Congo Overland - Kinshasa to Lubumbashi

Into The World

No matter what the obstacle - closed borders, unknown routes - overlanders will always find a way around.  In this particular instance, the ability to be issued with a tourist Angolan visa is constantly proving to be difficult and time consuming.  This does present the opportunity to find an alternative route...

During the early 1990's, a well established route was known heading from West Africa across Central Africa and eventually into Uganda.  My post, The Lost Routes, goes into more detail and more recently the well published adventure of Frederik and Josephine inspired many with their daring adventure North.



Introducing: Into The World by John & Ana

We are a couple of young architects, having unplugged our careers and embarked on a one in a lifetime adventure around the world. 9 months and over 32000 km on our motorbike later, we have crossed 20 countries, some of which rank amongst the most dangerous in the world, but where we always met nothing but hospitable and genuinely kind people. We have completed the west and central Africa route and we are currently exploring the South-African subcontinent.

John, Ana and a French family in a Land Rover Defender have recently completed the Kinshasa to Lubumbashi route.

An extract from the diary:

Then we hit rock bottom: it was my turn to get stuck, and it was to be the most spectacular moto event of the whole trip. If you have seen what happened to Cyril Despres during Dakar 2012, you get the idea. I tried to avoid the murky parts and I knew I could not balance the bike on the slender path for bicycles, so I took my chances and rev it up through what appeared to be a puddle. And I got stuck waist deep in mud, like in wet cement.

It's encouraging to see the old routes opening up again and I truly hope that more adventurous overlanders tackle this route that John & Ana have completed.

Additional reading:
Crossing the Congo by Langebaan Sunset