Democratic Republic of Congo: Lubumbashi to Kinshasa

[Wander]

Arghhhh! That you've made it this far without a mechanical is a miracle and a testiment to your driving and the 70 series Land Cruiser.

I hope you post the resolution of this problem soon or I woud be able to sleep tonight!

+ whatever the total is that this should be published.

 

[RadioBaobab]

All 6 flange bolts had sheared off and the axle had worked its way out. Diff oil was seeping out (and dust in).

This was not good.
This was not good at all!

We both sat down for a few minutes and stared at our rear axle. It was a sad sight. We are not superstitious at all, but maybe we shouldn't have been that positive? This was a scene out of a comic book. It is Donald Duck jumping on a bridge, shouting "look how strong this is". And in the next scene Donald Duck is seen falling in the water under the collapsing bridge.

A guy on a bicycle stops and looks at the axle. He utters a long "ai ai ai ai ai ai" (think "The Gods must be crazy"). This makes us laugh and we repeat his "ai ai ai ai ai". He couldn't have expressed our feelings better.
The bicycle guy says there is a village 500 meter further down the road. Tongue firmly in cheek I ask if there is a Toyota garage in that village. He gave me a crazy look. "Il n'y a pas de voiture ici!" - "There are no cars here!".

We have got to do something, so I get out my limited toolbox and start removing the rear propshaft and try to close the diff a bit.

With 4x4 engaged we still have a front wheel drive Landcruiser.

 

[trump]

Nice trail repair!

I can't get enough of this trip report. Very inspiring!

 

[DNTL740]

Very exciting reading material! I am glad you got to share this with us!

A few posts back you made a reference to Seventh Day Adventists, could you explain the nature of their work over there? what is it about their work over there that has the priests somewhat worried?

Again, thanks for sharing this wonderful experience!!!

 

[RadioBaobab]

We manage to drive to the village, sun is low on the horizon by now so we wisely decide to stop here. We need to think about our situation. The usual 100 man crowd quickly forms. People here are still annoyingly curious, but they do not seem to be as angry as we experienced so much in the first part of our trip. Maybe we just get used to it more. Or know better how to deal with the situation.

The chef du village assigns us a spot under a tree and we set up camp. Our morale is low, very low! It's been quite the day! First the hairy decent down to the Loange river, then the whole debacle to get the ferry across, and now with our broken rear axle.

We are exhausted.
We are dirty.
We are running low on water

We have barely enough water to cook some pasta, but not enough to freshen us up. When asked if they have some water for us, a guy called Patty responds cheerfully that their village is blessed as they have a fresh water source nearby. That sounds great, I ask if I can fill up one of our jerrycans. This is no problem, but he asks if it can wait until tomorrow. I push him a bit as we would really like to wash the mud from our faces and have enough to drink. He agrees to show me the source.

So of we go, armed with an empty jerrycan I follow Patty. Out of the village. Down a hill. Into a forest. This is a steep track! And muddy! I wish I put on my hiking boots for this, I was slipping around on my worn crocs. After a 10 minute walk downhill I start questioning Patty about this source, I thought it was nearby?!? "Ce n'est pas loin, presque là!" - "It's not far, we are almost there".
It is a very narrow track trough the bush. I walk trough spiderwebs a few time and mosquitoes are having a ball! Eventually we arrive at a murky source down in the valley. I am knackered! 30 minutes down. And now we have to go up again. With a full 20 liter jerrycan! I have to stop every 10 steps to catch my breath and eventually Patty asks me if he should carry the jerrycan. I swallow my pride and my politeness and quickly say "Yes! Please!". Patty is fit and strong and jogs up the hill. I have problems just keeping up with him.

We have a nice talk on the way up. A monologue really as I am out of breath all the time. He was a nurse and used to work in the first aid post of the village. He had been working for free for years as there was no budget to pay him. But now they ran out of budget for supplies too. The first aid post in the village had been closed last year. If people got ill here, they had to travel to Dibaya-Lubwe for even the most basic of things.

An hour and half after we left we returned to the car. I was broken. This 5km rough hike was too much for me know. I did not have the strength to do these kind of things. The women in the village do this twice a day!

Despite all the worries, I slept well that night!

Josephine on the other hand.. she did not sleep well. If at all! A combination of the poor food and the stress resulted in stumach problems... withthe side-effects that we are all familiar with. There was a toilet in the village. A hole in the ground with a hut on top of it. But it was all the way at the other end of the village. And as a bonus there was a huge hairy spider, right next to hole that refused to bodge.

Poor Josephine!

 

[RadioBaobab]

Progress afer our 22nd day on the road. 27th day since we entered DRC.

