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

We needed to get some kilometres under our belts after the Bolobo stop yesterday, so we pushed on last night until well after dark and eventually called it a day opposite Mboya (all lit up - on the opposite, French, bank - the first street lights we have seen for weeks). Just avoided getting speared by a large barge which was also pulling in in the pitch dark, but not by much. There was lots of yelling, metallic banging and revving of large marine diesel engines...

Big skies

Down river pusher with barges - this is a small one