achampagne
Explorer
Subscribed!, I just read the whole report until now, just amazing!
Democratic Republic of Congo: Lubumbashi to Kinshasa
- Thread starter RadioBaobab
- Start date
RMP&O
Expedition Leader
I knew you had reasons just didn't know what they were! I did read you stayed here or there for a day or two but at this point in the trip report it really sounds like you are the end of your rope. You have gotten many of us on the edge of our seats so leaving us hanging and we (me) want to tell you something like....hey STOP, take a breath and sit down for awhile. You need food and rest!! That last cliff hanger just had me thinking....next up, one of you two gets hurt! You pretty much have done everything else up to this point....
Reading and following this trip report I think...geez that doesn't sound anything like fun. Yet, I do know (from my own limited travel) that pushing yourself to the limit and experiencing things you may never experience again (good or bad) is truely FUN!
DexGtr
Observer
K2ZJ
Explorer
Alright people, please hold all of you questions until the end.
If we can keep him moving on the story that would be great. By my count he spent almost an hour answering questions instead of telling us what happened after "*poof*"! The suspense is killing me!
Great report! Please continue soon!
If we can keep him moving on the story that would be great. By my count he spent almost an hour answering questions instead of telling us what happened after "*poof*"! The suspense is killing me!
Great report! Please continue soon!
David Harris
Expedition Leader
Yeah, but think about it, you also don't want it to be over too soon either. It's going to be a bummer when there aren't any new posts to look forward to!
RadioBaobab
Adventurer
I had hit a limit. This is exactly the kind of situation where I am at my best. Where I am able to keep my cool. Where I am able to remain optimistic. I have been able to keep my cool for over 3 weeks now. But I lost it here.
I had a heatstroke too.
This is where Josephine shines. This time she kept her cool. She put me in the shade and prepared me a dehyrdration drink (we have those instant solutions in our first aid kit). She found our very last piece of chocolate for me. She said the right words to me. Peptalk. Thanks to her I quickly came back to reality.
I wasn't very optimistic though. If somebody popped up here and offered to buy our car I wouldn't have hesitated. If we had the possibility to take a helicopter and fly out of here, I would have taken the opportunity. Both cases were very unlikely to happen!
While I recovered under a tree Josephine organised our recovery. She asked help from somebody that passed by. He wanted money ofcourse, we agreed to pay him.. but only afterwards. These guys are strong! It took him an hour of digging at an insane rate to make a more-or-less level path so we could drive the Landcruiser out of this situation. Driving us out of this one was one of the more hair-raising situations, we were playing with the laws of physics. The god of gravity had mercy and we made it out. This 4x4 work with a front wheel drive car is not easy!
We paid our helper, we paid him much more then we should have. He was angry and demanded more. We drove off.
We discussed our situation. Physically I was a wreck. Josephine was not feeling too fit either. We knew the 'road' was not that far from here, but we would not make it the way we were going now. We agreed we shouldn't get ourselves in a situation like the one we just had.
Take it easy. If we need help, we must organize it. We accepted the fact that this was going to cost us money. So be it.
The track went downhill from here. As soon as we hit the valley we could not get up a stupid little hill. The front wheels were spinning wildly.
Right!
We talked to the guys who were looking at our ridiculous attempts of climbing this ridiculous koppie. They gave us a friendly impression. We explained our situation, our broken diff, etc... We stressed the fact that we were not working for some corporation or NGO. We did not have the budgets these corporations have. We mentioned that we were willing to pay for help, but not much. It's not because we are mundeles that we would pay them insance amounts of money.
Our reasoning was that if they started a discussion at this point in time already, that they would cause us a lot of trouble later on. But they agreed. They wanted to help us and work at a 'normal' rate. We 'hired' three guys. Vita, Mufuta and 'papa' Bazil. They were overly optimistic and said we would reach Kapia that same evening!
Kapia is the village where this track joins the 'Belgian' road.
I had a heatstroke too.
This is where Josephine shines. This time she kept her cool. She put me in the shade and prepared me a dehyrdration drink (we have those instant solutions in our first aid kit). She found our very last piece of chocolate for me. She said the right words to me. Peptalk. Thanks to her I quickly came back to reality.
I wasn't very optimistic though. If somebody popped up here and offered to buy our car I wouldn't have hesitated. If we had the possibility to take a helicopter and fly out of here, I would have taken the opportunity. Both cases were very unlikely to happen!
While I recovered under a tree Josephine organised our recovery. She asked help from somebody that passed by. He wanted money ofcourse, we agreed to pay him.. but only afterwards. These guys are strong! It took him an hour of digging at an insane rate to make a more-or-less level path so we could drive the Landcruiser out of this situation. Driving us out of this one was one of the more hair-raising situations, we were playing with the laws of physics. The god of gravity had mercy and we made it out. This 4x4 work with a front wheel drive car is not easy!
We paid our helper, we paid him much more then we should have. He was angry and demanded more. We drove off.
We discussed our situation. Physically I was a wreck. Josephine was not feeling too fit either. We knew the 'road' was not that far from here, but we would not make it the way we were going now. We agreed we shouldn't get ourselves in a situation like the one we just had.
Take it easy. If we need help, we must organize it. We accepted the fact that this was going to cost us money. So be it.
The track went downhill from here. As soon as we hit the valley we could not get up a stupid little hill. The front wheels were spinning wildly.
Right!
We talked to the guys who were looking at our ridiculous attempts of climbing this ridiculous koppie. They gave us a friendly impression. We explained our situation, our broken diff, etc... We stressed the fact that we were not working for some corporation or NGO. We did not have the budgets these corporations have. We mentioned that we were willing to pay for help, but not much. It's not because we are mundeles that we would pay them insance amounts of money.
