Mar 08

Ok no suprise but once again things have changed. The situation in DRC has not improved. On top of that the boat from Point Noir is not going to SA for some months. So the only option is to leave the truck here and fly over the DRC and Angola to Namibia. This will all happen next week. The truck is going to wait for a month or so and still try to get through when and if the situation calms.

So we are sitting doing nothing in Brazzaville for another week. It is so boring here that i have been practicing my drinking skills. I havent been drinking much so was feeling quite pissy after a beer but am increasing my tolerance slowly. Booze is so cheap, less than 60p for a longneck of beer. healthy stuff is expensive, a box of cereal is only 30p cheaper than a large bottle of vodka!!

Booking flights has been an interesting thing. You must just keep chanting 'TIA', translation, This Is Africa, or 'TIFA' This is F***in Africa. They do not take credit cards so you must withdraw cash and walk the streets of Brazzaville with it in your hand. The most you can withdraw out of a machine here is 150,000CFA but the ticket is 300,000ish CFA. You cannot reserve a flight you need to pay for it to reserve it. So it takes 2 days minimum. The following is a true story about how africa opperates:
Customer in airline office on Tuesday: Do you fly to Kinshasa?
Worker in airline office on Tuesday: No we do not
Same customer in same airline office on Thursday: Do you fly to Kinshasa?
Same worker in same airline office on Thursday: Yes we fly there monthly
Customer: and is that monthly flight weekly?
Worker: yes every week.
AAAHHHHHH! Like bashing your head against a painful brick wall!!!

TIA

So we are hoping to be in Windhoek by the end of the week! Bring on civilised Namibia!!! This isnt the coolest place to be. A man spat at me and tried to pee on me the other day....leaves something to be desired!!! Bring on a bit of civilisation!!!

NEWS FLASH

DRC embqssy have admitted a problem i think their words were - you cannot go as youwould be driving through a war zone!!!! fuck.

so now we will go back through 5 days of bandit country to Point Noire and ship the truck to SA and fly ourselves to Namibia. will report in from point noir after making it safely back through bandit country

xo

How is that for shakespearean language?

We are in Brazzaville, looking out over the Congo River at Kinshasa, the capital of the DRC. So close you could swim to it.... and they wont let us in!!!

We met up with another truck who made it across to Kinshasa only to be turned around and physically pushed back onto the ferry and denied entry to DRC. That was this time last week and we are no closer to getting off ourselves - although the nuckle dusters and riot police they faced are not to appealing towant to try. Yesterday we found a small news article that suggested that there was unrest from Kinshasa to Matadi - the only govt controlled road. people are being macheted to death all over the shop - but now there is no information to verify this!!! everyone is claiming that this is not happening and it is safe but we are not allowed in.

In short we are fucked! cannot go back because of the wet season, cannot go forward because the stupid DRC wont let us in. I know what you are thinking - why do you want to go in? Answer: it is expensive to fly; it defeats the purpose of overlanding; and it means our group splits and we loose our driver and he has to go on or back alone!

So we have thought about trying to get over and then paying a taxi to drive like a bat out of hell to the Angola border however there is no registered travel through angola it would be a turn up and see what happens. But dont worry parents the men on our trip have already instructed that i am not stepping one foot inside the DRC - i thanked them and reminded them that it is not the 1920's - but i knew you would be happy mum.

so jumbled story and i will update when i can but it looks like we will drive back through bandit country - where the other truck had problems but we were fine - to Pointe Noir and then flying. Oh and before youget excited The West African Airlines are the least safest in the world!!! Survey said that out of the bottom 250 airlines in the world, 248 came from africa! I reckon it would be safer to walk naked through the DRC - ok well maybe not but hey!

ok love to you all and i will try and be in touch when we have an actual plan rather than just options - until then over and out from Brazzaville!!!