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My number one question now is since he is living on credit how is this going to work? In Africa you need cash, in some of the biggest cities the hotel/restaurant areas with tourists might take credit cards, but the rest you can only operate in cash.

We have some offices in West Africa and they have petty cash to pay for local items. They also usually keep an emergency safe for when SHTF and the expats need to get the hell out.

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A typical day driving through the Congo:

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About 50km before Kananga to road is blocked. The bridge is gone.

This happened very recently. People there pointed us to a detour. We had to take bicycle tracks all the way to Kamwanda (+- 30km) where there is another bridge and then continue from there.

We set off on a much to narrow track trough dense jungle.

It was getting late already and we were not sure if we would make it to Kananga today. Depending on the state of the bicycle tracks, we would have to stay in a village again.

The first village we encountered seemed deserted at first, but as soon as we entered the village we saw people coming at us from all sides. They had machetes and sticks and were shouting. "Des Blancs. Argent!" - "White people. Money!". They were all over the place. This was not good! I floored it and sped out of the village. A rock hit the back of our car.

What in gods name was that all about?

Very few Congolese had made us feel welcome, but this was plain agression! It scared the hell out of us.

We passed another village, and once again a mob formed as soon as they heard us coming. Machetes flying round, racist slogans shanted. Once again we did not give them the chance to get near us and blasted out of the village. They tried following us. This was turning ugly, if we would get stuck here we would be in big trouble, these people did not want a chat!

With half an hour of daylight left we knew we had a problem. We tried sending our coordinates to the homefront with the instructions to call the embassy if they did not hear from us within the hour. Despite us having bought SIM cards of the two major GSM operators, we did not have reception.

With our hearts racing we neared another village.

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If you haven't yet, you all owe it yourselves to read the adventure story of a couple that spent time in the Congo doing a similar trip in a Landcruiser.

Warning: long

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/50799-Democratic-Republic-of-Congo-Lubumbashi-to-Kinshasa

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"Y"'s brother went fishing in Missa and saw mischief like cutting of ears. They fry the ears in a pan eat them. They make the victims look at how their own ears are being fried and eaten. They are being accused of cooperation with the Congolese FAC army. The May May continue to eat humans. Y's brother managed to escape to Bukama, this is where I met him.

They kill those four soldiers and eat them. They then carry one of the heads of the murdered soldiers to Kintobongo and put the head on the table in our mission. They do this as warning not to attack hem, if not this is what happens.

..The hunters (May-May) asked food at the woman of Chef Kitumba. The women told they did not have food. The hunters then demanded that they roast their children for them to eat.

05/ 12/ 2004.
This is after the war officially ended.

I made use of the time my two guards entered their hut to eat the meal they made out of a young woman that the MayMay just killed.

21/04/2006
We are living in a situation of pure and simple cannibalism. The may-may plunder, rape and kill the civilian population. They then eath their meat, raw or smoked. This is true for the May-MAy chief Kabale, who was killed recently (15/05/2006) by the population of Kayumba.

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If you haven't yet, you all owe it yourselves to read the adventure story of a couple that spent time in the Congo doing a similar trip in a Landcruiser.

Warning: long

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/50799-Democratic-Republic-of-Congo-Lubumbashi-to-Kinshasa

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Very interesting. If nothing else it shows how the roads are bad, a second person is needed to help dig out from the inevitable getting stuck 2 or 3 times a day, a second person is needed to scout out the road ahead for pitfalls, how everyone met will expect money, etc.

ETA: A typical road from the link -

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So ignoring political issues/cannibals, the best way to make this trip would be... In a group with a large string of horses? With pre-staged supplies of additional mounts?

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So ignoring political issues/cannibals, the best way to make this trip would be... In a group with a large string of horses? With pre-staged supplies of additional mounts?

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If you haven't yet, you all owe it yourselves to read the adventure story of a couple that spent time in the Congo doing a similar trip in a Landcruiser.

Warning: long

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/50799-Democratic-Republic-of-Congo-Lubumbashi-to-Kinshasa

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Land Cruisers, not Land Rovers. Big difference.

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If you haven't yet, you all owe it yourselves to read the adventure story of a couple that spent time in the Congo doing a similar trip in a Landcruiser.

Warning: long

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/50799-Democratic-Republic-of-Congo-Lubumbashi-to-Kinshasa

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Very interesting. If nothing else it shows how the roads are bad, a second person is needed to help dig out from the inevitable getting stuck 2 or 3 times a day, a second person is needed to scout out the road ahead for pitfalls, how everyone met will expect money, etc.

ETA: A typical road from the link -

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My money is on him getting stuck in the mud somewhere without the ability to negotiate with someone to pull him out, and then he dead.

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