Travels off the Beaten Path

In this episode I recount on arriving at Kisangani, I disembark off the boat after a 7-day amazing adventure and spend a few days in the town greeting strangers like long-lost friends and meeting expatriates, including their primate pets. I also spent a morning watching the local fishermen at Stanley Falls (named after the explorer Stanley and now called Boyoma Falls) on the rapids of the Lualaba River. I watch the fishermen climbing over the tall framework and raising and lowering the large funnel-shaped fish traps or standing in the chest-high fast-flowing river current fixing traps.

As part of the life lessons for this episode, I look at tourists, travellers and expatriates and explore their differences while emphasising the need to respect cultural differences. 

This episode details the epic river journey we undertook from Bumba to Kisangani on the Congo River. We travelled on a past-Rhine River steamer with attached barges absolutely overflowing with a mass of people for a journey of a life time. It was an incredible sight when we first saw the barge. The steamer and the three barges was packed with people on the inside, people on the roofs and people in the canoes attached to the sides. Our three day voyage became a 7-day adventure as barges kept becoming detached in the night and had to be recovered. From our first-class cabin, where water came from a bucket, we stepped outside to see trussed up crocodiles, to running out of food, being locked in a cage to dance to lively Congolese rumba music, to watching the pirogues (canoes) coming from everywhere to sell their wares and buy necessities while dodging the officers checking tickets. It was basically a floating market thumping with music, and the hum of the steamer engines being drowned out by people's conversations as they went about their daily lives on the boat. 

My lesson I got out of this adventure was how grateful we should be at everything we take for granted. We were in first class but there was no running water, the bath was stained and the beds were mediocre. You could not even compare this to first class in the western world. But we had it better than third class sleeping on the barge roofs or alongside market stalls. Seeing the desperation of the people when they came via canoe to hop on the boat and were stopped by the boat officials made me realise how the trading on the boat was their only mechanisms to sell and buy their wares until the next boat came through, so it was a matter of survival to get on the boat. We just have to go down to the shop or we can get anything delivered. It really is another world.  The reality of the consequences of bushmeat was a hard lesson especially with the treatment and disappearance of the baby chimp. Stopping the trade was beyond my own capability and I knew I could not encourage it. 

This episode brings us back to Africa where we wait in Bangui to be picked up. We meet two gold miners and went upriver in a canoe to a pygmy village and watch some drumming and dances. Back in the town, the owner of overland truck company had arrived with two trucks, a semi-articulated and a short-based truck. We loaded ourselves into these trucks and crossed into Zaire posing as missionaries. This started the unforgettable journey on the main road to Lisala, which actually was a mud highway covered in wheel ruts and soft edges with makeshift bridges of logs, dirt and tin over fast streams. Often we were digging the bogged trucks out of the thick mud or helping reinforce the log crossings to manage the truck weight. We finally made it to Lisala to see a beautiful Congo River before a manicured lawn. Perfect photo opportunity.......Next minute I was being marched up to police headquarters with an AK-47 behind my back........

The life lessons were again just go with the flow. I realised I was not interested in seeing tourist performances but was more interested in seeing the real deal of life in villages and their associated ceremonies. The pygmy performance made me see how we were viewing Africa and I wanted to be immersed rather than watch as a spectator from the side-line. This became my motto for life. I was also overawed in the feats achieved in maintaining a road through the tropical depths of the African jungle. Finally, my more intense brush with the law made me much more cautious in what I photographed or filmed in politically-unstable countries. 

This episode is a flashback of one of my adventures in Europe. I went on a trip to Venice to surprise my grandmother, who was on an European tour and was passing through. I had no idea when or where she was but I sat in the piazza and watched every tour pass until I saw her. It was a wonderful surprise and we ended up having dinner. I had to rush back and catch the ferry to another island to the backpackers where I was staying but I missed the curfew and was locked out. After a misunderstanding with some police officers, I hid down a lane and slept on the dock - it was a cold and uncomfortable night. in the morning, I returned to the hostel and collapsed on my bed. I woke in the afternoon to find someone has stolen my wallet while I was asleep. It turned up back in Australian six months later. 

I learnt from this trip that where there is a will, there is a way. Be persistent. It was also wonderful to give someone a surprise, to do something nice for someone rubs off on yourself. Lastly, watch your belongings at backpackers/hostels, especially in shared dorms.  

Photo: Ricardo Gomez Angel on Unsplash

This episode divulges the events that happen after the truck crash. We are rescued by missionaries and later taken to the nearest large town, Bangui, in Central African Republic. We were reunited with the injured and were stuck at a camp site for three weeks while we waited out fate. In that time my tent was slashed and a bag stolen. Luckily for me, but not for the thief, it was my toiletries bag. :-) I also describe the standoff in the market place when a man tried to steal my money out of my shirt pocket and I reacted immediately by using the only weapon in my hand, a recently-bought pineapple. It was like time had frozen........

The lessons learnt here is to always be aware of your own security when travelling and protect your valuables. One of the biggest lessons in this situation is do not form daily habits in movement as then it becomes easier for you to be targeted by thieves and others meaning harm. I got away with my retaliating threat but I was constantly assessing the situation and would have quickly submitted in the presence of a club, knife or gun. A person's life is not valued as much in these countries so you have to be careful how far you push the boundaries.  

