15 PLACES VISITED: GABON: 1) Bitam, 2) Kango, 3) Libreville, 4) Ntoum, 5) Lambarene (Albert Schweitzer Site), 6) Ndende, 7) Daloussi. CONGO: 1) Ngongo, 2) Nyanga, 3) Kibangou, 4) Dolisie (Loubomo), 5) Pointe Noire, 6) Brazzaville. DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO (DRC): 1) Kinshasa, 2) Matadi.
15 OVERNIGHTS: GABON: 1) Minibus “Bitam Express”, 2-3) “Hotel Hibiscus” Libreville, 4) “L’Hotel Vert”, Ndende. CONGO: 1) “Hotel Gabriella” Dolisie (Elev 337m), 2-3) Hotel “Sueco” Pointe Noire, 4-5) “Residence Saint Jacques Hotel” Brazzaville (Elev 313m). DRC: 1-4) “HG Hotel” Kinshasa (Elev 360m), 5-6) "Auberge Aux Delices” Matadi (Elev 250m).
2 UNIQUE WILDLIFE: GABON: 1) Yellow Neck Pelican, 2) Spotted Rain-deer.
BLOG POST TRAILER: This post covers my third solo trip away from the truck with Yuki, Riza and Roberto to visit three capital cities in three countries: Libreville of GABON, Brazzaville of CONGO and Kinshasa of DRC over 16 days. What these three countries share in common is their obsession with police checks! The cops rule here. Real ones and fake ones, unashamedly looking for ways to extract money from both locals and tourists.
The milestone in this post is my FOURTH calendar month away from home. Unbelievable - almost half way!
GABON (Pop 1.5m) is obsessed with police checks. It is a pandemic! So much so that they can be found every one-two kilometres after the CAMEROON border on the way to Libreville (Pop 578,000) the capital and largest city of GABON. Do not catch an overnight van because you will NOT sleep. The other stand-out is the strict use of French to the point where locals behave like the French themselves - if you make no attempt to speak in French they snub you!
Our journey to Libreville was very uncomfortable. It took 13.5hrs in a minibus leaving Bitam at 6pm and arriving into Libreville at 7:30am. The police checks kill you - no chance of sleep. Also I rode in the front but on top of a hot engine with no aircon - seated most of night. Libreville was a welcome surprise. Downtown is very un-African. Well planned with many architect-designed government ministry buildings, a Presidential Palace that looks like a Las Vegas Casino and a very well-kept Atlantic promenade. Libreville held a big expo back in 2013 and that area is now being redeveloped. The burbs however are very African. Mad roads, shacks, overcrowded, polluted with street stalls everywhere. We cabbed and walked the city visiting the Mount Bouet Markets, Museum of Arts & Tradition, The Port and a sculpture near the airport. I enjoyed some grilled local fish and yams.
From Libreville we travelled to Ndende, 50km before the border with CONGO. We did this trip in two private cars that we negotiated ourselves. The first took us some 3hrs to Lambarene (Pop 50,000) and on the way we crossed the Earth’s EQUATOR with a large sign and actual painted line on the road marking the spot. Lambarene is a nice lakeside town with small centre, where I visited the original clinic and home of Dr Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965), a French-German theologian, organist, philosopher and physician who dedicated his life to the preservation and respect of life and lived it by treating many diseases in Africa, most notably leprosy, earning him the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize. It was a large compound, still administered by his trust and sporting a modern hospital and dental clinic. The doctor’s home and clinic are now museums and there are pelicans and deer running around - animals he loved.
His grave is also next to the clinic museum. Roberto negotiated a second car from Lambarene to Ndende which took 7hrs. The scenery was terrific - rainforest surrounded by distant hills and very humid. Once in Ndende, we depended on our driver to take us to hotels since this place was not in Lonely Planet or online. We arrived late and where lucky to find a room in what looked like a truck stop. No electricity but it did have a running water shower in the room. Very very basic stuff. This was part of our solo experience.
The next day would be the best and worst of my experience of Africa. I negotiated to get us over the border into CONGO in a beat-up old Toyota ute with 7 other Africans squeezed in the cab and tray. I sat next to a big mamma and her baby with Riza on the other side. In front was the husband and son. Yuki and Roberto rode on the roof and the other 5 locals in the tray sitting on the luggage and food supplies.
The ute broke down twice and we lost 90min. Once with a bad filter and twice with an exploded tyre. The dirt road was crap with mud holes and ridges everywhere. Most of the GABON exit border checks were in Ndende and reasonably smooth to pass. The GABON side in Ngongo was terrible. Slow and corrupt. The police asked us for money. I played the usual card - we have no money. We had some and did need to change money but I knew there were no money changers in Ndongo, a one horse village in the middle of nowhere. The policeman even offered us a discount - proves this is just corruption! Eventually he let us go with no money passing hands. Experiencing border crossings first hand was sobering and essential for Africa.
The worst ride car trip of my life happened from Ndongo at the border to Dalasie, only 250km away but took 7.5hrs in a grossly overcrowded and under ventilated car over the worst road I have seen. Riza, Yuki, Roberto and I were in the back seat of a 1990 Toyota Corolla with two gown men in the front seat. The back windows were closed and could not be opened and there were two gas cylinders and a ton of luggage in the back with the boot lid tied upright! It was a nightmare.
We left Ngongo at 2:30pm and got to Dalasie at 10pm with several police checks under our belt. One of them asked for money and we explained we had no money - it worked again. By half time, most of us had heat stroke, even with regular stops. I was covered in sweat and dust from the road and had a splitting headache.
To add insult to injury the motel that we just drove up to had no running water so it was another bucket and cup shower! Not nice when you are exhausted and also have to wash your clothes that night so that they could dry overnight for the ongoing journey the next day. For this reason Riza and Roberto gave up and decided to stay the next day at Dolisie and then head to the capital, Brazzaville.
Yuki and I stuck to the original plan and travelled to Pointe Noire, 160km away on the Atlantic coast, the next day in yet another over-crowded car. The concept of negotiating private cars is good for travel in difficult or isolated locations but the overcrowding is the pits. Yuki and I made it in 3hrs and the hotel in Lonely Planet was great - we got a room with aircon and private facilities for only $AUD50.
Pointe Noire (Pop 2m) is ugly and spread out but saved only by its beach and fancy coastline promenade. We stayed two nights and headed straight of the beach on our arrival. The water is warm but very rough - lots of swell, waves coming from multi-directions and breaking too close to shore. There are tables and chairs and umbrellas set up on the and were you can enjoy grilled seafood and beers.
We spent the next day exploring the city centre and participated in a parade with hundreds of brightly dressed women celebrating “International Womens Day” with heaps of dancing and singing in the streets.
I will also never forget Pointe Noire as the place that I encountered the police two times! The first time was our first night when the taxi driver asked for more money than we had negotiated and over a very small distance. It had happened to us before and I had enough - I asked him to take us to the police and the sergeant there found in my favour.
The second time the next day was ugly but very sobering. I took some photos of the local train station without realising that there was a police station behind me some distance away. One of the officers came out and asked me to come inside. I thought it was just routine check. The sergeant in charge turned out to be a corrupt madman. I knew not to take any photos of police stations or government buildings so even after showing him my photos (which he accepted as OK) he claimed that I needed a permit and asked me for $AUD90. When I showed him the $AUD25 I had on me he went bananas and threatened to throw me in the can, which was right there next to me with people inside telling me that I should pay!!! Why me? Yuki took photos of the railway station but they did not see him - they saw me! Rotten bloody luck! I managed to convince a younger officer to talk to his boss and finally he asked me to apologise and hand over what I had - I did it and we were out of there. My first African bribe. Not bad for 4mths but I did have the shits - this cop as corrupt and I there was nothing I could do about it. How was CONGO ever going to embrace tourism with behaviour like this? From the police too!!! I was not going to let this spoil my great stay in Pointe Noire but two police encounters in two days was enough for now!
The next day it was off to Brazzaville (Pop 1.7m), the capital of CONGO and some 600km away across the country. This time it was in a huge, luxury Mercedes Benz bus! It was empty. No overcrowding. No bad BO. The prefect place to blog and process clips and photos. The time just flew by.
Brazza, as it is known turned out to be our favourite on this solo expedition. Small, relaxed and the people are calm and friendly. The city centre is compact and easily covered on foot. The most interesting place was definitely the Mausoleum of Pierre Savorgnan De Brazza (1852-1905), a famous Italian-French explorer who discovered many places in Central Africa and founded the town of Brazzaville. They regard him highly.
Brazza even has a tall office tower and is building more. We missed the next Presidential election by just one week but just as well since there are lots of protests and riots at election time given popular beliefs that the elections are rigged - the current President has been in power since 1979 so do you actually blame them! Brazza is on the mighty Congo River, 506km from the Atlantic and 474km south of the equator.
