As we enter Congo-Brazzaville it’s more of the same. More of the thick green jungle we had seen in Cameroon – and more of the misbehaviour the engines of our Hondas had bothered us with.
We entered from the north and the landscape was just like on the Cameroonian side: thick, green jungle. The road from the border to Ouesso was completed in 2020 and a true game changer. Beforehand, the two countries were not connected.
Our first stop was a town called Sembé. Here we bought SIM cards and visited a local market. As we were walking towards it, fresh bushmeat arrived on a moto: two gazelles, two monkeys and a pangolin.
Later, we saw a sign showing that at least the hunting of the critically endangered pangolin was illegal. Not so sure about the monkeys. According to the locals we talked to at a Sembé pub, one thing is for certain though: monkey meat is delicious.
The guesthouse we stayed at that night was situated right next to a night club. As we’ve experienced in other countries before, two men in one room were not allowed. Even the whole We’re-brothers-same-mother-same-father-routine didn’t leave an impression. So we slept badly in separate rooms: The music that must have kept the whole neighborhood up only stopped when there was a power cut – which meant that the ventilators in our rooms didn’t work anymore. After loud came very hot.
The next day we headed south.
The landscape was beautiful, but we couldn’t really enjoy it. Our bikes were still not performing well. At times, they were lacking the speed to comfortably overtake lorries. We were doing 80 and listened if there were suspicious noises coming from our engines.
In Makoua, we crossed the equator and took the obligatory photo at the monument.
The further we got, the more the jungle disappeared.
The road was in good condition. We took the one chance to make it look remotely adventurous (see below).
The views in the Plateaux region were amazing.
We looked for a hotel in the town of Odziba and tried to understand our motorcycles better. Successful was only the hotel search.
We decided to not visit the capital of Brazzaville. Instead, we took the N1 towards the coast. This road was built from 2008 to 2016 with help of the Chinese. If you want to see what the road used to look like or how the Chinese government praises itself for building it, click here.
Our destination was Pointe-Noire, because we had read that we might find a mechanic there. In Brazzaville, apparently it would have been less likely even though the city is significantly bigger.
When we arrived in Point-Noire the sky turned noir within minutes.
To our suprise, the people on the beach stayed really relaxed – until the very last second. When the rain came, everyone started to run. Us too. We found a nice beach bar where we stayed until it stopped.
And the next morning we found Sporafric Motors. The crew there was not only super friendly but also up to the task: they checked the tank ventilation (was okay), cleaned the injection nozzle (looked okayish) and changed our spark plugs. Especially Thies’ spark plug didn’t look good and was a bit oily.
The streets of the city didn’t really allow us to properly test the bikes’ performance. Too much traffic, too many potholes. So we left Pointe-Noire hoping our motorcycles would finally run again like they’re supposed to: no more monkey business.