Going home/Going shopping!

I was up early this morning to wave off Eric and Alban who are motorcycling home to Paris from Brazzaville, the capital of 'the other Congo', the Republic of Congo. Brazzaville lies across the River Congo from Kinshasa. They got as far as Kananga in Kasai province, Democratic Republic of Congo but due to the bad state of the roads and a problem with one of their bikes they decided to fly themselves and the bikes to Lubumbashi and continue their journey on road from here. You can read more about their adventures on their blog http://brazzatoparis.wordpress.com/ There have been some road repairs done in the last couple of years. Most of these repairs have been in and around cities such as Kinshasa and Lubumbashi. Much of the interior, however, remains difficult to traverse, highlighting some of the challenges for the Congolese Government, trying to manage a country which is virtually impossible to cross by road and definatley not by railway. The majority of long distance travel in Congo is by air. The Chinese and mining companies are among those contracted to road repairs. One of the upcoming road projects is the tarmacing of the road between Kolwezi and Likasi,approx 250km, and passes through some of the main mining areas and therefore carries many large and heavy lorries which churn up the current dirt road very quickly after a heavy rain. Work has already started on the drainage for this major road build. I have alot of admiration for Eric and Alban and others like them who are prepared to take up the challenge of crossing Congo by road, I would like to do it myself one day(probably not on a bike though, I'm not brave enough for that)! For some, however, this form of travel is a daily reality as a means of making a living. On the way back from Katoka in the New Year we passed over 50 guys, pushing bicycles by hand, piled high with heavy goods, transporting them from distance commercial towns like Kolwezi back to their villages to sell to the local population who do not have access to shops. This journey can take up to 10 days in one direction. Some are travelling up and down from Kasai province to Kolwezi approximatley 500km. Once they have returned home and sold one bike load they start off again on their journey to bring back another bike load of goods. We stopped and helped one of these traders to pick his bike out of the large hole filled with rain water that it had fallen into. The weight of the goods piled on top was too much for him to lift up by himself. Due to the poor state of the roads it is difficult and not cost efficient for traders to send lorries into these areas.