Opposite is Kinshasa (Pop 12m), the capital of DRC and this is the only place on earth where two national capitals sit opposite each other on a river within viewing distance. Between them they share almost 14 million people!!! We travelled here by boat, a process that took 3hrs end-to-end and was much smoother than Lonely Planet indicates.
Kinshasa is a different world. A war zone. Infrastructure is non-existant as I found out first hand on my 3 jogs in the city. Roads look like ancient river beds filled with sand, rocks, ridges, holes, mud pools and tons and tons of garbage. Fires burn every 200m to try to get rid of the garbage but the fumes from tyres and plastic only makes things worse. These are supposed to be suburban streets. The city centre itself is very spread out and flat. A huge multi-lane boulevard traverses one end of the city to the other with very few shops and no cafes on it - just banks and petroleum companies.
The most interesting monument is the Mausoleum of Laurent Kabila, the former President assassinated in 2001 as a result of DRC’s brutal Civil War (1997-2003) which claimed 5 million lives. The mausoleum has a meaningful design and the security surrounding the flag draped coffin is excessive - we walked through 3 sets of police across 2km the last of which kept our passports until the end of the visit! DRC overall is a country struggling for stability and to build an economy. It has been raped and pillaged initially by its coloniser, Belgium, and recently by the first two Presidents of the independent nation. It is shameful given that 71% of the 81.7m population lives under the poverty line! Our hotel was in a very busy area of absolute chaos. Cars, trucks, bikes and people use both sides of the roads randomly and the horn honking makes New York sound like a monastery! Kinshasa is also anti-camera. Roberto got caught photographing some children playing in the gutter and like me, found ourselves at a nearby police station. Unlike me there was no threat of jail and no fine paid. Despite the harshness of Kinshasa, we are glad we visited since this is the real face of an African country struggling to catch up with the rest of the world. Our final destination was Matadi, 315km to the south-west on the Congo River and border with ANGOLA. A small pleasant town that gave us opportunity to recover from the three capitalS that we had just visited. We re-joined the truck here to head into our next adventure in ANGOLA.
BLOG POST DETAIL:
DAY 111, Wed 2MAR16, 707km (Solo3), Bush Camp 10km south of Meyo-Centre CAMEROON to Minibus “Bikam Express” en-route to Libreville GABON. Today was GABON day and Vit’s 60th birthday! It was also Andi’s 45th birthday. Would today also be the start of solo trip number 3? We parted early at 7:30am today to give ourselves maximum time crossing the border into GABON. If all went well, we would pack at lunchtime and leave the truck at Oyem in the afternoon. Worse case scenario was tomorrow morning. We were very excited. The fact that we would replace 12 straight nights of tents, no water and bush with hotel rooms, showers and local restaurants and music simply delighted us!
The GABON border was only 50km away. We arrived at 9am and by 11am we had crossed both border posts. Around noon we arrived at Bitam, our first GABON town. We would be here 2hrs to cook shop and have lunch. This was our chance to pack and I did so in just 30min. I then found a service station attendant where we stopped that spoke English and asked him about ground transport to the capital, Libreville. He gave me directions and I was off. I visited two transport companies. One had a large old, non-aircon minibus leaving at 5pm and the other a smaller, new, aircon minivan leaving at 2pm. Both were the same price and both would take 10-12hrs.
I quickly returned to the truck and briefed Riza, Roberto and Yuki. They agreed to get off the truck in Bitam and catch the 2pm to Libreville. So we farewelled everyone for the third time and we were off like kids looking for mischief. We arrived at the minivan and noticed that there was no office and just a bunch of young Gabonese hanging out that hardly spoke any English. We waited until 2pm and approached the guy with the ticket book and he told us that the van would leave at 4pm. The first misdemeanour. We asked why and got the typical answer - not enough people. Most transport outfits in Africa have no timetable - they leave when the van is full. If it does not fill they give the remaining passengers the opportunity to buy out the remaining seats or cancel the trip. We did not like this and Yuki found a third company behind this one that had a large minibus departing at 5pm. It had a proper office and yard. The final straw came when an English speaking mechanic approached me and told me that the van was likely to leave between 6 and 8pm when enough people turn up. That was it. We packed up and walked to the other outfit. We departed at exactly 6pm - close enough. We were lucky to get seats at the front where there were better windows for ventilation. I was even luckier to sit next to the driver where I could charge my Mac and complete my blog post for CAMEROON. Then the frustration started. After only 5min the first police check. Then another after 5min and another and another. It was a police-check pandemic! It was absolutely frustrating and ridiculous. Corrupt actually, because some of the passengers were working Cameroons who did not have their paperwork in order and supposedly paid a bribe at each checkpoint according to a Cameroon sitting next to us!
The minibus was not air conditioned and it soon occurred to me I was sitting right above the engine. It quickly became a sauna. The air was cool and humid outside but crap inside. Every time we stopped for the police checks I overheated. The entire trip took 13.5hrs and it was one of the worst road trips of my life. Did not get much sleep due to the constant stopping for police checks, many of whom we had to get out to be inspected. The driver was also an arsehole. He drove too fast and on the other side of the road so he could take corners at warp speed. I asked him to slow down but he ignored me. He also played his music at full volume ALL NIGHT. Once again I ask him to tone it down but he ignored me. The driver also refused to stop for toilet and food - we released ourselves in the bushes at the police stops and stopped only once for food at 2am in the morning. What an arsehole. Police checks, loud music, late food stop and a hot engine underneath your feet - a perfect recipe for a bad trip. TIA. I got back at him by taking ages to take out my passport for the police checks - I knew that aggravated him because it delayed his trip and he must get some kind of bonus for being on time. The driver even insisted on me holding my passport in my hand and I said “only of you turn off the music”! This is Golfin!
DAY 112, Thu 3MAR16, 0km (Solo3), “Hotel Hibiscus” Libreville GABON. Libreville (Pop 578,000) was a mess coming into it from the outer suburbs. It is hilly and full of shacks. Closer to the centre you start to see brick houses with pitched roofs. After we arrived at the transport company depot we started to enquire about the hotel I had seen in the Lonely Planet. After much deliberation it turned out to be just a few metres up the road! But it was bad news. It was decrepit, old and run down. The rooms were terrible. It was a Presbyterian Nunnery with guest rooms but looked like it was going to close down at any minute. I found the nun in the book store that was willing to call my backup hotel and lucky for us that they had availability and reserved a spot.
We then found a taxi to take us there. We travelled via the downtown area which was very different from the burbs. Very nice buildings, wide boulevards and lots of high-rise apartments - what you would see in the west! Suddenly Roberto spotted a hotel that he saw online (we had all looked on line for backup hotels). We left the cab here and were able to negotiate a similar price to the hotel we were originally travelling to. Unreal because this hotel had more stars ad was better located downtown. It was almost 1pm by the time we showered and settled in and decided to relax and research transport and accom for our ongoing destinations. In the late arvo we decided to walk to a huge supermarket at the end of our Boulevard “Triumphant”. It is actually a famous road because it contains flamboyant, quirky ministerial buildings.
The most amusing was the Ministry of Forestry & Water being located across the road from the Ministry of Mining, Petroleum & Hydrocarbons. The former has trees going all over it and coloured green and the latter shaped like a car cylinder with sharp, aggressive corners. GABON has a reputation for having a President that overspends on himself and government and military institutions. It shows. They are world class buildings. The supermarket was also world class with world class prices. Very expensive. Especially fruit and dairy - it must all be imported. I bought some street food for our room picnic that night. Grilled fish with canned brussel sprouts and spinach. We tried to watch a movie but fell asleep - we had not slept for the past day and a half.
DAY 113, Fri 4MAR16, 0km (Solo3), “Hotel Hibiscus” Libreville GABON (Run1). I managed to get up at 6:30am for my run. My stomach was also churning from the street fish. It was hard given the lack of rest but I had to chalk up my 68th running country and early since the heat and humidity in this place is like Singapore. Another 100km and we pass the equator.
On reflection I would never take overnight transport again if I had to sight-see the next day since it is a false economy. You may save on accom and think you are saving on time but the next day is a write-off so you end uploading a day. We left at 9am today to see the sights of Libreville. We caught a cab to the “Mount Bouet Markets” which is like most markets in Africa - crowded, colourful and chaotic. It is here that we noticed just how hilly Libreville is. Up here is the house and bust of the first President.
