 Woke
up bleary eyed, as our quiet little village turned into a major
transport hub at night, with many, many trucks coming and going, with of
course a slight circular tour of the white folk in the Landrover. And of
course, it's 6am and we are surrounded by wide-eyed villagers all
completely gobsmacked when Rob made me a cuppa. This did give me a
chance to notice that we had both had an attack of the measles again.
Damn this jungle! We gave our hosts some candles and cigarettes and
after a quick photo session, were on our way on the right road towards
Matadi. Just as we were overtaking a huge lorry, one of the passengers
handed us a gift. Some weird sausage (sigh - I wish!) shaped thing
wrapped in a palm leaf. It turned out to be some fermented maize stodgy
thing, which is seen as a delight here. We soon passed it on the chaps
filling in the potholes. They were delighted! We soon reached The Congo
River and the view that greeted us was an impressive site and we
sneakingly took a few photos. (Normally highly illegal to photograph the
river and bridges here) The town of Matadi across the way was huge but
quite beautiful and can only be reached by crossing the very new and
shiny bridge. We had to pay a silly toll price, as they insisted we were
a Category B car, the same as a Jeep. Couldn't really argue with that.
And so we get ready to leave Zaire. Wow, only 2 days here and we would
both love to return one day but for now, we need keep heading south
before our Angolan visas expire. No problems in leaving Zaire, again the
officials making funny jokes and the chance to spend the last of our
Congolese Francs. Munching on some very yummy bbq pork kebabs and cold
cokes, we approach the Angolan border post. The rain clouds above are
black and already we can feel the drop in temperature. Hurrah! |
14th - 15th April 2007, DRC
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