Day 22
At 4 that night we were awoken by the sound of a truck engine nearby. Finally, the truck had gotten up the hill (it took them 4 days). It was still pitch dark, so we tried to sleep a few more hours. But the anticipation kept us awake.
We said our goodbyes to Germain and had a quick talk to the truck driver. He was not amused. He started from Kikwit two weeks ago. He said if he'd knew about the state of the roads, that he would have never taken this job. The GSM operator is paying him well for the transport, but he has to pay the local 'helpers' to get him trough here, he will have to be lucky to make a profit out of this ride..
We plummeted down the hill and were grateful that the truck has just passed. They had broadened the road and levelled out the deepest ruts. We still had a struggle as the trucks massive wheels and ground clearance were no match for our little Landcruiser.
Three hours and 5 kilometers later we arrived at the ferry...
Oh boy...
At 4 that night we were awoken by the sound of a truck engine nearby. Finally, the truck had gotten up the hill (it took them 4 days). It was still pitch dark, so we tried to sleep a few more hours. But the anticipation kept us awake.
We said our goodbyes to Germain and had a quick talk to the truck driver. He was not amused. He started from Kikwit two weeks ago. He said if he'd knew about the state of the roads, that he would have never taken this job. The GSM operator is paying him well for the transport, but he has to pay the local 'helpers' to get him trough here, he will have to be lucky to make a profit out of this ride..
We plummeted down the hill and were grateful that the truck has just passed. They had broadened the road and levelled out the deepest ruts. We still had a struggle as the trucks massive wheels and ground clearance were no match for our little Landcruiser.
Three hours and 5 kilometers later we arrived at the ferry...
Oh boy...
There was a police officer at the ferry, and one or two onlookers. But apart from that it was surprisingly quiet. The police officer ordered one of the onlookers to go and get the captain. We sat down and waited in police guy's little hut. He was nervous and young. We joked around a bit with the people who were asking for money and cadeaux. Annoying, but not as pushy and aggresive as we were used to by now.
The policy guy then told us we had to register. We did not feel much like it, but hey, if he wants to copy over all of our details in his little book, why not. When he was done he asked for money as he had registered us. We politely told him that registration is not a paying service in Congo. It never had been.
That's not true he said, it is an integral part of his job to ask for money from people who pass trough here. We had a chuckle but stayed polite and told him that if that is the case, then why is it not in writing anywhere.
He then caught us by surprise by claiming it is written in the official police handbook! He got up, and got out this little black book. It was titled something along the line of "Official guidelines for Police officers in the RDC" (not sure about exact title).
The first chapter were the 'ten commandments' of the police officers, the third item read:
"Créer une base de données de tous les voyageurs dans votre regio"
He read it for us and said:
"Créer une base de donnes de tous les voyageurs dans votre regio"
"Create a base of donations from all travellers in your region"
We couldn't believe what we heard. Had they really constitutionalized corruption? If this was true we would have little choice but to pay.
In disbelief we took the book out of his hands and read the phrase again. Yes, it was really written here...
It took us a minute before we realised that it was not "donne" (pronounced "don", like in Don Quichote) but "donnée" (pronounced don-E).
What was actually written was:
"Create a database of all travellers in your region"
We had to try very hard to keep our laughter down. At first we tought he just tricked us into it. But that was not the case, he genuinely believed it was written that he had to collect money from travellers. He had no idea what a database was.
The policy guy then told us we had to register. We did not feel much like it, but hey, if he wants to copy over all of our details in his little book, why not. When he was done he asked for money as he had registered us. We politely told him that registration is not a paying service in Congo. It never had been.
That's not true he said, it is an integral part of his job to ask for money from people who pass trough here. We had a chuckle but stayed polite and told him that if that is the case, then why is it not in writing anywhere.
He then caught us by surprise by claiming it is written in the official police handbook! He got up, and got out this little black book. It was titled something along the line of "Official guidelines for Police officers in the RDC" (not sure about exact title).
