We had a first refusal last night - a village that didn't want us to descend on them for the night - we didnt fancy the look of it anyway. We moved on and found another that was happy to have us - although the kids were very subdued and we were told "pas d'image".

We have learned, however, that quiet kids usually means that it is a village where there is church discipline in place, so we are starting to seek them out. The "pas d'image" bit turned out to be a misunderstanding. The chief just didn't want us taking pictures of children with no clothes on - which, come to think of it, could also lead to unfortunate misunderstandings on our return to the UK.

This morning we had a pre-breakfast game of footie with the local kids - using the plastic football we had donated. I tried to stay on the sidelines, but I could see that one side needed a bit of bolstering in defence (I can see Kirsten's eyes rolling at this point, because she knows what is about to be revealed). Although I tried to stroll around at the back, Beckenbauer like, my skill levels never approached his even on a good day 40 years ago, and after 15 minutes or so I could feel the old right hamstring playing up and substituted myself. There was talk of forming a team to take on other villages down river, but sadly I think I am now ruled out by injury for the remainder of the Congo season.

There were torrential tropical rainstorms just after we got going, but by the time we arrived in Mbandaka at 1245 the sun was out and we had our first session with the DGM guys - to enable us to get off the boat and have a look around town.

Forms filled and money paid Gracien rustled up a couple of 4x4s and we had a quick trip out of town to the Equator - verified by my GPS - and then back into town (mostly on unmetalled roads that had started to cut up in the recent rains). The university was our first stop in town and we met the principal, who told us they have 2000 students - but no electricity - nice guy and remarkably upbeat considering the constraints.

After that we went shopping for eggs, potatoes etc to bring a bit of variety into our shipboard diet. The veggies in particular have had uninspiring menu choices lately. By chance we came across a lovely old fashioned Indian store where we grabbed all sorts of out of date goodies that we hadn't seen for weeks. There are no shops like them in the UK. This one had an L shaped interior with imported biscuits, crisps, toiletries, insecticide,fresh eggs etc on display - but all behind tall glass cabinets stretching from the floor to the ceiling. In the middle there was a small opening between the cabinets, with a wooden counter and a little Indian chap sitting behind with his calculator at the ready.

It is now 1725 and we are waiting for the DGM guys to get off the boat - they are currently taking photocopies of the photocopies of our passports, so they will clearly be top quality images.

1735 - sun sinking below the horizon and DGM finally leave!!!