From the markets we caught another cab to the “Museum of Arts & Tradition” located on the Atlantic coast and very close to the CBD. The foreshore of Libreville is great and what gives it its character. A good three-lane road runs along the foreshore connecting the city with the only international airport just 5km away and on one side of the road you have beaches and on the other side a mix of modern apartments and older dwellings. The foreshore is well kept with grass, palms and flowers. The museum was a little different in that all the artefacts inside (wooden masks, stone statuettes, implements etc) are all used in religious tribal worship and ceremonies and not for show or decoration. After the museum we enjoyed the most expensive coffee yet - $AUD4 at a cafe on the foreshore.
From here Roberto and Riza went to the port area whilst Yuki and I headed into the CBD to ee it and lookup some travel agencies re ground transport to our next destinations. We were lucky to find government run “Gabon Tour”, which had an English speaking man who was very helpful. He gave us the contact details of a transport company and told us where to go to catch a minivan to our next destination of Lambarene tomorrow. (Photo below: Libreville CBD).
The CBD is very small with no high rise but there is a hospital and mosque in the middle of it. We noticed later that many big business headquarters such as oil, telco, bank and insurance companies are all along the foreshore in modern buildings.
Yuki and I then met Roberto and Riza at an Italian Restaurant in the port. Riza wanted to enquire about boats to Sao Tome & Principe but they did not fit our schedule. She and Roberto would now travel to the airport to ask about flights to this country plus EQUATORIAL GUINEA. Riza wanted to visit these places alone whilst the rest of us visited Pointe Noire in CONGO and then meet up again in Brazzaville, the capital of CONGO. Yuki and I spilt off and walked along the foreshore for 2hrs to reach some sculptures by the sea.
We walked by “Sante Maria” Catholic Cathedral which was in a state of disrepair. By this time it was absolutely stinking hot and humid and I was suffering given the run and fish attack. Unfortunately there was only one sculpture left since the others had been placed there as part of an expo that Libreville had hosted in 2013. It was a 7m tall man made of scrap metal, tyres, springs and other pieces of “junk”. Nothing special but we enjoyed the walk. We had seen a few waterside restaurants with business people inside and some embassies along the way Brazil, Japan and France.
It was now around 3:30pm and the real drama began. Yuki and I travelled to “PK8” where all the ground transport leaves for Lambarene so we could find out about times, cost and options. It took us 2hrs to get there using share minivans including almost a one hour wait in the sun on a freeway to travel the last 5km. What a false economy. We paid a total of 600 each and could of cabbed it for a little more.
A student helped us get there with 3 different vans and hung around to help with the transport companies. By the time we spoke to 3 different companies we realised we did not really need his help and I had to pay for his cab fare home. Another lesson I cannot seem to learn. Do NOT allow locals to come with you anywhere - there is always money involved!
Once again there were no schedules and no set companies. Normal owners with cars or minivans turn up and offer their vehicles. The people at PK8 are all “agents” and simply bring customers to them for a commission. Some told us to turn up 6am tomorrow to travel on a shared minivan at 7 or 8 or 9am, i.e., until it fills up. Others told us that we could hire s small car for the same amount. We also learned that you cannot plan whole trips in Africa. If you want to travel from A to B to C to D you must negotiate your travel to each letter from the one before on the day you want to travel and that there are no timetables or departure times - you leave when your vehicle is full. TIA. I decided to catch a cab back and had the shits all the way back. I had just parted with almost $AUD15, spent 4hrs and sported a sunburn all to learn that all I had to do was turn up any time tomorrow morning for a $AUD25 trip to Lambarene.
I quickly forgot my woes when I collected another bottle of French Champagne and my first pork chop from the supermarket. Another fine room picnic. Riza decided that she would travel with us instead of SAO TOME and EQUATORIAL GUINEA - it was simply too hard to align schedules to meet in Brazzaville and also too expensive. We also all talked about just what a good impression downtown Libreville had made on us. Apart from MOROCCO this is probably the only other place (to date) that I could do a project in given the great foreshore (miles better than Accra or Lome or Lagos). It was an early night for me given the early run tomorrow.
DAY 114, Sat 5MAR16, 539km (Solo3), “Hotel Hibiscus” Libreville (Run2) to “L’Hotel Vert” Ndende GABON. Today is EQUATOR day! Up at 6am and to the foreshore it was. I was in a bit of pain but enjoyed the ocean view. (Photo below: The Presidential Palace).
There were many people, of all ages, out jogging the foreshore - whenever they passed me and I raised my hand in greeting, they clapped theirs twice to acknowledge me - I had also seen this in NIGERIA so I started doing the same.
I was glad that we were on our way to PK8 at 8:30am because it took some time to find and negotiate transport to Lambarene. An hour to be precise. We asked 5 different agents and finally settled on a private air conditioned car driven by “Ali” a very likeable guy in his thirties. As we pulled out another setback. Several women had picketted the road and blocked it off. We had to wait and take a detour. Our first wasted time. We then fuelled up and after 5min Ali discovered from his fuel gauge that the fuel attendant had flinched him. We returned and after much argument got the missing fuel for free. Second time waster.
Don’t mind all of this if I do not have anything to visit but today I wanted to spend 2-3hrs in Lambarene visiting the hospital and gravesite of Nobel Prize Winner Albert Schweizer and organise ongoing travel tot he border town of Ndende and it just looked like it was not going to happen at the time of writing this live! My fellow travellers and Ali picked up some food in the village of Ntoum and I made them eat it inside the car to avoid a third time waster! Just over half-way (127km after Libreville and 110km before Lambarene) we passed the Earth’s EQUATOR. A big sign and thick line across the road marks the exact spot! The only other place on Earth that I have touched the EQUATOR on dry land was just outside Quito in ECUADOR back in 2011 on Ai Caramba! It was a momentous occasion since we had finally passed into the southern hemisphere. It is here that it started to rain but let up before our arrival into Lambarene after 7hrs.
Lambarene (Pop 26,000) is famous for Dr Albert Schweitzer (1875 to 1965). Dr Schweitzer was a French-German theologian, organist, philosopher, and physician. He translated and played the entire works of Bach and wrote many theological books culminating in “The Reverence for Life”, his own philosophy on the importance of life. He demonstrated this philosophy by becoming a doctor at age 37 and practicing in Lambarene from 1913 until his death. He treated many thousands of locals, especially for leprosy, eliminating this disease from Gabon. It is for this real-life demonstration of his philosophy that he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952. He was also awarded the Goethe Prize for the same.
I hired a cab for only $AUD7.50 to take me there and wait 20min for me to visit. The others would use this time to find a car to take us to the GABON border town of Ndende. The site is only 8km out of town and is quite large meeting the lake on one side. The original clinic and home of the good doctor are now museums and quite well kept. The only downside is that Schweitzer’s story is in French. Next to the old clinic is his grave plus the graves of his wife and some of his siblings. Dr Schweitzer also was very fond of pelicans and they still exist on the site - I saw two close up. I enjoyed the visit because I am always interested in visiting the places where philanthropists and other good people sacrificed their lives for the sake of others.
I got back to town at 4pm as planned and at 4:30pm we were off to Ndende. Roberto had found another car, identical to the one we just used for a fee of $AUD35. Unfortunately the aircon did not work but the day was clouded over and fairly cool. Our driver, Charles was just 25 and driving like a maniac. The drive down was very scenic. The landscape changed with the lush rainforest now subsiding and giving way to more open grasslands. We ate dinner in the car - out of cans but I managed to save my last champagne to ease the pain. Our driver did well to get us to Ndende by 8pm.
The first hotel with aircon was full and we had settle on a truckstop place. Concrete floor, a reasonably clean bed and a simple toilet and shower behind a shoulder height wall next to the bed. There was no electricity so the desk man gave us a lantern. The shower was surprisingly very good - plenty of water and cool! It was an early night given that we had a border to cross next morning and another 500km plus drive. As I lay there trying to calm myself down in the heat, I felt like I had just entered the REAL Africa - one I had negotiated and travelled by myself - no internet, no travel agent, no adventure company! This was pure “Ungowa” and only the start - tomorrow would be even more unpredictable...
DAY 115, Sun 6MAR16, 283km (Solo3), “L’Hotel Vert” Ndende GABON to “Hotel Gabriella” Dolisie CONGO. Today was the most “African” day of all! What do I mean by that? It was the harshest day and yet the most rewarding. We travelled a part of the continent that very few Westerners have travelled and completely on our own subject only to our own wits, bad French, locals and whatever else Africa was willing to throw at us. It was exhausting, gritty, thirsty, hungry and full of the unknown. Despite the harshness it made us feel very close to the continent and how its own inhabitants must feel in day to day life because life here is difficult! Our bitter-sweet adventure began with a 6:30am rise. At 7am we were standing at the only round-a-about of Ndende busy questioning locals there about transport to the border and Pointe Noire in CONGO, almost 500km away.
