Cameroon: Bobende Black Sand Beach

Limbe is famous for its stunning black sand beaches (lava sands from the Mt Cameroon eruptions, the mountain towering only a few dozen miles inland). The best stretch of beach is perhaps in the Limbe suburb of Bobende, where the crescent of beautiful black and dark brown sand faces the open Atlantic Ocean (with oil platforms towering in far distance). While pretty and scenic, it’s still quite dirty with trash coming both from inland and washed out by the ocean, a problem pretty much anywhere along the African Atlantic coast. Excessive use of plastics with zero recycling or trash collection is a real problem in Africa – most people treat their country as a trash can throwing stuff out pretty much anywhere.