1300 Kilometers through the HEART of the CONGO 🇨🇬[S7-E81]

In this episode, I ride 1300 kilometers through the Republic of Congo, all the way until I reach the coast. The road is paved and in good condition and after all that went wrong in the Central African Republic and Cameroon, I am trying to avoid any craziness! Unfortunately, the weather did not agree with that, and on top of that I destroy my navigation tablet, and realize that when my motorcycle fell into the river, water had gotten into the tank…

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Since my little river incident Alaska is not.. she’s not running well Ouesso, REPUBLIC OF CONGO Season 7 – Eps. 81 Let’s see if she starts Yes Thank you very much. Goodbye Alright, good morning Internet. It is 7:50 in the morning and welcome back to the channel Welcome here in Ouesso, in the Republic of Congo

I actually got a breakfast this morning which was amazing Some bread and omelette and it was quite big. So I’m really happy with that Because I have a long day ahead of me, basically I’m going to ride the whole length of Congo Not all today because it’s far

Let me first fill up on fuel and then uh.. I’ll tell you what the plan is If they have some Hello! Petrol? No No petrol? Where is there petrol? Not around here Only at the petrol station out of town, at the exit At the exit Okay, thank you

No fuel. That somehow it doesn’t really  surprise me I already heard that fuel is a problem in Congo Or petrol Okay, so then back to the plan, I’m going to ride back down to the coast Which means that I’ll be riding pretty much the whole length of Congo

And that is 1,300 km. So it’s a quite.. quite a long distance I see there’s a long line but I have no choice but to go here Because.. .. I need fuel too I think this is the only station in a long time You can wait there! – Yes?

Is there even anything happening Hello Spanish? Spanish yeah You speak Spanish? – Yes Wait.. wait a moment for them to sell Ah okay In a little, they will sell – Ah somebody will come We are waiting for the people to start selling Ah okay In a little bit.. 30 minutes or so

No problem. Which nationality? – Dutch Okay thank you Thanks I think I’m going to also fill up my fuel bag here if there’s fuel ‘Cause this is probably the situation at all these places It’s already full? This is the price for one liter 15.000 For the help No problem, thank you very much Okay

Wow, that was a crazy, crazy line hey Yoi, I stood in line for an hour and didn’t get any further It was going extremely slow and there were just yeah, people were trying to fill up jerry cans and everything I’m standing there already boiling in the sun. It’s only nine in the morning

But I’m sweating! And there was this man, who spoke Spanish that I met right at the beginning And at some point he comes to me and he’s like.. he was really like one of the first people in line And he’s like look, I have a jerry can with 25

Also filled up. If you want you can buy it for me That will save you a lot of time, I was like yes So I paid him well, I paid him really well but it’s worth it Oh, look I just surpassed 60,000 kilometers! 60,000 Alaska. I can’t believe she survived 60,000 kilometers of abuse

Including being dumped in a river bordering Cameroon and Congo It’s almost double the distance that I ever did on the Himalayan ‘Cause Basanti had 36,000 Let’s make a quick stop here Can’t believe how quickly I did 150 kilometers When the road is good. So I’m just going to chuck in the extra fuel in the rear tank

I think on this stretch since I left town, I’ve seen how many would it be? Four cars maybe There’s nobody here. All those cars at the petrol station they were all local from Ouesso I’m actually in a national park now. This is National Park Odzala And I know there’s elephant here too and gorillas

But chances of seeing them like this time of the day are pretty low Oh, it’s a bit broken Oh, it’s very broken Right let’s continue.. the relaxing ride through Congo Ah, some food Hello Ah okay This It’s 200 What is it? Ah okay okay okay Now I’ll just take um.. This Chicken and plantain

500 300 Okay 400 5 pieces Goodbye Alright, I got water and then I noticed the lady also had some chicken and plantain I was like oh well, it’s 12:00.. you know what let me eat something Crossing the Alima river Big building Just crossed the town Oyo

It’s kind of strange place, ’cause you still feel like you’re in the jungle but then suddenly there’s like a few very large buildings. Which kind of feels a little bit out of place somehow I mean this is a hotel or what? Alima Palace, looks like a huge hotel Like no people.. no cars, nobody

Landscape is changing quickly now right? It’s getting a lot more open so it’s quite a big change right I have been kind of in the jungle  environment since.. probably Guinea and Sierra Leone And then all through West Africa it has  just been jungle and now as I’m getting more  

South I’m getting closer to savanna and also more wildlife again So yeah, I am excited. Uh, it’s a nice change of scenery for me. What else to say? Uh, road is still pretty good. Uh, there was one stretch with a little bit of road works

It’s interesting because I saw that the Chinese are building this road Well, and actually that’s not really.. not really a surprise, in Africa the Chinese are building a lot of things around  here Anyway I’m just continuing. Uh, I’m not so far away from Brazzaville

