Congo River

Gorgeous, isn't it?


I thought I heard a faint roar last time we took the "river walk". So did Sam. And Sam said he could see white foam at the horizon. So did I.




I've been asking people if you can go see the rapids, and the answers vary. There's a road, but you'll be bothered by people. It's not far, but the drive is long and the roads are bad, then the path is bad and the views disappointing. And people will bother you.

So the mythical Congo River does not yield its charms easily. Think I'll try to obtain the documentary this picture came from, appropriately called "Congo River." See Le Monde article at http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0,36-757841,0.html


There are miles of rapids and falls between Kinshasa and the huge estuary. Like at the mouth of the Amazon, the Atlantic Ocean is not salty for miles around.

Fisherman, part 2:

Just a few hours after I spoke to the fisherman (see post below), we went to a reception (Brazil national day?) where we met a Frenchman who has lived here forty years. He loves this country and speaks about it with excitement. He said the river is teeming with fish. "Les poissons meurent de vieillesse!" (The fish die of old age), because there is no fishing. He said not to miss Stanley Pool. There, just a few miles upstream from Kinshasa, the river goes over a wide, flat rock. It spreads out in shallows, with sand bars, and the water is clear. "On peut la boire! Elle est meilleure que l'eau du robinet." (You can drink it! It's better than tap water.) There's a yatch club, you can water ski, fish, picnic on a sand bar. The bottom is "du sable fin" (fine sand).

So, downstream from us: waterfalls and rapids for two hundred miles, then the estuary for another two hundred miles. Upstream: Stanley Pool, with the twin capitals (the closest capitals on our planet) of Brazzaville and Kinshasa at the western end and a large island in the middle.






In this picture I've put a tiny red dot where our house is, and a tiny pink line to mark the "river walk." But they got a little blurred; anyway you get the idea. We're downstream from the pool; from the walk we can indeed probably "see" the top of the rapids; but it's like "seeing" the horizon.





Here's a little more about Stanley himself. He was born in Wales of an unwed mother, raised until age 5 by his grandfather and then in an orphanage. He went to America, where he fought on both sides of the Civil War.

(The rest of this post is shamelessly copied from http://www.africdotes.blogspot.com/ and
http://www.wayfarersbookshop.com/Biographies/Stanley_Biography/Stanley_-_The_Great_Congo_Expe/stanley_-_the_great_congo_expe.html)

Stanley proposed an expedition, and in November 1874, in command of a large expedition jointly sponsored by the New York Herald and the Daily Telegraph of London, he set out from Zanzibar for Lake Victoria, planning to confirm whether Lake Victoria was the principal source of the Nile by sailing around it, and to establish the exact geographic location of East Africa's other great lakes. Moreover, he planned to find the source of the Congo River and, if possible, follow it to the Atlantic. Arriving at Lake Victoria in late February 1875, Stanley undertook a circumnavigation of the lake in the Lady Alice, a portable steamboat that had been carried in pieces into the interior. He then visited a native kingdom to the north in what is now Uganda, coming upon an uncharted lake, which he named Lake Edward.

Stanley headed southward along Africa's Great Rift Valley and in spring 1876 he arrived at Lake Tanganyika, which he also circumnavigated in the Lady Alice. He then found the lake's principal outlet to be the Lukuga river, which he followed to its confluence with the Lualaba. Descending the Lualaba northward, he came to Nyangwe, the farthest inland point known to both Arab traders and Europeans. There, he recruited an armed force of 700 men under the famous African-Arab slaver named Tippoo Tib, who guided his expedition to a series of cataracts, later known as Stanley Falls, which they portaged around with considerable difficulty. The small army was required as, in Stanley's opinion, "the savage only respects force, power, boldness, and decision". Hardly a day went by without an altercation with "murderous" Africans, although frequently it was Stanley's men who were the aggressors and killed the natives.

Upon reaching the site of present-day Kisangani (once called Stanleyville) in what is now west-central DRC, Stanley determined that the river could not flow into the Nile, since at that point it was 14 feet lower in elevation than the larger river. In fact, Stanley's surmise that Lualaba was the upper course of the Congo River was correct. But yet again travel was plagued by jungle, rocks and cliffs (the Lady Alice had to be completely disassembled and carried), After this, however, Stanley found that the river turned sharply west and south and widened to allow relatively easy travel by boat for more than 1,000 miles.

After a few more months of downriver travel, he discovered a large lake-like expanse.

“While taking an observation at noon of the position, Frank, with my glass in his hand, ascended the highest part of the large sandy dune that had been deposited by the mighty river, and took a survey of its strange and sudden expansion, and after, he came back and said,
“Why, I declare, sir, this place is just like a pool; as broad as it is long. There are mountains all round it, and it appears to me almost circular.”
“Well, if it is a pool, we must distinguish it by some name. Give me a suitable name for it, Frank.”
“Why not call it Stanley Pool?”

Africdotes comments: "It must have come as quite a disappointment to reach the foot of the Pool and the head of the torrential rapids they called Livingstone Falls. Four hundred miles to go, and Stanley’s own measurements determined that they were still more than 1100 feet above sea level. Stanley’s young companion, the only surviving European besides Stanley, Frank Pocock, did not survive the trip. He went over one of the rapids in a pirogue, and the troop found his body a few days later." Stanley wrote, "I am weary, oh so weary, of this constant tale of woes and death".

On August 9, 1877, Stanley and his party finally reached the Atlantic at Boma. In his 999-day journey, he had crossed Africa from east to west and had determined that the Congo flowed from the Lualaba River. With this finding, he dispelled Livingstone's theory that the Lualaba was a source of the Nile. Of the original 356 men in the expedition, only 114 remained with him when he reached Boma, the rest having died or deserted. Stanley related his 1874-1877 journey across Africa in his book "Through the Dark Continent" (1878). Yet back in England he was condemned in both the newspapers and in Parliament for the ruthless way in which he had conducted the expedition.