Cabinda, Angola to Bushcamp, Democratic Republic of Congo, March 25,2019

What a great night I had.  I could stay in a hotel every night 😀 but not to be.  We were only 25 km from the DRC border so were there in good time but what a shit show!  First, they wanted everyone out of the truck with their passports, then they changed their minds and just wanted me to collect them.  Fine.  A policeman and I took them to 4 different offices looking for workers.  Too early I guess.  They made a phone call and soon a man strolled up.  Into his office we went and then he wanted a copy of our passport and a copy of the Angola visa which luckily we just happened to have!  I returned to his office and his lackey started to write out our information by hand in a large ledger.  Why? I asked, when you have a copy of the passports and our passenger list?  Three of them had a discussion and decided that wasn't necessary, however, they now wanted us to write our name, our Dad's name, our Mother's name and the city and country where we were born on the back of our two pages.  Fine.  Soon, they were busy stamping and were very genial as to where to stamp except for the two passengers who left bookmarks in their passports wanting very specific spots!  Crazy.  

Back in the truck, we drove 100 meters and voilà, we were in the Democratic Repubilic of Congo!  OMG!  If I thought ROC was bad.....  I collected the passports and went into an office with one cop.  They too needed to hand write our information, even though they scanned the passports like they do at home and had our passenger manifest.  We had to holler back and forth when they had questions and when other travellers arrived, we were shoved to the side while they were dealt with.  After about 2.5 hours, they decided they wanted our yellow fever booklets so we got them together.  Come with me, the man said I want to talk to you.  Okay!
We went into a different building where they proceeded to write down our information!  What? I said.  The other office just did that.  Yes, but we are the health department!  Frick, I thought, we are never getting out of here!  I did the writing: name, age, sex, nationality, where we are coming from and where we are going.  I was done in about 7 minutes, just at the same time that the passports were ready and we were out of there, only to drive about 10 minutes to find a police barrier.  We are now used to that.  I was riding shotgun because I speak French, so I had to go into an office to read the tax sheet.  We are a 3 axle truck and so we were required to pay 250,000 francs which is $153 US!  To drive on a clay/sand road!  And so, the discussion began.  I said we were a bus with fewer than 20 passengers so we should have to pay only 50,000.  We went back and forth, numerous people got involved, I went back and sat in the truck = furious, went back to the police group, argued, negotiated and got more frustrated.  I was told that the DRC needs our money to build their roads.  The classification of whether we are a truck or a bus is how 'we' as in white Europeans, have classified the vehicles.  They gave me the impression that all of their problems are the white people's fault.  It reminded me of the BS I've heard somewhere else!  I explained that it wasn't our responsibility to pay for their roads, that if they came to Canada, they wouldn't have to pay for ours - we work hard and do it ourselves.  I told them I felt like we were being stolen from - they didn't like that one and that 250,000 francs was probably more than what three or four of them made in a month!  Eventually we came to an agreement that we would pay only 100,000 francs and after scrounging, we were on

our way -

We came to an area that had received a fair bit of rain and the truck was slip sliding around-

Others had more trouble than us-

We drove until almost dark and are in a quarry for the night.  We weren't here five minutes and people were calling for me - there's a man here with a machine gun!  Okay!  He was military and took us into the village to speak to the chief who was very kind, allowing us to stay for free.  I think the military man suggested to him in their language that he should ask for something because soon he wanted drinks.  I explained that we didn't have any, and that's the truth.  We haven't been able to stock up today because there have been no shops.  When we got back to the quarry, I gave him a used water bottle filled with truck water - it's cloudy and doesn't look that appetizing but that's what we drink so.....  Just because we are white doesn't mean we are rich!  After a few minutes they held up the bottle and asked if it was potable.  I laughed and said yes, that's what we drink!

We didn't meet many vehicles but those we did are loaded-

Students had physed.  That's quite a big class-

Because of the dodgy roads, we only made 85 km-

And have a 7 am start tomorrow as we make our way back to the Angola border.  We are hoping to get to Luanda by the night of the 28th!  Hope we make it!

Matombi Beach, Congo to Cabinda, Angola, March 23, 2019

I fell asleep by 8 pm but was awoken at 10 by howling winds.  I quickly put on my fly just before it started to rain.  Again, the lightning show was crazy - I think because the days are so hot and the nights cool off there's a huge temperature change so lots of storms.  The inside of my tent only got a little wet because of human error:  I've managed to properly close three of the four roof vents and will work on getting the fourth one closed too but not tonight because I've upgraded!  Yee ha!

