# Up the Congo.... without a bike!



## Globalti (5 Dec 2014)

Am I allowed to post these pictures? I have just returned from my fourth business visit to the DRC, a country that seems to be capturing my imagination in a way that Nigeria never has in over 90 visits. It's fascinating to see the contrast between Nigeria, the former British protectorate and DRC the former Belgian colony. Both countries have been looted by successive generations of administrators and are still being looted but somehow the DRC has retained a stronger flavour of the true Africa which makes it especially fascinating.

No bike, but here are some snaps:

The river Congo from my hotel in Kinshasa, at the lowest navigable level on the river before the Stanley rapids, which run from here for 350 kms down to the Atlantic. The first rapids are visible in the distance.







A snatched shot of a couple of river steamers pulled out of the water, taken from the Route des Poids Lourds, a street recently rebuilt by the Japanese that runs parallel to the Congo and is the main access to all the river ports and jetties. When boats arrive this road seethes with porters carrying agricultural goods brought down river for sale in Kin and manufactured goods being shipped up river to towns like Lubumbashi. Go on Google Earth and look at satellite photos of Kinshasa and you'll see hundreds of disused boats and barges tied up along the shore, rusting and sinking.






As proof of its higher level of culture KInshasa actually has a symphony orchestra, which was the subject of a fascinating BBC documentary recently when the orchestra came to Britain and played with four British orchestras, starting with the Halle Orchestra in Manchester. These two self-effacing and charming violinists are members, seen here supplementing their incomes by playing in the lobby of the smart Fleuve Congo hotel:






Happily for me most of Kinshasa's grand avenues and boulevards were rebuilt by China a couple of years ago meaning you can move around the city without spending five hours stuck in traffic and you can reach the airport in 40 minutes. Higher speeds do mean more accidents however, which usually involve big forces:






Kinshasa has a thriving music, art and fashion scene and one sculptor managed to persuade the city authorities to allow her to replace the traffic lights with tin robots, which hold up their arms to display red or green panels then rotate through 45 degrees This guy is having a five minute break:






Found this in a magazine named something like "Discussion and Democracy". This is how the DRC handles rioting humans:






No trip to Africa is complete without testing the local beers, mostly lager-style thanks to the Belgians and the sheer drinkability of a cold lager in hot weather:
















Finally, time to go home. Most people seem to be terrified of Congolese officialdom and the endless bureaucracy so there is a thriving trade of "Protocol" officers who will process all of your documents at the airport for a small fee but after almost 30 years travelling around Africa I find it fun and a challenge because if you address people politely and chat with them they invariably break out in smiles and become your friend. Even the most bored and jaded immigration officer can be persuaded to smile wearily if you take the trouble to speak with them and sympathise with their lousy job in a sweaty glass booth. Security is a joke though so the international airlines conduct their own more thorough security checks on the tarmac before you board the plane:






What an amazing and fascinating country and incredibly resourceful and charming people. OK, I see it through the rosey-tinted specs of a business traveller staying in good hotels and I have never really got down and mixed it but anyway.... I hope you enjoyed these few pictures.


----------



## Panter (5 Dec 2014)

Certainly did, thanks for sharing


----------

