Democratic Republic of Congo: Lubumbashi to Kinshasa

RadioBaobab

Adventurer
kananga011.jpg


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I can see you thinking... what the * is that?

That were pretty much our thoughts too. We were still on the private roads of the farm. The alternative, the RN1, was really horrible, so whomever needed to pass trough here preferred to take the private roads, even if that meant paying a fee. But the farm wanted to prevent trucks from taking their roads, as they erode the sandy tracks and destroy them.

The road led trough a large marsh and spot in the middle they build that "thing". It was about 2,4meter high. Great way of preventing trucks from passing. But with our rooftop tent on we were about 2,6meter high.

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Tough luck...
 
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RadioBaobab

Adventurer
It was midday. The sun was particularely fierce today and we had little shade. Returning to the RN1 was not really an option for us. We checked out the area and driving around it was no option either.

We started by digging into the ground underneath the construction. It was well thought out as the base was a metal plate. We cleared the plate of all ground... another 5mm won :roll:

The tyres were let down to 0,5 bar but we were still too high. We opened the rooftoptent and removed the mattres, pillows, ... .

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The front cleared now, but the back of the car was still too high. We let out all of the remaining air out of tyres (0bar)... still no go :?

So I climbed on the roof and Josephine took the wheel. We counted to three and I jumped on the roof while Josephine moved forward for a few centimeter at a time. And counted to 3 again, etc... It scraped a bit, but it worked.

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Once we passed we got the compressor out to inflate the tyres again. I really did not want to damage the tyres here!

First tyre, Ok, switches the hose to the second tyre and then *poof* the compressor died. :tantrum:

These kind of things really eat at you. Patience is virtue, but when you are trying to move forward so desperately you really don't want a compressor to die!

Checked the fuse, checked cabling, checked overheat protection. Everything look allright?? This is the moment were you kick a tree (it hurts) out of frustration. We had three flat tyres and we only had two spares. We needed that compressor!

So in the midday heat I started to dismantle the compressor. The compressor was bolted on the roof, so I had to work on the roof... no shade there..
 
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FourByLand

Expedition Leader
Wow. It's like a rebirth of the Portal. Starting to feel like an adventure site again...

As others have stated I am hanging on to every word!

:drool:
 

goodwoodweirdo

Adventurer
Thanks for all the positive comments thus far!

Matt: nice to hear from you again. I will try not to forget to stop next time I pass Destelbergen. How is the troopy going? I saw you even made the frontpage of expo! ;-)




Hey mate, what a totally awesome write-up. Really get the feel of Africa…….

I know English is your 3rd language (puts to shame us “English speaking”!!) I especially love the little typo of biting your tongue and not “thong” :bike_rider: being underwear, or maybe that’s what you really meant :).

Well our news is still waiting for the papers from Brussels – then finally the “Keuring”, I guess another 2-3 months. Gambia is postponed for this year, so I recon Norway spring 2011 !!

I’ll drop you a mail and we should have dinner with the ladies, before the holidays..


Looking forward to the next installment !!! ... please ...
Cheers
Matt


:ylsmoke:
 

xpdishn

Adventurer
What an amazing journey made even more so by your writing. Can't wait for more. Your pictures and words keeps the heart rate up. GREAT GREAT GREAT:victory:
 
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jpvm

Explorer
Totally agree , wonderful adventure through a country many of us would never expected to see never. :Wow1:
 

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