Evening now and I was not sure if I would get a blog out since we were plunged into darkness when the electricity went off just before supper.

We took ourselves off for a beer in the dark by the poolside bar and whilst ordering there in the light of my headtorch, we were accosted by this very drunk little Congolese guy who kept saying something to us which we couldnt make out. It could have been Swahili, but whatever it was he was most insistent - so we asked him to repeat it several times and worked out he was speaking in (very drunk) French. What he was saying was that he was a Major in the FRDC (the Congolese Army) and that we should not be frightened by the lack of electricity because he was around to protect us! I didn't spot it at the time, but as my Californian room mate Tyler pointed out later, our new friend was indeed "tooled up" with a pistol in a holster.

Power here comes from a hydro dam on the Tshopo River which we visited this afternoon, but the Kisangani population has grown so much that it can now only supply half the demand - hence the power cuts.

Food was delayed by about an hour, but we did eventually eat and I had an interesting conversation with a Canadian Army officer working with the UN who is staying here. The back-up generator is now on - shades of what could happen in the UK if we don't make a decision soon about replacing power stations!

Tomorrow we set off on our river trip. The lights have just dimmed again so I must try and get this off before its too late! I don't expect we will now have wi-if until we reach Kinshasa in two weeks time.