This is not a photo of N'djili International Airport, because taking a photo would get you arrested! We arrived at N'djili at about 0715 for a 1055 Kenya Airways departure. The airport is tiny, with very few international airlines using it - mainly Air France, SN Brussels, Kenya Airways and Ethiopian. Have just read a blog describing the boarding process through N'djili as the "5 levels of purgatory". I counted at least 10 stages, but the airport was pretty qu...

Stanley legless/footloose outside the ethnographic museum in Ngaliema.

As the river has narrowed, so the current has strengthened and yesterday we were averaging about 14kph, compared with about 13kph on the rest of the trip - with the exception of Lac Tumba, where (being non river assisted) it was more like 9kph. We pulled in at 1730 to a Mobutu era resort called Nkana, where the Kinshasa elite used to bring their girlfriends at weekends (according to Michel). Even in its heyday it wouldn't have won any design prizes and now it's ...

1430 and just had our third "Force Navale" interception of the day. The first was at Kwamouth where the Kasai joins the Congo - a high speed launch armed with forward mounted machine gun and men in sunglasses. They cut across our bow Rambo fashion and then did a fast turn round the stern and boarded us - but all very friendly, particularly once they had received their $10 pay off. Since then we have had two motorised dugouts (the backbone of the Congolese navy)...

Charcoal city