The capital of Republic of Congo, but I am skipping the city I’m not going to Brazzaville I have nothing to do there, I don’t need a visa or anything like that So if I don’t have to be in a big city, I am not going there

Um, so I am going around it. I’ll show you on this map here So I’m now right here and well, you can already see Kinshasa but that’s the DRC So Brazzaville is over here and then on the opposite side you have Kinshasa of the DRC

But I am going to skip it and then head this way and then head further south So yeah, no crazy big city for me. Kinshasa actually on the DRC side, I believe has 17 million people in the one city That’s the same amount as all of the Dutch people

And I think also the same as the populations of Congo, Central African Republic and Gabon together  I think Uh, the Congo is not very densely populated at all um and Central African Republic also isn’t But yeah in the DRC and especially in Kinshasa, there’s a lot of people

Anyway, the sun is out, it’s getting hot so I’m going to continue .. the next morning Goodbye! Since my little river incident, Alaska is not.. she’s not running well She has all the symptoms of uh.. water in the tank Which would not be really surprising right given her dive into the river

It’s not unlikely that water has gone in the main tank or the auxiliary tank Or both for that matter And I can notice it. It is not good But.. in the way it’s actually surprising that she still runs.. at all I have to give her that but uh.. now I get loss of power

But there’s nothing really I can do about it now. I just have to make it till Angola Till Luanda, the capital And there I can properly you know fix her up And fix all the damage that has been done to her in this stretch since Benin She’s going to need quite a big service

It’s also time for an oil change and all of that really And from here to Luanda it’s still 750 kilometers So In a way, that’s not so far. But yeah, she just has to make it 750km And then she’s going to get all the TLC that she deserves and needs So let’s see

Everything is still sopping wet from that rain Ah, in this climate it’s so humid as  well, so if your clothes get wet or your boots It will take like 2 days at least, or three. Well, for boots longer to dry them

‘Cause it just doesn’t dry. It’s funny always how one problem just gets replaced by the next problem So for quite a long time, I was worried about my chain not making it until Luanda And now I’m not really worried about it anymore because now I’m worried about water in my tank

Well, I can only worry about one problem at a time All the other problems just, I don’t know I just don’t think about them anymore It’s for the best anyway On top of that something else went terribly wrong yesterday I was charging my tablet and I used the wrong cable. I don’t know exactly what happened

But that cable is not supposed to.. I don’t, I’m not an electrician But basically it completely melted.. the cable melted while in the port of my tablet So I can’t charge my tablet anymore So today I’ll make it, I still have 33% battery but after that I can’t charge it anymore

So.. yeah, that’s the end of my tablet, unfortunately It’s my own fault. I should have just used the the proper cable I don’t know I was tired, I suppose It’ll be fine, I’ll find a solution also in Luanda. Luanda in Angola is going to be the solution to all my problems

I have decided another thing actually that West Africa is doing to my camera gear, the rain is actually also really destroying all my   camera gear. All my cameras have moisture behind the lenses all of them And so when I switch the camera on and the cameras get hot then that will evaporate

And you get like this blurriness See if they have room for me I have made it to the coast again. I have made it to the coast and I am staying in the   cutest place. Let me actually, show you the place and then show you on the map exactly my route through the Republic of Congo

So I’m staying in one of these cute little houses. This is my room It’s a bit dark but yeah, this is my room. It’s nice hey? So I actually haven’t drawn in yet my last.. Well, this is where all the chaos happened

I went here, I crossed into Cameroon then I went like this and then I went through a lot of jungle Dumped Alaska in the river and crossed into Congo and then I have just been following This yeah, the green one yeah, this main road The main road actually is not on the map but I bypassed Brazzaville

Something like this.. I think And then I went like this and now I’m here in Pointe Noire Right here at the coast. So it took me 3 days to do this stretch

Uh, but I made it all into one episode, because I already knew there wasn’t really anything special to see or to  do along the way And the road was just in perfect condition and I think any other time, I would have already been bored with like 1300 kilometers of tar

But now after everything that Cameroon and the Central African Republic threw at me It was bliss and I was like, I’m fine I’m fine. I’m just riding this road and the scenery it was pretty It was first it was jungle and then it got more open scenery but yeah, it was very sparsely populated

It was mostly just forest and nature. Um, so no big cities or anything and yeah, just a really good road So to be honest I really appreciated that and enjoyed it and yeah, now I’m already at the coast So that also means that in the next video, I am already leaving Congo

But I will leave my plan up to the next episode, I’ll tell you exactly what I’m.. what I’m going to do next But yeah, this is a really really nice place to end my ride through Congo And yeah Alaska just has to hold on a little bit longer with the water in the tank

Um, but hey she’s done 1300 kilometers now with water in the tank So yeah, she’s not running uh.. not running very well but hopefully she’ll just make it until Luanda in Angola So I’m going to end this video now. That was it for today, really hope you like this episode

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