How to enjoy the rapids below Kinshasa

There is a video called #Congo, the Grand Inga Project that captures a team kayaking down the rapids below Kinshasa that had killed all those who had tried before. For the rest of us, taking a break with a cool drink, lunch and a vantage point is a great way to spend a Saturday or Sunday. I suppose there are lots of places, but I was looking for cold beverages, plastic chairs and Euro-Congolese fare hot enough to keep gastro-enteritis at bay. So far I have found 5 within an easy drive from #Gombe.

All are reached by taking a right at Kintambo Magasin and driving along the river, past Mobuto's old palace and the ruins of several other impressive homes. You can already see some impressive water as you drive past a shanty, a health center and what seems to be a park undergoing revitalization.

The first restaurant you reach is #Atlantic Pizzeria, which can be found on #googlemap. Just as you start entering a town, there's a sign on the right and the restaurant is on the left after you turn. Parking a bit dicey on the road which leads across a bridge to a quarry. So there are big trucks going in and out while you park on the edge of the road. Food's Ok though I didn't actually look for pizza, the view is Ok as the river passes between the island with the quarry and the mainland and a pleasant afternoon was had. We did walk across the bridge to see of there might be interesting views from the far side of the island, but it felt rather uncomfortable as if we were violating some secure facility, so we didn't see any more water.

The farthest is #Mbudi Nature http://mbudinature.net/home.php, also on #googlemap. To get here, you have to continue on the same road, past an intersection that was crazy backed up even on Sunday and past the overgrown cemetery on your left. There's a sign off the main road, but many twists and turns required us to ask directions several times before we found it. It was pleasantly natural and seriously run down. From the entrance we found, it's a pleasant hike to the river and restaurant. There is another way in that we didn't find. The restaurant staff was honest that it would take an hour for chicken, but forgot to mention that there was a buffet available for a reasonable price. We just had a beer, but the buffet looked good. View of the rapids was good as you sit in the shade of low trees and absorb the day.

Between the 2, just up from the Atlantic, there is a sign for #TinTin Bar. I have followed that sign twice, but haven't actually been to TinTin yet. The first time, we saw another sign for Voix du Fleuve and veered off in that direction. Good lunch, good view, good day.

The second time I followed the TinTin Bar sign, I passed the Voix du Fleuve and found the second TinTin sign leading down a road towards the river. At the end of the small road, I was faced with the choice of a slight right into TinTin or straight ahead into #Espace Vert. Through the open gates of Espace Vert, I could see the best view ever of the rapids calling to me. As the name implies, you sit under trees on a lawn open to the river, ringed with low slung walls that appear to date from the colonial era, watching the standing waves form and recede as sheep wander and egrets fly. They serve Congolese bar food. The brochette was acceptable, the beverage cold and the view spectacular.

From the bar, you can walk down on the rocks for a closer view. That brings you back to reality with men, women and children working to break the rocks up for sale.

So TinTin is just a tad upriver, the view a tad less spectacular, but looks like a legit restaurant if you're looking for that. I may make it next time.

View from Mbudi Nature 1

Mbudi Nature 2

From espace vert

Espace vert with feeling

November in Kisangani

There for a training workshop. Only got one Sunday off. Had thought to use it to find someone with a pirogue and get lessons, but by the time Sunday rolled around, had been sick and was not really up for that much adventure.

Checked google maps for a new place to walk and thought I would see just how far Tchopo dam was. For those who don't know me, looking at scale on map is of no use to me. Turns out I can make it and it was worth the walk. Just before joining the Congo River, the Tchopo passes through the dam and produces unusually reliable electricity. As you approach the bridge, you see a channel which is already moving so fast, you can get vertigo. A little farther and the water is churning though the dam and crashing into a 10 drop. While flat under the bridge, it's still moving at an impressive clip. On the other side after a small pool, there's more crashing down a 12 foot drop, then it broadens out into a idyllic setting with the 'burbs of Kisangani on one side. On the other a beach, traditional village and old forest rising behind. One side or the other would definitely be the place to look for pirogue lessons next time I have a weekend in Kisangani.

I would have loved to take pictures, but the bridge was guarded by soldiers who tend to be skittish about that kind of thing.

Oh and in the pool beneath the bridge were about a dozen dugout canoes washed up, testimony, I suppose to the strength of the current. Hope they jumped out before.

Finally arrived for 2 years in Congo

Finally made it. Not without a couple of gaffes, like forgetting to get a visa. But more importantly, they wouldn't ship my #Pungo Classic and #Jackson Rouge! I am devastated. 

However, I went ahead and ordered 2 duckies - #Tributary Tomcat LV Inflatable Kayaks from #NRS. It won't be the same, but the reviews say they're almost as good as a kayak. I didn't actually open the boxes. By the time they arrived I was in such a panic about packing out. So one more reason to wait with breathless anticipation until the household effects arrive. It might be 6 months, but that would have been the same for my kayaks. 

