Road to Nigeria/Cameroon border | Tourist Attraction

We did this route in January with 2x DR650’s: We started at the roundabout in nguroje at 8:30, making our way to the border with Cameroon. At 11:30 we arrived at Mayo Ndaga for a quick break. The road up until this point is rough, but doable on a motorbike. We arrived at the Nigerian border at 13:30. CDP stamped and exit stamp, all easy going. The 7km no mans land is extremely rough, lots of rocks and steep slopes, probably the most challenging part. Cameroon CDP also easy, immigration does not stamp passport and redirects you to baffousam. The next stage has some river crossings (all easy in dry season) and again very bad road, but manageable. Arrived in banyo at 4pm. We had a lot of fun on this day, and the scenery is magnificent. Just enjoy it!

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Rode this section beginning of November start of dry season. Track was challenging - mostly dry and a few mud sections. Did it on a KTM1290 and CRF250L Rally.
** Riders look for the single track moto sections along the trail to get around bad areas.

If you stage out of Guroji for early morning start you can complete total section to Banyo in 1 full day.
We started from Serta - took us 2 days to do Serta>Banyo.

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Drove from Banyo to Nigeria. Tough road for sure, high clearance and 4wd needed, however we only turned on 4wd maybe 3 times for a few mud puddles. Pulled out multiple other overlanders along the way however from different mud holes (I think 6 separate times) so don’t underestimate the mud in places; but we never got stuck or had a serious issue personally in our high clearance Land Cruiser.

It is a stunning scenery however, thought I was somewhere in Scotland or such, not Nigeria.

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DID IT IN MIDDLE OF RAIN SEASON IN 2WD YARIS!

Don’t let these other comments put you off. If you need to and want to do it you will do it.

You need….

A very reliable light 2wd car (front wheel drive)
Good driving skills
Determination
Modifications by local garages

I took my Yaris into the local garages listen on here in Calabar and had the car jacked up 15 cm. Then I had the front wheels upgraded from 14-15 inch and had brand new snow tyres fitted to them with nice big teeth.

With regards to the rain it’s not what everyone on here says about with season it’s simply about waiting a few hours after the rain stops and the rivers go down and the ground dries quickly. The Army taught me this while staying with them.

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Reading all the previous entries it seems like the challenges on this road to Banyo vary a lot depending on the weather and vehicles. We did this stretch during rainy season coming from Cameroon driving to Nigeria. It was raining every night and on the last day, which made the section Maya Ndaga - Nguroje very slippery and more challenging. The river-crossings in Cameroon which we were most worried about, on the other hand weren’t an issue at all. Some sections between the border and Banyo were very muddy, we had to pull a Toyota Landcruiser out of the mud, just after Banyo😆 We enjoyed this stretch a lot, mostly because it was sunny all day and the road dried up quickly. High ground clearance and 4x4 is a must. We agree, it’s a beautiful track but definitely more enjoyable when dry 😬 Good luck and have fun ☺️

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I took the road with good weather, but it started to rain and it became difficult. there are a couple of sections where when it rains it is better to stop and wait.

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We drove this road with an electric Skoda enyaq with all terrain tires, as it was the only border crossing that was open. We should not have taken te road, it was just too challenging. But in 3 days we made it!
If it had rained just a little bit more we would not have been able to, due to mud and high water. It is already slippery and with a bit more rain all grip would be gone.

The part from the water point on iOverlander to Mayo Ndaga is most challenging as well as from exiting Nigeria until halfway to Banyo. The other parts are challenging as well but doable.

The views are just amazing, but due to focusing on the road we could not always enjoy it as much unfortunately. With a good off-road vehicle I think this road can be very challenging one month later with more rain. But now for a good jeep it can also be a lot of fun maybe?

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We did this road without any problem at the beginning of the rainy season. Of course a 4x4 is necessary ! We were 5 vehicles : 3 Defenders, 1 Landcruiser and 1 VW T4 synchro - everyone managed to do this amazing track !
Landscapes are amazing and we met lovely people ! enjoy :)

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Did the piste in dry season. Not that difficult but some parts require some good 4x4 skills, low range and patience. Having a diff lock could be reassuring even if we didnt need it. It was a lot more rocky than we thought : u can deflate your tires a lot (1.5 bar for us). The first 35 km after Nguroje are the worst, it gets way better 25 km before Mayo Ndaga and until the border.
Cameroon side : we found it not as complicated as the other side. No problem. The rivers crossing would be the hard parts in wet, as the banks are steep AF.
In general, we wouldnt want to do that piste in wet season, would be very hard on the car... Locals told us it starts raining in february and gets very bad in march. Doable but hard.
We have to precise that big trucks (20T) take that road. If one of those gets stuck in the mud, you are stuck too. Good luck guys.

