Blogs from Congo Democratic Republic, Africa - page 5

Today I went hiking on Mount Stanley (quite the coinsidence). It is the highest point in the DRC. Its total height is 5110m. The hike very tireing. I also saw some of the mountian wildlife. when we came down the mountain they told me that Mount Nyamuragira was about to errupt so I couldn't go into the central eastern area of the DRC.... read more

Today I visited congos caves. When I was at the Dimba cave in southern congo. There I found some of the oldest rements of human cilivilzation. Some people say that they are from around 18,000 B.C. or earlier. The Matupi cave is a important archaeological monument in Ituri rainforest. This cave contains sediments which have recorded a sequence of human occupation lasting for the last 40,000 years. Here I found some of the oldest microlithic tools in the world used for arrows and saws. When these tools were made 12,000 years ago when this place was a savannah. Kakanda malachite caves - Katanga. Caves lined with highly unusual malachite stalactites. I found also unique malachite crystals up to 2 cm large. The Thysville group of caves with endemic blind fish Caecobarbus geertsii Boulenger, 1921 living in ... read more

In my recent travels I am now at the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). A country in the central african reigion. It has the population of 70,916,439. It is about a fourth of the size of the United States of america. My entry into this country was hard because the state department has bocked all essential travel into the country on account of possible violence. It has a hot humid climate in the north to the west. It gets cooler to the south and the east.... read more

Africa has been too smooth sailing for my liking sure the buses are hellish but everything else seems to run like clockwork. All this corruption you hear about the governments, it doesn’t get passed down to the tourist. Actually they just charge a lot for national parks entrance fees instead. What I am trying to get to here is, there is no fear. When you backpack for your 5th Journey smooth sailing is not what you want. You want it for a brief period to recover. But without it well… I might as well settle down at home and do a two-week holiday to a beach resort. I needed something to get my excitement juices flowing again. Intrigue - is this country really that bad? Most of the time my reaction on leaving places like this ... read more

September and October have flown by, and I finally got the chance to do something I had been wanting for a while - to escort a convoy of 500 refugees returning home to the Congo. Just to reiterate for the more forgetful among you, I am working at a refugee camp in Zambia. All of the refugees in that camp are from the DRC, and they have been living here since 2000. They came here because there was a very bloody war happening in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) at the time. For an excellent summary of the war and its causes, click this link . In terms of the refugee camp - there are schools, a hospital, a playing field, UNHCR offices, a library, a court, a Sexual and Gender-based Violence centre, etc etc. ... read more