Our reasoning was that if they started a discussion at this point in time already, that they would cause us a lot of trouble later on. But they agreed. They wanted to help us and work at a 'normal' rate. We 'hired' three guys. Vita, Mufuta and 'papa' Bazil. They were overly optimistic and said we would reach Kapia that same evening!
Kapia is the village where this track joins the 'Belgian' road.
I know the heat stroke thing sucks.
I was unfortunate enough to have a heatstroke a couple years ago WHILE RIDING a motorcycle! Nearly passed out on the bike. I've lost some of my communication ability... I'm not as sharp as I used to be. But, of course I was in a situation where I couldnt immediately recover. I didnt have water or the electrolytes at hand and my wife was almost 45 minutes away... I left bike on the side of the road and slept all the way home.
Did you have any permanent effects from your situation?
I was unfortunate enough to have a heatstroke a couple years ago WHILE RIDING a motorcycle! Nearly passed out on the bike. I've lost some of my communication ability... I'm not as sharp as I used to be. But, of course I was in a situation where I couldnt immediately recover. I didnt have water or the electrolytes at hand and my wife was almost 45 minutes away... I left bike on the side of the road and slept all the way home.
Did you have any permanent effects from your situation?
GetOutThere
Adventurer
Long time lurker, just registered. Like others, I had to say thank you for sharing this incredible (sometimes crazy) adventure with us. Your story got me worked up enough that when you guys cracked an emergency beer, so did I.
Kudos and huge respect.
Kudos and huge respect.
TreeTopFlyer
Adventurer
Keep up the same pace, nice and slow. It makes the day go by easier by having a little here and there to read daily. People are going to go into withdrawal once we get to the end of this adventure. Gotta say I have never followed a thread with such anticipation. :ylsmoke:
DexGtr
Observer
this is the first thing i check when i get in the office in the morning ... :coffeedrink:
RadioBaobab
Adventurer
The main job of our 'crew' was to flatten the road as much as possible. And give us a push if we couldn't get over things. They would level the road, 50 meters at a time and then we would drive as far as we could, etc.. etc..
This was actually working rather well! My depression from earlier that day was already forgotten!
Imagine you are walking on the street, minding your own business. And some chap comes up and explains he has a problem. He asks you for help. You agree and travel with him to his destination. You have no idea who this guy is. You have no idea when you will go home again. You did not inform your family that you would probably not come home that night.
That is how we recruited Mufuta, Basil and Vita.
They were an energetic bunch and did their work with a lot of enthousiasm. Cheering and singing when we had gotten trough another 'obstacle'. They were proud of their task too, and explained it to all the people we passed. We often had a few extra helping hands.
L'office des routes from Congo actually owes us a lot of money as we were reconstructing the roads!
This was actually working rather well! My depression from earlier that day was already forgotten!
Imagine you are walking on the street, minding your own business. And some chap comes up and explains he has a problem. He asks you for help. You agree and travel with him to his destination. You have no idea who this guy is. You have no idea when you will go home again. You did not inform your family that you would probably not come home that night.
That is how we recruited Mufuta, Basil and Vita.
They were an energetic bunch and did their work with a lot of enthousiasm. Cheering and singing when we had gotten trough another 'obstacle'. They were proud of their task too, and explained it to all the people we passed. We often had a few extra helping hands.
L'office des routes from Congo actually owes us a lot of money as we were reconstructing the roads!
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RadioBaobab
Adventurer
After a few hours, the enthousiasm wore off from our crew. They too started to realize that this was very though and slow going. The road hadn't improved either. Especially Basil, who was already a bit older, was getting tired. By the time we reached a looong hill we were barely moving again.
The group of people that was following us grew larger and larger. But they were not helping with the digging. They occasionally helped with the pushing. This was partly because of Mufuta, Basil and Vita had told them they alone were allowed to help. This to secure their fee. At least, that is what we guessed... they talked Lingala to eachother. We had also told them upfront that we would pay for 3 guys, not an entire village! We are not quite sure how, but after a while other people started helping. Did our 'crew' tell them they would share their fee? Or did they just help because they wanted to?
I don't know... but we could really need the help. We were running in the last hours of daylight again.
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RadioBaobab
Adventurer
We had removed our spare wheels. This allowed more people to push.
The later it got, the more people arrived. And the louder everybody got. Our 'crew' had by now grown to 20 something strong guys. they only had 3 shovels, but they worked in teams. And as soon a piece of road was 'ready' they all gathered behind our Landcruiser and pushed. They sang working songs to give the pace. People were clapping in their hands. Every 5 meter we progressed was a reason to celebrate. People cheered and dansed.
The later it got, the more people arrived. And the louder everybody got. Our 'crew' had by now grown to 20 something strong guys. they only had 3 shovels, but they worked in teams. And as soon a piece of road was 'ready' they all gathered behind our Landcruiser and pushed. They sang working songs to give the pace. People were clapping in their hands. Every 5 meter we progressed was a reason to celebrate. People cheered and dansed.
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RadioBaobab
Adventurer
I cannot help myself from moving rythmically behind my keyboard whilst typing this when I think about the ambiance. You could see people going completely wild of excitement everytime we kicked up mud with our spinning tyres while slowly creeping forward. I could feel the trusts at the back of the car from the pushing people. This hill was steep and the ruts were bad. Most people helping us now were from the next village. They had a vision, they wanted to get us in their village for the night!
It was sometimes though, but they kept their - and our - spirits up.
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