Today's the day. We are due to start our 16 day trip down the river. It is overcast, but pleasantly cool, thanks to the rain we had yesterday afternoon - but unfortunately the electricity is still out this morning - so no aircon in our rooms and very little water (because that relies on an electric pump) so no showers. No sign of the boat as yet. Apparently what held things up on the recce trip two years ago was the paperwork. Our itinerary had to be registered ...

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 hi...

We visited the Wagenia fisheries at Stanley Falls this morning and although the conical fish traps were not in operation because the river was too low , we were able to see how the fishermen used the natural swallow holes in the rocks to anchor the wooden poles which hold the fish traps in place. It was v hot and humid and even though we were just strolling around our shirts were sodden - so the pool was very welcome on our return.

Papayas and bananas for breakfast and its hot already. The hotel is right next to the main crossing point to the south bank, and from dawn there has been the constant drone of hundreds of little motorbikes coming and going. They have anywhere between 1 and 4 people plus luggage/livestock aboard and negotiate the junctions with the aid of their horns, but its all done at a much more relaxed pace than in Kinshasa. The motorbikes are meeting a procession of huge du...

The Tshopo Falls bridge was the scene of an alleged massacre during the Second Congo War in 2002. In May of that year two officers in the RCD-Goma, Laurent Nkunda and General Amisi, are alleged to have been among those responsible for the brutal suppression of an attempted mutiny, during the course of which 160 people were executed. In one incident men under Nkunda's command were reported to have bound, gagged and executed 28 people and put their bodies in bags...