 

[RadioBaobab]

Last night we had tried sending a few SMS messages to our favourite mechanic at home (Hi Pascal! ? ). The GSM reception was an on-and-off affair and after a few hours of trying we managed to get a reply with a few suggestions we could try. That would be the first job of the day!

We had our spectators, but only 40 or 50, which is not all that much. Life in the village seemed to continue pretty much as normal. Women were grinding the manioc, kids were playing, men were talking in little groups.

Upon closer inspection we saw that the bolts on the flange were broken off, leaving all 6 holes filled with the remains of the bolts. We had hoped that we could replace some of the bolts with bolts from the front axle (a tip from Pascal). But there was no way that was going to work. We could weld the axle in place, but there was no welder in this village. That would also destroy the axle and the hub, something I did not fancy. After all, if we arrive in Kinshasa, we are still 15.000km from home!

The locals suggest we take our entire rear axle out and transport it (by bicycle) to Dibaya-lubwe. Fix it there and then transport it back and mount it again. That's how the Congolese would handle the situation. We had instant flash-backs to the truck that had been waiting for a year for its repaired engine. Rather not!

We could not fix this here. We had to go to Dibaya-Lubwe, the closest city. It's not that far, so we decided we would try to get there with front wheel drive only. We would take it slowly and carefully!

We tried sending an SMS home to let them know we broke down. But we had no reception at all. Most of the GSM towers here are generator powered and only run for a few hours a day (to hard/expensive to get supplies in.. and too few paying customers too I presume).

Our engine did not start. The batteries had not survived the ferry ordeal. We had to get a push to get the engine started. We scared the people with our insanely loud exhaust (broken off). Children followed our badly beaten truck. We were a miserable sight.

Even before we got back onto the track we got stuck. There was no obstacle. Just a bit of soft sand. We needed another push to get going again.

The road is nearly perfect. Nice and flat, a bit sandy. Yet still, we get stuck on a 10cm incline. That is ridiculous! With all the weight on our rear axle it acts as an anchor. The front wheels on the other hand are not that much loaded and battle to grip. A little bit too much throttle and they spin.

Out come the shovels again. For a 10cm hill! This is going to be a long, long day!

 

[RadioBaobab]

This went on for hour, after hour, after hour. We would get stuck at the most stupid of places. The front axle alone just could not handle the weight and bulk of our Landcruiser on these soft sandy roads. We had deflated the front tyres and inflated the rear tyres. It helped... but not much.

This was a particularely hot and humid day. We were feeling weak. Josephine hadn't slept all night. And my little hike from the last night took away a lot of what was left of my strength. I had skipped too many meals now, the adrenaline was barely enough to keep me going. To make matters worse we entered a forest again and the dreadful ruts reappeared.

This went well for only a very short time. We came to this enormous rut. It was uphill so we had to keep our momentum or our front wheels would start spinning.

Drive next to ruts, offcamber on the hill next to it?
Or drive straight into the rut, which would be very bumpy?

Normally I would have driven next to it. No big deal, it would be scary for a minute, but doable. Now with only one opertional axle I wasn't too sure. I hesitated too long. At the last moment I chose to drive next to the rut but it was too late. We slid sideways and our rear wheel fell into the rut. Our car leaned heavily. Our chassis was grounded. Both left wheels were in the air, the rear right wheel was hanging in the void of the rut. We only had one wheel on the ground now. The back of the car was balancing on the reare axle. We were on the verge of tipping over. There would be no sidewall to keep us upright here. If we go down, we will end up on our roof.

We get out and I got really angry! This is not the kind of obstacle were we would normally get stuck! I was angry at myself for not taking the safer route trough the rut. I was angry at Josephine for... I don't know why exactly. I was angry at everybody and everything! I was so frustrated!

Josephine is a hero in these situations and she managed to calm me down. We had no other choice but to keep going. This would be one hell of an operation to get the car level again.

We started digging to get some ground under the wheels and make a path to drive out of this.

By now we were dirty. We hadn't had a decent wash in weeks. The dirt was everywhere. It was noon and the sun had no remorse with us. We were sweating like pigs. All the dirt that had accumulated on our body now turned into mud from our own sweat. With every movement the dirt would grind a layer from our skin.

I stopped digging and got up. I was seeing stars in my eyes. I could feel the heat trough my hat. I looked at my muddy arms. I sank trough my legs onto my knees. I stayed like that for a few seconds. I wanted to get up. *poof* down I went on my back.

 

[sandalscout]

WOW! Thank you for sharing this, found this thread this morning and just got caught up (stupid work getting in the way!) This is intense reading!

