OverlandSphere
Overland Travel, Expedition & Adventure Information for 4x4, motorcycle and truck overlanders
Bonjour from the Congo, Here is how my last 2 days played out. Red is when I was on the boat. So yesterday morning I got a call from Basilio that one of his guys managed to organise me a boat going to Cabinda. The main ferry that goes to Cabinda is broken. So I hung around the whole day…
Brazzaville, Brazzaville, Congo. Life in Brazzaville moves at a slow pace. Everyone just goes about their business during the day, but at night things comes alive in a mix of eating, talking, singing, dancing and drinking. We were staying with Chantal and Florence, two teachers at the Lycée Français (French school), who we found through CouchSurfing. During the day, we…
Luozi, Bas Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo. We found an alternative to the expensive ferry from Kinshasa to Brazzaville: about 150 kilometres before Kinshasa, and about ten kilometres before Kimpese, there is a road that turns north towards the town of Luozi. The road starts as a gravel track that leads to the ferry across the legendary Congo River.…
Kinshasa, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. We were advised to cross the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (or: DRC, Congo-Kinshasa or Congo Democratique) at the small Luvo border crossing, rather than Matadi, because it is friendlier and less corrupt. And, indeed, the border crossing was very easy. The Angolan side took a while with quite a…
Friday 22nd to Saturday 23rd June 2012. Luozi, Songololo. Up with the sun, we packed away our tents and drove the short distance to the ferry. Already piles of people, luggage, and several vehicles had gathered. We arranged our three cars so no one could push past and settled in to wait. We were quite an object of curiosity…
Thursday 21st June 2012. Boko, Ndedanga, Luozi. The next morning we were up early to make the border crossing. A little way along the road, just past the police checkpoint at Voka, a man jumped on Mike and Emma’s car and showed us the way to the non-descript immigration office. Here police painstakingly wrote our details and stamped us…
Wednesday 7th June to Thursday 21st June 2012. Brazzaville. We were so grateful to have the Hippocampe as a base over the next two weeks. We recuperated, gradually gave Bluebelle a well-deserved clean out, and slowly got to know Brazzaville. We had much more time than we needed here and didn’t expect our Angolan visas to take so long after…
Tuesday 6th June 2012. Brazzaville. Up early we met Dad and Dan at their hostel, loaded all their bits into Bluebelle for one final ride and took them to the Maya-Maya airport to catch their plane to Uganda. We had an interesting and fun time with them and Bluebelle felt very empty on the return journey. It will be a…
Saturday 2nd June to Monday 4th June 2012. Brazzaville, Chutes de Loufoulakari. I had a fitful sleep last night, woken by painful muscle aches and feverish dreams. We wondered if it was flu or, worse, Malaria and decided if I’m not any better tomorrow we’d find a clinic to get a test. I slept the day away whilst Luke…
Thursday 31st May to Friday 1st June 2012. Lefini Reserve, Lessio-Louna Gorilla Reserve. It didn’t take us long to reach Ngo the next morning, which from our map we could gather had a route leading to Mpouya on the Congo River and hopefully boats. Here we happened upon the Congolese mud track of our imaginations. We were so glad the…
Wednesday 30th May 2012. Okoyo, Obouya, Oyo, Gamboma. Crossing into the Congo we discovered it was not what we expected at all! The Congo of our imaginations was thickly forested in sweaty tropical jungle with rough, eroded, and slow-going muddy tracks for roads. Instead we found ourselves driving on sandy tracks between long grasses and some excellent stretches of smooth…
Day 142-146: (Driving to) Brazzaville Exactly at the border the tar was replaced by loose, deep sand and who do we see there digging and walking around with sand ladders..Regula and Jon! We let some air out of the tires and decide it’s better to drive with two cars in case we get stuck again. The sand is deep, but…
After our session in the mud, our trip from Kinkala to Brazzaville was over in a flash. The road was excellent, and being a weekend, relatively quiet. We made straight for Hotel Hippocampe, where it is known they offer refuge to weary overland travellers such as ourselves. The owners Olivier and his wife Catharine let…
Immediately after entering Congo the gravel road deteriorated, it’s clearly not maintained like the road on the Gabon side. Mud puddles quickly became the norm. After the first village we come across a truck stuck in waist deep mud, completely blocking the road. Some locals had cut an alternate track and wanted to charge us…
Countries visited – Congo, DRC, Angola & Namibia Miles travelled – 2667 miles Sunny days – 27 days Coldest night – 18’C Kamanjab, Namibia Warmest day – 38’C Purros, Namibia Highest mountain pass travelled – 4879ft, Van Zyl’s Pass Cheapest fuel – £0.27, Angola Best food tasted – Meat (of known origin) & Wine!!! We treated ourselves to the best…