DRC – Road Tripping Through Mud!

Tomorrow we start our trip to Kinshasa, we were denied visas to Angola so had to find another way to get to Kinshasa, road transport, boat, plane were all no goes so we have to take the route from Lubumbashi to Kinshasa, a route I had researched and decided was too long and the roads too bad to make it even option.  The  Angola curve ball means we need to try it or the trip stalls to a grinding halt.  We drove on Sunday from Windhoek and stayed in Rundu, the next day drove through the Caprivi to Livingston, and Tuesday made our way to Lusaka.   I decided to not drive to the DRC on Wednesday and prepare for the journey, this proved a good decision as we running around non-stop for 9 hours!!!

DHL DRC have organised someone to meet us at the border and drive with us to Kinshasa, I am very happy about this as I have reduced the team to 4 (3 cars) this was to make sure I had core team members that could run our activities in Kinshasa in case we don’t make it in time. This person will translate for us and help and keep us awake as we are anticipating very long days

The road we are taking is relatively unknown with few people begin able to give me any up to date information on the road. Even the DRC embassy in Lusaka had no clue and said it could take us a month, and that we could be driving along and the road will disappear and we will be faced with trees…!!

This should be our biggest adventure yet, the guys that are travelling on the road with me, have somewhat mixed emotions, excited for the adventure and a bit nervous we will not be seen again…

We left Lusaka for Lubumbashi 6 am on the 12^th and took 14.3 hours to reach our guest house. The reason, it took so long was, as usual, the border posts.  The Zambian one took an hour but the DRC one took 4 hours! Even with the assistance of 4 DHL employees, all was going ok until customs wanted to keep or carnet documents until we returned to that border. My heart sank, another curve ball was coming my way, not being able to exit into Congo, would mean the end of the trip, after the Angola problems, this was the last thing I wanted to hear.    Convincing them that we were exiting out via Kinshasa to Brazzaville and not going to sell the cars took a long time.    Eventually after showing them our carnets and that 11 other countries had stamped them the head of customs let us go.   In addition, to this we were asked by a little man for money before he would check our cars for customs, he wanted us to pay him for doing his job, another wanted money for opening the gate – sheesh this was going to be hard work!

Once we finally left the border we didn’t get 500m before we were stopped by the police again who wanted a $50 per person from us, not even sure why luckily the DHL guys were still with us and sorted it out.  Then a few KM’s up the road we were stopped again and told we needed to pay $100 per car for customs.  Now after all the hassle at the border, I was not I the right frame of mind for another attempt at bribery and let rip at the guys… I realised, I probably wasn’t helping matters so got in the car. The guys were able to sort it out and we didn’t have to pay.  The one guy I blew at came and said it as ok I didn’t have to pay – arse! We then came up to a toll, the normal charge is F6000,($6)  they wouldn’t let us pass until we paid $50

When we finally got to the bougainvillaea guest house, (a great South African run place, Hugo the owner was extremely helpful finding out information for us).  we had a nice meal, and a couple of beers while Hugo the owner told us were mad to attempt this journey, but would give us some contacts to call for info on the road and in case of trouble.

We started north on Friday 13^th, luckily, I like that date as I am born on the 13^th   First stop was to fill up with gas, and then straight away the crap started again.  The attendant tried to charge me $500 for half a tank of petrol.  After much arguing, it cost me $55 dollars. I had changed $300 at the border and had received a brick size wad of local francs and paid him with this.  He still tried it on with one of the other cars! As we were leaving he asked me for a job – my answer was to laugh and tell him he was too dishonest and repeat NO about 10 times, he thought this was great!!!

We still had to make a quick stop at the supermarket and the bank to pick up more local money.  We walked into the most amazing looking Supermarket I have probably ever been in.  The merchandising and shelves were perfect, we couldn’t stop laughing as it was so unexpected.  To top off this, the owners came up to us and said they had seen our cars outside and thought we were doing an amazing thing and gave us 5 free cases of water –they restored my mood for the day!

We ended up taking a different road as the N1 was apparently very bad at the moment.  Trying to cross the Congo in the rainy season is not the ideal time, but time is against us so we have to give it a go.  The road, on the whole, wasn’t too bad in places, the rest was mud and huge muddy deep pools to cross we took us about 3 hours to do 100km.  As dark approached, we found a village Kasangala, that had a flat piece of land in front of a goat shed and asked the chief if we could camp there for the night. We had been on the road for nearly 9 hours, my body was tired from driving all over the road to miss the pot holes.

We provided some entertainment for the villagers as we set up camp.  Unfortunately, we couldn’t speak with them as they mainly spoke Swahili and very little French.  We spent a pleasant night underneath an incredible ceiling of stars.

