Alternative Congo River crossing...

zeroland

Adventurer
Over the last couple of years the Brazzaville to Kinshasa border has become quite a popular option for overlanders. This is mainly due to Angola refusing multi-entry visas so the option of using Cabinda as a transit route gets ruled out.

The Brazzaville / Kinshasa border is notorious. It has to be the most chaotic crossing almost as bad as the Mauritania / Senegal border - if not worse.

As a result two of my friends, travelling in a Defender 110 opted to find an alternative route.
IMG_5655.jpg


It's worth reading if you are heading through the Congo's: Langebaan Sunset
 

TakDwn

New member
Thank you for a link :)

Any particular reason of "security person wit AK" ???

I was on a medical missions trip in Uganda just last February, and the locals explained that nothing is safe in Africa. It's not uncommon to find the local gas station and grocery stores with AK's and side arms. Different world over there.
I would love to go back and explore more of the country some day. Many good people, but far more bad.
 

gjackson

FRGS
Good stuff Martin. Do you know if they considered the bridge at Matadi? Didn't see a mention of it on the blog. Just wondering if they rejected that option for a specific reason.

cheers
 

zeroland

Adventurer
Graham,

I asked Nick the question - his response was as follows:

Road condition and we already got visa in Abuja Nigeria.

1) Angolan visas at Matadi are $100 each..... $30 each in Nigeria.

2) Road from Luvo eventually takes you to new tarmac all the way to Nzeto.
Matadi to Nzeto is a nightmare road!!

---
I spoke to Nick a few days ago - he mentioned that the visa in Abuja is valid for 5days only and has an entry time limit of 8weeks. This means its a huge rush South from Abuja into Angola so as not to miss the 8 week entry deadline.

6-7years ago, the road from Point Noire to Brazzaville was a no go area. It now seems that the Brazzaville / Kinshasa border is the preferred option.
 
Hi Folks

Thanks for kind comments

Guys with AKs / guns in Africa is pretty common and these guys were not security for us, they were at the "ferry terminal" and we think they were "army" The bullets in the clips were rusted..... it was mainly for show. If you want to see lots of guns Nigeria is probably the best place to go..... in one region they operate vigilantly style security / police force and wear vests with the word "vigilantly" written on them.

After a while, you become normalised to seeing guns and Pangas...... most kids have a Panga in West and Central Africa and walk to school with them. I guess as we never felt threatened on the trip (apart from a kid trying to rip us off at Rosso / Mauritania, we felt OK with scenes like the one posted above. To be honest, these guys were stuck in the middle of no where and we gave them a cup of rice and a few cigs.... they looked pretty bored and also amazed to see a couple of tourists taking this route. We were only the second car to go on this ferry in 6 months..... it was not exactly heavily used ;-)

We have just uploaded a whole load of U Tube films about the trip - check them out

Regards

Nick
 

Forum statistics

Threads
185,422
Messages
2,874,266
Members
224,707
Latest member
giobarra
Top