We leave the Hotel Hippocampe in Brazzaville early tomorrow
morning having spent 2 very busy days on repairs to the Enterprise, inside and
out. I think the time spent in the mud hole must have taken its toll. Even
though we have had brilliant roads all the way from Lastoursville, via
Franceville and into Congo, we had torrential rain all day on Saturday from Oyo
on the main road south to Brazzaville. There were some stretches of potholes
and in the heavy rain and flooding it was impossible to see how deep some of
them were and we had a tiring and sometimes rough ride. En route the waste
water tank dropped off but we heard it go and recovered it again, and one of
the lower lockers containing the spare tyre broke open. A kind man following us told us about it when
we stopped for a toll. The wheel was still there but we lost Chris’s trusty
jack. We do have another but it proved good to have two when we were stuck.
Some of the interior fittings also came loose so I have been glueing, mending
and doing washing inside while Chris has been mainly underneath the Enterprise
fixing many things.
We woke up on Saturday morning at 5am and looked out. The
weather was fine with a light breeze, so we drove downwind along the runway to
let off a helium balloon. Trust our luck, it was at right angles to the runway
towards the road, so we decided to make a short hop and hope to find somewhere
to land further along the road. While preparing the balloon a man appeared with
a basket and machete. He told me he looked after the airport and we guess he
was about to do some more grass cutting. We enlisted his help with the offer of
payment. I decided to follow Chris as the wind was picking up. We had a rather
gusty inflation and unfortunately burnt some small holes in the balloon,
because the man ran off just when he was needed most. It was only to pick up
his basket and machete. Once airborne Chris disappeared rapidly over the trees
towards the road. I invited the man to follow with me in the Enterprise. He was
very useful as when Chris landed it was quite a way off the road in the valley
on very sandy soil. I was directed expertly which way to drive to get to the
balloon. The crowd of villagers who had gathered with Chris were calm and
helpful, and we had the envelope packed away in the Enterprise and the basket
almost ready to pack when it started to rain heavily. By then the police and ‘Security’
had arrived and they wanted us to go back to the gendarmerie for them to record
our details. Boko Haram was mentioned as a security issue, but when I questioned
if there were any terrorists in the area they explained that it was us who may
have been dangerous.
Once on the road again we made good time almost all the way
to the main N2 road without being stopped but as we got closer to Oyo security
stops were more frequent and we had one search of the vehicle where they listed
everything in our cupboards and drawers! The reason was that the President,
Denis Sassou N’Guesso, was making a visit to his home town of Oyo that day.
Banners were up welcoming him all along the route from the brand new airport, not
even recorded on any of our maps. As I said earlier we had a wet journey all
the way from Oyo to Brazzaville where fortunately it eased for our entrance in
to the city in the dark. Our navigator brought us straight to Hotel Hippocampe
run by a Frenchman, Oliver, and his Vietnamese wife. They are well known to
Overlanders as they do not charge for parking. The restaurant was very busy
when we arrived with live music and a buffet of food with a mainly Vietnamese
flavour. We were both so tired it was hard to take it all in and after a
delicious meal we parked the Enterprise in a space in the front carpark and
retired to bed. We both slept better than we have for a long time. The sound of
our air-conditioning drowned out the noise from the neighbouring bullfrogs.
We have had an extremely busy 2 days and Chris has
miraculously fixed all the new problems, including finding the recurrent gas
leak and a new air leak which meant the airhorn had stopped working. All ready
to set off from here early tomorrow morning for the 300km to Dolisie. Oliver
tells us the road is good but with delays at a problem bridge where the 4 lane
carriageway goes down to one. Apparently Dolisie is Oliver’s favourite town in
Congo. From there it will be on to Pointe Noire on the coast, then into Cabinda
(Angolan exclave) and then the difficult bit in DRC (formerly Zaire). Once
through there we will be in Angola and we are really looking forward to that.
Werner’s reports back say that he and Gaby are really enjoying themselves
there. We are not expecting to be able to make a balloon flight in DRC, but if
the opportunity arises, then we will take it, perhaps at another airport or
airfield.
Equatorial Guinea balloon flight and Bush meat
When we were in Lambarene I left off the Equatorial Guinea
section while we were looking for somewhere to fly. A few miles back down the
road from Medouneu we came to a small village we had looked at before. No bars,
so hopefully no drunks. We stopped. 3 laughing ladies sachayed across to us
stuffing their mouths with peanuts and begging us for food. Chris handed them a
monetary note and we asked if we could stop the night. They readily agreed and
the menfolk appeared to direct us where to park – perfect. An old lady with a
stick and an oil lantern greeted me with such a big hug I nearly fell over. One
man spoke English so Chris explained that we were tired and would like to spend
the night there. We sat out on chairs and chatted (or rather I did – in Spanish).
I told them we had an unusual request and that we would be flying a globo in
the morning at 5.30am. The Head man of the village was very calm and checked
that we would be sleeping in the Enterprise. At 5.30am we were setting up the
balloon just as it was getting light on our ‘doorstep’.. The villagers were up
too and sat and watched us. No hassle. There was nowhere to fly to outside the
village as it was all forest, but it was flat calm and so it was easy for Chris
to be in the air for 10 minutes drifting about the village at low level, rising
high enough to avoid the only streetlight and electricity wires and landed on
the other side of the road nearly in a garden of corn, narrowly avoiding a
washing line. Everyone was so happy and they helped pack away with no fuss or
commotion. Once loaded, we drove down the road a bit and celebrated the 91st
country flown with a big breakfast and Chris did some electrical work on faulty
wiring.
Bushmeat: Gabon had more varieties of dead animals hanging
on poles at the roadside than any other country: a variety of monkeys (the only
live ones we saw were in Senegal and Cameroon); a squirrel or perhaps a
grasscutter (cane rat); agoutis (bush rats); a big striped lizard, a tortoise,
a small crocodile curled up and something I thought was a pangolin. Needless to
say we didn’t buy any – only photographed some of them.
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