The best prospects for hiking in Cameroon are the northern area between the towns of Rumsiki and Mora and the eastern area around Bamenda. Mt Cameroon offers excellent rock climbing, an hour's drive west of Douala. There's also good climbing in Mindif, a park south of the northern town of Maroua, where few have succeeded in mastering a huge rock known as 'le Dent de Mindif'. There's good sunbathing and swimming at the beaches near the southern coastal town Kribi.

Cycling is a good way to travel in rural areas, and it's a great way to meet the locals. Soccer and basketball are immensely popular, and village pick-up games aren't hard to find, especially if you bring your own ball. Jogging is mainly an expat sport, and the notorious Hash House Harriers have been running around Cameroon for decades. Should you fall in with a Hash, be prepared for the heavy drinking that invariably follows every run. Yaoundé, Douala, Bamenda and Garoua all have Hash groups; ask around the expat community for the starting point of runs since they change each week.

After New Year's Day, the first major event of the year is the Mt Cameroon Race, held in late January. This 27km (17mi) race up and down the 3000m (10,000ft) mountain is Africa's toughest. The Muslim Feast of Ramadan, which changes dates from year to year, signals the end of a month of daily fasts and is celebrated all over Cameroon, most notably in Foumban, where horse races, processions and dances are part of the festivities. Muslims in northern and western Cameroon also celebrate Tabaski in February or March, when celebrations include a parade of marabouts (wise men and fortune-tellers). The country's major non-religious holiday is the Cameroon National Festival, held on 20 May. The best place to witness it is Maroua. Horses race through the streets of Kumbo, a town in western Cameroon, during Nso Cultural Week, held in mid-November.