We stopped in Pointe Noire for three hours and I spent the first one in a nice patisserie having a deliciously fresh petit pain au chocolat and an Americano.  From there, I went to Cathedral Saint Pierre which according to some yip yo on trip advisor is magnificent.  Well, I wouldn't agree but like I've said before, my bar is really low these days.  The outside-

The inside-

They must get big crowds because there are lots of tile covered pews outside.  Our next stop was at the recently opened Africa Space Museum which contains many tribal masks and carvings-

Funeral urns-

Amulets-

Voodoo dolls-

There were also some great paintings including Traffic Jam-

Abandonned Culture-

A metal sculpture called Dancer in Sweat-

Hope of a Nation-

 

Mamá Africa-

Later, we headed south to Cabinda, Angola where the ROC/Angola crossing was simple enough:  we needed photocopies of our Congo visa before leaving then photocopies of our Angola visa to enter.  

Africa is not easy-

We made it to the Catholic Mission in Cabinda where Father Futi met us and happily allowed us to stay.  Not me!  I'm in an awesome nearby hotel for the next two nights because the DRC border is closed Sundays so we can't cross tomorrow.  Darn 😜!  

Dolisie to Matombi Beach, Republic of Congo, March 21-22, 2019

Yesterday we were to meet at the truck at 9 am to pay our $150 US for a double entry Angolan visa that will last 30 days.  Visa fees are determined reciprocally so thanks Canada!  Once all the money was collected, Short Brian and Ella went into the embassy to pay but were told they wouldn't accept American dollars.  Yesterday they would.  I'm telling you - this is the kind of shit we deal with regularly.  When they got to the bank, it was closing for their usual two hour lunch so they were told to come back at 3.  Guess what?  The embassy closed at 3!  But, they went to the bank a little earlier, got the money exchanged and arrived at the embassy about 2:57!  We were all waiting and finally we were allowed inside.  They called us in individually, photocopied our passport bio page, made us sign a document and by 4:00, we were ready to go.  But wait!  Why would we drive only an hour and a half before we'd have to set up camp?  Let's stay the night!  AWESOME!  I rushed back to my hotel, got the same room and lay in the cool, cool air conditionning.  

Today, we had an 8 am departure for a 182 km drive to the beach-

Along the way:  hauling goats-

pigs and logs-

We drove through hilly jungle-

 

There are numerous wrecks along the way that have been there forever-

We stopped for lunch in Pointe Noire - skewers with 4 chunks of grilled chicken cost 50 cents!  A beautiful, still warm bread roll is 20 cents!  I love street food.  

There's a gorge near Diosso which is apparently Congo's Grand Canyon.  My bar is set lower than the ground my feet walk on, so I wasn't expecting much but it was pretty nice-

 

We have found a nice wild camp, right on the ocean.  I'm  hoping for a cool, rain free night.  We're making our way to the Democratic Republic of Congo tomorrow.  Maybe some day it will cool off?

Dolisie, Republic of Congo, March 20, 2019

I had a great sleep and wandered to the truck at 9 to meet the group to get our information together for the Angolan visa.  To start, we needed two passport pictures, a copy of our passport, a copy of our yellow fever vaccination and our passport.  Ella and Short Brian took that in and we waited.  I got a SIM card because the wifi in the hotel is shit, at least with my IPad.  Michelle was kind enough to let me use her phone to get my card because the one I have borrowed was dead.  

She too got bit up pretty badly the other night in Gabon-

Luckily my bites have pretty much disappeared.

The next step to getting the visa was to fill out a three page form.  What a crock!  They gave us one copy and it was up to us to make enough for our group.  Assholes!  The photocopy machines here are from the 1970s so it took about an hour and a half to get the copies made.  Once the forms were filled in, Ella and Short Brian went in again.  Now supposedly we'll pay $1580 US in the morning and then get our visas.  How ass backwards is all that?  Oh well, I've got plans to spend the day in my room so I don't really care!

I've been looking for a flight home the past month or so and prices just keep going up and up.  I can't book yet because we can't be sure when we'll get to Luanda.  I'm hoping I can fly home on the 29th and it will take 2 days but flights on the 30th, at least with WestJet, are already sold out from Toronto to Saskatoon so time will tell.  I may never get home!

We're off to Pointe Noire tomorrow afternoon to camp on the beach for a couple of nights, presuming we get our passports back!

