Cape Town
Slowly the car is getting ready for the next trip, but we keep finding little things that are broken. While replacing the front springs, matching the rear OME 5mm lift, we noted that some of the body mounts were totally perished. No wonder things were banging and rattling so bad! Also I noted that the new shocks were mounted wrongly on the rear, so I corrected that too. If you want something done properly you have to do it yourself in Africa or bring your car to a proper dealer(it will still be a gamble then). Oh yeah frikandellen en oliebollen!
The story continues:
The Republic of the Congo, also known as Congo Republic, Congo-Brazzaville or the French Congo. Our welcome to the country wasn’t too warm I must say, it wasn’t a busy border at Souanke and we had to find the right person to open a big gate closing track. It didn’t take too long to find the right person, but he was also a very talkative man trying to “support his family”. Being white, people rapidly come to the conclusion that you are in a rush and therefore must go through the express procedure. Express means more expensive. We didn’t really feel like bribing people, so this man kept talking until there wasn’t anything to talk about anymore and then the awkward silence comes. One last try to get some money out of us, he directly demands an amount for his family and we stick to our NO. He gives up and just stamps our passport. The giant man at customs surprisingly stamps our carnet like he has done it before and on we were. CONGO HERE WE COME!
The next section of road, according to the blogs of people doing this route a few years before, was supposed to be the worst of our whole trip. We kept going and going, but the road was just getting better and better! Where was the mud, where were the hard times fighting and trying not to get stuck? When we hit the smooth Chinese tarmac we kissed goodbye to the idea of actually needing a 4 wheel drive on the trip. This means you could basically drive your little city car from your house all the way down to South Africa!(I'll take that back later in the DRC)
The Republic of the Congo, also known as Congo Republic, Congo-Brazzaville or the French Congo. Our welcome to the country wasn’t too warm I must say, it wasn’t a busy border at Souanke and we had to find the right person to open a big gate closing track. It didn’t take too long to find the right person, but he was also a very talkative man trying to “support his family”. Being white, people rapidly come to the conclusion that you are in a rush and therefore must go through the express procedure. Express means more expensive. We didn’t really feel like bribing people, so this man kept talking until there wasn’t anything to talk about anymore and then the awkward silence comes. One last try to get some money out of us, he directly demands an amount for his family and we stick to our NO. He gives up and just stamps our passport. The giant man at customs surprisingly stamps our carnet like he has done it before and on we were. CONGO HERE WE COME!
The next section of road, according to the blogs of people doing this route a few years before, was supposed to be the worst of our whole trip. We kept going and going, but the road was just getting better and better! Where was the mud, where were the hard times fighting and trying not to get stuck? When we hit the smooth Chinese tarmac we kissed goodbye to the idea of actually needing a 4 wheel drive on the trip. This means you could basically drive your little city car from your house all the way down to South Africa!(I'll take that back later in the DRC)
Camping every night in the places where the Chinese took soil to build the roads, we could enjoy the jungle without being bother by bugs or locals too much. The giant trees still surrounded us and the noise of the jungle never stopped. Tropical birds and crickets were the usual source, but an occasional shout of a monkey wasn’t rare. Some of the insects were truly giant though, huge bugs would fly past and it would nearly sound like a helicopter. Sitting next to the fire, they would get attracted in the night, causing a few crash landings on your body. On an unexpecting moment it would really scare the shit out of you. Just going 20 meters of the road into the thick jungle was a total different world that I would have liked to explore more. Unfortunately we exited the thick forest faster than we expected. The effects of deforestation were everywhere and sooner than we wanted it was just long stretching grasslands.
Arriving in the weekend, the capitol and biggest city, Brazzaville seemed very quiet. Getting into the city was a nightmare because of a lack in infrastructure. The owners at Hotel Hippocampe let us stay for free on the parking lot. This place is a true overlanding mecca as people have been coming here for years. They keep multiple guest books with notes of other travelers. It kept us busy for hours and was very inspiring to read. We had dinner at Mami Wata, overlooking the mighty Congo river during a sunset. This view was absolutely stunning, a moment no camera could capture.
At the hotel we met this other couple Roger and Rebecca from Australia, enjoying their retirement traveling the world in a Hilux. They were heading in the opposite direction, but we had a blast sharing stories over dinner. They were telling their experiences of what we would have to go through if we wouldn’t be able to get an Angolan visa. They drove the famous Kinshasha – Lubumbashi route in the dry season, getting through in a bit more than 2 weeks and minor damages to the car. In the wet season it would be a total different story, which was now. I got excited about it and was kind of hoping we wouldn’t be able to get the Angolan visa. Jasmin on the other hand wasn’t too happy about it. Our best shot to get a visa was in Dolisie, or further down to the coast in Point Noire.