(Photo right: Original Dr Schweitzer Clinic). Eventually we found two options. An older chap with a 100yr old green Toyota relic ute who could take us to Ndongo, 50km away just over the border in CONGO. Cost was $AUD10 each. I also found another middle aged guy in a large good-condition Mitsubishu ute who could take us all the way to Point Noire but for some reason would not give a price. Roberto and I offered him $AUD75 each since we did not have enough local currency left and could cover it using $USD200 we had on us for emergencies. The driver consulted some other dudes on exchange rate and declined asking for double.
The decision was made. We crowded onto the crappy green ute and off we went towards the border with 6 other people and their luggage in the ute - grossly overcrowded and overloaded - this was our first genuine first hand experience of REAL transport on this vast continent.
We arrived at GABON Immigration at 8:15am and were through in 30min. So far so good for a solo effort. As I predicted, on the way to GABON Customs the ute broke down. At least it was outside some small supermarkets. It took close to an hour to fix it. The driver had to hitch a ride back into town for a spare part. Customs took another 30min and we got our exit stamp. It was now a two hour drive to the actual border post via a dirt road that looked like King Kong had dug it out with his paws! Terrible. There was a dad and his son in the front seat, his wife and baby in the crew-cab next to me and Riza, Yuki and Roberto were on the roof and 5 others and a whole mountain of luggage and supplies in the back tray. Just after half-way we all heard a loud explosion. The rear tyre had exploded. Another 20min to replace it with the spare. We the tyre on the other side looked worse than the one that had exploded - we all prayed that it would not blow. Then the mud started. Thank goodness the extra weight worked to our advantage and we had extra traction to get through each mud hole!
Finally we arrived at the GABON border town of Daloussi. We had dropped most local people off en-route and here except for one lad. We got through the GABON gate in minutes. Now it was no man’s land for about 500m and we closed in on the CONGO gate at around 12:30pm. Customs, Immigration and the Police were all here in the town of Ndongo. Nothing but a few mud brick huts and a main dirt road that looked like it had been left over from World War II. There was not a car in sight and a few old foods sinking some beers in the local pub hut. How the heck would we get to Pointe Noire from here? As we were waiting to get our entry stamp we discovered that the only local lad left was actually travelling to Point Noire and had organised a car to pick him up from the next main town downstream.
What a miracle. An African miracle. We quickly made friends. Then the inevitable happened. The so-called Policeman doing the final check asked for money. When we asked him what it was for he mattered on in French about not being part of customs. I took a different tact and jumped in and told him in French that we had run out of money. Spent it all in GABON. I offered to pay him if he could get a money changer to the village. I knew from our mate at Gabon Tour that the nearest money changer was 250km away. It worked. He let us go and we got our stamp.
We then sat down to a quick canned lunch since we were not sure where our next meal would be. At around 1:30pm the car arrived and we were accepted as passengers to this car’s end destination of Dolisie which is 160km short of Pointe Noire. We would then have to catch another share car to Pointe Noire. Unfortunately this was not going to happen today because it was 2:30pm by the time we left Ndongo and whilst Dolisie was only 240km away the road was dirt mud crap and would take us 7hrs including police stops. Yes - the pandemic was present even in CONGO!
Picture this. An 80kg and 70kg man in the front passenger seat. Myself, Yuki, Riza and Roberto in the back seat. Two gas cylinders, and all our luggage in the back with open boot lid secured by a rubber hose! The car - a late 1980’s Toyota Corolla WITHOUT 4WD or aircon and bald tyres all around. But that’s not all. The rear windows were fully closed, electronic and did not open. This is Africa. This also sent me over the edge. I was “this close” to jumping out. 7hrs in the heat of the arvo with 4 people in the back and not even any outside air in the back. I was in the middle of nowhere, with a truck to meet and that was that.
Off we went. There was some air from the front but nothing like other cars where the rear windows were open. It was easily the worst car ride of my life. Even though we made several stops for the police and so that the driver could chat to his mates in the small villages that we passed we all got heat stroke and by 6pm I had a splitting headache. My first on this trip.
The scenery, villages and locals along the way were first class Africa. The lush rainforest of GABON was steadily replaced by open green grasslands with distant hills covered in thick forest. CONGO villages were definitely back to basics compared to GABON and CAMEROON. Mud-brick instead of concrete walls, Wooden instead of iron roofs. We noticed a lot of installed water tanks. Locals looked less equipped and were a little more rowdy (NIGERIA is still No 1 in rowdiness!).
Most of the police checkpoints were staffed by young men. One of them wanted money. Shock. I told him we had just come from GABON and had no money. It worked again. Reluctantly he let us go. I couldn’t blog because the car moved too much, there was way too much dust and I had a headache. I tried to sleep but it was just to hot and crammed to do so.
I was a trodden but happy man when the bright lights of our destination Dolisie emerged at 9:30pm. By 10pm I was withdrawing much needed local currency for all of us (no chance of money changes). Soon after our driver found us a hotel with aircon but no working taps - we had to settle for a bucket shower which was very hard to come to terms with after such a tough drive. We were sweaty, covered in dust, hungry, thirsty and ready for death! But water is water and it steadily brought us back to life. Add some fresh cold bottled water and some wine and cheese and we were well not the way to recovery.
Roberto & Riza decided to spend all of tomorrow in Dolisie resting and head straight to Brazzaville the following day. You and I were still keen on Point Noire tomorrow and we would stay these two nights and meet up with Riza and Roberto in Brazzaville on Wednesday. Given that we had to wash our clothes in order to travel first thing tomorrow to Pointe Noire, it was 1:30am when my head finally hit the pillow - at least the room was antarctic - just the way I like it...
DAY 116, Mon 7MAR16, 160km (Solo3), “Hotel Gabriella” Dolisie (Run1 in 68th country) to Hotel “Sueco" Pointe Noire CONGO. I am surprised how easily I arose at 6:30am only after 5hrs sleep given the trauma of yesterday’s drive. I was spurred on with the prospect of running my 68th country! It was actually faster than the last run but I got covered in orange dust again after the bitumen of Dolisie ran out. More clothes washing before we left at 9am as planned.
It was the quickest exit so far. It took us minutes to get to “La Gare Routiere” including stocking up on cold milk, juice and water. The private share taxi only cost $AUD13 and left at 9:45am. The only reminder of yesterday was that it had six passengers again! Yuki and I sat at the front and 4 other locals in the back seat in yet another Toyota Corolla - this one was in much better condition. The road and view was terrific. Green hills with spotted forests on top and then entering a mountain pass with thick rainforest again just like the north. Topped out at 639m and even here the humidity was much lower. That did not last long as we made our descent towards Point Noire (Pop 2m) which is on the Atlantic Coast. The two was enormous and spread out. We could see the city centre in the distance against the Atlantic.
We arrived at 12:30pm in a very busy market area, still some 8km from the city centre. Even though the trip was only 3hrs it was still painful sitting in the front with two if us. I was determined not to do this again - I would pay for two if I had to. Our transition into Pointe Noire was the smoothest and quickest to date - Given his student background and solo travel experience in East Africa, Yuki has a good sense of sussing out good deals. On the way down he had spotted a huge coach with the words “Ocean du Nord” on the side. We asked the location of this transport company and it turns out it was only a few km down the main road. We cabbed it there and in minutes had purchased two tickets to Brazzaville for only $AUD38 on a super huge comfy Mercedes “Acros” bus leaving t 10:30am and arriving at 6pm on Wednesday. Yes a timetable with departure and arrival times - we couldn’t believe it!
From here we cabbed it to the centre of town visiting a bank where we exchanged/withdrew more local currency. From here another cab ride to the hotel in the Lonely Planet. It was in the centre of town and only 4km from the beach. Got a room with aircon for only $AUD40/night. Our hotel is actually a whole complex owned by a Christian community complete with religious school, library,internet cafe, dining area and even a travel agency. By 2:30pm we were settled in and ready for action. A record for what I call “dropping anchor” in a new place, i.e., exchanging money, finding accom and settling in. Yuki went off to look for an ATM and I had a little kip given my early rise today. At around 4pm we headed to the large supermarket just 10min walk away to stock up for tonight. Then it was off to the beach. We caught a cab down, passing the main railway station and a long beachside promenade featuring top class hotels and restaurants and even the Presidents compound when he is town.