In the meantime, I'm considering buying a dug out and tricking it out with a seat, a saddle and whatever comes to mind. If I get around to it while simultaneously setting up work, home electronics 50% of which are not currently functional and the rest of my life.

Graduation to Class II

After 3 paddles on class II stretches of the Chestatee, Coosawatte and Broad Rivers, what lesson have I learned? Well, I'm happy without going go Class III :-)

I've done the Chestatee before, putting in at Appalacian Outfitters and headed downstream in a leisurely stroll through nature with mountain laurel, green and cool breezes. A few spots where you could try catching an eddy but they aren't strong enough to peel out of. Above the outfitter (they'll shuttle you for $20 to the put in and back from the take out), you get more interesting though not yet too challenging water which I'm told qualifies for Class II.

That made be brave enough to join a group on the Coosawattee, putting in at Ellijay then paddling for 8 miles through Class I and II (and some flat) water, where I repeatedly asked myself who was controling my Jackson Rouge as I slammed into rocks (reminding myslef aloud - don't lean upriver), hurdled over ledges (eddy turn???? I am going nowhere but straight and glad of it) and felt helpless as the current took me where it wanted to. Didn't go swimming, but it was not graceful. Then knew who was powering the kayak stroke by stroke over 3 miles of lake to the take out. A good work out and plenty of time to calm down after the rush of abandoning all hope above:-)

And yet, 2 weeks later, when an experienced paddler said they were going for an easy paddle, I didn't register that their easy was my YIKES! The leader did interview me and made sure I knew it was class II and that I had the experience necessary to join them. Put in the Broad River at Broad River Outpost who also provided a shuttle from the take out ($5). Don't know if it was the previous experience or a lesser challenge or the extremely patient guidance of the more experienced paddlers through the Three Falls, past the Hippo Butt and into the 2 jacussis, but it was manageable. I wouldn't try a river of this level without these guides, but have gained some river reading and paddling skills.

Will be trying them out on the lesser Metro Hooch during a paddle cleanup this week. Though I don't expect my Pungo Classic to answer nearly as well as the Jackson, since it's a clean up, I'll have to do more than float downstream. Last time I took out at Garrard's Landing at the end of a clean up, I ended up in the water surroudned by a kayak full of trash. Will try to do better this time, or at least put all my trash in a canoe barge.

 

Tributaries count too

In Kisangani in the Orientale Province, helping with preparations for the upcoming polio campaign. Needed to go to the Health Zone of Yakusu. After 20 minutes on the back of a Yamaha 100, literally squeezed between the ice chest full of frozen ice packs and the nurse/driver where with every bump in the dirt road, the ice chest pushed up, making the fit tighter, the canoe ride across the Lindi River was a breeze.

 

 

The dugout seemed enormous, cut from one tree. Can you count the number of rings? Apparently the canoe was only 8 years old. Hard to believe that they will still find such straight, large trees after all these years of exploitation. Then, after the hard labor of digging it out, it is sold for the enormous sum of $1000, less than some Liquid Logics that a machine spits out.

 

After this, just 9 more miles on the back of that bike. My arms were numb from holding onto the seat with a death grip.

 

The return was slightly easier since they decided not to send back the ice chest (for my sake, I am convinced). But then the nurse/drive drove faster since he wasn't sitting on the gas tank. The canoe back took longer. The owner wanted to load up everyone he could for the last trip of the day. 2 motorcycles, 2 bicycles and 12 people later, he was still hoping for one last motorcycle to make his day. He finally gave up, but it takes a full hour to paddle and pole upstream far enough to cross, letting the current bring us back to the landing on the other side.

 

The final stretch by motorcycle into the gathering dusk was uneventful other than the speed and the nurse/driver using his left hand to either wipe the bugs out of his mouth or talk with great animation.

 

For map, I think you can follow the link.

Democratic Republic of the Congo

 

June 30 in Kinshasa

Dry season. Sky is mostly white with light clouds and the temperatures are insanely pleasant. Smoke wafts up from set fires. There are no fields here being prepared for cultivation. It is either trash or compulsion born of generations of habit.

 

River down a bit with a sand bar just below the light house. Unlike in February, there are no fishermen to be seen on this section (right in front of the Gombe governement district and Fleuve Hotel).

 

 

Headed to the bend in the river this week. More after.

Sweep the Hooche 2013 #sweephooch was great. We had 38 people for a 4.5 mile stretch of the river from Johnson Ferry road to Powers Island. Less trash than I have seen on previous floats in that section, but we really didn't have much time for it anyway, so it was just enough to keep us amused.

Several novice paddlers - all of them my good friends from Team GID - but no problems for them. They enjoyed the river and vow to return for future trips.