The first chapter were the 'ten commandments' of the police officers, the third item read:
"Créer une base de données de tous les voyageurs dans votre regio"
He read it for us and said:
"Créer une base de donnes de tous les voyageurs dans votre regio"
"Create a base of donations from all travellers in your region"
We couldn't believe what we heard. Had they really constitutionalized corruption? If this was true we would have little choice but to pay.
In disbelief we took the book out of his hands and read the phrase again. Yes, it was really written here...
It took us a minute before we realised that it was not "donne" (pronounced "don", like in Don Quichote) but "donnée" (pronounced don-E).
What was actually written was:
"Create a database of all travellers in your region"
We had to try very hard to keep our laughter down. At first we tought he just tricked us into it. But that was not the case, he genuinely believed it was written that he had to collect money from travellers. He had no idea what a database was.
An hour later the captain of the ferry arrived. Barthélémy in Ilebo had given us a letter for the captain, but as we could not read the letter, we did not trust it. We decided to bargain first, and then give the letter.
The captain said he could bring us across for 75$US and 30 liters of diesel.
And we had to supply two batteries to get the engine started.
And some oil because the engine was low on oil.
And if possible a diesel filter because his was clogged
Hmm...
The diesel we agreed on, 30 liters is a bargain compared to the 150liters from the last ferry. The price we ridculized and said it was waaaay too much. We discussed for half an hour or so, he was friendly but stuck to his price. Eventually we 'remembered' the letter. He looked happy with what he was reading. Eventually the price got down to 35$US. That is still an inflated price, but we agreed. Don't forget that the average annual income per capita in 2009 in DRC was estimated at 171$US. That's 15$US/month!
Driving onto the ferry required 4x4 and we banged our gearbox (bashplate protected) hard while doing so. We almost cried when we saw the engine of this ferry. The 'machine room' was under water. Not really under water, it was a mucky oily substance. The engine was leaking badly.
This ferry had been used to traverse Kabila's army when they marched in from the Rwanda border to Kinshasa a few years earlier. The captain told us how he was forced to work non-stop for 3 days to get everybody and everything across. Every little piece that Kabila's army could use they had taken. They left little more then a wreck.
We had sent out somebody to buy diesel for us, he had to go two villages down the road to find some (on his bicycle). In the meantime we tried to jumpstart the boat. Our jumpleads were too short to get to it, so we took our batteries out (our Landcruiser is 24volt - 2 batteries).
With our batteries connected the starter motor started turning. Turn after turn after turn after turn. Fast at first, but then slower and slower. Everybody was dead silent, hoping the engine would start.
It wouldn't.
They got to work, and took injectors out and doublechecked various parts. Another attempt was made The battery was getting really low and just when we thought it was not going to work the big diesel engine sprung to life. Hesitant at first, but after a minute or so most of its 10 cylinders were working. No mufflers ofcourse, this was a LOUD engine!
The captain's smile was priceless, he was proud of his machine! He gave it some trotthle and then the engine sputtered and died. He came down and said they had forgotten to purge the fuel system. Air in the system and the engine had died. Our batteries were flat now, not enough juice left to turn that big starter motor. We tried to start our own engine, but even that did not work. Bugger!
But, no problem, apparantly they had 2 batteries in the village on the other side of the river. We could 'rent' them for a small fee. Having no other choice we agreed. With a dugout canoe some guys got across in search for the batteries.
An hour later the captain had purged the fuel lines and we had two 'new' batteries. They were worthless. They measured 10 volt at most, they were not charged! Another solution came up: somebody in the village had a solar panel, and we could rent it. They thought it would take 2, maybe 3 days to get it charged fully.
Rather not..
The captain said he could bring us across for 75$US and 30 liters of diesel.
And we had to supply two batteries to get the engine started.
And some oil because the engine was low on oil.
And if possible a diesel filter because his was clogged
Hmm...
The diesel we agreed on, 30 liters is a bargain compared to the 150liters from the last ferry. The price we ridculized and said it was waaaay too much. We discussed for half an hour or so, he was friendly but stuck to his price. Eventually we 'remembered' the letter. He looked happy with what he was reading. Eventually the price got down to 35$US. That is still an inflated price, but we agreed. Don't forget that the average annual income per capita in 2009 in DRC was estimated at 171$US. That's 15$US/month!
Driving onto the ferry required 4x4 and we banged our gearbox (bashplate protected) hard while doing so. We almost cried when we saw the engine of this ferry. The 'machine room' was under water. Not really under water, it was a mucky oily substance. The engine was leaking badly.
This ferry had been used to traverse Kabila's army when they marched in from the Rwanda border to Kinshasa a few years earlier. The captain told us how he was forced to work non-stop for 3 days to get everybody and everything across. Every little piece that Kabila's army could use they had taken. They left little more then a wreck.
We had sent out somebody to buy diesel for us, he had to go two villages down the road to find some (on his bicycle). In the meantime we tried to jumpstart the boat. Our jumpleads were too short to get to it, so we took our batteries out (our Landcruiser is 24volt - 2 batteries).
With our batteries connected the starter motor started turning. Turn after turn after turn after turn. Fast at first, but then slower and slower. Everybody was dead silent, hoping the engine would start.
It wouldn't.
They got to work, and took injectors out and doublechecked various parts. Another attempt was made The battery was getting really low and just when we thought it was not going to work the big diesel engine sprung to life. Hesitant at first, but after a minute or so most of its 10 cylinders were working. No mufflers ofcourse, this was a LOUD engine!
The captain's smile was priceless, he was proud of his machine! He gave it some trotthle and then the engine sputtered and died. He came down and said they had forgotten to purge the fuel system. Air in the system and the engine had died. Our batteries were flat now, not enough juice left to turn that big starter motor. We tried to start our own engine, but even that did not work. Bugger!
But, no problem, apparantly they had 2 batteries in the village on the other side of the river. We could 'rent' them for a small fee. Having no other choice we agreed. With a dugout canoe some guys got across in search for the batteries.
An hour later the captain had purged the fuel lines and we had two 'new' batteries. They were worthless. They measured 10 volt at most, they were not charged! Another solution came up: somebody in the village had a solar panel, and we could rent it. They thought it would take 2, maybe 3 days to get it charged fully.
Rather not..
Sitwrap:
-Our car was sitting on ferry - a ferry we hoped would not sink now
-The ferry was not running
-The ferry did not have batteries
-By attempting to start the ferry, our batteries were now flat
-Our car was not running
-We could not push our car off the ferry as the ramps were damaged.
If we wanted to charge our batteries, we needed a running engine and a functional alternator.
We had to push start our Landcruiser, and we had to do it on the few meters of space we had on the ferry.
Now seems like an appropriate time to talk about our brakes. As we had been doing extreme 4x4 work the last 3 weeks in mostly sandy and muddy areas, it does not come to a surprise that our brakes took a bit of a beating. As a matter of fact, we barely had any functional brakes when we left Kananga. And we have no brakes whatsoever since we left Ilebo. It's just metal to metal... and that does not brake very well. It hadn't bothered me too much until now, the big Landcruiser engine allows for great engine breaking and we are not driving any faster then 20km/h anyway.
This made the situation a bit more complicated now.. :roll:
As you can see on the first picture of this ferry, there is nothing at the end of the ferry to stop us from rolling into the fast flowing Loange river.
5 meters. That was the distance we had. The ferry crowd would push us as fast as they could, I had to build up enough speed to make the engine turn, once started I had to engage reverse gear, let the clutch go - gently without stalling the engine or slipping the wheels - and come to a halt before rolling into the river.
5 meters!
I was a tad bit nervous when the countdown started. I closed the door but left the window open and did not wear my seatbelt. Just in case...
3-2-1 and off we went. I dumped the clutch almost immediately. Way too early ofcourse and we came to halt. The engine was not running. On the second try I waited 'much' longer, but we did not have enough speed to turn the crank. I had about a meter of extra play.
Third try was a good one. I dumped the clutch and immediately declutched again to throw it in reverse and with screeching tyres I reversed again just in time. I like a bit of tension, but this was pushing it a bit!
The next hour we left the engine running with an increased idle to charge the batteries.
While waiting we had a nice view over the river. At one point we could hear drums in the distance, approaching quickly. It was a 'cargo' canoe. 4 or 5 huge dugout canoes tied together with a huge load on it and rowers on bot sides. Somebody was setting the pace with a drum. They were travelling downstream and were going really fast. That was one of the rare occasion where I saw the Congo I had dreamt about when I was a kid.
We figured that after an hour of charing, the batteries should be loaded enough to start the boat engine. So we shut down the engine, took out the batteries and hooked it up to the ferry.
KLIK - KLIK
Nothing happened...
I take out the multimeter and it gives funny readings on our batteries. I am starting to fear that they are shot. :?
We have been on this ferry for over 4 hours now, and we have not really made any progress. Luckily we still have an ace up our sleeves. Our Landcruiser is a 24volt version. That means we have 2 batteries for the engine. (imagine you arrive here with only one battery?). But we also have two auxiliary batteries in the back, to run our fridge. There are a couple of reasons we had not used them up until now. Firstly these batteries are deep-cycle batteries, they are not made for cranking an engine, that could lead to damage. Secondly, to save space in the back I put the batteries in a location where they are very difficult to take out of. We would have to unload half of the car to get to it, It takes at least an hour to take them out. Not a fun thing to do in a car that has been standing all day in tropical heat. The idea of exposing all our belongings in this crowd is not really a good prospect either.
But we had no choice now, so we started unloading our car on the ferry. Josephine on guard, me sweating inside.
An hour later the ferry came to live again. It once again took a lot of turns of the startermotor before the engine would go.. these batteries too were now completely flat.
I did not really see anything of our crossing (shame, it was a beautiful river) as I was trying to bolt the batteries back into the back of our truck.
At 4 in the afternoon we reached the opposite side. With as much run-up as possible they pushed us of the ferry and I managed to get the Landcruiser started on my, rough, way down. We were greeted by a committee of officials. This was a province border (Kasai/Bandundu).
We have been on this ferry for over 4 hours now, and we have not really made any progress. Luckily we still have an ace up our sleeves. Our Landcruiser is a 24volt version. That means we have 2 batteries for the engine. (imagine you arrive here with only one battery?). But we also have two auxiliary batteries in the back, to run our fridge. There are a couple of reasons we had not used them up until now. Firstly these batteries are deep-cycle batteries, they are not made for cranking an engine, that could lead to damage. Secondly, to save space in the back I put the batteries in a location where they are very difficult to take out of. We would have to unload half of the car to get to it, It takes at least an hour to take them out. Not a fun thing to do in a car that has been standing all day in tropical heat. The idea of exposing all our belongings in this crowd is not really a good prospect either.
But we had no choice now, so we started unloading our car on the ferry. Josephine on guard, me sweating inside.
An hour later the ferry came to live again. It once again took a lot of turns of the startermotor before the engine would go.. these batteries too were now completely flat.
I did not really see anything of our crossing (shame, it was a beautiful river) as I was trying to bolt the batteries back into the back of our truck.
At 4 in the afternoon we reached the opposite side. With as much run-up as possible they pushed us of the ferry and I managed to get the Landcruiser started on my, rough, way down. We were greeted by a committee of officials. This was a province border (Kasai/Bandundu).
We were invited in the customs hut. It had a little table and a wooden bench. And a big book. They registered us, asked for our permit (was ok for them), our insurance, etc.. When they were done they asked if we "had something for them"
Time for the usual routine, this gets tiring after a while. So I silently count to 3, smile and with a very sweet voice reply that I give them my friendship and appreciation and give them a blessing from God.. And that I am so delighted that such a professional and efficient custom service is provided (for free!) by the Congolese government to us, humble tourists.
They ofcourse reply that they want something else. After which I put on a very sad face and ask why they do not want my friendship?
This confuses them. That is the right time to get up, thank and greet them with a lot of words (not allowing them to talk back) and walk out of the door.
But we were immediately redirected to another hut, the police hut. Same story there, same tricks.
When we were finally ready to go, the first customs officer comes to me. He brings me my hat. I had forgotten it in his hut. These guys aren't bad, they do what they have always seen and done (ref. corruption). We are glad we remained friendly with them. We felt very much out of place again.
Slowly we drove off, back into the bush. Our mood changed when we realized that we had just left Kasai behind. That was the hardest part of our trip. Once we reach Kikwit, we know there is a frequently used road to Kinshasa. And from the people on the ferry we learned that there is good track - maintained by Belgians - from Dibaya-Lubwe to Kikwit. A quick check on the map learned us that we would reach that 'real' road soon. Not today, but probably tomorrow, depending on the state of the roads.
The road was pretty bad and the going was slow. But it was not as bad as the roads from the last days. Most of the time we were still driving off-camber, driving in and out of huge pits, around or over obstacles. Slow, first gear movement. But we did not get stuck. It was pretty surreal that Josephine and I were having a very animated discussion while negotiating these serious obstacles.
We looked back to everything we have been trough in the last 4 weeks. pretty crazy stuff! We have litterally gotten ourselves stuck hundreds of times, but we always managed to get us out. We laughed at all the nonsense we talked when trying to avoid bribes. We felt really happy now, relieved. A great sense of satisfaction came over us. We congratulated eachother for helping eachother out when the going got tough. We congratulated our Landcruiser for being so tough.
Then a horrible, dreadful sound.
*BANG* tak-tak-tak
Time for the usual routine, this gets tiring after a while. So I silently count to 3, smile and with a very sweet voice reply that I give them my friendship and appreciation and give them a blessing from God.. And that I am so delighted that such a professional and efficient custom service is provided (for free!) by the Congolese government to us, humble tourists.
They ofcourse reply that they want something else. After which I put on a very sad face and ask why they do not want my friendship?
This confuses them. That is the right time to get up, thank and greet them with a lot of words (not allowing them to talk back) and walk out of the door.
But we were immediately redirected to another hut, the police hut. Same story there, same tricks.
When we were finally ready to go, the first customs officer comes to me. He brings me my hat. I had forgotten it in his hut. These guys aren't bad, they do what they have always seen and done (ref. corruption). We are glad we remained friendly with them. We felt very much out of place again.
Slowly we drove off, back into the bush. Our mood changed when we realized that we had just left Kasai behind. That was the hardest part of our trip. Once we reach Kikwit, we know there is a frequently used road to Kinshasa. And from the people on the ferry we learned that there is good track - maintained by Belgians - from Dibaya-Lubwe to Kikwit. A quick check on the map learned us that we would reach that 'real' road soon. Not today, but probably tomorrow, depending on the state of the roads.
The road was pretty bad and the going was slow. But it was not as bad as the roads from the last days. Most of the time we were still driving off-camber, driving in and out of huge pits, around or over obstacles. Slow, first gear movement. But we did not get stuck. It was pretty surreal that Josephine and I were having a very animated discussion while negotiating these serious obstacles.
We looked back to everything we have been trough in the last 4 weeks. pretty crazy stuff! We have litterally gotten ourselves stuck hundreds of times, but we always managed to get us out. We laughed at all the nonsense we talked when trying to avoid bribes. We felt really happy now, relieved. A great sense of satisfaction came over us. We congratulated eachother for helping eachother out when the going got tough. We congratulated our Landcruiser for being so tough.
Then a horrible, dreadful sound.
*BANG* tak-tak-tak
I stopped immediately. I was pretty sure I knew what that sound meant. I turned my head towards Josephine and saw a confused, questioning look on her face. "What was that?" she asked. I did not say a word and got out of the car, looked at the wheels and saw nothing special.I walked to the other side of the car and saw this
Everything seemed to pause for a minute. It was late afternoon and the worst heat had worn off, the sounds of the bush were omnipresent. We were alone. We were sweating.
"Josephine, I think we have problem"
Everything seemed to pause for a minute. It was late afternoon and the worst heat had worn off, the sounds of the bush were omnipresent. We were alone. We were sweating.
"Josephine, I think we have problem"
All 6 flange bolts had sheared off and the axle had worked its way out. Diff oil was seeping out (and dust in).
This was not good.
This was not good at all!
We both sat down for a few minutes and stared at our rear axle. It was a sad sight. We are not superstitious at all, but maybe we shouldn't have been that positive? This was a scene out of a comic book. It is Donald Duck jumping on a bridge, shouting "look how strong this is". And in the next scene Donald Duck is seen falling in the water under the collapsing bridge.
A guy on a bicycle stops and looks at the axle. He utters a long "ai ai ai ai ai ai" (think "The Gods must be crazy"). This makes us laugh and we repeat his "ai ai ai ai ai". He couldn't have expressed our feelings better.
The bicycle guy says there is a village 500 meter further down the road. Tongue firmly in cheek I ask if there is a Toyota garage in that village. He gave me a crazy look. "Il n'y a pas de voiture ici!" - "There are no cars here!".
We have got to do something, so I get out my limited toolbox and start removing the rear propshaft and try to close the diff a bit.
With 4x4 engaged we still have a front wheel drive Landcruiser.
This was not good.
This was not good at all!
We both sat down for a few minutes and stared at our rear axle. It was a sad sight. We are not superstitious at all, but maybe we shouldn't have been that positive? This was a scene out of a comic book. It is Donald Duck jumping on a bridge, shouting "look how strong this is". And in the next scene Donald Duck is seen falling in the water under the collapsing bridge.
A guy on a bicycle stops and looks at the axle. He utters a long "ai ai ai ai ai ai" (think "The Gods must be crazy"). This makes us laugh and we repeat his "ai ai ai ai ai". He couldn't have expressed our feelings better.
The bicycle guy says there is a village 500 meter further down the road. Tongue firmly in cheek I ask if there is a Toyota garage in that village. He gave me a crazy look. "Il n'y a pas de voiture ici!" - "There are no cars here!".
We have got to do something, so I get out my limited toolbox and start removing the rear propshaft and try to close the diff a bit.
With 4x4 engaged we still have a front wheel drive Landcruiser.
We manage to drive to the village, sun is low on the horizon by now so we wisely decide to stop here. We need to think about our situation. The usual 100 man crowd quickly forms. People here are still annoyingly curious, but they do not seem to be as angry as we experienced so much in the first part of our trip. Maybe we just get used to it more. Or know better how to deal with the situation.
The chef du village assigns us a spot under a tree and we set up camp. Our morale is low, very low! It's been quite the day! First the hairy decent down to the Loange river, then the whole debacle to get the ferry across, and now with our broken rear axle.
We are exhausted.
We are dirty.
We are running low on water
We have barely enough water to cook some pasta, but not enough to freshen us up. When asked if they have some water for us, a guy called Patty responds cheerfully that their village is blessed as they have a fresh water source nearby. That sounds great, I ask if I can fill up one of our jerrycans. This is no problem, but he asks if it can wait until tomorrow. I push him a bit as we would really like to wash the mud from our faces and have enough to drink. He agrees to show me the source.
So of we go, armed with an empty jerrycan I follow Patty. Out of the village. Down a hill. Into a forest. This is a steep track! And muddy! I wish I put on my hiking boots for this, I was slipping around on my worn crocs. After a 10 minute walk downhill I start questioning Patty about this source, I thought it was nearby?!? "Ce n'est pas loin, presque là!" - "It's not far, we are almost there".
It is a very narrow track trough the bush. I walk trough spiderwebs a few time and mosquitoes are having a ball! Eventually we arrive at a murky source down in the valley. I am knackered! 30 minutes down. And now we have to go up again. With a full 20 liter jerrycan! I have to stop every 10 steps to catch my breath and eventually Patty asks me if he should carry the jerrycan. I swallow my pride and my politeness and quickly say "Yes! Please!". Patty is fit and strong and jogs up the hill. I have problems just keeping up with him.
We have a nice talk on the way up. A monologue really as I am out of breath all the time. He was a nurse and used to work in the first aid post of the village. He had been working for free for years as there was no budget to pay him. But now they ran out of budget for supplies too. The first aid post in the village had been closed last year. If people got ill here, they had to travel to Dibaya-Lubwe for even the most basic of things.
An hour and half after we left we returned to the car. I was broken. This 5km rough hike was too much for me know. I did not have the strength to do these kind of things. The women in the village do this twice a day!
Despite all the worries, I slept well that night!
Josephine on the other hand.. she did not sleep well. If at all! A combination of the poor food and the stress resulted in stumach problems... withthe side-effects that we are all familiar with. There was a toilet in the village. A hole in the ground with a hut on top of it. But it was all the way at the other end of the village. And as a bonus there was a huge hairy spider, right next to hole that refused to bodge.
Poor Josephine! :cry:
The chef du village assigns us a spot under a tree and we set up camp. Our morale is low, very low! It's been quite the day! First the hairy decent down to the Loange river, then the whole debacle to get the ferry across, and now with our broken rear axle.
We are exhausted.
We are dirty.
We are running low on water
We have barely enough water to cook some pasta, but not enough to freshen us up. When asked if they have some water for us, a guy called Patty responds cheerfully that their village is blessed as they have a fresh water source nearby. That sounds great, I ask if I can fill up one of our jerrycans. This is no problem, but he asks if it can wait until tomorrow. I push him a bit as we would really like to wash the mud from our faces and have enough to drink. He agrees to show me the source.
So of we go, armed with an empty jerrycan I follow Patty. Out of the village. Down a hill. Into a forest. This is a steep track! And muddy! I wish I put on my hiking boots for this, I was slipping around on my worn crocs. After a 10 minute walk downhill I start questioning Patty about this source, I thought it was nearby?!? "Ce n'est pas loin, presque là!" - "It's not far, we are almost there".
It is a very narrow track trough the bush. I walk trough spiderwebs a few time and mosquitoes are having a ball! Eventually we arrive at a murky source down in the valley. I am knackered! 30 minutes down. And now we have to go up again. With a full 20 liter jerrycan! I have to stop every 10 steps to catch my breath and eventually Patty asks me if he should carry the jerrycan. I swallow my pride and my politeness and quickly say "Yes! Please!". Patty is fit and strong and jogs up the hill. I have problems just keeping up with him.
We have a nice talk on the way up. A monologue really as I am out of breath all the time. He was a nurse and used to work in the first aid post of the village. He had been working for free for years as there was no budget to pay him. But now they ran out of budget for supplies too. The first aid post in the village had been closed last year. If people got ill here, they had to travel to Dibaya-Lubwe for even the most basic of things.
An hour and half after we left we returned to the car. I was broken. This 5km rough hike was too much for me know. I did not have the strength to do these kind of things. The women in the village do this twice a day!
Despite all the worries, I slept well that night!
Josephine on the other hand.. she did not sleep well. If at all! A combination of the poor food and the stress resulted in stumach problems... withthe side-effects that we are all familiar with. There was a toilet in the village. A hole in the ground with a hut on top of it. But it was all the way at the other end of the village. And as a bonus there was a huge hairy spider, right next to hole that refused to bodge.
Poor Josephine! :cry:
Progress afer our 22nd day on the road. 27th day since we entered DRC.
