Saturday 12 October 2013

Kalima

I've been in Kalima for almost a week now. The journey here was literally a pain in the ass. We left Kindu at about 12pm, after crossing the Congo river with the 'ferry', the journey to Kalima follows a paved road for about 20km or so. After that it was a bumpy ride all the way for 3 hours. There was a moments where I felt like I was in a roller coaster!


The Ferry

View of the "jetty"

Yuma 

Yuma not looking at the camera again

Reeling up the rail. He was really struggling. It really look very difficult. 

Reaching the other side of Kindu
The 'ferry' was not in a very good condition, it's very slow (almost 20 minutes to cover 500Meters), it's smokey and the workers had to manually retrieve the 'mouth' of the ferry during arrival and departure. There is no proper port so getting off and on the ferry is a mess. Your feet will definitely get wet. On my way there I saw local fishermen fishing in that river, they used a really slim canoe and a simple fishing line. Just like the one in 'River Monster'. There were also a lot of people washing their clothes, car and motorbikes along the river.

The other side of Kindu

Passed some mud houses and children playing outside
 Kalima is situated deep within the Democratic Republic of Congo's tropical rainforest belt. You can Google more about Kalima, it's quite an interesting regarding it's history and the current issues of this place. There are a lot of brick wall buildings left behind by the Belgians. It's like the modern township houses just a little old skol.

View from my office

Back yard of my house

Front view of my house

Where I stayed for the week

Goats going through our rubbish

Big compound around the house
My colleagues brought me to this guest house which has a really nice panoramic view of the rainforest. We went to town after that to get some food supplies. It's not that different from Kindu, only smaller and less crowded.

I am told that Kindu's electricity comes from here, so power here is not an issue. We have electricity almost 90% of  the time. I am also surprised that the water tap actually works here. In Kindu, the water tap is just for decoration purposes. But water only comes in the morning, not sure why it's not flowing in for the rest of the day.

At the peak 

Sunset

Rest house? 

Guest house

Guest house

Front view

Scenery

The other side of the guest house

Rest area

Old railway track near my office

My office
There are a lot of pigs here. I don't think they're wild but they are damn huge. Saw a mother pig with her babes running around. The thing I like about this place is the lush scenery, the cool weather, the sound of nature and no mosquitoes! Thank God for that.

A goat intruding our property  

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Dear Fellow blogger,
If you read my blog you will understand that I too am interested in Kalima DR Congo.http://elinjo-lifeisahotch-potch.blogspot.dk/

For some months I have been trying to raise interest in and raise funds for a clean drinking-water project under the auspices of Peasant Solidarity.

You updated your blog a long time ago. What has happened since?

I would be very pleased if you would like to get in touch with me.

Your account and photos are very, very interesting. Did you make any videos of your trip and if so are they available on YouTube or other media channels!

Best wishes.

Unknown said...

I am going to put your link in my next blog.