A Roadtrip Through the Congo

[Dougtone]

A travelogue with photos of a 4X4 road trip through the Congo.

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=50799

[JREwing78]

They're absolutely nuts. That's probably a desirable attribute in someone seeking to do this.

[Alps]

I'm hooked. Great find Doug!

[yanksfan6129]

Gach. I was on page 40 of this and suddenly that website stopped working on my browser...

So interesting!

[corco]

That really stokes my inner wanderlust fires. Great find.

[iwishiwascanadian]

I finished the whole thing yesterday, it was riveting. 

[3467]

I went to Google maps and looked at parts of their route from satellite and it makes the trip seem even more amazing.
Congo supposedly has 60 million people. There has been only one census so who really knows but I would sure like to know where they are.It really looks like true wilderness there still

[Scott5114]

An amazing story. It really goes to show you the benefits of having good roads (think of that other truck that was stuck waiting for parts for a year!)...

[english si]

DR Congo covers a rather large area, and the large cities are pretty populous with shanty towns. There's also a lot of refugee camps. There's also not a developed economy meaning that there's not a huge amount of travel. You'd have a lot of people near to the River Congo, which the road doesn't really follow. Plus it's probably sensible to stay away from major highways, given the war-torn nature of the country.

There are apparently has 70.9 million people, not 60, and given that the population density is just 75.9ppl/sq mi. The (rather sparsely populated - especially away from the Pacific in the West) United States has 83 people/sq mi and the UK has 660. There's plenty of room for these people that you wouldn't see many.

Given all that, one would imagine it's pretty empty looking along the road.

[mightyace]

An amazing story. It really goes to show you the benefits of having good roads (think of that other truck that was stuck waiting for parts for a year!)...

It put's into perspective our grumbling about potholes, I-99 and Breezewood!

Not that we shouldn't fix our potholes and such but, warts and all, the USA has one of the best road networks on the planet.

[The Premier]

the USA has one of the best road networks on the planet.

But not for long if we can't get our roads and bridges fixed.

[Sykotyk]

It was definitely an interesting read.

[mightyace]

the USA has one of the best road networks on the planet.

But not for long if we can't get our roads and bridges fixed.

Agreed.  I was thinking about saying something about that myself, but that is a subject for a different thread.

[Scott5114]

Even so, it would probably take a half century of neglect before the US road network could even begin to sink to Congo's level.