The N1 main highway towards Point Noire was a true nightmare. A truly blissful tarmacked road had been created, but just because the ribbon hasn’t been cut by some politician we were not able to use it. This road was obviously not created by the Chinese that don’t care about this stuff. Instead we had to drive on the worst highway of our trip. Potholes knee deep, heavy corrugation and trucks stuck in mud everywhere. Pigs loved it though!
Arriving in the weekend, the capitol and biggest city, Brazzaville seemed very quiet. Getting into the city was a nightmare because of a lack in infrastructure. The owners at Hotel Hippocampe let us stay for free on the parking lot. This place is a true overlanding mecca as people have been coming here for years. They keep multiple guest books with notes of other travelers. It kept us busy for hours and was very inspiring to read. We had dinner at Mami Wata, overlooking the mighty Congo river during a sunset. This view was absolutely stunning, a moment no camera could capture.
At the hotel we met this other couple Roger and Rebecca from Australia, enjoying their retirement traveling the world in a Hilux. They were heading in the opposite direction, but we had a blast sharing stories over dinner. They were telling their experiences of what we would have to go through if we wouldn’t be able to get an Angolan visa. They drove the famous Kinshasha – Lubumbashi route in the dry season, getting through in a bit more than 2 weeks and minor damages to the car. In the wet season it would be a total different story, which was now. I got excited about it and was kind of hoping we wouldn’t be able to get the Angolan visa. Jasmin on the other hand wasn’t too happy about it. Our best shot to get a visa was in Dolisie, or further down to the coast in Point Noire.
The N1 main highway towards Point Noire was a true nightmare. A truly blissful tarmacked road had been created, but just because the ribbon hasn’t been cut by some politician we were not able to use it. This road was obviously not created by the Chinese that don’t care about this stuff. Instead we had to drive on the worst highway of our trip. Potholes knee deep, heavy corrugation and trucks stuck in mud everywhere. Pigs loved it though!
To make things worse, this road was right next to the good one. On every big bump or line of trucks, you would be looking at the good road laughing in your face. We tried sneaking onto it a few times, but were stopped soon after by road blocks. It took us only 10 hours to drive the 360 km (trucks take 2 days) and man we were exhausted. We camped at the Dolisie Catholic mission and fell asleep straight away. Every night we had a massive(but beautiful) thunderstorm raging over and every morning we woke up here, we were awakened by a big group of kids singing. I guess this wasn’t too bad.
We needed a positive start of the day like this, to deal with the tough Angolan consulate. Instead of denying the visa, they were playing ‘hard to get’. On top of that they didn’t speak English and we don’t speak Portugese. It was getting frustrating after 3 days of running up and down to the consulate, because they made us fill in the wrong form or whatever reason. We got in contact with the pastor of the mission we were staying at. Apparently the consular was a frequent visitor to the church mission. The pastor called him directly on his phone and things started rolling pretty fast from there. The consulate gave us 2 transit visas each, which set us back 400 us dollars. As we only had transit visas we had to cross both Cabinda and mainland Angola in only 10 days. Again no time to relax and enjoy the journey. On top of the visas they gave us two envelopes to hand over to the Angolan immigration but we were not allowed to open them. Very strange.
Later we discovered, by opening them anyway, that they were just letters of recommendation. We crossed both borders without the letter as it was never asked for.
After receiving the visas we left as soon as we could. From here on the road was tarmacked properly, with an occasional pothole here and there. We passed Point Noire without stopping, except for the heavy congestion that is. We managed to cross the border the same day as leaving Dolisie, so that part of the trip was fairly painless.
In total we spent only a week in Congo, but the country has certainly made an impression in our trip. The Chinese have the country in their power and this will not affect the rainforests positively. Hopefully politicians will start seeing the fact that making decisions for the long term will affect their country more positive than the quick dollar here and there.
After receiving the visas we left as soon as we could. From here on the road was tarmacked properly, with an occasional pothole here and there. We passed Point Noire without stopping, except for the heavy congestion that is. We managed to cross the border the same day as leaving Dolisie, so that part of the trip was fairly painless.
In total we spent only a week in Congo, but the country has certainly made an impression in our trip. The Chinese have the country in their power and this will not affect the rainforests positively. Hopefully politicians will start seeing the fact that making decisions for the long term will affect their country more positive than the quick dollar here and there.
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