where to start
last time i had time to write up this blog was over 2 months ago.since then, the road has been hard, harder and umentionable. southernniger is the poorest place i've ever seen. impossible climate forfood, villages that sell sweets imported from uae or somewhere, peopleliving on sugary maizy drinks. eventually made it to the dustbowlchadian frontier town of nguigmi, where i took a 35 hour 300km ride onthe roof of a 4x4 with 34 others across the burning sahara and pastcorrupt border oficials to another dustbowl called mao. from there,hitched a ride to a filhy ndjamena where i ate beautiful fish from lake chad. slowly made my way out of arabland and into the south andthe start and heart of central africa. northern CAR isn't under government control, and cycling across the border, i was soon stoppedby ganja smoking rebels, armed to the teeth with ak47s, grenades andbazukas. thankfully, at the time there was a dialogue ongoing inbangui and all rebel groups were under instruction to be calm, and allthe group that stopped me wanted to do was verfy that i was a tourist,and not a mercenary. the first 100 or so kilometres of CAR was simplyscorched, deserted villages. after that, life resumed, and with it averitable garden of eden - mango trees lining every village, beautifulbananas, pineapples, and best of all - papayas everywhere. completelyself sufficent indpendent villages. no cars, no public transport, acyclists dream. unfortunately, the towns weren't as laid back as "enbrousse" and with government control came endless bullshit via a mixture of gendarmerie, immigration and commissariat demands for cash.exhausting is the most polite way to describe these numerousencounters. reach bangui and take a piroque into the big bad congo.arrive at zongo, congo at 10am, finish with immigration at 4pm, cycle10km and m mobbed by over 50 dancing, singing, everyone to a man Crazycongolese. pedal on and camp in the forest, where as i sleep, termitesannihilate the floor of my tent. wake up and want to scream. continueon one of the most beautiful, deserted, atrocious roads to the porttown of akula. at this stage, have taken to telling the variousofficials that my profession is pasteur - the only way their multiplerequests for cash recedes. find a barge that doubles as a petit marchéthat is happy to take me to kinshasa. 10 days on the congo river...incredible forest either side, hard to put into words. incredibleatmosphere on deck, people catching and eating crocdile, turtles andmonkeys! all very normal behaviour here. at kinshasa, sleep for aweek. cross to the less mental bazzaville, and hit another contenderfor the worst road in africa; rebel controlled pull. 550km, guns,chinese construction workers, potholes the size of garages later makeit to the ocean at pointe noire. continue up the coast to a nationalpark and the gabon border. always on the verge of collapse. people incredible at every turn