Ngaoundaba Crater Lake Loop
Rolling Adamawa plateau walking to a forested crater lake south of Ngaoundéré — cool, green, and almost empty of other hikers.
- Distance
- 11 kmround trip
- Time needed
- 4 h 30moderately fit hiker
- Total ascent
- 290 mto 1,240 m
- Difficulty
- ModerateHalf to full day with real climbing. Needs basic fitness.
About this hike
The Adamawa plateau sits at around 1,100 m and is the most temperate part of Cameroon — green, rolling, dotted with crater lakes, and mercifully free of both the coast's humidity and the Far North's heat. Ngaoundaba, about 35 km south of Ngaoundéré, has one of the best of those lakes: a deep crater ringed with gallery forest.
The loop walks from the ranch area out across grassland and gallery forest to the crater, around as much of the rim as the vegetation allows, and back. It is around 11 km with modest climbing, and the pleasure of it is the plateau itself — big skies, Fulani cattle, kites overhead, and cool mornings that make walking easy in a way most of the country does not.
Ngaoundéré is the northern terminus of the Douala–Ngaoundéré railway, which makes this an unusually easy trailhead to reach without a car. The dry season from November to March gives firm ground and clear views; the rains turn the black cotton soil into something that swallows boots.
Route and waypoints
Drawn from the standard route. Waypoints are numbered in walking order — tap a pin for what to expect there.
More in Adamawa
Other trails in the same region, so you can build a trip rather than a day.
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