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Nguroje - Mayo Ndaga
Slippery muddy road with hillclimbs. The surface changes from hard packed clay with 0%grip that will let all bikers down as soon as you twist the throttle or turn. I fell countless times. And the other half is that sticky clay (that I actually prefered :) ) i had to take the low fender off to help to free my front wheel. You cant ride fast enough anyway to trough the mud in your face. A few locals that get stuck along the way even with defenders. But moast dont even try at the moment. All locals said its really hard right now

3rd day Mayo Ndaga - Banyo
Maybe 3 more clay hillclimbs but nothing harder than the day before. Boarder crossing easy but they refused me to give a entry stamp in Cameroon cause they said the boarder is officially closed trough covid and I will get the stamp in Jaunde.
In Cameroon road is still tricly and steep sometimes. I even saw a fresh burned 6x6 that fell on the side. The 3 river crossings are a joke if you made it that far. Banyo is a good place to lick your wounds, clean the breaks and get a simcard

4rth day Banyo - Tibati - Yoko
Banyo - Tibati hard slippery clay but no hillclimbs. 2wd Toyota corola take this road
Tibati - Yoko new paved and perfect. No traffic fast road

5th day Yoko - Ntui - Jaunde
From Yoko to Ntui no pavement and some parts are tricky. Some stuck Trucks and Corolas.
Ntui to Jaunde. Congratulation you made it

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No Guide required just follow the most beaten path to Mayo ndaga, then ask around for the turn. Did in a big rig 16 tonne, bridges 6-7 look dodgy but held our weight well, just pick your points when crossing. Great experience and people. Don't try the Gembu to Dorifi road in big rig as road to narrow.

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beautiful road in 4x4 done during dry season. ask to the locals : banyo or mayo ndaga and they will show you the way.we did without guide. we slept in mayo ndaga. from gurodji to banyo : 10hours going slowly and taking pictures ;-)

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I crossed on a heavy motorbike (BMW1250GSA) and was lucky with the weather. I found in the village a guy who was ready to guide me to the border on his bike. I paid 5000 Naira and had someone who helped to manage the hard sections. I started at 7:30 and arrived at 16:00 to Banyo. The last river crossing was doable, too.

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Beautiful road. Few hard sections of mud but this was in September so lot of rain had fallen. Think it would be a nice off-road to do dry. Not easy by any means but nearly 90% is hard gravel even in rainy season. The last of the three river crossings is soft sand so I would recommend deflating tyres for it if you have heavy bike like me (africa twin). Enjoy

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I cross the border with a motorbike Royal Enfield Himalayan. Nigerian part was wonderful, big sunny day and grass land . The Cameroun part, rain, thunder and mud, more complicated but friendly local people help me to pass. So 100km in one day ! Not so bad .

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Hasn’t rained for maybe 2 weeks, so no mud or problematic river crossings. Now track is heavily eroded in steeper sections—deep grooves, exposed rocks (maybe sometimes placed as road maintenance?) and bigger boulders (too tall except for the 6x6 delivery trucks in Nigeria), but there’s always a route around them. btw S to N for us

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Attention !!! This is the point where you have to start the road out of Nigeria and it's not necessary to go to the customs of Gembu! All the customs and immigration are in Kan-Iyaka, it's 87 km from here. It takes 8 hours to get there. Put all the little towns in your GPS and then you can't get lost. Don't used google maps or maps me, they don't have this road. We went to Gembu before and they told us there is no road directly to Banyo. The road has many faces, flat parts with nice views but also river crossings with deep muddy up's and down's.

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Deepest river crossing was at just below knee hight. Road on both sides starting to become difficult in the rain.

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Turn here to Wakili Buba - Mayo Ndaga - Lubatari - Kan-Iyaka border post. Then you proceed to Banyo.

In August road was challenging with a few water crossings. One in Cameroon was about 40+ cm deep.

Trip from Gembu to Banyo is a whole day trip if you start with Sunrise. There are mechanics in a village Mayo Ndaga if you break down.

Good luck!

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