{"id":10139,"date":"2025-08-14T14:35:23","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T14:35:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/?p=10139"},"modified":"2025-08-14T14:35:23","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T14:35:23","slug":"transafrica-1975-brazzaville-to-pointe-noir-republic-of-congo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/?p=10139","title":{"rendered":"TransAfrica 1975: Brazzaville to Pointe-Noir, Republic of Congo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We spent about 3 weeks in Brazzaville in the Republic of Congo, not doing much except trying to get money transferred to the local banks, sorting out visas and making friends. In Brazzaville we met some interesting and helpful people, both locals and ex-pats. We were invited to their houses and shown great hospitality. We were even taken to a local dance hall; open air with a live band playing a mix of western and African beat. Although we were the only white people there, there was no hostility, just the occasional curious glances. Memorable for all the right reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group also split into two with 4 of us in the Land Rover (including me) and the other two in the Transit. We decided the route forward: after talking to other travellers Angola was the way to go – these travellers told us it wasn’t too bad despite the civil war in progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We left Brazaville with the aim of getting to the coast at Pointe Noir for a boat to Angola.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
2nd July 1975: Brian and me at the cataracts at Brazzaville<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One of the friends we made was a very pleasant man called Benoit who, on our way out took us to his father’s and grandmother’s villages:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
15th July 1975: Benoit, Pete, Steve and Brian at Benoit’s grandmother’s village<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The roads that we followed were often very rough tracks – even in a Land Rover you has to be careful:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
16th July 1975: On the way to Sibiti<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The maps that we used for the whole trip were the best available, 64 miles to the inch, so it is not surprising we had trouble finding our way:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
16th July 1975: Where do we go from here?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There were several ferries, mostly using a cable strung across the river and, by angling the barges to the flow, the river pushes you across:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
17th July 1975: On a ferry en-route to Sibiti<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One night when we parked up the whole of a nearby village came to see what we were doing – no hostility, just curiosity. This meant we had to cook and eat in front of an audience:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
17th July 1975: Steve with some of the audience<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The following morning a young girl, about 10 years old, nervously approached us with a large bottle of fresh water balanced on her head. Such generosity from total strangers. Many of such acts of generosity cannot be paid back directly which is why I try to ‘Pay Forward’ by being helpful to others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
18th July 1975: A larger ferry. That is me guiding the Land Rover onto the ferry.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There were also bridges across rivers and ravines. We inspected each one to ensure it looked up to the job:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
20th July 1975: Crossing a wooden bridge – we always checked them out. On the logging road north of Dolisie.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
20th July 1975: A more sturdy bridge to cross – en-route to Pointe-Noir<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We finally arrived in Pointe-Noir on 20th July 1975. We camped on the beach whilst we tried to arrange money transfers, visas, a boat to Angola and made a few new friends – some people were just so helpful and generous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
30th July 1975: Me on the beach at Pointe-Noir<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
About 21st July to 7th August: Camping by the beach.(sc)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
About 21st July to 7th August: Camping by the beach.(sc)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We stayed about 3 weeks in Pointe-Noir but finally got ourselves a boat to Lobito in Angola.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We spent about 3 weeks in Brazzaville in the Republic of Congo, not doing much except trying to get money transferred to the local banks, sorting out visas and making friends. In Brazzaville we met some interesting and helpful people, both locals and ex-pats. We were invited to their houses and shown great hospitality. We … Continue reading “TransAfrica 1975: Brazzaville to Pointe-Noir, Republic of Congo”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[148,3,146,147],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-landrover","category-photography","category-trans-africa-1975","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10139"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10157,"href":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10139\/revisions\/10157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pmstudios.co.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}