Andy Adcock
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Drc (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter luke01903
- Start date
The thought did occur to me. The posting style, with stuff like "I guess thats a no from you lot haha" suggests that the OP is, frankly, engaging in attention-seeking trolling. No serious responsible birder would write in such terms.
Ladies and gentlemen, we've been had!
birdboybowley
Well-known member.....apparently so ;)
Not a wind up guys....stupid, but real
Cheers Adam, no it's not a wind up. Planning is all going well, we have a Mitsubishi Delica l300 that is just having a few bits done to it (snorkel, water tanks etc.) and then the Swiss guy is driving it to Nigeria (I am meeting him for Morocco, Mauritania and western Sahara). I have been to all the countries along the coast from Senegal-Benin already, then I am meeting him in Nigeria from the journey south. As a journalist, I am able to get insurance relatively cheap for areas the foreign office advises against, so insurance isn't a problem either. I mean, just because all you old fuddy duddies 
aren't up for an adventure doesn't mean younger people can't have one. There are quite a few overlanders in west Africa at the moment. This said, most of them are stuck in Kinshasa at the moment because much of the Angola border is shut at the moment due to the Ebola outbreak, it'll probably be over by the time we get there though.
The roads are fine all along the coast, but yeah the DRC will be a good old struggle, but not undoable. A couple crossed it from Zambia to Kinshasa last year, took them about a two months though due to having to wait 3 weeks in a mission for repairs. I'm really looking forward to it.
If it all kicks off between now and then, I'm gonna backpack from Jo'burg-Nairobi instead and wait for it to cool off in the west.
aren't up for an adventure doesn't mean younger people can't have one. There are quite a few overlanders in west Africa at the moment. This said, most of them are stuck in Kinshasa at the moment because much of the Angola border is shut at the moment due to the Ebola outbreak, it'll probably be over by the time we get there though.The roads are fine all along the coast, but yeah the DRC will be a good old struggle, but not undoable. A couple crossed it from Zambia to Kinshasa last year, took them about a two months though due to having to wait 3 weeks in a mission for repairs. I'm really looking forward to it.
If it all kicks off between now and then, I'm gonna backpack from Jo'burg-Nairobi instead and wait for it to cool off in the west.
So you're actually planning to skip through the DRC via the shortest possible route into Angola, i.e. just crossing the panhandle, rather than actually travelling into the country proper? Not exactly what you were suggesting with your opening line "with over 1000 bird species, 21 endemics, its an incredible risk but it'll be an adventure".
Think you will find the vast majority of those 1000 species are in the central and eastern parts of the country and virtually all the comments on this thread were related to that, as is any real link to the sensationalist 'incredible risk' that you introduced the thread. So good luck on your 200 km adventure through the not quite so bird-rich Congo Pedicle.
Best wishes from this old fuddy duddy. But hey, back in my day, I wouldn't have classed flying half the journey and scrounging a lift from some Swiss guy for the bits in between as an amazing adventure
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mjh73
Well-known member
Best wishes from this old fuddy duddy. But hey, back in my day, I wouldn't have classed flying half the journey and scrounging a lift from some Swiss guy for the bits in between as an amazing adventure
[Mic drop]
I don't quite understand how you got to the assumption of just crossing the panhandle Jos, but you are quite mistaken. There are 'good enough' roads in the south of the country, between Likasi and Kikwit and north to Kisangani so getting around will doable, but of course challenging for various reasons. I suggest you do your research, before jumping to conclusions as you keyboard warriors too often do.
I don't have the time/money to return to the countries I have already visited (around the coast from Benin-Senegal), but my friend has and hasn't already been to said countries so is doing that bit without me. I'm going to ask for this thread to be deleted, as it no longer serves its purpose of finding people who are interested in the trip, as I have fulfilled that search myself. Cheers for the ignorant and un-needed comments.
I don't have the time/money to return to the countries I have already visited (around the coast from Benin-Senegal), but my friend has and hasn't already been to said countries so is doing that bit without me. I'm going to ask for this thread to be deleted, as it no longer serves its purpose of finding people who are interested in the trip, as I have fulfilled that search myself. Cheers for the ignorant and un-needed comments.
Luke, you were pretty flippant in your response to those offering advice on this thread and decided to label persons commenting as old fuddy duddies, so don't be too surprised in the kind of response you got.
As for the keyboard warrier and ignorant comments, well up to you to term it so. I know that most of those that took time to comment on your thread have travelled quite extensively in Africa, so were probably worth a bit more than your sarcasm. And everything they said about eastern DRC in particular is absolutely true, as it the comment that the best of the country's birding is, unfortunately, going to be in areas that are either near impossible to access on a fairly short visit or in areas too dangerous to make it even remotely sensible, or both.
