In Chapter 3 Voyage Down the Coast of Mary Kingsley‘s #Travels
in West Africa, she describes arriving at the mouth of the Congo River in 1893.
She saw the river as unique in its behavior, but spent much more of her time
talking about the mangrove forests. Her description of the Congo as it eases on
out into the Atlantic is delightful and I can’t hope to match it. I heartily
recommend downloading it, especially since it is out of copyright and free on
Kindle and perhaps other sources.
With her description in mind, I was delighted to find out on
#googlemaps that there is a national park now. Created in 1992, the #Parc Marin
des Mangroves looks like it takes up the lower half of bas Congo. I was
mistaken in interpreting the map, but the important part was that you get there
from Moanda which used to be a vacation spot for its beaches.
I looked on-line, consulted the extremely uninformative
#bradt guide to Congo, asked a few friends and found very little other than my
Congolese friends saying “yes, I went to the beach with my kids” with a total
lack of enthusiasm. None of these sources tells you how to get to the park,
what you see, what tours are availale and how they are organized. Now, other
people might investigate further. Undaunted, I decided I would drive the 2 days
from Kinshasa and 2 days back and see if I could see manatees, hippos and crocs
as mentioned in the Wikipedia page. Having no idea what to expect in the way of
security or water or housing, I loaded up a tent, one of my kayaks and clothing
for all occasions in my #Toyota Rav4 and rushed off to go during the dry season
when the road from boma to Moanda was probably in better condition.
The route is simple enough, you follow Route National 1 from
Kinshasa to the end in Moanda. It’s easy enough to follow it between cities in
a country with <3000 km of paved road. Googlemaps isn’t very helpful with
trip times, but offers reassurance that you are on the right road as you go,
thanks to GPS mode on my new #Galaxy 4 mini.
First stop was Matadi, 207 miles and half a tank of gas from
my house near the Grand Hotel in Kinshasa. It takes an average of 5 hours to
drive that. The road is paved the whole way but is a study in how many
different ways a road can fall apart, with waves forming in the pavement, edges
eroding ¼ - ½ way across the 2 lane road and potholes at random intervals. There
is also the encroachment at every village of vendors who seem to need to sell
their wares at stands practically on the pavement supplemented by people walking
into the road at every speedhump (about 50), toll booth (4, I think), and town
to sell to passing cars – customer service a la congolaise. The road is
twisting and turning over many hills as it leaves Kinshasa to rise to the plain
at Sona bata/Mbanza Ngunu (altitude 599 meters at Mb from 240m at Kinshasa)
then back down again at Matadi (19m). It was also 10 degrees
cooler in MB than in Kinshasa the day I drove the return.
Other than the vendors and dodging cars and trucks and
potholes along the road, the road leads through 200 miles of bare hills
interspersed with towns. It provokes reflection on 2 points. It took many years
and many European and Congolese lives to find a way from Matadi to modern day
Kinshasa and the accounts describe cutting through dense forest. Now, there is
naught but the solitary tree along the road. The gallery forests nestled in the
folds of the hills are pretty thin and usually have a plume of smoke rising
from the production of charcoal. Charcoal for sale is stacked along the side of
the road taller than any person. Deforestation is pretty close to complete. In
Georgia, 100 years after total deforestation when the loggers moved on, the
forest re-established itself. I suspect if ever charcoal production goes out of
style, bush fires will slow or prevent the re-establishment of this forest.
The second thought comes from the large sign outside Matadi “Here
passed the first railroad that opened the Congo basin to civilization.” I
wonder how my Congolese friends feel about that. Personally, there is a point
to it. If you consider that until they opened the railroad, the Europeans used
forced labor to portage everything their little minds could imagine through
those hills and valleys. Thousands are said to have died. Ending this carnage
would indeed have been a step towards civilization, if not what the inscribers were
thinking.
Matadi means “rock” in Kikongo and the city is indeed built
thereupon. You enter the city through a gauntlet defined by rock, ruined road
and dilapidated buildings in front of which vendors encroach on the passage.
Expect delays entering the city as semis, uses, taxis, cars, motorcycles and people
vie for position and passage with not a drop of compromise.
I recommend spending the night in Matadi. Trying to make the
entire trip in one day means driving after dark which is not recommended by any
sane organization for good reason. Mistakenly thinking I could find decent
lodging in Mbanza Ngungu (do not be fooled by the lovely façade and name of the
Auberge de something along RN1!), I ended up making the return trip to Kinshasa
in the dark from MB. Apparently, tail lights
are among the most precious of commodities in Congo. But the strangest part
came almost at the borders with Kinshasa when I felt like I was in a
Transformers movie. Semis were lined up along the road. Another line of semis
were pulling out to the left to pass those and quickly had me surrounded. After
much stopping and starting, a mass of semis 3 across was moving in the direction
of Kinshasa on the 2 lane road. I have no idea where cars coming in the other
direction were hiding. And then, like a swarm of termites, they were gone and I
was in Kinshasa. Another Congolese mystery.
