Offroad-Express

Hi guys,

I'm currently in Lubumashi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa currently doing aid work through a missionary organisation. We're here for 5 weeks. I'm assisting in fixing vehicles and anything else that needs it. We'll be heading north to Mulongo on monday for 2 weeks to deliver medical supplies and building materials. The vehicles we're using to do it are 2 ex-army Bedford 4x4 trucks and a new lwb landcruiser. I've come over with a mate of mine whos a builder in cambridge but is very good mechanically so will be a great help. Most of the storys i'm posting here are copied from emails so it may not flow to well, but i'll do my best to modify it to make sense. Please don't post rubbish otherwise i'll delete the thread. Thanks


Day1

Africa is crazy! There are so many people everywhere and traffic is diabolical. You see these bicycles with as much stuff on as we would put on a trailer in NZ, I'm sure if the bike fell over they wouldn't be able to pick it up again! We went into town also, the poverty is obvious and the place is in a general state of disrepair, there are a lot of beggars and street kids which are always wanting money for anything like shining your shoes or looking after your vehicle while your shopping etc. Its crazy when you see some cars falling apart then the next car is a brand new hummer or another flash brand. There are so many flash cars, apparently this is due to the local mining operations. Another funny thing is everyone drives on the right hand side of the road here but only about half of the vehicles are left hand drive!
I had a look over the trucks today, and got the Africans to pull the gearbox out for me as it was jumping out of 1st and 3rd gear. I stripped it and it turns out the synchros were stuffed (couldn't believe it was synchromesh!) and due to lack of tools and parts we couldn't repair it so we managed to get another gearbox from a parts truck. I partially dismantled it and checked it over and it looks fine so its going in the truck tomorrow. I just have to swap the gear linkages over as its from a right hand drive truck and going into a left hand drive truck.

The language barrier has been a challenge but my french is improving as I don't really have much choice haha. Jared has been my chief translator most of the time so has been a great help.
We are looking at heading bush on Monday in the trucks. Its 700km over pretty rough terrain and is going to take 2-3 days so should be pretty interesting.....

Any way I'll keep in touch, internet use is pretty limited but I'll try and update as much as I can

Cheers, Dan

Day 2-3

G'day, i drove for my first time here yesterday to test drive the bedford I did the box on. It was a left hand drive, driving on the right hand side of the road on crazy african streets in a truck, talk about a challenge! haha
90% of the cars here are toyotas as they're the only vehicles which last. Some of the streets are like thompsons track and people take cars up them, it's so funny to watch!
I really want to take photos of around town etc and some of the crazy sights but can't because if you get caught with a camera you can get arrested so its not even worth the risk.
Today we went out to a clinic in a very poor area of the city. The poverty really shows when you look around as everything is just so dirty and people are washing clothes, bathing and drinking water out of these digusting looking drains and puddles, its pretty sad.
We also finished mounting winches on both of the trucks and landcruiser today, so now were getting everything else ready for heading north. I also taught the Africans how to use the winch properly so should be be a great help for them when they're next stuck.
We may have to delay it till monday to leave as a lot of the roads are impassable at the moment, so should be interesting when we go.

Cheers, Dan

Heres some photos of so far. sorry they're a bit boring but it shows the vehicles. I'm sure i'll have lots of sweet photos later.

Me and my gear box


Installing the winch on the cruiser


The Bedford 4x4s


Teaching the Africans how to use the winch



Cheers, Dan

Awesome, keep updating!

nzhunter wrote:I really want to take photos of around town etc and some of the crazy sights but can't because if you get caught with a camera you can get arrested so its not even worth the risk.

Cheers, Dan

Why is that???

couldn't you find any unimogs

curly12 wrote:

nzhunter wrote:I really want to take photos of around town etc and some of the crazy sights but can't because if you get caught with a camera you can get arrested so its not even worth the risk.

Cheers, Dan

Why is that???

