Democratic Republic of Congo: Lubumbashi to Kinshasa
- Thread starter RadioBaobab
- Start date
goodwoodweirdo
Adventurer
Quote:
Originally Posted by Frederik Willems
We sent our coordinates to the home front every 10 minutes or so.
Afterwards we heard that Frederik's mom and dad followed our progress on Google Earth in real time. The idea that somebody knew where we were was a relief to us.
This I can’t comprehend !!
:ylsmoke:
Originally Posted by Frederik Willems
We sent our coordinates to the home front every 10 minutes or so.
Afterwards we heard that Frederik's mom and dad followed our progress on Google Earth in real time. The idea that somebody knew where we were was a relief to us.
This I can’t comprehend !!
:ylsmoke:
RadioBaobab
Adventurer
We were pretty optimistic and hoped to reach Ilebo in two days. That meant that on the first day we had to make it to Pembeyangu, were we knew of a mission.
Bicycle tracks are not suited for Landcruisers... so we got stuck. The villages usually had the worst obstacles. In this one village there was a big boghole filled with water. We drove in but did not see the pigs that were taking a bath so we slowed down to give them the time to get out.
Big mistake. We were stuck. The water came to the bottom of the door. This particular mudpit had a bit of a funny smell. It was the favourite place of the pigs so it probably contained a fair amount of ********. It sure smelled like it. The entire village gathered round us while we got out, knee deep in ********.
They did not offer help.
We started clearing the wheels. Josephine hurt her foot on a stick, the pain could be seen on her face. The people thought this was extremely funny and burst out laughing. This was very humiliating for Josephine and I could see the anger on her face. We looked at eachother and understood that this was not the time to get angry or start discussions with 50 or so people. We continued to work. As I bend over to clear the mud from underneath the car my pants get wet up until my ehrm.. 'privates'.. . Once again this is the funniest thing these people have ever seen. Hilarity ensues. This was very humiliating to us.
Eventually they offered to help us if we pay them. I tell them that I do not have money. They did not move an inch.
It takes the best part of an hour to get us out. To their surprise we stop again and I get out and walk up to them. Very calmly I explain that we did not like it when they laughed at us. I asked them how they would react if they hurt themselves and we would laugh at them. The acknowledged that they would get mad at us.
I asked them if they would want us to help them if they had a problem. The acknowledged this. I said what they would think if we asked for money before we would help them. They called us racists and immediately demanded money from us.
I then saw a side of Josephine I hadn't seen before. She got very cross with words and gestures. I will not repeat what she said here... it wasn't pretty I must say 8O Much to the amusement of our adience.
To some of the people in the village our message must have gotten along, and they guided us around the next boghole.
Half an hour later we stopped to eat lunch. We were still shaking after the humiliation, we felt helpess.
We opened a can of Coke (still from Zambia) and a jar of pickled onions to eat with our bread.
Those 'horrible' people did not have a Coke, even if they had the money to buy it, it was not avaialble. They did not have pickled onions either. And between the two of us we ate as much bread as an entire family would eat for an entire day.
We tried putting things into perspective. Maybe we shouldn't be here after all?
That is not the same pit/people from the above anecdote, but it is very similar. We must have crossed 20 or so villages like this.
Bicycle tracks are not suited for Landcruisers... so we got stuck. The villages usually had the worst obstacles. In this one village there was a big boghole filled with water. We drove in but did not see the pigs that were taking a bath so we slowed down to give them the time to get out.
Big mistake. We were stuck. The water came to the bottom of the door. This particular mudpit had a bit of a funny smell. It was the favourite place of the pigs so it probably contained a fair amount of ********. It sure smelled like it. The entire village gathered round us while we got out, knee deep in ********.
They did not offer help.
We started clearing the wheels. Josephine hurt her foot on a stick, the pain could be seen on her face. The people thought this was extremely funny and burst out laughing. This was very humiliating for Josephine and I could see the anger on her face. We looked at eachother and understood that this was not the time to get angry or start discussions with 50 or so people. We continued to work. As I bend over to clear the mud from underneath the car my pants get wet up until my ehrm.. 'privates'.. . Once again this is the funniest thing these people have ever seen. Hilarity ensues. This was very humiliating to us.
Eventually they offered to help us if we pay them. I tell them that I do not have money. They did not move an inch.
It takes the best part of an hour to get us out. To their surprise we stop again and I get out and walk up to them. Very calmly I explain that we did not like it when they laughed at us. I asked them how they would react if they hurt themselves and we would laugh at them. The acknowledged that they would get mad at us.
I asked them if they would want us to help them if they had a problem. The acknowledged this. I said what they would think if we asked for money before we would help them. They called us racists and immediately demanded money from us.
I then saw a side of Josephine I hadn't seen before. She got very cross with words and gestures. I will not repeat what she said here... it wasn't pretty I must say 8O Much to the amusement of our adience.
To some of the people in the village our message must have gotten along, and they guided us around the next boghole.
Half an hour later we stopped to eat lunch. We were still shaking after the humiliation, we felt helpess.
We opened a can of Coke (still from Zambia) and a jar of pickled onions to eat with our bread.
Those 'horrible' people did not have a Coke, even if they had the money to buy it, it was not avaialble. They did not have pickled onions either. And between the two of us we ate as much bread as an entire family would eat for an entire day.
We tried putting things into perspective. Maybe we shouldn't be here after all?
That is not the same pit/people from the above anecdote, but it is very similar. We must have crossed 20 or so villages like this.
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RadioBaobab
Adventurer
The progress we hoped to be making today did not materialize..
This was the thoughest going we had thus far since we left Lubumbashi. While the road had always been difficult, the inbetween bits used to be ok. Those inbetween bits did no longer exist now. The erosian was pretty bad and we were creeping forward
Every obstacle meant a new dent or other damage
To make matters worse we drove straight into a tropical storm..
This was the thoughest going we had thus far since we left Lubumbashi. While the road had always been difficult, the inbetween bits used to be ok. Those inbetween bits did no longer exist now. The erosian was pretty bad and we were creeping forward
Every obstacle meant a new dent or other damage
To make matters worse we drove straight into a tropical storm..
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Overland Hadley
on a journey
This photo helps me understand the type of "road" you were navigating. It looks bad enough, but then there is a bloody tree growing in the middle!
All things considered and "treading lightly" out the window.... why not make a new path around some of these bogs?
Perspective indeed.
Perspective indeed.
RadioBaobab
Adventurer
RadioBaobab
Adventurer
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.
hahahaha
I am glad this is a completed adventure, so we know you got back safe in the end.
RadioBaobab
Adventurer
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...
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...
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RadioBaobab
Adventurer
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...
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
Adventurer
Progress after day 14. Kakenge
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RadioBaobab
Adventurer
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...
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...
Last edited by a moderator: