Protea Hotel Brazzaville Beach

... Drove through Oyo and stopped for lunch in Gamboma. Luckily we tarmac sooner than expected, which is great news for us as we could stow away the sandmats underneath. Around Ngo we looked for the entrance to Lefini Reserve, but couldn't find it - must be further south. Bush camped in a quarry.<br><br>Dist cov. = 376 km<br><br>8th - Eventually found the entrance to the reserve by a small red sign saying Reserve de Gorilles, and 10km up this track is the small entrance to ...

... and grass plains or agricultural fields returned.<br> Brazzaville was the only longer stop, where we spend 2 nights in the capital....shortened by elections and fear of potential riots that may occur after the results were announced. The incumbent president literally showered the entire country in his t-shirts, hats and various other propaganda. The girls from the truck hit the town in style and hooked up with a bunch of Lebanese lads who took us to all the best spots ...

... juice. It has not had the hell diluted out of it. Its like some lovely young lady in a gorgeous dress, went to the edge of the waterfall, and it is there where she squeezes the juice into the cartons. Holy cow the juice is YUM. I wonder what customs will say if I have it in my bag? Oh, also, I found out today that I was one day ahead. Today is actually wed the 24th not Thursday the 25th. ha ha. so yay. Christmas tomorrow. Oh well, I R B seeing you guys soon.

... and the guy came back with a couple of groceries and a $US20. Obviously Papa got ripped off. Being ripped off is a fact of life here. You leave money lying around. Its gonna get stolen. You have to keep your valuables in a safe place otherwise they will take a walk. You pay for services that you dont need to pay for. For example, at the same supermarket, we walked to our car and I got in first. Suddenly this behemoth of a man tried to open the drivers door ( ha ha you ...

... Elysée in Paris, but different, no Mercedes Benz, just huge Land Cruisers. Its time to go back to the Maya Maya airport, but a quite chaotic organization here, long queues outside, hot and humid, rude security guards to check the travel documents, and a chief of protocol in his official uniform asking for 'coffee money'! The flight to Libreville, Gabon, is delayed because of dark clouds and heavy rain.

... video, but before I got much footage, Jacob warned me "We're coming to places where there are police - they will take your camera." The general insecurity has become so bad that the government has stationed soldiers and police officers all over to try to restore some sense of order and safety. But it makes photography and video shooting difficult because even if one accidently photographs or videotapes someone in uniform, they can legally confiscate the ...

... through a long lonely period like the Mukendis. They have only recently "refound" each other even though they live in the same city. He also had many questions and was excited to learn we'd be meeting tomorrow. He has helped hold together a small group of church members in Kinshasa and in the Bas Congo region of the country, apparently near Matadi. I look forward to having a group discussion with all the local leaders tomorrow, to see how we can best move forward ...

... Kivu (where, as you may have heard, some 350,000 people have been driven from their homes and crops by ongoing combat, reprisal killings, rapes, forced recruitment, looting, arbitrary arrests ...

... stay free. Not a bad deal. I said we needed to discuss it among ourselves, but that we'd give an answer very soon. We moved slowly through the erratic traffic back toward the center of the city. We passed several gigantic concrete monuments commemorating past events. They weren't well maintained; weeds were growing out of cracks in the structures sometimes quite high up the structures. A brand new sports car roared past. Jacob said "that's part of why our country is poor ...

... theme of extremes, so the people I have met through work have come from all walks of life. From the most beautiful young UN Volunteer, to the less than beautiful ex SAS, ex mercenary, current aid worker who used to say things like, "I can't stand Kenya, I've been stabbed there twice and shot once." Before producing the scars to back up the, already far too graphically depicted stories!! DRC is also characterised by extremes. It is extremely ...