PS. not that it makes much odds, I have travelled overland from northern Norway to South Africa solo without vehicle and without using public transport, plus additionally have spent over three years in sub-Saharan areas.
temmie
Well-known member
I am perfectly fine (as an old dude) with anyone doing a great adventure like yours sounds like, but you gave factually wrong info about your aims / plans:
"I'm thinking of a trip to the DRC. With over 1000 bird species, 21 endemics, its an incredible risk but it'll be an adventure. It would be for several months and using our own vehicle. Anybody up for the challenge?"
Most of commenters assumed you would actually go birdwatching and chase those endemics... (actually, in some years, if I would read your question I would be up for the challenge, assuming you would go chasing those endemics near Goma and in the interior of the Congo basin!).
Now you have finally explained what you are really going to do, it seems a lot less interesting bird-wise: you will be doing mainly savannah (no endemics there) and cross Congo from Kinshasa towards Lumumbashi. This part of Congo is not necessarily unsafe, but it's a slog on the road (being stuck for weeks in the rainy season at some points is common, trucks blocking the road in knee-deep mud is what I have seen from that part of the country, admittedly, on television).
While I am curious what birds you are going to see there (good to have anybody out there checking this out), I reckon this could be a very interesting adventure, but birdwise not the most exciting route... All of those species are not unique to Congo and you probably have the disadvantage of bad logistics, bad roads, hard-to-find birding areas... You consider going to Parc National de L'Upemba, Kundelungu and most probably lake Lufira (where the only endemic on your route is awaiting )?
"I'm thinking of a trip to the DRC. With over 1000 bird species, 21 endemics, its an incredible risk but it'll be an adventure. It would be for several months and using our own vehicle. Anybody up for the challenge?"
Most of commenters assumed you would actually go birdwatching and chase those endemics... (actually, in some years, if I would read your question I would be up for the challenge, assuming you would go chasing those endemics near Goma and in the interior of the Congo basin!).
Now you have finally explained what you are really going to do, it seems a lot less interesting bird-wise: you will be doing mainly savannah (no endemics there) and cross Congo from Kinshasa towards Lumumbashi. This part of Congo is not necessarily unsafe, but it's a slog on the road (being stuck for weeks in the rainy season at some points is common, trucks blocking the road in knee-deep mud is what I have seen from that part of the country, admittedly, on television
). While I am curious what birds you are going to see there (good to have anybody out there checking this out), I reckon this could be a very interesting adventure, but birdwise not the most exciting route... All of those species are not unique to Congo and you probably have the disadvantage of bad logistics, bad roads, hard-to-find birding areas... You consider going to Parc National de L'Upemba, Kundelungu and most probably lake Lufira (where the only endemic on your route is awaiting
)?
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McMadd
You should see the other bloke...
Well...I'll say it...."FAKE NEWS"...sorry but this thread reads like a dude who thinks Instagram and FaceThing represent journalism...
good luck but yawn...
DMW
Well-known member
Not sure why Luke is being given such a hard time here. Maybe he "oversold" his trip, or maybe his plans changed... who knows, perhaps he even listened to us old farts and changed his mind! Either way, it's pretty obvious that nobody here had any inclination to join him in the DRC, so it's not as though anybody has been mislead.
I think it's cool to see a younger birder getting out there and going off the beaten track - seems all too rare these days - and he will certainly have a memorable trip. Good luck to him!
I think it's cool to see a younger birder getting out there and going off the beaten track - seems all too rare these days - and he will certainly have a memorable trip. Good luck to him!
temmie
Well-known member
He oversold it definitely. But nobody got hurt so let's move on.
Congo captures my imagination (like probably all of this thread's visitors).
So yes I do applaud any visit to Congo. But one the one hand Luke describes it as an incredible risk... If that is true (the risk), the trip is just not a smart thing to do. However, like most people travelled, I do think that many parts of Congo are not un-safer than most parts of the world, just harder to travel (no good logistics).
@DMW: If there would be anyone willing to do a birding trip in the Congo that is really aiming at the specialty birds (that is: the birds that cannot be (easily) found in Uganda / Rwanda from this list: http://www.albertinerift.org/portals/49/media/file/endemicbirds.PDF with Yellow-crested Helmetshrike high on the list, even willing to do some kind of an expedition), someone like me would definitely show real interest.
Congo captures my imagination (like probably all of this thread's visitors).
So yes I do applaud any visit to Congo. But one the one hand Luke describes it as an incredible risk... If that is true (the risk), the trip is just not a smart thing to do. However, like most people travelled, I do think that many parts of Congo are not un-safer than most parts of the world, just harder to travel (no good logistics).
@DMW: If there would be anyone willing to do a birding trip in the Congo that is really aiming at the specialty birds (that is: the birds that cannot be (easily) found in Uganda / Rwanda from this list: http://www.albertinerift.org/portals/49/media/file/endemicbirds.PDF with Yellow-crested Helmetshrike high on the list, even willing to do some kind of an expedition), someone like me would definitely show real interest.