At the end of the promenade is where all the ordinary folk hang out. It is a good set up. Six different operators on the sand with many plastic tables, chairs and umbrellas and a BBQ area in the back serving up grilled seafood, meats and beer just a few paces from he waters edge. We sat ourselves down in the front row and went for a swim. Water was very rough but also very warm. The grilled food had finished (served from 7am to 5pm only) so we enjoyed some beers as the sun set into the Atlantic. It was a great moment and very relaxing. We had made it to Point Noire after a gruelling road trip! We were so relaxed at this point we decided to walk back. We noticed the new, long, Chinese built train that travels to Brazzaville and the unusual German-style train station behind it. Charles De Gaulle is the main road to our hotel. We picked up some roast chicken for our now famous room picnic!
We were not sure how far we were from the hotel but we were tired so we decided to cab it back. I negotiated 500CFA and after a very brief ride we arrived ad the driver asked for 1000CFA. This had also happened to Yuki during the day. I got the shots and said no. After a couple of minutes I said, you either take the 500CFA and leave or we go to the police to sort this out. So guess what? The driver got the shits and started for the police! After 5min we all got out and went into the station. I gave my account and the driver gave his. The station sergeant was on my side - I could tell he was telling the driver how could he charge 1000CFA to drive a few meters - there you go - I knew the supermarket was close. The sergeant then gave the driver 1000CFA from the station money and directed him to take us to the hotel. Finally some justice. When we got outside the driver looked at me with the dirtiest face and refused to take us. I was OK with that - who knows what he would have done. So off we went back to our hotel in another taxi for the original 500CFA. Even though we had wasted a bit of time we celebrated our Africa victory that night over “Godfather 2”. A fitting end to a day full of adventure. But there was more to come...
DAY 117, Tue 8MAR16, 0km (Solo3), Hotel “Sueco" Pointe Noire CONGO (Run2). Today was the scariest day of my trip to date. More on this soon. Pointe Noire (Pop 2m) is an ugly city, saved only by its beachfront promenade. Even that is limited given there is a huge oil refinery and port next door. Roads are terrible and flood easily. The city centre is OK but quickly deteriorates as you move into the burbs. Many well-heels Brazzavillians have holiday houses here. We also noticed election posters and campaigners for the next Presidential election to be held later in 2016. My morning run was again tough given these car rides but I ran to the beach and the scenery made up for it. By 9:30am, Yuki and I were walking the through the CBD, observing the fish-mash of architectures. The Town Hall looked like a kit home, the main hotel like something out of the seventies, some buildings closer to art decor and others like Soviet Russia.
Then we came across a large roundabout with a memorial in the middle dedicated to the fallen of WWI and WWII. It is here that we noticed a large number of brightly and beautifully dressed women standing around with banners and the police in front of them. We moved towards them, cameras in hand, thinking it was a demonstration. It turns out this was an organised march to celebrate “International Womens Day”. The parade started at 11am and we filmed and walked with the woman who were now singing and dancing in the streets. Fantastic.
The women then turned back towards town whilst Yuki and I decided to walk ahead into the burbs. What a change. No more concrete buildings. Just shacks, muddy roads and lots of street stalls. A completely different world. Once again Yuki and I contemplated Africa’s plight and what it would take to bring it into the mainstream. We tried a punch of bush fruits but it was too salty and citric! We then set course back into town and off to the area north of our hotel. This area was under construction - they were expanding the port and building lots of new government buildings and what looked like apartments, probably for ex-pats running the port.
It was now close to 1pm and simply to hot and humid to be walking around. We headed back to the hotel and camped in the internet cafe. At 3p we set out again for the beach. This time we ate some grilled fish - not the best we have had but the setting was nice. Some more dips in the wild warm ocean and then a nice walk to the hotel. This is when the action started. I took some photos of the Presidential compound. As we walked passed it I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was a sweaty guard dressed in army greens. He babbled on in French about photos and I realised what we wanted. I showed him my photos of the compound and deleted them - he was happy. This was not the scary bit. When we got to the railway station we stopped to take photos of it because it was such a strange building.
Yuki took some photos first, then walked on and I took some second. Once again as a I walked away I heard a man yelling behind me. I turned around and it was a nicely dressed policemen who once again said something in French about photos and coming with him. I now noticed that there was a police station across the road from the station. I asked why I had to go to the police station and he said “because big boss wants to talk to you”. I thought maybe they wanted to check us out and make sure we were tourists and not terrorists. Innocent me. If I knew what was going to happen next I would have run away! By this time I noticed Yuki had returned and walked into the station with me and the nicely dressed policeman. He led us into a large interior office with a prison on one side and desks on the other. He introduced me to station master - a short guy, ugly, dressed in uniform but sweaty and untidy. He then asked who I was, where I came from, where I was going and my purpose.
After all the formalities he then raised his voice and looked at me with a mean stare asking in French why I took photos. I then showed him the photos of the train station and offered to delete them. Much to my surprise he said, “no, photo OK” but you need police permit to take photos and you cannot take photos outside a police station. I apologised explaining that I did know this. Then the inevitable. He asked me to pay a fine of $AUD90. It was an odd number in local currency and he wrote it on a piece of paper. I then explained that I only had $AUD25 because I had been for a swim. He then got angry and asked for my “papers”. I explained they were at the hotel, once again siting the swim as the reason I did not take them with me. At this point he was clearly frustrated and started pounding his fist on the table and going red in the face. “You pay, you pay or go to jail” as he pointed to the cell next to us. At this stage number of the inmates inside came to the bars. Once spoke English. You better pay. At this point I realised I was dealing with a crook and maniac. Shit. This was not Hollywood any more. How was I going to get out of this. I looked at Yuki and he was pale and speechless. I said to Yuki “lets make a run for it”!!! “I don’t think that is a good idea” Yuki replied. I decided to take the $AUD25 I had in my pocket and show him. I offered him to search me for more. I even offered that he assign an officer to take me to the hotel where I could get my papers and more money. Nothing, He just got angrier. He kept pointing to the jail.
I then spotted a younger, well-dressed officer walk past and grabbed him and asked him to explain. Bingo! They started a very animated conversation between them in French. I could make out that the younger officer was on my side and caught the general gist of the conversation on me being just a dump tourist with no knowledge of the rules. I just nodded. I was not scared, just pissed off that I was unlucky enough to be spotted by a madman. I also had the shits that he was wasting our time and corrupt and there was nothing I could do about it. The younger officer then said to me - apologise to him, shake his hand and give him the $AUD25. I did so and he said “Allez Allez”, i.e. “go, go”! I thanked the younger office and we were out of there in word record time! What an experience. We talked about it all the way to the supermarket. How was Congo ever going to embrace tourism with behaviour like this - today and yesterday? Was this just a one off? Was this everywhere? In any case I had my fill with the police - two times in two days. What rotten luck. Do not take the police for granted. Do not take photos anywhere near them or any government looking building. I decided to watch “Godfather 3” to chalk this down to one heck of an experience!!!
DAY 118, Wed 9MAR16, 567km (Solo3), Hotel “Sueco" Pointe Noire (Rain) to “Residence Saint Jacques Hotel” Brazzaville CONGO. It absolutely thundered and poured overnight - did not stop. Lucky we were bus-ing it to Brazzaville all day today - who cares if was raining outside. There goes my run I thought and I was right - it was still raining when I woke and I knew the street would be flooded so I slept extra and we left at 9am to allow time to get to the bus station given that the roads were mud and would be flooded. Correct we were. We arrived at the station at 9:45am and the coach departed 15min late at 10:45am. Yuki and I sat up front with plenty of leg room and close to the bus cigarette charger so off I went on a long bout of blogging and picture processing all the way to 5:30pm when I had some chicken and rice. Along the way the landscape changed many times. Lush rainforest to start with twists and curves in the road. Then it disappeared leaving rolling green hills with distant mountains. Around the middle of the trip it flattened out completely then we started climbing and the hills returned. Green with low bushy soft grass and no trees. Then the sky darkened and we climbed to 766m. Awesome sunset in this scene. The road was new and mostly 4 lane. The last 50km was one lane a side and unmarked. At about 6:30pm the lights of Brazza emerged. Very spread out. We entered the outer burbs and it was utter chaos. Cars everywhere. Our fantastic 4 lane highway had long since disappeared, replaced by very narrow inner-city streets. The only downside of the coach was no air-conditioning and we started to suffer just sitting in traffic. Eventually we arrived at the depot at 8pm and could a cab tot he hotel that Roberto had booked. On the way it became obvious that the driver did not know where the hotel was and we had to stop to borrow someones phone to ring Roberto so that the hotel staff could give the taxi driver instructions since the taxi driver had no phone! It was 9pm before we were dancing and hugging each other at the hotel, just glad to be together again! We exchanged stories and wine until midnight and I think my police encounters won the Oscar that night!!!
