Congo and Angola (Cabinda)

On March 9th we headed towards the border of Gabon/Congo (not to be confused with Democratic Republic of Congo - DRC). The remote border was down a very long, narrow road, a country lane. It was raining so we had the top down. Excited and a bit nervous about heading into Congo as it is an unknown quantity. On the Congo side we expected to see big guys with guns, instead of which there were two guys in tracksuits. They searched 'for guns' but didnt look very hard. The immigration people were a bit more serious but we had a good game of soccer with the villagers while waiting to be processed.


As we slowly made our way into the Congo along the country lane there was a beautuful sunset. We parked in a small clearing next to a telephone tower cos it was the only place to camp. A worker came to check on the tower. He bought a rifle with him, 'because of the small animals'. Whether for hunting or protection wasn't clear. In the morning he asked me for whiskey, though i dont know how he knew i had some. I have been drinking 'Bangalore's finest Whiskey', called Black Stallion.....4 dollars a litre so you can imagine the quality, but it does the job.

Anyway, the scenery in Congo was even better than in Gabon. I wish i was better at describing stuff but will try to post some pix. Mountains and hills and forests and mist etc etc. Just beautiful. Stood up looking out of the truck all day. A policeman joined us for a day. He said he had to go and collect a criminal from somewhere but we kept stopping and i reckon he just fancied a day out to go see his mates, but we couldnt really argue since he had a pistol. After he got off, we went up and down the mountains, a few sheer drops and also a few groups of guys walking along which made the bushcamp a bit scary, felt a bit vulnerable, but nothing happened and it was fine.

On the 11th we made it to port town of Point Noire. The journey into the town was strange as we were in slow traffic and getting lots of attention from the people in the streets. Most people waved and smiled at the white people although a few made hand gestures including shooting at us but i am not sure they were too serious.

I have only had 5 mozzie bites so far on the trip which i am pretty pleased about but Point Noire is worse than other places for malarial mozzies so i was cursing myself when i let my guard down and got bitten. I had been cleaning the dishes one night and was sweating buckets in the humidity so took my tshirt off. Within minutes i had a huge bite on my belly. Got a bit paranoid. Malaria can take a week or so to kick in after you get bitten, but its been a couple of weeks now so should be ok.

On March 12th headed to the Congo/Angola border. We had no idea about food and drink supplies in the coming weeks so i stocked up with 27 litres of bottled water behind my seat. And lots tuna and pringles. Angola is actually split into two parts by the DRC so we went into the first part of Angola, known as  Cabinda. We had to travel along the road where the Togo soccer team got shot so in the morning we were a little nervous and agreed we would try not to bring attention to ourselves. At the border a soldier was clearly taking bribes from merchants as they crossed the border on foot. He would stop them and not let them through till they handed him cash which he stuck straight in his pocket. Luckily we had no problems. And we went along the road with no worries and the views were great, we could see the ocean.

Cameroon and Gabon

So we left the church ground in Yaounde. The staff were pretty unfriendly until they waved us off. And we said goodbye to some of our gang who went elsewhere for a while. Headed towards Gabon. Cameroon is quite well developed and as soon as we got to the Gabon border we could see that Gabon is even more developed.......proper houses. We stopped to change a tyre so Chilean Herman and I sat in a shop doorway and shared his ipod to listen to some hardcore trance he had downloaded. Making shapes.

We stopped at the sign that told us we were at the equator. That was the first time i have crossed the equator over land. The countryside in Gabon is beautiful; rolling hills, gushing rivers, rainforests. Of course the rainforests are being logged which is a bit wrong, but if thats how the locals make money....they should invest more in tourism cos its a beautiful country. We went to Lope National Park which was a days drive from the main road but it was stunning, so many shades of green that i havent seen before. The front of the truck is like an open top bus so we have the best 360 degree views of the scenery (i have to stand on a seat!) We usually chat and enjoy the views, sometimes i put my tunes on.


From the park we did a safari and saw some elephants and monkeys and bush buck, though all from a distance. It was ok, the others seemed more excited than me. Hopefully at other parks we will be closer to the animals. We left the park and headed out in the opposite direction to which we came, lots of bushcamping in the middle of nowhere. We got bogged in the mud at one point but luckily there was a guy with a tractor to pull us out. After 2 days the road was deteriorating and some locals told us that the road ahead was 'broken'. So we turned back which meant a 3 day return trip to the main road. But we didnt care because the scenery had been so good. This time we got to go through the villages at a different time, most memorably going through these tiny remote villages in the early morning mist as they were starting their day and making breakfast, it was beautiful. I also had my picture taken with a 6 foot, dead, green Mamba snake.

Although i have said they were remote villages, to be fair many of them have soccer jerseys so they must have some contact with the outside world.