Pointe Noire

4 MAY 2023

Today involved a lot of travelling and trust that there would be connections to get to Pointe Noire - a distance of 500+kms.

I collected the 10 day transit visit from the Angolan embassy and went to the Central Market to get a car to Dolisie. As usually happens for me, there was one about to go that was waiting for one more passenger. We set off along the same beautifully tarmacked road that I'd travelled on a few days earlier. It was good to see the amazing scenery of this part of Congo for a second time.

Arriving into Dolisie felt different to the last time I was here. There were less people around and the buzz of breakfast time vendor stalls had long since one home. Again, I took the last seat in a car waiting to depart to Pointe-Noire and we set off. This time I had a passenger next to me who spoke good English, so the journey was punctuated with interesting conversations about his life in the Congo, his work, family life and sharing of life's events. I love how some conversations end up on topics that wouldn't be typical after only knowing each other for a short time eg. I was asked: "do you cry?" and this let to a chat about how do you express emotions. '

The drive took us along a winding road through the forest hills which had only been completed two years ago. I was told that previously, this route had been impassable during the rainy season. When it started to thunder and lightning over the mountains, I was glad of the tarmac even if it did start to steam so strongly that the driver could hardly see out of the windscreen. He drove very carefully though, as visibility was poor and there are always stationary vehicles to avoid as you go.

It was late when we reached Pointe Noire; dark, wet, muddy and alive with people. I got a taxi through the town which passed the dilapidated colonial railway station building, bounced over the railway tracks and headed for the beach area. The Palm Beach hotel was my choice this evening - it would be open late, the taxi driver would know it and hopefully there would be an available room.