Our Route through DRC. Covered approx. 560km on the motorcycles on good roads.

Apr. 09, 2008. Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Parking the motorcycle in the foyer of our $30.00US hotel in Kisantu.

Apr. 10, 2008. The Yamaha Dealership in Kinshasa helped us get a new battery.

Zahir Rawji (middle), and his team went out of their way to assist. Mr. Rawji, the store owner, actually lives in Canada.

Our Route through CONGO. Covered approx. 710km on the motorcycles, of which 220km on sand.

Apr. 11, 2008. We set up our tent on the porch of the National Police Building in Brazzaville, CONGO due to some Visa Issues.

Apr. 11 to 19, 2008. Mike completes an oil & filter change.

Ruby gets bitten by an insect, which results in a huge bruise.

The Congo River, second to Amazon in volume and watershed.

A view of Kinshasa, DRC from Brazzaville, Congo across the Congo River.

A local in a wooden dug-out canoe washing his clothes in the river.

The standard transportation on the Congo River by the locals.

High temperatures and high humidity produce a lot of haze.

As we wait for our Gabon Visa and Cameroon Visa to be processed ...

... we take in the monuments of Brazzaville.

Seen here is the Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza Memorial,...

... located at the centre of town.

A very large replica statue of Mr. Brazza and ...

... even more impressive building with pillars house his remains as well as that of his family.

A picture of Mr. Brazza.

The impressive interior.

We met up with (4) other bikers (from the left) Dan, Ruby, Ed, Jody, Josh. As well as Fred & Marina who helped us a lot. Thanks a bunch.

Apr. 17, 2008. After what we thought was electronic failure of Mike's motorcycle ...

...and no BMW service computer available to diagnose the problem ...

...we were forced to fly the motorcycle back to Germany.

Strapped to a crate the motorcycle went via Air France from Brazzaville, Congo to Germany.

Our favourite local vendor.

He would prepare us a couple of sandwiches every day...

... with a (2) egg, onions, mayo on it. Very good and cheap.

Our room in Brazzaville, Congo. Staying at the Auberge Prisca for $63.00CDN/night.

Apr. 19, 2008. We are down to one (1) motorcycle.

The load is significantly larger now, plus passenger.

Due to the Ninja rebels in the South-Western part of Congo, we opt to go north from Brazzaville ...

...to Obouyo and then west to Mbie/Lekoni(Gabon). This meant a lot of sand.

We rode 14 hours that day deep into the night. Each bridge had to be inspected...

...prior to crossing.

Apr. 20, 2008. We stay the night in Okoyo, with the Pastor of the local missionary.

Parking in front of the Congo Immigration office, to receive our exit stamp.

This really deep, clutch burning, two (2) people pushing kind of sand...

... we had for 200km. The previous night we had gotten stuck here as the Chief of Immigration came to help at 9pm.

The immigration office is actually located a 120km from the Congo/Gabon Border.

A typical small settlement along the road side.

This happened a few times. Motorcycle down in the sand.

The road ahead was pretty discouraging.

The African diet. All that exercising gets you in pretty could shape.

Our Route through GABON. Covered approx. 1200km on the motorcycles, of which 400km on dirt.

Apr. 21, 2008. We stayed at an Auberge in the pretty town of Franceville, GABON.

Expanding the Auberge.

We detour to the PONT DE LIANE,...

...a bridge made off vines.

This is our first vine bridge we encountered in Africa.

Ruby walks across.

A guide, equipped with a mechadi leads us to the Poubara Falls.

Only in the rain forest/jungle will you find weird things like this.

The POUBARA FALLS,...

...located approx. 50km South of Franceville.

The rapids further down the waterfall.

Half of the river is diverted for a power plant.

Mike almost gets too close to the rapids.

Mike climbs up the ladder to enter the vine bridge.

Crossing the bridge is not scary, we only get a bit nauseous, ...

... when we looked down.

This was the only touristy thing we did in Gabon.

Descending from the bridge.

Our very pink hotel in Lastoursville,...

...another nice town situated on the side of a hill...

...along the river.

A beautiful spot.

Our hotel for $35.00CDN/night.

After I hit the local market, Mike cooks up some yummy supper.

Apr. 22, 2008. A tough section of road lies ahead (344km).

We enter the rainforest deeper.

The river a dark green/brown color.

This is one of the better bridges.

We encounter lots of logging trucks driven by the Chinese, cutting down the rainforest.

Almost all roads in Gabon are being improved by a Chinese Contractor.

Rain and Mist in the rain forest as we travel through.

Both sides of the road are covered in dense bush.

An example of how dense the forest gets.

Though the road is wet it is not bad to travel on.

We enter the Lope Faunal Reserve (National Park).

Animals have the right of way.

Passing over another river.

It is hard to imagine how dense the forest is.

Even the bridge is getting overgrown.

The road turns into very wet clay mud.

The road was incredibly hard to navigate,...

... as the wet clay mud would cake itself layer by layer ...

... on the tire and it was like riding on a skating rink.

Apr. 23, 2008. Ruby makes a Satellite call to Germany from the parking lot of the hotel.

Our pink room in Ndjole.

Finally some great pavement.

Crossing the EQUATOR IN GABON, the forth time on this trip.

Stopping for a break in a small settlement...

... along the road from Ndjole to Bitam.

Typical housing in Gabon.