Central African Republic is another country that is now a 'no go' zone with internal conflict and warring parties. My heart goes out to the families trying to survive in one of the poorest countries in the world and the internal conflict would only make matters worse. I am so lucky to have experienced this journey when I did.  

Cover photo: Typical African market. Photos by Beks on Unsplash

It is so fitting to talk about the next stage in my overland journey for Episode 13. This Unlucky 13th episode recounts the leadup to our epic truck crash and the repercussions in the middle of central Africa. However, I consider it lucky as somehow we were saved from serious injury and a potential worst fate further down the road.

From this unforgettable series of events, I learnt to take life as it comes. It is great to plan for the future, but really live in the present. We do not know how long we are here on earth and everything involves some sort of risk. Learn to weigh up the risks and take chances to extend yourself outside your comfort zone and really LIVE. 

Note: On further recall of the events in my mind, I made a mistake in the podcast. We were only stuck on the side of the road for a day before the missionaries rescued us just before evening. But let me tell you, surrounded by villagers with machetes, that was a very long day. And the injured were taken to the French Foreign Legion's base hospital before we were re-united in the next town while they waited for a flight back to England. However, that is for the next episode.

The overland journey continues into Nigeria. I witness an political election drive with horses, colour, singing and dancing, drums and chanting. I get invited to a Nigerian traditional wedding where I personally experience the custom of spraying money. I reminisce over the week spent at Yankari National park  - soaking in the Wikki warm springs, and getting close and personal with elephants and baboons. I consider the political environment at the time of my visit and the Ogoni struggle for their homeland from the greed of politicians and international giant Shell petroleum that resulted in land degragation from oil spills and the ultimate deaths of Ogoni that protested, all only ~500 kms from where I unknowningly partied with politicians from the same country at the time. 

Image: Nigerian wedding https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/149181806387390600/

We continue our journey through West Africa leaving Mali and travelling through Burkina Faso, Togo and Benin. I describe a typical day's travel on an overland truck from the time we wake up till we set up camp and finish for the day, including a short summary of our typical diet each day. I discuss the ramifications of Togo starting a border conflict with Benin while we were travelling through and how it impeded our journey. I also discuss how the sound of distant drums in the night would send me searching and uncovering some wonderful local experiences. I also recount my first wild lion roar.

My biggest life lesson here is how stepping out of your comfort zone really opens you up to allow for some amazing experiences in life. There will always be an element of risk but the life changes are so worth it. 

Photo: Typical town we drove through in Burkina Faso.

Each 10th episode I will pause the travel stories and talk about some historical facts, some travel tips or interview a fellow avid traveller. This episode is about the advantages and disadvantages of travelling in the non-digital era.

I look at how the introduction of the internet, mobile phones and digital cameras have changed the way we travel. This includes reminiscing on the lost art of letter writing, the challenges of using a phone on an exchange and the old film cameras and SLRs in comparison to what we have today.

Photo: Mobile phone use compared to access to electricity 2012 (Source: The Economist, 2017. https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2017/11/08/in-much-of-sub-saharan-africa-mobile-phones-are-more-common-than-access-to-electricity)

This episode recounts the continuation of my overland trip through Africa. We left Goree Island and travelled east into Mali. We drove through Kayes, Bamako and up to Mopti on the Niger River.  We spent awhile here watching the markets, admiring the unique architecture of the mud mosques and going for a boat ride on the Niger to visit a fishing village downstream. From Mopti we travelled to Bandiagara and by ox cart to Sangha Ogol Leye on the Bandiagara Escarpment to visit the amazing Dogons in their villages. I spent an afternoon behind a tree watching a mens-only ceremony entranced with their stilted and masked dancers. I also watched the horse and rider display with fascination. Later we explored the escarpment, where the Dogon bury their members in caves, and the village Bombou above the escarpment. On the third day we walked to the next village Bolomo with the ox cart. On the way there, three horsemen from the festival caught up with us and I was able to convince one to let me ride his horse. with the drums beating, the horses doing tricks, we dashed off to the next village to the astonishment of the inhabitants. I had not known who I had kicked off his horse. From the honour to ride a chief's horse and sit the horse tricks, to making a fool of myself, it was a memorable event.

Mali is a stunning country with much to offer from its terrain, its cultures and its architecture. However, currently Mali is a 'no travel' zone with internal conflict from ISIS-backed Islamic groups hassling smaller ethnic non-Islamic groups. There are killings, kidnappings and massive movement of people fleeing from the troubled areas and becoming refuges. The Dogons are also being persecuted and there has been recent conflict between the Fulani herders and the Dogon with their crop areas.  Any international travel is risky, but especially off the beaten path. You have to be always aware of any simmering tensions and avoid conflict zones. I never travelled in war zones and got myself out any time unrest erupted. In these areas, a human life is not valued as much as in western society, or at least a death or murder does not hold as much weight. I hope Mali is able to stabilise itself and its minority ethnic cultures continue to survive well into the future.