 

[RMP&O]

I am curious....why push so hard? Did you have a time schedule to keep or had to be out of the country by a certain day? When pushed to the limits, tired, hungry and just plain worn out people often make mistakes and end up hurt or worse!

Why not just set up camp in the road or next to it? Take a day or so to recharge, eat some good meals, rest your weary muscles. I imagine danger is what may stop you from wanting to do this. But is it really that much more dangerous than under a tree in a village? If armed angry people want your stuff they will take it in the back of the mission or on the side of the road.

On thing is for sure....if I ever drive through the DRC I plan on having a winch and an onboard welder and some air powered tools! Oh and a solar trickle charger sounds like it could be very useful too!

 

[David Harris]

I am curious....why push so hard? Did you have a time schedule to keep or had to be out of the country by a certain day? When pushed to the limits, tired, hungry and just plain worn out people often make mistakes and end up hurt or worse!

Why not just set up camp in the road or next to it? Take a day or so to recharge, eat some good meals, rest your weary muscles. I imagine danger is what may stop you from wanting to do this. But is it really that much more dangerous than under a tree in a village? If armed angry people want your stuff they will take it in the back of the mission or on the side of the road.

On thing is for sure....if I ever drive through the DRC I plan on having a winch and an onboard welder and some air powered tools! Oh and a solar trickle charger sounds like it could be very useful too!

I agree. This is supposed to be fun, right? Got to come prepared to get yourself out if you have to as well. However, all the flange bolts shearing off is an unexpected failure. Are these naturally weak on LC's, or what? One other thing about a winch is that it can save your vehicle a lot of wear and tear. You can get a vehicle out with the shovels and jack, as you've proven, but the vehicle is going to take a lot more of a beating trying to recover it this way, in my opinion. Especially things like axles and gearboxes due to all the wheel spinning, etc. Don't get me wrong. I have nothing but admiration for the way you're handling the difficulties of this trip. You and Josephine have clearly got iron wills. Keep up the great report. It makes me want to have a go at the DRC myself. (Might use a bicycle though.)

 

[RadioBaobab]

I am curious....why push so hard?

Good question. I don't think we were pushing it too hard. We did have a few things in the back of our minds though.

- We only had a two month visa that started on the day we applied for it in Lusaka, Zambia. That meant we had less then three weeks left on that visa. That is a long time, but considering the progress we had made thus far, it did not give us all that much play. DRC is not the kind of country were you want to run into visa issues.

- We carried food for 30 days. This was our 22nd day so we were starting to run low on food. Most of the tasty stuff we had eaten by now. There was food around here. Foufou (manioc based dough balls) and if we payed to slaughter an animal, we would have meat too. But eating that food would increase the risk to get more stomach problems.

- As you could have seen in the report, we regularly stayed in the same place for a day (even after the first day already) just for the reason you mention. But a day with 100 people around with no privacy at all does not allow for much relaxation. Staying out in the bush we did not do for security reasons. The 'gangs' would get us, no matter what. But the opportunist would be controlled by the social control in a village.

- The more breaks you take, the longer 'the misery' takes. I prefer the short pain.

- At this very moment in the report we made a succesion of mistakes. We did not take a break before starting to dig. We got into this mess because of a driving error. It just happened...

 

[RadioBaobab]

I agree. This is supposed to be fun, right?

Yes and no. When we decided to do the Congo trip we knew it wouldn't all be sunshine and happiness. That is part of the travel experience.

It's a bit like people running marathons. Running 42km can be a painful experience, yet so many people do it for 'fun'.

But I will be the first to admit that we had gotten a bit more then we had bargained for in Congo!

all the flange bolts shearing off is an unexpected failure. Are these naturally weak on LC's, or what? One other thing about a winch is that it can save your vehicle a lot of wear and tear.

The sun/ring gears in the rear axle are the 'weak' part in the driveline as far as my knowledge goes. You are quite right in your second statement there, that is why I have a winch on my shopping list now ;-) But I'll get back to that later in the report

 

[shortbus4x4]

I am a mechanic for a living and am waiting eagerly to see how you got those busted bolts out. Even with the right tools in a full service shop it would be a bit of a chore getting them extracted.

 

[David Harris]

I am a mechanic for a living and am waiting eagerly to see how you got those busted bolts out. Even with the right tools in a full service shop it would be a bit of a chore getting them extracted.

I don't mean to clutter this thread up, but I was looking into this problem out of curiousity and I guess those bolts are only 8mm, so they commonly break on LC's. People drill them out and replace them with bigger bolts. Here's a link:

http://www.outerlimits4x4.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=40239&start=0