la Métché sits about 30 km north-west of Bafoussam on the N6, where the Metchié-Choumi river drops around 40 m through a rock amphitheatre on the boundary between the Menoua, Bamboutos and Mifi divisions. The walk to the falls is short — a marked path down from the roadside car park, fifteen to twenty minutes each way — which makes this one of the easiest worthwhile stops in the Western Highlands.

The site carries weight beyond the waterfall itself. During the independence struggle of the 1950s and 60s, Métché was used as a site of execution, and it remains a place of pilgrimage and purification for people from the surrounding communities today — visitors will often see offerings of salt, coins and palm oil left at the site. This is not a folkloric detail to photograph past; ask locally before treating the site as a simple scenic stop, and follow the same courtesies you would at any place of memory.

Because it is short, easy and close to Bafoussam, this pairs naturally with a Bamboutos ridge trip or as a half-day out from the city on its own. The path is wet and can be slick on the final descent to the viewing point; sensible footwear matters more than the distance suggests.