Democratic Republic of Congo: Lubumbashi to Kinshasa

[RadioBaobab]

We constantly had the company of Anton. People called him "Le fou" - "The village fool". He was no fool though. Apparantely he was a very intelligent guy who had studied. It could be told from his vocabulary. But he kept talking and talking and talking. Always in a very dramatic way, swinging with his stick and jumping around. He would sometimes drop dead on the floor and stay put for 10 minutes and then he would jump up shouting loud. The kids loved him and were scared of him at the same. Children would sometimes throw rocks at him.
He was truly very annoying (and he had an incredibly smelly breath) but I took a liking to him anyway. At least he was honest. He dared to talk to us. We appreciated that. But he was still very annoying.

We will never forget his words: "Les blanc, les noirs, les rouges, les jaunes, nous avons tous le même sang" - "The whites, the black, the red, the yellow, we all have the same blood"

Another guy comes to visit us "Venez avec moi. Police!" - "Come with me. Police!"

 

[RadioBaobab]

hi Frederik&Josephine,

riaan&stephanie

Hi Riaan & Stephanie! Good to hear from you again. I still remember when you asked me about the feasability of the Lubumbashi-Kinshasa track when you had problems getting your Angola visa. I didn't really know how to put my answer at the time, but I am sure you understand why I wasn't really recommending it ;-)

Are you driving back down?

Always welcome in Aalst for a beer!

 

[RadioBaobab]

Thanks everybody for the comments, we really appreciate all of them! Sorry if we do not reply to each and every message. I do my best to answer all your questions. Sometimes the answers are provided in one of the future installments.

I am a bit slow with the updates but I am insanely busy with other things at the moment. I still spend every spare minute of my time writing this report

Cheers!

 

[TheJosh]

By far the most captivating expedition report ive ever read!!!


i almost wish i came across this a few months from now so i dont have to wait in anticipation for any new posts like i am now!

:sombrero::sombrero::sombrero:

 

[INSAYN]

I am a bit slow with the updates but I am insanely busy with other things at the moment. I still spend every spare minute of my time writing this report

Cheers!

Take your time, we aren't going anywhere. You have us riveted. :drool:

 

[RadioBaobab]

Another guy comes to visit us "Venez avec moi. Police!" - "Come with me. Police!"
It's a guy wearing slippers and tatty clothes. We are not impressed and ask who he is?

"Chef de la police de Dibaya-lubwe"

We know where this is going to lead to so we tell him that everybody can claim they are police, does he have anything to prove his function? He hasn't. We tell him "au revoir" and ignore him. This annoys him tremendously. The look on the faces of the people around us tell us he was probably right and they can't believe we just turned our back to the chief of police! He leaves again. He was furious.

We befriend Monsieur Shinandi. He is an older man in a lovely old-fashioned suit. He is the school prefect of the area. A very clever and friendly man. He actually apologizes for the attitude of the people towards us, he tells us he is embarassed about the situation. He also ask us to try to understand how hopeless life is for people here. That is the reason they act this way. We do understand, but we also explain that is not the same as accepting it.

Mr. Shinandi accompanies Josephine to the town's market to make sure we get honest prices. It's nice to have some fresh food for a change. Eggs and tomatoes. Meat is available but it did not look very tasty so we skip it. Mr. Shinandi tells us a lot about the poor condition of the schooling system in Congo. There are almost no funds and the little funds there are dissapear before they reach their destination. Education is supposed to be free, but parents need to pay the teachers as the teachers are not being paid by the goverment. Most families can only afford to send a few of their children to school, not all of them. He was genuinely worried about the future of his country. Without education the new generation is lost. These youngstes are the future rulers of Congo, and the only thing they learned is corruption.
He also tells us about the abusive nature of many teachers, mostly in rural areas. Young girls are regularly forced to have sex with the teacher in return for good results. There are massive amount of child pregnancies. These children barely have enough to survive, let alone to raise children. Their parents send them to school with the hope of having chances on a better future, but instead their lives are ruined. They don't stand a chance.