DAY 119, Thu 10MAR16, 0km (Solo3), “Residence Saint Jacques Hotel” Brazzaville CONGO (Run3). A great run this morning. Thought I would get lost because our hotel is in a back alley but I found my way tot he main boulevard thrown the city. Brazzaville (Pop 1.827m) is very spread out burb-wise but has a compact, well laid out city centre. It’s foreshore along the mighty Congo River is not exploited and lacks life - there is just a freeway that whips past the city with no cafes or restaurants to take advantage of the views across to big foreign brother “Kinshasa”.
There has always been a rivalry between these tow towns and unfortunately little sibling Brazza lost out when it was devastated in the 1997 Civil War. It is now rebuilt and there is even more construction happening - thanks to the Lebanese! I set out at 9am on my own to see the city since Riza and Roberto had already done so and Yuki was looking for cheaper accommodation in Brazza and was going to stay extra nights to photograph the strange “Sapuers” of this town - men who dress up in brightly coloured suits on weekends and hang out in bars - apparently this is catching on in Narita and Tokyo! My first visit was to the Town Hall - very similar to Pointe Noire and very 1970’s. The next stop was the highlight - the huge mausoleum / memorial dedicated to Pierre Savorgnan De Brazza (1852-1905), a famous Italian-French explorer who discovered many places in Central Africa and founded the town of Brazzaville, named after him.
He was one of 12 children and lived a harsh life, losing a child at 5 and losing siblings and crew to yellow fever. His wife, two children, one sibling and two key members of his crew are all buried together in the underground floor of this terrific air-conditioned building complete with English captions! Close by is the “La Mandarine” a superb, carbon-copy Parisian patisserie-boulengerie where we all met for a coffee and pastry - terrific. From here we all spilt again and I walked the CBD visiting various round-a-bout monuments and taking in the variety of building architectures. Braze even has an skyscraper called “Tour Nabemba” which is more like a tower - does not have an observation deck - pity because you could see most of Kinshasa from it. From here it was a hot walk to the “Port Autonome” where I made specific enquiries about our crossing into DRC and Kinshasa tomorrow - it will cost $AUD50 and the boat takes 15min. Clearing customs on both sides can take up to half a day depending on volume of people crossing so I made friends with a young officer and took his details in the hope that it would be faster. From the port I walked to the “Basilique Sainte-Anne”, a very striking Catholic Cathedral designed by a famous French Architect and built in 1949, featuring millions of tiny shiny green tiles for a roof. Inside it is a little less striking and looks more like an Anglican church. My next point of interest was too far to walk in the post-midday heat so I caught a cab. Can you believe it.
The cab driver did not know where the Presidential Palace was located! Once again I had to stop some army guys and they rode with us since they were headed to their barracks next door. They invited me in and the Captain offered to show me inside the Palace grounds and the building itself - only catch is that I needed a signed document from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs - forget that - it would take days! At least I was pleased and relieved that I had met friendly army guys who treated me well in contrast with the shocking behaviour of that short thug who calls himself a policeman in Point Noire! I then took another cab to the “Palais Du Congress” and it was an OK looking building, again with 70’s and 80’s overtones. From here I tried to walk back tot he city centre down the huge boulevard that comes form the airport but it was way too hot and I caught a cab. I found a great big supermarket downtown and spent the rest of my CFA on drinks and food since the currency in DRC is different. I finally found enough energy from my freshly chilled liquid purchase to make it back tot he hotel on foot. It was only 4pm so I showered and relaxed and did some research for Kinshasa. We all met together at 7:30pm and discussed our sojourn into our 13th African country tomorrow along with some Rose followed by a fluffy pillow!!!
DAY 120, Fri 11MAR16, 14km (Solo3), “Residence Saint Jacques Hotel” Brazzaville CONGO (Run4) to “HG Hotel” Kinshasa DRC. Great run this morning to the “Grande Marche” (Main Market) via the Presidential Palace. The market was full of cars - at times impassable - I had to run in the middle of the road to get past! We were spit on time leaving - Riza book a cab at 10am and by some major miracle - it actually turned up on the nose! The port was only 5k away and by 10:15am our trusty point helper was helping us through all the formalities - naturally for a price - at the end! We got our CONGO exit stamp at 11:15am after only one hour and by 11:45am we were in a small boat with 20 others chugging our way across the Congo River towards Kinshasa (Pop 12m), almost 5 times the size of Brazza. Entry into THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO or DRC, my 74th country, took the better part of 90min and was smooth.
By 1:30pm we were in a cab on our way to our hotel as booked by me on www.jovago.com the best site for Africa! We were lucky. Lonely Planet warned about a very chaotic CONGO port which when combined with DRC could take up to a whole day to cross. It took us 3.5hrs. Roberto and Riza changed money inside the DRC port so we stopped at an ATM in downtown for me. Our first impressions of Kinshasa were bad ones. Very run down, very gritty. Lots of loud, polluting traffic. Vehicles are beat up, unkept and spray black exhaust everywhere. The main city boulevard is very wide and long. Our hotel was about 8km from the centre. Accom and food here is very expensive because EVERYTHING is imported. DRC has no Atlantic port so everything is trucked.
Our hotel was at an extremely busy intersection, like plaza with many roads meeting it. The good news was there were two well equipped supermarkets next door, an ATM further down and loads of hot food stalls selling whole cooked ducks to skewers of tender beef and and even liver! Given it was now about 3pm, we settled into our rooms, showered and tried using the wifi - not working!
We then went to the supermarket to stock up. Generally 50% more expensive than GABON and CAMEROON and 25% more than CONGO. We then proceeded to the hot food stalls and bought up lots of beef skewers to have with our canned chickpeas, lentils, peas and carrots. We enjoyed our food as a room picnic whilst watching “Die Another Day”. We were quite excited about visiting the city the next day.
DAY 121, Sat 12MAR16, 0km (Solo3), “HG Hotel” Kinshasa DRC (Run1). This mornings run was of the most difficult and chaotic in a long time. The suburban streets of Kinshasa are shit. Dirt, mud, pot holes, ridges, bricks, stones. Cars are scrambling all over the place, crossing over on the wrong side to get around the bad bits in the road so I had to watch EVERYTHING. I well and truly earned my 69th country run. Breakkie was included in our room rate - first time! I joined Roberto and Riza for omelette, baguettes and coffee. Nice. At 10am we were in a cab on our way downtown to the “Laurent Kabila Mausoleum”. Kabila was the former President of DRC, assassinated in 2001. His 39yr old son took over as President at the time. What a responsibility! DRC is a country struggling to make ends meet. It suffered a catastrophic Civil War (refer PPPS: A LITTLE ABOUT DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO or DRC).
The area has is secured by army personnel and we had to walk 2km in a detour around the monument in order to pass through security to to get there. Luckily one army guy spoke Portuguese and hot it off with Roberto so we were able to get in quickly and even take photos. Kinshasa is paranoid about photos. You must get permission everywhere you go. Unfortunately the police take advantage of tourists and hire locals, go with fake badges to catch unsuspecting tourists in the act, bust them, take their cameras, bring them in and extract a fine from them - this happened to Roberto today - more on this later!
The Mausoleum was well designed and located in a large area between the “Palais De La Nation” and the “Central Banque De Democratic Republic De Congo”. A huge statue of Kabila stands in front of his final resting place and his coffin site draped under a huge flag. The actual building consists of four hands holding an outstretched traditional cloth under a huge star (Refer Photo). A whole battalion of school kids turned up and surrounded the tomb, making it a touching sight.
From here we walked into the embassy area which lines the Congo River and we walked along its shoreline with views across it to Brazzaville which looked busier and more built-up than it really is.
We then cabbed it to “Rond Pointe Batetela” which is close to the “Marche Du Arte” or Art Market where artists sell their paintings, sculptures and jewellery. It took us a bit of time to find it since it is now nestled behind some brand new apartment complexes. It was a great visit. The artists let you photograph their work and explain how they made their pieces. Very relaxed. Very friendly. There were even small statues and paintings of Herge’s “Tin Tin”, another leftover from the Belgium colonisation! From here it was a short walk to “Place De Nelson Mandela” which has nothing about him except a big supermarket.
It is here that Roberto got a taste of the police scam - he photographed a group of young children bathing in a sewer. Riza and I were at the supermarket. Riza went in and I noticed Roberto waving to me some distance back. I walked back and he pointed to a plain clothes guy with a fake looking police badge who had confiscated his camera. We tried to get the camera back but this guy kept rambling on about a photo pass and the police office. He had Roberto’s smart phone in his car and wanted us to get in. No way. Finally another plain clothes guy turns up and I managed to get some sense out of him in my broken French. I convinced him to put Roberto’s phone in his pocket and to walk us to the police station. We did so. It was only 10min away. It was a big genuine station with uniformed police in it. The entry guards asked for our passports and wanted to hold on to them whilst we visited the Chief.
