Arrival by Truck in the Congo, November 1973

Leaving Bangui we drove to the town of Bangassou from where we took a ferry across the Ubangui River, landing at a tiny place with the delightful name of Ndu. We had a lengthy delay at the ferry. Ahead of us was the Bedford truck of another Overland operator called Siafu. The driver had made the mistake, as he drove off the ferry at Ndu, of attempting to change gear when just the front two wheels were on dry land. The resultant shudder caused by the gear change, and the back weight of the truck had pushed the ferry away from the bank, meaning the Siafu truck was suspended between the river bank and the ferry. It took a bit of head-scratching and innovation before they managed to force the ferry closer to the shore allowing the Bedford to disembark safely. Fortunately, no damage was done. Keith made sure he did not make the same mistake when he drove off the ferry.

Arrival at Ndu on the banks of the Ubangui River, Congo  1973

Zaïre was 0riginally the Belgian Congo and is now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is one of the largest countries in Africa and it was certainly a fascinating place. During the colonial days, the Belgians had developed an infrastructure of good roads criss-crossing the country but after independence in 1960, very little maintenance had been carried out and this was soon to become very obvious to us. We had to spend a night in Ndu and woke up to a thick fog, something I found rather surprising in tropical Africa.  It took us most of the morning to clear customs and we had to send our cooking party back across the river to Bangassou to stock up with fresh supplies. We then drove to the small town of Monga to clear immigration and again we were delayed overnight. I noted in my diary that Monga: ‘has a huge mission church on the outskirts, is a real frontier town … some buildings appear to have been burnt out and there was some speculation as to whether they were the result of the Congo troubles ten years ago. It wasn’t hard to imagine mercenaries ravaging a village of this type by fire and sword, rape and plunder!’  Just out of Monga we had to cross a small tributary of the Ubangui by a local ferry. 

Pirogues on the river at Monga, Congo  1973

This time the ferry was made up of three dugout canoes lashed together and large enough to take our Bedford. It had to be propelled across the river by man-power, making use of the river currents and back-eddies. There were several traditional dugout canoes on the river and I was bemused to see one propelled, at speed, by a Yamaha outboard. In the forest, not far from the river, we came upon a dugout still in the process of being adzed from a tree trunk. The lines of the pirogue, surrounded by a mass of wood chips, did not look exactly straight and the hull was still attached to the tree. 

A pirogue being hewn from a rainforest tree, Congo 1973

After crossing the Uele River by another interesting local ferry, the largest yet, we were into the African rainforest and the road deteriorated further; tarmac became non-existent and in lieu of proper culverts, tree trunks formed make-shift bridges over many of the little streams. 

The ferry over the Uele River at Bondo, Congo

This usually involved some tricky manoeuvring to get our vehicles across without mishap; potholes were huge and one morning we pulled out a truck, its Belgian driver saying he had been stuck overnight with one of his back-wheels in an almost bottomless hole!  

The state of the road between Buta & Titule, Congo  1973

To make things even more hazardous, both sides of the road were lined with deep ditches, usually hidden by lush vegetation and our progress was not without incidents!  Most of the towns we passed through had been built around a Catholic Mission and were very much as I had envisaged – dense tropical vegetation surrounded the small settlements, many of the European-style colonial houses now looking much the worse for wear; shops dark and cool inside, but with very little stock.

© Neil Rawlins  text & photography

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 Neil Rawlins  now available from Amazon Books