Mr.Shinandi also takes me to a bank to exchange some US$ into Congolese Franc. Most things can be bought with dollars, but eggs or bread and small consumables are paid in CF. In the bank they cannot help us... they have no
money. :roll: We eventually end up at the farmers organisation. They provide micro-loans to farmers. They wanted us to go trough a mountain of - self-produced - paperwork first but eventually give up and change the money. At a horrible rate for us. It is strange how people try to give the impression that everything is organized. They try to give that impression by using as much paperworks as possible.

Walking around town with Mr. Shinandi is a pleasant and interesting experience. He is well respected here and because of that we are left alone.

When we return to the mission a man in a police uniform is waiting for us. It's an impressive uniform with several stars on the shoulders.

 

[jpvm]

and ..... ???

 

[RadioBaobab]

In front of us was the same guy that claimed he was "le chef de la police". He had dusted off his uniform. Looks like we made a little mistake there. We apologied for being so rude earlier and at the same time explained that we had so much problems with corrupt police before. He on his terms apologied for not being in uniform earlier and for his corrupt colleagues. This was actually a nice guy, he registered us and then chatted a bit. We probably shouldn't have been so rude earlier... but who knows how he would have acted then?

Despite having had nothing to do today, we had a busy day. It was with great joy that we heard a little motorbike approaching. We had not expected our mechanics back so quickly. They had found us two gears! They looked worn, but at least they had teeth. They did not come cheap, but it was not like we had a choice here. It was too late to start fitting them now. Tomorrow...

That evening we paid our daily visit to the mission of the sisters and went to bed early. We wondered when 'our wrowd' would get bored of us when they saw of us in our tent.

Day 30

Our mechanics started working from early in the morning to get the diff mounted again. This gave me plenty of time to think about what went wrong. Why did we break down?

The short answer is: we pushed it too much! But it is no surprise. It is more of a surprise on why this did not happen earlier. We had driven over 80.000km since we left Belgium. Trough Africa and Asia. Fully loaded (almost 4 tons) on some of the roughest roads in the world. We had quite a few things overhauled in Cairo and one thing I had noticed but did not change was a small chip out of the planetary gear. The same gear that was now completely stripped.

The whole ordeal with tipping over and sliding on our sides was not really benificiary for our driveline either. We would be spinning our wheels fast and they would all of a sudden gain full traction again. Repeatedly. This kills drivelines. If we would have been able to drive slowly trough here, this would have made a major difference. Yes a winch and lockers could (!) have saved us a lot of damage. But that is an aftertought. It would be the only 2000km's on our 100.000km trip were they would have come in handy. There is not a single landcruiser who drives around the interior of Congo without a winch by the way. I'd say this is exceptional damage on an exceptional road.
The front diff we just forced by trying to pull ourselves over the big hill. The brakes, batteries, bodywork... collateral damage.
Would another vehicle have done a better job? Maybe... probably not I would think but I honestly do not know. But the Landcruiser 75 is certainly the right choice of car for travelling here. It is the only car the NGO's and missions use. It is the best bet for finding spare parts.

We must have walked about 10 kilometers from where our car was stranded to the 'improved' road. So close!

The seal of diffhouse was badly damaged and could not be used again. The only thing that could be found was silicone sealant for bathroom tiles. That would have to do... we hope!
As soon as the diff is fitted again they wanted to pour the oil back in. This was the same new zambian oil we had already used, but now with hundres of little pieces of metal and a fair amount of dust. I did not want that in my axle! No problem according to our mechanics and they set out to buy oil in town. They came back with Monograde SAE-90 oil. In the fineprint it specifically said "not for use in motorized vehicles!". This was the best we could find and it was more expensive per liter then fully synthetic in Europe. We would use it and change it as soon as we found better oil.

We did a test ride and it worked ok now. We still had no drive on the front axle, but the road from here was supposed to be good enough not to need it.

Tomorrow we would try to get to Kikwit!

 

[RadioBaobab]

Day 31

We looked at our crowd when we got out of our tent. We certainly wouldn't miss them! We paid our dues to the mechanics and the housekeeper of the mission and set out to find Mr Shindani to say goodbye.

The mechanics, they didn't lie when they said it would a team. They might not have been real car mechanics, but combined they had all the knowledge required.

