Western Cameroon is tropical forest – jungle mixed with mangoes, avocados, bananas and bamboo.
The people were friendly and seemed to enjoy meeting us as much as we enjoyed meeting them.
We collected a new passport for Danielle at Yaoundé, before a few idyllic days at Kribi Beach.
There, we enjoyed turtle cooked by ‘Mr Albert’.
After crossing the border into Central African Republic at Garoua-Boulaï, we camped for a week at the Boali Falls 90km west of the capital, Bangui.
We stopped in Bangui to obtain visas for Zaire. The city felt unsafe. A couple we had met had their vehicle broken into while we were parked next to them.
From Bangui, we drove north-east on the well maintained dirt roads through Sibut,
and Bambari, before taking the ferry at Mobayi across the Ubangui River – a tribtuary of the River Congo – into Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo).
We continued south to Lisala on the banks of the Congo itself.
The road east through Zaire was appalling. All but 30 of the 1,800 kilometres to Kisangani were dirt (the exception being a 30-km stretch running through President Mobutu’s home town). In places, the track was deep mud with water-filled craters;
and there were many make-shift bridges.
In places the track was so narrow that we touched the bush on both sides. In others, we drove through corridors of enormous bamboo.
We spent time in Kisangani; the largest town in north-east Zaire – on the banks of the Congo River.
We met with other overlanders at the campground.
Our barbecue included succulent beetle grubs.
Continuing south through Goma and Bukavu, we passed through Eastern Zaire’s beautiful mix of savannah, mountains, woodland and lakes.
We crossed into Burundi and stayed a few days in Bujumbura; where we went to a show in Gitega by the ‘Drummers of Burundi’.
At Bujumbura, a crane hoisted the Landrover onto the deck of 70-year old ship for a four-day journey down the 650km length of Lake Tanganyika; to Mpulungu on the northern tip of Zambia.
What treacherous roads and bridges, progress must have been slow.
Love that shot of the bamboo arches, but otherwise the road situation looks terrifying! However, subsequent photos show you were not the only ones doing this……
Is that a dead, hanging monkey wth the young guys in western Cameroon? I seem to recall you telling me you ate monkey somewhere. I also believe it was Mobutu’s wife who tried to take several million dollars worth of diamonds into Belgium. Surprised at you playing (association) football with your fellow travellers!