Riza stayed with them to guard our passports and Roberto and I followed the two plain clothes stooges inside. We sat outside the Chief’s office for about 10min until we were paraded in my a small entourage. Amongst them was the Chief’s secretary, an older guy who spoke some English and acted as translator. One of the civilian policemen handed Roberto’s phone to the Chief and the other who confiscated it in the first place gave his account of events. Roberto then gave his account using the secretary as translator. The Chief then asked Roberto and I some questions about the purpose of our trip. Once we got through telling him about the truck he asked Roberto to show him the photos he had taken of the kids. He then asked Roberto to delete them. Once this was done he excused us! What a relief. Did not impose a penalty or ask for money.
I could see the original impostor had the shits! Tough luck mate! You do not go around torturing tourists! We quickly made our exit and it was not log until we were power-walking away from his place with passports and mobile in hand! I think Roberto got the point and would be VERY cautious about what photos he took in the future. I was resolved to ask for permission before clicking. Our expedition continued as if nothing had happened. We stopped for cheap olives at a big supermarket and continued along “Avenue Mulele Pierre” until we got to the “Academie des Beaux-Arts” or Art School fronted by a long wall mural. Next door was the “Notre Dame Cathedrale”,a far cry from the original in Paris but made a good photo with Sunday school happening on a Saturday on its front steps. From here it was a 10min cab ride home past the huge “Palais du Peuple” where concerts and other public events are held including the independence day march and salute. By the time we got to the hotel it was 5pm so we went out to buy our now famous beef skewers. This time I selected them raw and cooked them myself to a “rare” perfection. Tonight we ate over a very stimulating forum - strengths and weaknesses. Given today and tomorrow would mark our 4th month together we took the time to reflect on what we had learned about one another. It was terrific. Brought us even closer as fellow travellers. Then it was time to relax with another Bond film, this time an older one, “Thunderball”.
DAY 122, Sun 13MAR16, 0km (Solo3), “HG Hotel” Kinshasa DRC (Run2). FOUR CALENDAR MONTHS AWAY DAY. to get rid of it. Only problem is the fire is highly toxic since there are plastics, tyres and all sorts of chemicals burning in what must be a cocktail of death! I felt lie a horse in an equestrian event - jumping over sand bags, garbage, tyres and other obstacles, swerving to avoid hitting grannies and young kids and jumping around from one side to the other to avoid the putrid pools of stinking still water. This was the ultimate disgrace. I wish I had brought the GoPro to show you but it was simply too dangerous - there are many accounts of angry youths stealing and smashing cameras and beating up the owners! I will just have to rely on the words in this blog. These “river beds” extended for miles. Dwellings were appalling, smashed, steel exposed, rubble everywhere. This place looked like a war zone.
I was glad to get back. An eye opener but also depressing. Today I decided to go to church to give thanks for still being in one piece after four calendar months of travel! I had some brekkie at the hotel and by 9:45am I was seated near the front of St Josephs Catholic Church, an enormous dwelling made of concrete with an iron roof. Inside two enormous paintings of the Last Supper at the front and Christ’s entry into Jerusalem on a mule in the back.
There was a full local male and female polyphonic choir with no instruments except rattles. The sound was quintessential Africa! I closed my eyes and could be anywhere in this awesome continent. As the service unfolded it was like a scene out of “The Color Purple”. Male and female harmonies, people clapping hands, hands waiving in the air, bodies swaying from side to side. The front pews were reserved for all the children and they participated with energy and resolve. All the physical statues of Christ and the Saints including the main crucifix were covered in purple cloth to symbolise lent and the suffering of Christ. I had not seen this before in a Catholic Church - maybe this is a local or African practice? The Parish Priest spoke for 30min and shouted and waived his hands only to end in loud applause. The service was in French with quotes from the bible on the wall in the same. By 10:30am it was all over. I shuffled out with a few hundred people dressed in their best.
I returned to my room and a few minutes later we were all ready to visit the “Grande Marche” in town. Roberto and Riza had slept in and gone out to find a data SIM since the WiFi in our hotel had never worked. The good news was that the truck was delayed due to bad roads so we had an extra two nights of solo trip! We decided to stay one more night in Kinshasa and another in Matadi where we would meet the truck on Thursday morning around 11am. Bliss. Another two bush camps avoided. Yuki had also emailed us and he was buying our bus tickets from Kinshasa to Matadi and would meet us tomorrow morning. The cab ride to the city central market was around 15min and when we arrived the whole place was closed - after all it was a Sunday! Ba-boom! We did not take that into account. Instead we then walked to the main city centre boulevard called “Avenue de 30 Juine” which is the date of independence from Belgium.
It is a huge boulevard, very reminiscent of many European counterparts. We only walked a short distance since once again, most shops were closed. We found an enormous supermarket but many things we liked to buy were more expensive than our neighbourhood shop near the hotel. Go figure. It was now about 1pm and very very hot so we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon watching a movie at our hotel. It was a welcome break. We enjoyed a late picnic lunch and watched more James Bond. We proceeded to watch two in a row before sleep got the better of us...
DAY 123, Mon 14MAR16, 0km (Solo3), “HG Hotel” Kinshasa DRC (Run3). Today’s morning run was on good ground - I managed to find the main freeway and avoided the usual pot holes and garbage. Traffic was still bad and somehow I got lost. Two policemen managed to guide me back because I used St Joseph as a marker which they knew. I met the others for brekkie including Yuki - it was good to see him. For 22, he is a very intrepid traveller and not afraid of travelling alone. Unfortunately he did not see the “Sapeurs” of Brazza so he was staying an extra night in Kinshasa to see if there are nay here. Talk about a fetish - he is fixated on these guys! We farewelled Yuki again and he would stay at our Matadi hotel on Wednesday night. We then caught a cab to the centre of town to walk the main boulevard “Avenue de 30 Juine” from Mandela Place to the Port - some 10km and also visit the Grande Marche along the way.
On the way I spotted the new National Museum under construction next to the Pailas du Peuple. The old one was meant to be very good but was shut with all exhibits in storage. No one knew when the new one would open. It was a blue sky day with fluffy clouds but very hazy, humid and hot. The boulevard was disappointing - not one cafe along the way. Mostly banks and government buildings. It was amazing just how many government buildings we managed to see in these Central African countries given the horrendous state of the roads and rubbish. We made a side trip to the Grande Marche just 2km from the boulevard.
This one is really big but different from the others in that there are set shop fronts in buildings - there are no stalls on the streets. This made it way too spread out so we only walked a part of it due to the oppressive heat. We returned to the boulevard and ended up at the central railway. Across the road was a very fancy hotel and we sought solace from the sun inside its freezing air-conditioned bowels! There was a big conference in progress with many people in suits so we limited our time there. Fortunately there was a cafe across the road and we enjoyed a cold beer and WiFi. From here it was a short walk to “Ngobila Beach”. On arrival we realised that the beach was actually part of the port that we originally arrived at from Brazza and was full of police asking for our passports so we dumped it - we also found out that it was un-swimmable - pity because we had our cozzies on and it was stinking hot. We cabbed it back to the hotel arriving at 2pm. Spent the arvo having a nap and blogging. We got together for a coffee at around 5pm and the subject of conversation was whether we could swing another solo trip in Angola given how much we had enjoyed this one and the number of bush camps coming up…
DAY 124, Tue 15MAR16, 315km (Solo3), “HG Hotel” Kinshasa to "Auberge Aux Delices” Matadi DRC. I was ready for the alarm at 5:30am because I was looking forward to leaving the harshness and garbage of Kinshasa. It also poured that night with very loud thunder. I cannot imagine what that would be like in a tent. I also figured that Matadi would be a nice break given its small size and the fact that it was on the water. We made it to the bus station in good time. We departed late. Instead of 7am it was 8am from the “Place du Commercial of Limete". The bus was full with 42 people, mostly big boned and big butt locals who sat in seats designed for 8yr old children! Luggage was strapped above under a tarp. The “Trans Renove” bus looked like it had been used in one of Clint Eastwood’s “Dirty Harry” films - full of holes, black smoke, wobbly tyres and rattling all over the place. The only consolation is that it was big! Only one hour out and the scenery opened up the rolling green hills at an elev of 550m.
