Democratic Republic of Congo: Lubumbashi to Kinshasa

[nat]

RadioBaobab-

What means did you two have to defend yourselves should the need have arisen?

[LaOutbackTrail]

All things considered and "treading lightly" out the window.... why not make a new path around some of these bogs?

Perspective indeed.

[RadioBaobab]

What means did you two have to defend yourselves should the need have arisen?

A sense of humour and patience.

And if that doesn't work, a quick pair of legs ;-)

[RadioBaobab]

All things considered and "treading lightly" out the window.... why not make a new path around some of these bogs?

That is what we did when possible. But we did not take pictures of that ;-) Often the jungle was to dense, or the ridges to steep to drive around obstacles. We tried to avoid obstacles as much as possible.

[nat]

A sense of humour and patience.

And if that doesn't work, a quick pair of legs ;-)

hahahaha

I am glad this is a completed adventure, so we know you got back safe in the end.

[RadioBaobab]

In a fast pace the clouds appeared out of nowhere, in a matter of minutes it became as dark as the night. Winds picked up and jungle forest made terrible noise. Thick drops started banging on our car. Slowly at first but exponentially growing in size and number. Lightning almost immediately followed by deafening thunder. The hard rain stirred the ground and released many smells.

God, I love those tropical storms! A little less today though, as the track we were driving on quickly became very mudy. The ruts filled with water and became streams. Visibility was down to nil as our windscreen wipers couldn't keep up.

This slowed us down even more. We slid and slide.. sideways more then forward.

We came to another village, refreshingly we had the road for us alone, as everybody had taken cover for the rain. The usual bogholes were present but we could drive around it... or could we?

What looked like a viable bypass was nothing more then a meter thick layer of soft and sticky mud on top of a puddle. Our landcruiser sunk in deep.

I got out and within seconds I was drenched, I could barely breath because of the water that ran down my face and into my mouth. This was useless I couldn't see a thing. We had to wait until the rain stopped.

Luckily those tropical storms go as quickyl as they come and after an half hour wait the downpour transformed in a little drizzle.

We have gotten ourselves properly stuck I must say. Up unto the axles. Out came the sandplates and the shovels and I started digging. The village too had noticed the rain had resided and quickly came to see what was going on.



No surprisingly nobody they offered their assistance, they even had some shovels. But they wanted money first. By now you probably think we are just stupidly stubborn and naive. We probably are, but we refused to give in to corruption. I once again told them they were free to help, but we would not give them money. So I continued to dig on my own with an entire village as an audience.



It took three more attempts to drive out before the village priest (7th day Adventist by the way) encouraged a few strong men to help. After a small discussion between the priest and the men they helped us eventually. We did not promise them anything. Good!

Almost two hours after we drove in we succesfully managed to back out. The priest then lead us trough his village (milimeterwork between the huts) around the bogholes.

We offered the priest a small fee for his spontaneous help. We were grateful. He was in trouble now as he had to split up the money between the helpers and we could see a discussion had started already.

Covered in mud we continued... the hope to get to Pembeyanga today has long vanished. Darkness was starting to fall...

[RadioBaobab]

We were a in a miserable state. We were both soaked and there was mud everywhere, exhausted and stirred by todays experiences. Hungry. And above all nervous as to where we would stop for the night. We passed a few villages, they looked very poor and rundown. On the GPS we saw we were nearing a somwhat larger settlement: Kakenge. In the dark we did another 5km (about an hour).

Kakenge was indeed a large settlement and our luck turned as not only was there a catholic mission, it was a nice catholic mission! A fenced of compound (2 meter high walls.. who were they trying to keep out?) with inside a beautiful garden and two simple but clean buildings. The only brick buildings in town. Four fathers lived here, all Congolese but most of them had studied abroad. One of the fathers, Frère Polydore, had lived in Rome for 8 years. He had the humour and the way of talking of an Italian, a funny guy. They let us camp, have a shower (bucket) and they even let us use their dining room in all peacefulness.

Just what we needed! Today we spent 15 hours on the road in our struggle forward. What a day...

They also gave us the news that the road to Ilebo would progressively get worse and even impassable...

[RadioBaobab]

Progress after day 14. Kakenge

[blazinid]

I'm really enjoying your story and can't imagine the poverty and hardship those people must endure.

I notice your bullbar seems to be winch ready. Do you not have a winch on the truck? Seems it would come in handy with all the bogs you get stuck in!

[RadioBaobab]

Day 15

We slept until late today and only got on the road at 9. Silently we hoped to reach Pembeyangu today although the road would have to better as yesterday.





The road was not better then yesterday.

Erosion became a real problem and we spent most of our time "underground"





And then we tipped over...