Lac vert d'Akak

Why go

Un lieu à regarder, jamais pour se baigner : viens en groupe et reste loin du bord.

The story of the place

From the sky it looks like a crater: a wall of red and brown rock cut almost vertically and, at the very bottom, deep green water, in the middle of the houses of Akak I, on the outskirts of Yaoundé. It was not a volcano that dug this hole, it was people. A quarry took rubble stone out of it, the stone that is sold for building. When the rock had nothing more to give, the work stopped. Water filled the pit, and the quarry became a lake. So the “green lake of Akak” is not natural at all, and that is what makes it strange and beautiful: a landscape born of an abandoned work site, which many discovered through pictures filmed by drone. Sources: Mongabay (February 2023) for the story of the quarry.

How to get there

In Akak I, in Soa council area, about fifteen kilometres north of the centre of Yaoundé. The point on the map sits on the lake itself, about 800 metres south-east of the centre of Akak, as the open map draws it. The last metres are on foot: ask local people for “le lac vert” or “la carrière”.

Good to know

Entry and fees

This is an old work site, not a developed tourist site. Ask local people which way to go, and respect their answer.

Who to go with

Never alone. Come in a group, by day, and keep children close to you, away from the edge.

The best time

By day and in dry weather: after rain, the rock and the earth at the edge are slippery.

What to bring

This is a place to look at, not a place to swim. Never swim here, even if others do: the rock was cut straight down, the water is deep right from the edge and cold underneath, and a swim here can be fatal. Stay several metres back from the edge of the cliffs, which can crumble. Good shoes, water, a charged phone.

They were there

Practical

On the map

In our selections

• Lakes, waterfalls and mountains around Yaoundé