Back to spending the night in Matadi. There are 2 “nice”
hotels, Ledya and Vivi Palace where you can get a room for $100/night with some
negotiating. In the Ledya nice
means free Wifi, AC, running cold water. They have several restaurants, all over priced and breakfast is included if a sorry excuse for breakfast. The lobby of the Vivi Palace looks new and nice, but they wouldn’t offer anything that night at $100. I’ve stayed in 2 other hotels in Matadi – the Formosa which has secure parking, but water and electricity are not likely and Amis Fideles which is quaint, has poor service but electricity and water. Not sure about parking. None of these shows up on googlemaps and there are several paved roads in Matadi going up and down and up and down, so you’ll have to ask directions when you get there.
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| Pont Marechal |
From the Ledya, you
paradoxically go up hill to get to the famous #Pont Marechal across the Congo
River as you begin the next leg of the journey. Mostly, I asked directions, about
15 times, to get out of town. There is a lovely old town with lovely colonial buildings
in various states of decay. I’m not sure you have to go through that part of
town to get to the bridge, but I did J.
The bridge is lovely. Unless you have CD plates, the toll for a car is 3 700 FC
(2014).
Then you weave uphill with the Congo and Matadi on your
right for a magnificent beginning of the trip to the sea.
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| Congo River from Pont Marechal |
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| Congo River above Matadi, this way to the falls, rapids and Kin |
It is 75.5 miles from Matadi to Boma and takes 2 hours 45
minutes-ish (and a quarter tank of gas). The road is passable in any vehicle, but
is the worst kind of road for me. It’s formerly paved, meaning you are
constantly going on, off or to the side of remaining bits of pavement. On the
short stretches where you are 4 wheels on asphalt, you are dodging or not large
potholes. At Boma, I again wasn’t sure which road to take, so tended to veer to
the right (river side) at every intersection with other paved roads. I dub this route the “ring road”. There’s a sign along this
route for a hotel. Needed a bathroom break given the lack of cover along the
road, I decided to explore the hotel. Looks about as nice as the Ledya, with
the added attraction of hot water heaters outside all the rooms. I didn’t look
at the rooms, but was told they start at $40 and there is a compound on which a
car would be securely guarded. The bathroom was perfectly acceptable and the
view from the rooftop restaurant was spectacular. I didn’t write down the name
of the hotel, but there’s a big sign pointing uphill, it starts with an “M” and
if you’re desperate, you’ll find it. It takes about 20 minutes to cross the 5
miles of Boma and you wend past the port, more lovely colonial buildings, some
in good condition and through downtown. I stopped to get supplies on the way
down, including what turned out to be uniformly stale cookies and worse
crackers. If you like that kind of thing, load up in Kinshasa. The water was
perfectly acceptable.
After Boma, the paved road ends and you’re driving on teeth
jarring broken rock and potholes for a long way, then the rocky part ends and
it’s just sand, dirt and potholes the rest of the way to Moanda (a total of 63 miles, 3
hours, ¼ tank of gas).
Outside of Boma, the road skirts the Congo River going
through the Elevage du Bas Congo for miles and miles. This seems to be
industrial cow production and palm tree planting. I saw more tractors than
cows, but I am sure they are there somewhere. The geography is a pleasing plain
with papyrus swamps, grass and some fields. Then it goes up to 1 400 feet
elevation and you see your first hint of what the forest used to look like.
This is apparently the #Luki Biosphere Reserve. There’s not much signage, but
you can tell its special by the decrease in the sale of charcoal along the road
and the uptick in bush meat vendors. I googled the reserve afterwards to learn
its sad history and low prospects for the future. An undated UNEP report was basically
giving up on it even though it was one of only 2 small remaining patches of
native forest. At any rate, as a reserve, it is not set up to receive visitors.
The
final approach to Moanda is not only welcome but spectacular. You drive across
a high plain (domaine militaire, BTW) then the road cuts to the right along the
face of a final hill, giving the full view of glorious Moanda with the sea in
the background. At the bottom of the hill, it’s just another Congolese town
with too much traffic, bad roads, no signage, random cops doing random things.
I followed my instinct towards the ocean and after some spectacularly large
potholes, there is a paved divided road through what I suppose is downtown. I
had been told by colleagues of maisons de passage chez les abbes et les soeurs
near the ocean, so I kept heading in that direction. The paved road leads straight
to the ocean, turns left and stops at this not really beach.