Very carefully we started our journey on the maintained dirt track to Kikwit, 270kilometer from here. We could not remember when we last covered such a distance in a day!

We passed trough Kapia, the village were had tried to make a phonecall. We stopped at the people we had met there earlier to thank them and give them an update on our situation. The sky was clear, so the phone reception was better now and everybody was making use of this to make their calls on the 'GSM hill'

 

[RadioBaobab]

The road was maintained by CTB. Belgian govermental aid. Like the 'mistery' roads we came across earlier, these roads are mostly handmade. The reasoning is to give as many people as possible an opportunity to have a job. But the CTB had been clever enough to use a few machines to compress the earth so the roads would not be destroyed instantly. At times it was still a bit rough, but compared to what have been trough it was truly heaven.

We stopped from time to time to check our rear axles. It was already leaking pretty badly. That kitchen silicone sealant does not really work. Our hearts skipped a beat when we got our front axle stuck on a middelmannetjie. This meant we had to 'force' ourselves out of there. I really did not want to break down here again. Stressfull moments!

We briefly stopped in Idiofa, a bustling town, to fill up on diesel. The fuel light had come on. The first time since we left Lubumbashi. The only diesel we found came out of a dirty bucket. We apologied to our Landcruiser and bought it anyway.

And then we saw something that we hadn't seen in weeks.

 

[K2ZJ]

And then we saw something that we hadn't seen in weeks.

White people!

 

[exploreFL]

I have to say that, like many of you I have been on the edge of my seat waiting for updated posts and what the next turn will bring! This is truly an expedition of a life time. I can't wait to plan mine in the future!

 

[valeriano]

Man, this is quite intense.
I've been reading this thread for quite a while, and I must say this is killing me! lol
I wonder if I would be able to do something like that with my Bandeirante (same as a BJ45). The thing that worries me the most are the spare parts.
Well, as we don't have 75's here in Brazil, I would have to make some miracle.

 

[sojourner]

Czech's in LC

Another Congo trip in August, although not nearly as entertaining!

http://translate.googleusercontent....&twu=1&usg=ALkJrhj2NUwHYk_F0mCYq1MdLKgKhHpF4w

 

[RadioBaobab]

I must admit I don't like asphalt. I enjoy driving on dirt roads. Josephine does not always agree with me regarding that matter. But this time I was properply pleased to see this. It would take the stress out of our rear axle. And it was good to know that our 4th and 5th gear were still there! ;-)

The road is Chinese made. You can recognize the chinese from a distance by the big straw hats they wear. Everywhere in Congo people, especially kids, would shout "Chinois" (Chinese in French) to us. For many Congolese everybody who is not black is "Chinois". That is due to the large community of Chinese living in Congo.

The relationship between China and Congo is worrying to say the least. I will not bore you to death with the details, but if you are interested, do a google search on the deals regarding the mining concessions and you will find plenty to read.
In short: China has lend Congo many billions for rebuilding their infrastructure. Almost all infrastructure works are then outsourced to.. Chinese companies. The chinese companies bring their own - underpaid - workforce and provide little to no employment to the local population. In return for the loan China gets huge mining concessions. Astronomical 'signature fees' were appointed to the officials who signed the contracts ofcourse. The whole deal is immensly beneficial for the Chinese, but the question is what is in it for the Congolese?
And what happens when the 5 billion is spent? They'll have a few nice roads and bridges. But what about maintenance of this infrastructure?

After a few police checks (no more talks about the permit here... ) we arrive din Kikwit. So many people on the street! Such a big city! We got lost a few times but eventually arrived in the mission of the Frère Oblats (Oblates). A very energetic Congolese, Frère Jean-Marie welcomes us. We had also hoped to meet Frère Léon, a belgian missionary, but unfortunately he was in Kinshasa. The mission has Internet access (via satelite, only a few hours a day) and a guest house where we set up our camp.

When the darkness fell it was striking how little light we could see in this big city. Kikwit has an estimated population in excess of 300.000 people. But there is no electricity. The rich can afford to run a generator for a few hours a day, the rest has to make do with candles, oil lamps or nothing at all.