There were many villages along the way, all of them crowded and full of rubbish. At our first stop, piles of street vendors boarded the bus selling food. It was chaos. There was barely enough room for us. One seller was making a spam baguette next to my face for a customer next to me. Crazy stuff. We climbed further up to 733m where villages were built on the sides of tall hills. The chaos of Kinshasa was now a thing of the past and we enjoyed the greenery around us. It was not a lush rainforest like Cameroon and Gabon but very green with lots of low trees and bush. Around noon the driver’s assistant handed out bread rolls and a small soft drink. Plain but thoughtful. It took us 8hrs to get to Matadi (Pop 200,000) plus about 30min breaks. Matadi is very picturesque overall, spread out over several high green hills that act as an obstacle course for the Congo River. Close up it is not a well set out town and quite crowded since the hills where the roads pass are narrow. It was overcast and sprinkling when we arrived at 4pm and it took our cab driver some time to find our hotel. It was not until 6:30pm that we were settled in, showered and ready to find dinner. Once again, restaurants were non existent here and the one we found had a spectacular view across the entire city but was frightfully expensive - we decided we would return here to drinks beers tomorrow arvo and put on another room picnic for tonight. No Bond films tonight since Roberto fell asleep...
DAY 125, Wed 16MAR16, 0km (Solo3), "Auberge Aux Delices” Matadi DRC (Rain, Run4). It rained most of the night. At first I thought it was the aircon but when the power failed (as it often does…) I could here the rain. I am glad that the rain had long stopped when I woke because I was looking forward to running the hill of Matadi - it has been a long time since I did tough hills. I ran to the bridge that we would meet the truck tomorrow but got lost running back. Matadi has little alley like streets everywhere. I had to get a cab back. By 10:30am we were all on our way downtown, all down hill! There are shops and roadside stalls selling everything along the way to the downtown area. It was a very scenic walk since you could see hills full of houses and the Congo to one side. The downtown area itself is not that well set out. It has a Catholic Church and plaza but it is a funny shape, unkept and there are no cafes or bars around it as you would expect.
Strangely Matadi as many “wholesale” supermarkets where you must by things in bulk. We struggled to find just an ordinary supermarket so we convinced one of the bulk sellers to sell us single items and he did. We found very cheap Algerian wine and tasted it and it was very good for the price. I stocked up big time because I suspected the truck was nothing to many towns in Algeria. Also, a lot of the country is dry (no booze).
We cabbed it back to the hotel at about 1pm since it was just too hot to stay out and we had seen the whole down town area. Roberto and I had seen a barber on our way down so we decided to stop off and get a hair cut. I removed the lot (see picture of me below with no hair but Matadi in the background!). At the hotel we washed clothes and I posted this blog since tomorrow we would join the truck with possibly 5-8 bush camps and no internet ahead of us. Yuck! We all dreaded it.
By 5pm the current offline blog was complete and I was relieved but my real pain was only moments away. Instead of the usual trouble-free upload I had several problems logging my MarsEdit offline editor into Google Blogger and when I had overcome this, each photo seemed to take ages to load and every third one failed to upload. This had never happened before and I thought it may have to do with the strength of the carrier’s network and the number of connections in the hotel. I jumped off the hotel WiFi and used Roberto’s hot spot and still the same. I resigned myself to a long night but for now I would celebrate. We all greeted Yuki and crossed the road to celebrate Riza’s 45th birthday with full view of most towers in the city. We then went up the road for food and returned to the hotel for a great room picnic dinner. No Bond tonight. Sadly, I set off at 9pm to the hotel across the road since it was the best of a bad bunch! The pain, the pain… I sat there until 1:30am re-inserting some 40 out of 91 photos every 5min. The things we do to achieve the result! I just HAD to get this post up tonight since I had no chance in Algeria! SUCCESS!!! I POSTED!!!
I then reflected before sleeping… It was hard to believe that we had seen three capital cities in three different countries and it did not cost much either - I calculated $AUD720 for myself covering accom and transport! It was a true adventure tackling 3 central African countries on our own...
PS: A LITTLE ABOUT GABON:
GABON (Pop 1.6m) is a wild country. 75% of it is covered in lush thick rainforest and the equator passes through it. You can also find white sandy beaches, savannah, mountains and canyons. It is also very rich in wildlife with gorillas, elephants, buffaloes, crocodiles, antelopes, hippos, monkeys, leopards and even killer whales and humpback whales. The problem is that these animals are very hard to reach and cost the earth since the country is not set up for tourism at all. The other problem is that the animals are not used to humans and will not hang around and hide themselves in thick jungle. GABON was first inhabited 400,000yrs ago by prehistoric man. Around the 16th Century tow principle ethnic groups called The Fang and The Bantu settled in the area to form the modern Gabonese.
The Portuguese arrived in 1472 and the French eventually colonised the whole place in 1885. The capital and largest city, Libreville (Pop 578,000) was so named because it was occupied by the first freed slaves in 1849. Independence came in 1960 like most of French West and Central Africa and there have only been 3 Presidents since. GABON is very rich in timber, manganese, iron, chrome, gold, diamonds and recently oil. Its Presidents have supposedly amassed millions if not billions of dollars in royalties and there are many rich officials and French ex-pats in Libreville which is supposed to be a very expensive city. 50% of the country is Christian with some Muslims (including the President) and the rest is traditional African tribal beliefs. Dancing and hip-hop is very popular here. Wooden mask carving is also big here. Food is similar to neighbouring countries - plantains, rice, fish with specialties being orca and spinach.
PPS: A LITTLE ABOUT CONGO:
CONGO or THE CONGOLESE REPUBLIC or THE REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO (Pop 4.7m) has half of the world’s lowland gorillas but they are hidden away in lush steamy jungles and not used to humans so very hard to see. It also has loads of elephants and chimps but unfortunately very early in its tourist development of these. The national parks ar there but not the infrastructure to allow tourists to get there and stay there. The “BaAka” were the first peoples of the CONGO but were later watered down by the Bantu who also occupied GABON and CAMEROON. The Portuguese were the first Europeans here but the French finally took over in 1875. Independence came in 1960 like many other countries colonised by the French. CONGO has had 5 Presidents since then, two by coup and the rest via rigged elections. CONGO was the only African country to institute communism soon after independence and it was abolished under full scale civil war in 1997 with Brazzaville, the capital and largest city was devastated in the process. The current President has been in power since 1979 and is running again this year! There are 16 ethnic groups in CONGO now and the “Kongo” dominate. Half the population is Christian and the other half “Animist”, the traditional belief deities in animals and objects. There are some Muslims. The CONGO is undergoing massive rebuilding and most is being done by the Lebanese. As a result there a lot of Lebanese bakeries, grocery shops and some restaurants. Food is seafood in the south (inlacing crab and calamari) and chicken, beef and pork in the north. The main starch is cassava and baguettes. There are Nescafe coffee wagons everywhere.
PPPS: A LITTLE ABOUT THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO or DRC:
DRC (Pop 81.7m), formerly known as ZAIRE, is the 11th largest country in the world and troubled. It has suffered from a long civil war (1997-2003) with an estimated 5 million deaths. The war was a spillover from the Tutsi-Hutu RWANDA Civil War with the losing Hutus joining forces with Eastern ZAIRE to overthrow the government of the time to take control of income producing mines. The President was assassinated in 2001 as part of the conflict and his now 44yr old son took over and held the first ever free elections in 2006 which he won. He has been President since and holding free elections this year. An army driven rebellion formed in 2003 and was disbanded in 2013 with pressure from the UN. There is still instability now and plenty of tourist cautions.
71% of the population lives under the poverty line and life expectancy for men is 47 and 51 for women. DRC was first inhabited in 8000BC but the Bantu dominated by 1000AD. The Portuguese arrived in the 16th Century and even Arabs traded in the 19th Century. Under the guise of exploration, King Leopold of Belgium took advantage of explorer Stanley and finally convinced the 1885 Berlin Conference to hand over the DRC to him. He raped and pillaged the country of its natural resources of iron, copper, ivory and rubber. Independence came in 1960 but at a cost - the first President Mabutu named the country ZAIRE and ruled with an iron fist bringing stability to swabbing factions and establishing trade but it is claimed he pocketed $US5b in the process!!! He continued until his death in 1996 and the next President was not much better. By that time the country was bankrupt and the Rwandan refugee crisis crystallised the Civil War.
The DRC has over 250 ethnic groups speaking some 700 languages - 4 groups make up 25%. Half the population is Catholic, 20% Protestant, 20% traditional and 10% Muslim. Unknown to many, DRC has the second deepest lake in the world, two mountains that exceed 5,000m and 4 active volcanoes. It is also has a large proportion of Africa’s wildlife but it is all hidden and hard to get to. DRC are big meat eaters with lots of beef and chicken in the capital. Baguettes and waffles are everywhere as permanent leftovers of Belgium.
PPPPS: INTERESTING FACT ON AFRICA:
20% of the African population believes in traditional indigenous faiths, all of which believe in a supreme “creator” but believe that objects such as trees, caves, certain musical instruments can be endowed with spiritual powers that heal or bring good fortune.
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