Democratic Republic of Congo: Lubumbashi to Kinshasa

[goodwoodweirdo]

Bloody hell, reads like an adventure novel... screw the spelling, we need the next installment !!!!…

I believe Frederik's personal website covers the bigger trip and the car ?

[taco2go]

Keep the ‘vibe’ going.

I’m sure the OJ editors could chime in, but the paper article can be more of an abridged travelogue including things like the route traveled, logisitical information, important contacts and resources that you are listing through your thread.

[RadioBaobab]

Day 13

This was the half way point and up until now we at least had minimal information on what was ahead of us. That would end here. The only thing we knew was that the bac (ferry) at Tshikapa was not working - confirmed here in Kananga - and that the road to Tshikipa was not only suspect for "coupeurs de route" but also in a horrible state (mud!).

The alternative was to go north from here to Ilebo were apparantly there was a ferry. And worst case we could try to put the car on a boat on the Congo river to Kinshasa. Nobody here in Kananga had gone all the way to Ilebo by car. Until about halfway there were some missions, but they were considered 'cut off' due to the state of the roads. Especially the last part of the road into Ilebo was said to be impossible.

But most of it was hearsay anyway. People don't travel much overland here.

We were halfway and it looked like what we just did was the easy part...

Yesterday's events had gotten us exhausted and we decided to stay for a day in the safetey of the procure. We tried to get some sleep and do some cleaning up in the car. I also had to tape/bolt various bits and pieces back to the car.



Staying at the procure also gave us the opportunity to meet some interesting people. They also had their own radio station. Because they had a huge antenna this was one of the most important radio stations in the area. For a lot of people the radio was their only means of information from the outside world. They were well equipped and the radio crew was young and extremely motivated.

They did an interview with us, but we asked them not to air the interview immediately but instead wait 4 days. If it would be aired immediately it would be a matter of minutes before the entire police force came for their "share". Also with yesterdays events in the back of our mind, we wanted to keep the aspect of surprise.

[Overland Hadley]

Regarding OLJ, how does one get an article in there? Not sure if this story is apropriate for publishing in magazines, I have no idea how to make this any shorter without it losing the 'vibe' it requires.

Jonathan Hanson, editor@overlandjournal.com

It could be a two part story. That might give you enough room.

But please keep posting here. I would read it again in OJ.

[RadioBaobab]

Day 14

Kananga looked like a beautiful - but rundown -city, but we did not really visit anything. At this point we just wanted to stay low profile and keep moving.

We set of direction Ilebo, not knowing what to expect. The roads has a bit of an erosion problem



On the above picture you can clearly see where our axle was touching the middelmanetjie.



This was all jolly good if both tracks erored equally. This was not always the case and we got into a habit of driving at some extreme angle. Often scraping the sidewalls.





How long ago was it that road was actually "up there" where the grass is.

[LaOutbackTrail]

Could it be that some of those roads were old rail road beds? It seems as if many of the "bridges" you crossed were constructed of train rails?

[RadioBaobab]

As said, traffic is always local. They somehow manage to get cars into larger towns and then drive it around town, but no trough traffic. So cities/towns/village that are not on a river or on the limited railroad network have very limited supplies.



Up to 600kg of goods are transported on these bicycles. They do not 'ride' them, but push them instead. You can see there is a stick connected to the bikes handlebars.

This is the major transport method in Congo. It is probably one of the most 'popular' (this does not seem like a good wordchoice) jobs. There are fixed routes and people often travel in groups. For security reasons but also to help eachother on the hills.

At regular intervals on the main "bicycle" tracks there are "service stations". This is usualy a small hut where one can eat a meal of fufu. They would also have a pump and some basic tools to fix flats.

We saw many of these overloaded bicycles before, but on this stretch of the road it seems to be the only means of transportation.

It must be very hard work to get these loads over the sometimes very rough roads. The 'drivers' are away from home for weeks on end and probably barely make any money out of it.

We never had problems with these guys, they were much to busy with their job.





This also meant we were no longer driving on real roads. But on bicycle tracks...

[RadioBaobab]

Could it be that some of those roads were old rail road beds? It seems as if many of the "bridges" you crossed were constructed of train rails?

Until now we mostly followed the Route National 1, which used to be a real road (dirt). Although some of the original parts probably no longer exists. Detours ar formed when the road gets impassible and sometimes the detours then become the main road. The only railway they even built here still exists and connects Kananga and Lubumbashi. I think train rails just made for a convenient building material. Many of the bridges have been fairly recently (20 years ago?) rebuilt by the missions.

So no, I do not think these road we rail road beds.

With regards to questions about our vehicle: fire away. Our website contains a fair amount of information on the car too: www.radiobaobab.be , then click on the UK flag (top right) for the English version and then choose "The car" in the menu. Our website is terribly outdated and due to get an update and revamp.

Our car is a simple affair compared to some of the rigs on this forum. But it worke very well for us.

[chet]

your car has proven that simple works! Unreal challenge you went through! Please keep the installments coming this is great!

[RusherRacing]

Amazing adventure and series of posts telling about your adventures.
Great read!!