It was already 4 pm and I wasn’t going to drive back to Boma, and had seen to signs for a hotel in town, so I wandered around near the water and asked many people who did not know about a hotel or maison de passage before finding 2 guys who did know. For future reference, as the RN1 gets to the ocean, there is a dirt road on the right with Rawbank on the corner. Go 1.3 miles up that road, keeping ocean side wt the roundabout until you see the religious tableau. The Abbe is on the right, the maison des soeurs on the right. I stayed chez les soeurs where they have 2 kinds of rooms – VIP with AC, cold water and TV of sorts for $100/night and normal without AC for $45. Breakfast included for both. AC is not necessary in July, but I wanted to give them more money. Should you like to make reservations, their number is 081 00 36 787.
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| The nuns know how to line a flower bed |
The nun who “checked me in” asked why I was in Moanda and
was happy to report that the Mangrove Park staff has their office right there
at the maison de passage. They were no longer there that night, but that did
seem like a good sign. The cook had left for the day and only did dinner if you
arrange it ahead of time, but she directed me to the New Cliff restaurant.
In looking for New Cliff, I missed it and ended up driving
to Banana instead. Banana is the first European settlement in Congo, only about
4 miles from Moanda after taking that left off the paved road. It’s on a narrow
spiit of land between the ocean and one of the many arms of the Congo River as
it makes its slow final approach to the sea. Between Moanda and Banana there
are mangroves on the inland side of the road with roots up well above the level
of the road. I learned later that the water indeed goes above the road, but
thanks to the mangrove swamp, Banana which is about a foot above sea level
doesn’t flood. Banana is now a naval base and felt a little weird to be driving
through. It’s in a state of next to complete ruin, so even when some kids told
me I could drive to the mouth of the river, I chickened out and turned around
to look for the restaurant. New Cliff restaurant is in fact right after the
left hand turn of RN1 at the sea. There’s no sign (of course) and it looks like
a house a bit below the level of the road. Once you pull into their compound you
see that New Cliff hotel and restaurant is written above the front door. There
are tables set up on a wide front porch and while the selection is much more
limited than the menu, the service is awful and the meat is tough, it is indeed
a lovely place to enjoy the sunset over the ocean. And the only place I found
to easily find an evening meal, however limited and bad.
The next day, I met the park staff. It’s a national park and
belongs to the Office de Tourism, but is run by the Institue Congolais de
Conservation de la Nature, ICCN, a government entity. Mr. Ngeli, 081 9046 217,
is the most reluctant charge de tourisme I have ever met, but knowledgeable and
ultimately we got where we needed to be, though I found out I had done it the
wrong way. There are 3 tours offered of the park. 2 hours, longer and longer
still. All of it is by motor boat. Each person pays $25 for a park pass. His
guidance and the boat are free, but you pay for fuel depending on the tour you
take. He’s not terribly forthcoming about things like timing the tour around
tides and other such details, but I think that’s because the mangroves here are
in the middle of the river and the tours go through channels that remain no
matter the tide. I got to do the 2 hour tour and there’s more about that below,
but this is how it should be done:
-
Call Ngeli ahead of time
- Drive to Boma
- He will pick you up there in this boat, capacity
9 tourists.
- You stop at the top of the park, where the water
is fresh and there live the hippos, crocs and manatees
- They have a camp set up there where you spend
the night for $20 more / person. Manatees are nocturnal so this increases your
chances of seeing one. He told me we could also kayak out from the camp ground.
In the absence of outboard noise, you could also hope to see monkeys
- They’ll feed you at the camp for $10 each
- Next day, you motor down to Moanda and see
additional parts of the park.
- The beach is also part of the park and in November
/ December sea turtles come to nest.
- Then they’ll motor you back to Boma. The fuel for the motor is $200 round trip.
I am sure additional charges apply. Call ahead for more detailed negotiations.
There are 4 kinds of mangrove in this park, Rhizophora mangle or red
mangrove, Rhizophora racemosa, Avicennia germinans or black mangrove and Avicennia (languqulairia,
I can’t find a reference and he was pretty tired of me not understanding at
this point) and mangrove ferns. I hope these pictures are
close to in order.
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| Avicennia produces salt which was used traditionally in cooking |
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| mangrove ferns |
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| Fishing village and baobabs |
There
was also a picturesque fishing village with baobabs.
We
ended the tour at the mouth of the river and Banana from the water side. The
mouth is 8 km wide, the current sluggish on either side with the major force of
the water concentrated in 2 km in the center of the passage.
Lest
I leave you with the impression that the beach was that small strip of nothing
from day 1, Moanda actually does have a tourist worthy beach. There are few bathers
and green sludge in the surf, but it’s a pleasant place with bars and concerts.