I must admit I was a bit nervous starting the journey through the Congo, I couldn’t help feeling that I might be leading the team into trouble, it is, without any doubt, we are heading into the unknown.  The GPS doesn’t help, I do have quite a detailed map, but with the rainy season, roads change all the time so we just hope we are going in the right direction!  Poly our translator is helping us stay on track as we stop often to make sure we are heading in the right direction.

Saturday 14^th 8 am – 6.30pm 10.5 hours 63km

We were supposed to leave at 7, but all the tents and awnings were wet.  As things get mouldy here very quickly we decided to wait for things drive and only set off at 8 am – no idea where we will get to tonight!!!

What a day 63km in 10 hours (this did include 3-hour wait for a ferry and not a very stable one at that!!).  As soon as we left the village the road deteriorated into a big muddy mess, mud was the norm and when we hit dry roads we were delighted.  Now when I say mud I am meaning truck sucking holes of mud non-stop mud and water (that is what you get for driving in the Congo in the rainy season…).

Obstacles that you would normally not even consider in a million years you have to go for it.  Before this trip, I had been a passenger on 4×4 trips but never really driven myself.  The last 5 months we have hit a few obstacles but nothing that can compare to these roads.  I can’t actually explain how bad they really are, even the photos don’t show anywhere near how bad they are.  A few times I have come out of a really bad section and have been shaking it has been so hairy, deep water and even deeper holes to negotiate, the car sometimes (a lot actually) feels like it is going to roll over.  It is physically and mentally exhausting, my body feels like hit has been hit by one of the massive trucks on this road – well not the ones that are stuck…

At one of the villages we camped in one night the villagers had probably seen white men driving past but certainly not many if any white women.  I was the hit of the night if I made a move they copied me.  I put my hand out for them to shake and at first, they were terrified to touch me, one or two brave souls came forward and when they realised I didn’t bite, they have rushed to shake my hands, they nearly shook it off.  Even as I am typing this I have an audience of about 12 tiny kids all laughing and waiting for me to look up and pull a face – it is the Muzugu show…

Sunday 15^th  8 am – 6 pm  10 hours 97km

We set off again at 8 am, we seem to be a bit slow in the morning.  The roads today, on the whole, were not as bad, except for the places they were really bad…

We managed an extra 34km today.  Two of the cars got stuck today in a particularly muddy spot and had to be winched out,  we also helped to pull a local bakkie out of the mud.  At this section, when I came through I also got stuck in front of a crowd of locals but managed to reverse back and out of the mud, the guys went mad cheering and shouting, Mademoiselle Bravo, was very cool!

Along the road were quite a few broken down or stuck trucks.  These poor guys live on these trucks for weeks.  If they get stuck they stay where they are until the mud dries and they can dig themselves out.  One section we came to 6 trucks had stopped because one had broken down on a single lane part of the road.  There was organised chaos. A temporary little village that had sprung up around these trucks. Makeshift tents, washing cooking, as some of these trucks carry the locals up and down the roads there was women, children of all ages. These guys could be there for weeks until the broken down truck is fixed.  Everyone was relaxed it is just a way of life here.

As we approached, we had not idea what to expect as we hadn’t seen such madness on the road, the roads are relatively quiet.  There was no way past the trucks, due to the makeshift village.  A couple of guys came up to us and said there was a way around.  Someone had cut about 500m path through the bushes and trees to make a little road, we really were bunder bashing through here.  We eventually came out at a spot we could squeeze past the trucks.  The cars just made it under awnings, around cooking pots people it was surreal driving through.  When people realise it is a white woman driving they are stunned, I don’t think women drive over here at all.  At the end of the trail, a throng of guys and an old lady whose land it was were demanding money.  Paying the people that helped is not a problem, it is the crowd that surrounds you that is the problem.  Luckily with the help of Poly (our interpreter and Jaco the matter was sorted,  a  delay that could have cost us weeks, we diverted for a cost $5!

The vegetation is changing and becoming a lot more hilly and a bit more Jungle like (we are trying to find out what make somewhere a jungle, apparently google told us later it was temperature).  We have had to cross a couple of bridges, one was falling to bits with a few logs filling the gap not fun!!

Again we stopped in a village and asked permission to set up camp.  The whole village was totally enthralled by us and stayed most of the night watching us.  The 3-4-year-olds here have babies on their back, it is like a world of little people…  We set up one of the computers last night and let them watch our footage from Namibia, it was amazing to watch their faces, it was the first time for most of the village to have seen anything like this.