While there wasn't that much trash, we saw many turtles of more than 1 variety, Great Blue Heron, otters at play, geese, ducks and cormarans - evidence that real life isn't that far from the pavement of our surburban/urban existance.

 

Not in the Congo yet, but these are my 2 kayaks restless after a long winter in the garage. The Pungo Classic, bought barely used 3 years ago and the Jackson Rogue, bought new from Outside World last month.

Well, I'm restless. The Rogue hasn't even had her maiden voyage yet. We'll all be out together next Saturday for Sweep the Hooch. Straps are counted, PFD's laid out, new carrying equipment looked at. For a cheapskate, I have somehow amassed 4 different carrying systems and a multitude of straps in 3 years. Will come in handy this weekend as I get Team GID on the water.

Score!

Well, almost anyway.

I've been trying to find maps with sufficient resolution to plan my kayaking adventures. There's plenty of time since my kayaks and I will not be united in Congo until early 2014, but it may take that long....

Yesterday, Saturday, I set off to see if the Institute Geographique was still where I remembered from so long ago. Walked from the hotel to Blvd 30 Juin and guessed at a left hand turn. Just as I was about to accept failure, there it was, seemingly unchanged from the 1980's.

The old man at the gate selling air for tires from a compressor older than he said they were closed, but what did I want? Turned out there was someone there who might help me out. We limped over to the veranda and he called slightly less old gentleman out. Yes, he said, he could help me with a hydrology map, please come.

He escorted me down the hall that hadn't seen paint since independence (the first one) - nor a good dusting for that matter. Opened a door into a closet sized room, while he entered through another door. My side of the desk that separated the 2 doors was full of stacked plastic chairs, paper, cobwebs and yet more dust. There were 2 clean plastic chairs set hard up on the desk and he welcomed me to one. On the other side of the desk, intertwined electric wires crawled up walls and hung down in random intervals, intended perhaps to sport light bulbs. But now illumination came from florescent bulbs behind me. A small television with twisting images fading between color and black and white was on. I looked to see if his bed was set up there, but apparently he slept sitting up in the chair.

He opened an armoir and started pulling out rolled up maps, peering down the roll or opening it slightly to find what he was looking for. Each was discarded into a new random pile in its turn, until he found mine. I didn't have my reading glasses with me, but he lent me his to inspect a detailed map of navigable tributaries of the Congo river, edition 2005!

While it is not so very detailed (the key includes rapids, but that symbol doesn't appear on the map) and no roads or villages are indicated to help figure out put-in/take-out options, I had to have it. $50 if I came on the weekday and bought from the store, $40 today's price. Maybe some of that could go for soap for the floor or walls, or desk, or chairs.

More on the congitation side - on language

The national languages of Congo are French, Lingala, Kinkongo, Kiswahili and Tshiluba. An increasing number of peoople speak some amount of English, including members of the administration, but it is not widespread or especially useful.

I remember back when I was in Peace Corps training. I was going to be teaching biology and chemistry in French. Other colleagues were math teachers and more still were "english as a second language" teachers. An significant amount of the training was dedicated to teaching us French. I had taken French classes in high school and college, but we had a wide variety of talents as volunteers.

One day, the trainers annouced at dinner "from this moment forward, total immersion. We want to hear no pockets of resistance speaking English". One of the math teachers immediately stood up and enthusiastically started greeting everyone around him in French. I assumed he was one of the advanced classes. Imagine my surprize when I - one of the worst pockets of resistance - walked past the class of rank novices and there he was. He went on to enjoy 2 years of teachning math and his French never got beyond the most rudimentary if enthusiastic level.

I'm reminded of this by 3 people I have had the recent pleasure of with in Congo. One has thrown herself into the work, going far and wide within the country, never hesitating to volunteer for a mission here or in other francophone countries. Imagine my surprize when I heard her speak. She could barely put a sentence together and her vocabulary was more spanish than french. Everyone we met and owkred with understood her, waited patiently for her to finish and provided appropriate answers to her questions. They even seemed to prefer to be interviewed by her than by me with my intermediate french.

The other 2 colleagues speak at least as well as me, but are much, much more worried about the proper grammer, gender, conjugation. They constantly beat themselves up and study to speak more perfectly. They are probably harder to understand than the first as they search for just the right word, repeat the verb until it is the correct conjugation and apologize repeatedly during the shortest conversation.

So, firm in the belief that language is about communication and not the mechanics of sentence construction, I hereby commit to never learning to speak better French.

February from the Fleuve Hotel

Hoping to move to Kinshasa in September and bring my kayaks. In the meantime, I'm taking a keen interest in river conditions. Couldn't have a better vantage than from the 16th floor of this hotel, shoals, rapids, eddy lines all in view. Especially as the rain moves down the river. This picture doesn't capture the detail available, nor the beauty of the scene, but alas, I have a better kayak than camera.