Congo & DRC

The joys & frustrations of travel in Africa

 

Having left Lope National Park we headed south to the Congo border and crossed without much fuss. We bush camped and got bogged for the first time but were pulled out by a passing truck within 30 minutes and ended up sleeping in the adjoining village much to their delight. We moved on to Pointe Noire where we stayed right on the beach at a restaurant, pitching our tents inbetween the deckchairs. It was exorbitantly expensive for this part of the world but that was mostly due to all the ex-pats that lived here. Our driver Steve also used our 2 nights here to try and get some much needed spare parts for the truck as we had broken a spring and a roll bar a few days before. Unfortunately the guy we got to reweld our spring did it backwards so we had to stay a 3rd night and we could not find a new roll bar. Nonplussed we pushed on into Cabinda, a territory of Angola which is quite hostile and not recommended for travel. The trip has actually been planned that we enter Cabinda in the morning so that we can exit the same afternoon just due to the dangers here. All was going well as we entered in the morning, getting through the paperwork and stamping we have become so accustomed to by about 11:30. We filled the truck up with fuel for 40 cents p/l then made it to the exit border in good time only to be told that it was closed on the weekends. Being a Saturday afternoon that left us with a bit of time to kill so what did we do? We went to one of the 4 bars on the border as there were no other shops or stalls at all. After half a beer it started to rain a typical torrential tropical downpour for the next few hours. The bar flooded, the beers flowed and we had a absolute ball with the border guards and the locals.

The 3 amigos

Dancing with the border guards

Warren getting down with Laura & Christina

After finally getting through the Cabinda - Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) border the roads turned to shit. The rain we had while we had been on the border had turned the sandy roads to mud but it was not the worst we`ve travelled on. We didn´t get bogged this time but we did pull a car out that was bogged and we did get delayed again, this time due to roadworks. Just before the town of Boma a large pit had been dug up right across the road where they were installing some pipes. We had to wait for about 4 hours while they put the pipes in and then covered it with enough dirt to get the truck over but we eventually got through and drove over the Congo river at Matadi.

The muddy roads of DRC

The Congo river at Matadi

We have now just crossed into Angola proper and it has definately seen a lot of development over the last few years since the civil war ended. It is still not very well travelled however as the latest lonely planet does not even bother writing a chapter about it stating that they do not have anyone on the ground in Angola and that not enough people travel there. The roads here are all new and tarmac so we should be in Namibia and back into civilization by the time I put my next blog up.

Our latest campsite view in Angola

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