Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Two days to the Congo

It now looks that I might just about manage to get finally to Kinshasa - the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. I have 2 more days to spend in Uganda before my flight. Last-minute shopping, making flight changes and getting cash out of the bank take up most of my time right now.

Having spent some 3 months in the most western parts of Uganda - I could alsmost see the Congo. Well, not really, but I could imagine where it was. As the sun would set over the Rwenzori mountains, to the west of Kibale forest, the evening would travel further, over the rainforest of the DRC, just across the border with Uganda. Ironically to get there, I traveled East to Kampala, then on Thursday I will board a plane taking me even further to the East - to Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. From there on another plane I would sort of back-track my journey - flying west over Uganda and after a few hours, enter the airspace of the DRC. Several more hours and the plane should hopefully land in Kinshasa - which is in most western part of the country, on the shores of the Congo river. And there another jorney would begin - by small plane and boat, taking me back to the East. The destination - Kokolopori community reserve somewhere in the middle of this vast, road-less and French-speaking (among many other languages) country. The only country in the world, where the close relative of the chimpanzee, the bonobo lives.

Until the middle of January I might not be able to send any emails so this might be the last blog update for quite a while.

Alex

More about the bonobos at Kokolopori at www.bonobo.org
Latest news from Kinshasa: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/5315448.stm