Day 167: Quesso – Owando
Social Weavers are nice birds, but they pooped all over the car tonight :-)
Unfortunately, we tried in vain to book for the next night at Camp Imbalanga in Odzala NP. The whole thing isn't cheap anyway and it's questionable whether you'll actually see gorillas. But the idea of spending an afternoon on a viewing platform at a waterhole and the night in a bungalow in the jungle was tempting.
We fail.
What we found out is: 60,000 CFA per person in the bungalow.
What we didn't find out:
20,000 Park Entrance Fee per person for 24 hours or for two days?
3,000 fee for private car for 24 hours or for two days?
15% fee for community and conversation on what amount?
We also didn't get an answer as to how it actually works. You pay for your own vehicle, but according to the email exchange, there is actually no parking space for it in the camp. So where do you have to carry your things to camp from? And because today is the reception for the Member Board, we wouldn't have gotten any food. And we would have to carry the food we bring with us somewhere?
As is unfortunately so often the case in West Africa, things remain vague and hardly anything can be clarified in the short term. We are turned away at the gate, where we actually just want to take a lunch break. And unfortunately the impression is that the park is actually only set up for the expensive arrangements that are booked and paid for in Brazzaville and for which you may be flown in.
A pity.
Brigitte consoles herself with the fact that at least she won't be completely stabbed...
In the evening we quickly receive all the information we need to visit the Aspinall Foundation Congo via a few Whatsapp messages. We want to stay there for two nights, take a river boat trip and maybe see gorillas and hippos.
What else? We have crossed the equator. Yes, really, on the 167th day of our trip!
And we had a relaxing day of driving through jungles, meadows and swamps. And manage to temporarily reduce consumption to under 9 liters.
The people here live in huts right on the road and it seems that they are only concerned with themselves and the produce of the land. No school, no business, maybe a few are employees of the national park.
What we haven't recorded yet: Some of the people here are very short and we know from the border area between Cameroon and Congo that it is the country of the Baka People (Pygmies). As the travel guide says about the optional visit to a village: Nothing authentic. Wonderful what the benefit is to you or them.
In Makouka, the town on the equator, we can't stay in one hotel (fully booked), but we can't find the other one. So we continue to Owando. There we are initially supposed to pay 10,000 for the use of the bathroom and parking, but we bargain it down to 7,000 – it really is annoying that we are constantly having to pay more than double what the locals pay.