I think it dates back to the war times and them still being scared of spies etc. It also is a way of getting money out of the white man, its pretty stupid and a bit of a hassle. Although today I took some camera footage from the back seat of the cruiser with the camera hidden under a blanket, I will have to edit it when i get back home

mercutio wrote:couldn't you find any unimogs

haha i wish..... although the bedfords will be just as good i think. The reason the bedfords were bought was price and that they're left hand drive. They are very simple to work on so suit the africans.

Hi guys,

Well over the past 2 weeks quite a bit has happened. On Monday 2nd of June we left Lubumbashi heading north 700km to Mulongo. The roads were ridiculously bad the whole way with big potholes, water holes, mudholes, sand, rocks a bit of everything really. We firstly stayed a night at a place called Bunkeya where there was a mission station which an elderly aussie lady ran, she had been running it for the last 40years. I hadn't been there very long before I was put to work on their vehicles which was a u joint on an Isuzu ute and adjust a wheelbearing on a landcruiser.
We left early the next morning at 3am, it wasn't long before we had 2 trucks stuck blocking the road. We had found a way around but it looked very dodgy. At about the same time some of the Africans who were asleep next to their stuck trucks decided they would tell us about a detour which was about a kilometer back. We turned around and took it, we were glad they actually told us, usually they would just not say anything and watch people get stuck for entertainment. Anyway, we kept on trooping. We reached a place called Kubo which had an amazing waterfall. The quantity of water going over it was unreal and made the huka falls look boring. The rest of the road was very interesting and we didn't get to Mulongo till dark, that day we had travelled for 16hours and the day before 7hours, so a good sleep was duly needed.
Over the next few days the trucks transporting the medical gear for the hospital arrived, it took a whole morning to unload them and the people of mulongo all came to watch as it was such a big event. Jared and me had our work cut out as there were four 4wds which required a huge amount of work to get going again, this pretty much took up our time for the whole week. One was a hilux about a 98 I think, a landrover defender tdi, and two 2002 mitsy 4wd l200s all were in very poor condition and if they were in NZ they would have gone to the wreakers
On that weekend we travelled to Manono which was another 160km north of Mulongo. The drivers of the trucks were delivering a vehicle somewhere, so I drove the truck. Now this isn't one of those nice trucks like in NZ with air suspension, air dampened cabs and air suspensioned seats, these were full on ex army 4x4 bedford trucks with really stiff suspension and only the foam in the seat for comfort also it was left hand drive, driving on the right hand side of the road on the crazy African roads. The truck would literally jump over even the smallest bumps as it was unloaded so made the trip veeerrryyy slow averaging a speed of wait for it.... 30km/h. It wasn't long before the first problem arose. The africans on the truck said the road was very smooth for the next little while so i speed up an actually managed to get into 5th gear, we hit the littlest series of bumps on the road, the truck galloped back and forth and Jared and I came about 2 feet off the seat, in the extremeness of it all i slammed on the anchors and struggled to keep the truck on the road, luckily it did. As I had been in 5th gear when it happened the truck had stalled, no worries just start it back up and on our way. Nooo, it wouldn't start, it had a flat battery after a lot of mucking around scratching my head and blocking all of the one way road we gave it a tow start. Sweet it went. I stopped at the next town, it ended up having a wire come off the alternator easy fix It didn't take long for the novelty of driving to wear off especially since it took 6 hours to do the trip. I even had to adjust the clutch about half way as it was slipping.. When we got to Manono we got a full on welcoming party with people dancing and singing it was soo cool. We stayed over night in Manono. The town had once been very prosperous with power, water, nice housing, shopping and even movies. But it was now very run down with most houses destroyed during the Congolise war in 1999-2003. It no longer had power or running water and was a very dirty place in general. The next day we went to the local church, the singing was very cool with the africans really harmonising. The church had been hit by a bomb during the war though so was very run down, but had been partially rebuilt which was cool. On the way home we took some people back one of which was the real life elephant man. It was unbelievable! It looked like his face had melted off and it hung down to his chest. Winston who was a NZ surgeon travelling with us performed surgery on him later in the week.
