This blog is about tall pygmies, dark horses and famous Belgians.
We were told that the Lac Tumba side expedition was to visit a Pygmy village and environmental research station, but things are not always as they seem in the Congo.
The reality is that having taken a day to travel across the Lac from the Congo River, we walked about a km from the boat and came to a village with the world's tallest pygmies. Then we went to the research station - where no research is being done and buildings are falling apart - so the $200 paid to the research station Director to "facilitate" the visit doesn't seem like the best deal ever.
Apparently on a similar visit last year the Director was complaining about lack of government funding for the station and was rather taken aback to be asked what he was actually doing. The answer to all such questions to civil servants seems to start with "malheureusement" and the answer in this case was "malheureusement" they don't do anything. They just sit around and watch the buildings collapse around them whilst waiting for suckers like us to come along once a year and pay them $200.
The most surprising reality check, however, was that Gracien, our local leader, had told us he had to return to Mbandaka because he is a teacher there and term had already started. (Michel, the owner, was to take over - having been conducting a group of rich Belgians round on a colonial era nostalgia trip - of which more below). Gracien had also told us that his teacher's salary was so low that he had to do "other" jobs. What he had not told us, however, is that one of the "other" jobs is that he is a colonel in the state police. Michel knows his boss and arranged for him to travel with us to smooth the way through all these DGM checkpoints and report back!

Footnote 1
Congo tourism is not all about going stir crazy on a boat down the Congo and being stitched up on Lac Tumba. Michel's Belgian clients referred to above flew everywhere and stayed in the best hotels (which sometimes get up to 5 stars). One of the clients was a Mr Jadot, so Jadotville (now Likasi - north of Lubumbashi) was on the itinerary - famous for being the place where the Americans got their uranium for the Hiroshima bomb. Mount Gambier (in Bas-Congo) also had to be climbed, because another client was a Mr Gambier - and iced champagne was drunk on top to celebrate.

Footnote 2

Racism is still alive and well in the DRC - but not of the type you may be thinking. One of the crew looked a bit different facially to the others and I learned subsequently that he comes from a Pygmy tribe (although he's not particularly short). What I also learned, however, was that when he cooked a meal for the crew last year no one would eat it - because he is a Pygmy!