Quarry to Dolisie, Republic of Congo, March 19, 2019

What a night!  The lightning show was fantastic and lasted most of the night.  The rain didn't come until 3 am but then continued until it was time to get up at 6:30 to make breakfast.  The floor of my tent was pretty much soaked because the sides leak and the roof drips!  I am glad to have a washcloth along that I use to wipe it up and wring the water out the door.  I wasn't the most unlucky though- Richard was up in the night digging a trench so the water could bypass his tent and run down the hill. The wind flattened Clarissa's tent so she spent some of the night in the truck.  Just about everyone was pretty much soaked.  By 7 it was only slightly drizzling so we made breakfast and then headed for Dolisie-

The road continued to be shit and the wet clay is slippery.  Our speed averages about 12 km/h-

but the scenery is nice-

Once in Dolisie, I visited the Angolan Embassy, only to learn they closed in 10 minutes and the boss had already left for the day.  We were instructed to return tomorrow.  Then April and I set off hotel shopping.  The first two we checked only had one and zero rooms respectively available.  There was another place across the road but for some stupid reason we didn't check it out.  We went down the road to a couple more expensive places and even with all of April's wheeling and dealing, we couldn't get them to budge on the prices.  So, as a last resort, we went back to the third place, the place we should have checked out and voila, that's where we are staying, all except five of us who chose to upgrade - me included!

The day was hot and humid and the poor group had to wait a couple of hours for everything to get sorted.  A lot of beer was drank and personalities clashed a bit.  Then, to top it all off, it started pouring again.  Thank God is all I can say that we are not camping.  Norm, Terry and Short Brian were having such a good time they couldn't remember where they were staying so paid big money to get 'guides' to bring them the few hundred yards home!  Everyone in towns like this know who we are and where we're staying.  The orange bubble is hard to miss!  We found a man grilling chicken on skewers so went inside the "restaurant" to wait.  The tin roofed room was filled with smoke from the grill.  Terry and I were sitting on plastic lawn chairs because the wooden bench was wet.  All of a sudden I heard a crack and down I went.  A leg snapped off my chair!  It was pretty funny - the last time I did that, I weighed 200 pounds and was 9 months pregnant with Jane!  They quickly brought over another chair and stacked up three for Terry.  Fifteen minutes or so later, there was another snap, but he was quick enough to catch himself!  Two chairs in one sitting!  

Tomorrow we'll visit the embassy and hopefully get our applications in.  I'm going to love every minute of my 16 degree air conditionned room!

Bushcamp to Quarry, Republic of Congo, March 18, 2019

Quite a crowd gathered as we had breakfast and packed up-

We ignore them for the most part but will often offer our leftovers.  They usually only want them if it's rsomething they recognize.  Usually everything is too foreign to them.  Once I gave a young man some chicken stew which he tasted but promptly spit it out!  Itwasn't that bad, really.  Not like the mystery meat we had the other night. It was supposedly chicken but if that was chicken then I'm the next Queen of England!  The fat was weird, the texture was weird even though it was white meat and each piece was shaped the same with a weird bone in it. The only thing chickeney about it was the skin so what was it?  Not pork - we haven't seen a pig for days, not fish,... So crocodile?  We are near rivers or was it human?  Ha!  Those eating it around me didn't even finish it and I don't think anyone had seconds.  It was too weird.  

Anyway, our day included a large detour around an apparently shit road.  The scenery was nice-

but the road was rough and never ending and it was smoking hot.  It was slow going.  We started meeting people who were giving us a sign of crossed arms in front of their faces which means closed road and soon we saw what they meant.  There were 3 logging trucks bogged down-

and had been for three days. Luckily the tow truck and digger had arrived.

The bucket went over the load-

to hold the logs-

while the tow truck pulled.  The first truck came out no problem-

but the second truck started going over.  Luckily the bucket driver quickly adjusted and saved a catastrophe.  

We carried on to a 'town' where they supposedly had a hotel. They did but only one room so we set up in a quarry.  I like quarries because the ground is hard and gravelly and if it rains, we're usually okay. I'm on cook group, possibly my last one depending how many hotels we stay in along the way.  We are having omelettes and pancakes!  Not sure how that will go but we will see. It Is pretty slim pickings for fresh vegetables, in fact we have seen absolutely none today.  The only shop we vsiited only had eggs, hence lthe omelettes!  Hoping for a dry night too.  We're off to Dolisie in the morning to try and get our Angola visas.