Monday 16^th 7.30am –    13km

What a fuck up of a day, we started off really well, the road was dry we only had a few bad spots and were excited that we could get at least to Kamina (134km away).  Little did we know what a mess we would get ourselves into.  We came across a huge section of mud and deep ruts with a truck stuck in one, as we went to have a look, behind these truck was another 3 trucks, one had broken down.  And 2 bakkies one that was totally stuck and blocking the only way around.  So Jaco decided to tow the car out, it all started to go wrong from there, as he was towing he got stuck so I brought Lassie’s car to tow him out. Unfortunately, this did not work.  One of the trucks said he would pull him out – now the trouble started as the car was being pulled both the front side shafts snapped!!!!  Now we were in the shit.  We got the car back to the dry side of the mess and Jaco tried to fix it to no avail.  While this was going on I walked through the bushes next to the mud and stuck trucks and decided we should make a new road around them.  Lassie and I got the chainsaw out and start to clear a way through.  Once the new road I christen Louise’s Street, we had to get one of the other bakkies that were blocking the road on the other side to drive on the new road, this would have been fine, but the driver took it through at such a speed he churned up the whole area.  This means that when we went to go through we got stuck, which was ok, as we used one of the broken down trucks to pull us out.

The next obstacle had a truck stuck in it. We had to drive around it though another evil mud deep trench area.  We got one car across but now with the broken side shafts the other car can now only drive straight, Lassie tried to pull it through the mud without any luck.  So Lassie untied his car and drove to the other side where my car was sitting.

Now the problems really began, how do we get the car across?  The truck stuck in front of our car was working a plan to get out of the huge mud rut hole about 4-5ft deep in places and about 30m long.

The driver said he would pull our other car through the trench when they got moving.  We started to help the guys prepare by chopping down trees to line the road in return for them to pull Jaco’s car out of the hole onto the dry apparently better road, so we could tow him to the somewhere safe to leave the car until we can get it repaired.

We thought all was going to plan when the road was ready,  With Jaco’s  car tied to the back of the truck, the truck took off and got stuck 5m later on the same logs they had put down to help them get out of the road!!!!  Now it started all over again, chopping down the trees and building another road…

The thing is now, what do we do, do I leave the car and drive on with two.  This decision would mean that the car would be gone or stripped the time we got back to it, if we got back to it.  Do I leave someone with the car and food and water to wait till someone can return with spares – at this stage 19h44 I have no idea!!!  The only thing I know is that we are sleeping on the road tonight – literally!!

Tuesday 17^th

Well about 9pm after 2 failed attempts to get the truck out of the ditch, the guys gave up.  The poor things were looking like something that had come up from the grave, covered in wet mud from digging under the truck all night.  So there we began our first night on the side of the road in the middle of the DRC.  I think this is what you would call a jungle , hanging vines, supersized bugs and rats, and lots of noisy creatures at night.  The stars were amazing as you can hardly see your hand in front of your face when you are away from the light.

The boys were not keen to put up tents after all the work they had done chopping down trees during the day, in fact, it wasn’t the tents that were the problem but, blowing up the mattresses with the compressor…  So we all slept in the cars.  As we were all so tired, we all managed to get a good few hours.  The only problem, is we have now not had a shower or proper wash for going on 5 days, we are attracting the bugs and when you can’t stand your own smell you know!.  I have had a couple, it of “baby wipe” showers but not have washed my hair, which is now beyond disgusting.  Anyway, it could be worse, it could be raining – better not speak too soon, the “jungle listens”!!!

This morning, we re-accessed the situation and still don’t know how long it will be before we get out of the mud hell.  We need to keep an eye on our water situation.  We have plenty if we are only here for today, but if we have to spend another night here we need to start rationing the drinks in case we are here for days.  We have approx. 150lt left between 5 of us, but it is so hot here you sweat so much you hardly have to pee!!

Lots more trees are being chopped down as I type (thank god I bought the chainsaw, wish I had got a bigger one now!  This morning we got the skottle our and I cooked everyone eggs, bacon and fried bread (I know that is really not healthy but it was stale…).  As we were cleaning up I noticed a line of inch long black ants approaching the car. The next moment, an army of black ants came out of the bush about 6-7in wide and getting wider with every advancing line, it was like something out of a horror movie. I quickly grabbed a water bottle we that had some petrol in it for the chainsaw and threw it one the ants, luckily they panicked and turned around and went back into the bush.  That was freaky, will watch the food prep in future.  Hopefully, it won’t be in the middle of the jungle tomorrow!!!

Everyone seems to be coping well, this is quite an adventure, not one many people (outside of the locals) can say they have had.  My biggest worry at the moment is our visas, we only got a 2 week one and we are already on day 5 of a 15-day visa.  We originally only had to drive a short distance across the Angola border to Kinshasa, which is a good tar road I have been told, not an idiotic journey through deepest darkest Africa.  If we can get an extension on the visa then we are ok, if we can’t, I hope we don’t end up in jail, I told the lads they are ok as they will be together, I would be on my own!