Over the week we finished working on the vehicles.
Now, the whole time I had been there I had been looking for bats although I had seen them, I hadn't seen one close up as they would fly past really quickly. On the Wednesday night I finally saw one. I was asleep and at about 6am I felt something crawl over my arm and fly off onto my mosquito net, I quickly grabbed my torch and to my astonishment there was a bat inside my net, I grabbed my camera and started filming, I didn't want to get bitten as it is quite likely to have rabbies, i eventually grabbed it with my t-shirt and got rid of it. How it had got in I have no idea, it must have climbed through a tiny untucked part of my net, but the room was sealed too, so yeah I have no idea.
On the Thursday we knocked off early and went swimming. Mulongo is next to a massive lake but is dangerous to swim near the shore due to disease and crocodiles. So we got a canoe with one of the africans and paddled out to have a swim further out. Now the canoe is definitely worth a mention, it was just a log hollowed out with a chisel and hammer it was veeerrrryyy unstable, mostly the africans kneel in it but we sat down in it much to the africans amusement. The whole way out i was worrying about having to get back in the canoe after swimming as i thought it would roll. But it didn't, what a relief!
The next day we set off heading back to Lumbumbashi. We stopped at Kubo where the waterfall is for the night. While we were there we showed a movie, most of the villages had never seen a movie before and it was funny watching them clap and boo etc as they watched it, they got really into it!
We got back to Lumbumbashi the next day. I had a hot shower pretty much as soon as I got back, man it was unreal how good it was as we had just had a bucket of cold water and a cup to pour the water over us to wash while in Mulongo.
The next day was a Sunday and Murrays (the guy we were staying with) birthday. We went to a church that morning close to the Zambia border, afterwards we went to a lake which was an old mine that had filled up with water so was incredibly deep. When we got there, there were a whole lot of ex pats which were people that had moved up from South Africa to make a fortune in Congo. There were jet skis out, motocross bikes, sports quads, bbqs etc. It was crazy seeing all of this in the middle of Africa. Even talking to the people was so cool as we hadn't really seen any other white people outside the people we were staying with, it was surprising how much you miss been able to talk to strangers in English. We stayed there for the afternoon and had a great time, that night we went out to a Greek restaurant, it was in a sort of compound with high walls totally cutting it off from the city outside the walls, it was very flash and had a huge variety of food.
This week has been uneventful so far but I'm sure something will happen sooner or later. A surgeon is coming out from Ireland on Saturday and is bringing out his daughter and his daughters friend so will be good to hang out with some younger people our own age again. We may be heading back north again next week but will see our it pans out.

Anyway have a look on google earth to see where some of these places are and I will catchya later


DAN

a random truck that had broken down on the side of the road, couldn't do much it had destroyed a big end bearing


one of the utes we had to fix


unloading the medical supplies at the hospital at mulongo


kids at manono


not to badly overloaded


the main road


me showing off in the bobcat


bat in my bed


the truck i drove 160km to manono


one of the city streets


the main road to mulongo


the trucks blocking the road on the way


the cruiser going into a mudhole on the main road



one of the trucks we passed on the way

Thats amazing keep up the good story's and pics, My uncle is in Sudan working for a private yank company disposing of bombs and land mines so i hear similar storys from him, But its a little safer than his last posting around Bagdad as they were allways getting ambushed and shot at and having up to 5 ute's taken from them at gun point at any one time, Similar things have happened in Sudan and Libya so be carefull there man.!!

Very cool Diary.

Keep the updates - sounds like a neat trip.

Used to love it overthere, you really know you are alive.

Taking pics of people. Remember many have no education etc. I had people accused of stealing peoples soles when taking their pics

Red90 wrote:Used to love it overthere, you really know you are alive.

Taking pics of people. Remember many have no education etc. I had people accused of stealing peoples soles when taking their pics

that would explain why most of the natives don't wear shoes