Snakes, crocs, machete-wielding tribes: Brit's 3000-mile Congo River journey a first

Two excellent articles, with pictures; the first is Phil Harwood's first-person account in the Guardian about becoming the first to canoe the Congo from its source to the sea:

Canoeing the entire Congo river… and living to tell the tale

And, from the Mail on Sunday:

Snakes, crocs and machete-wielding tribes: How Briton canoed solo down 3,000-mile Congo river... and lived to tell the tale

A British man has become the first person to canoe the entire Congo River from source to sea.

Starting from its source in Zambia and flowing through a country which has often been described as 'hell on earth' - the Democratic Republic of Congo - Phil Harwood braved machete wielding tribes, hippos and crocodiles to make it to the Atlantic.

'I only had to get my machete out twice to prevent myself from being robbed,' he said.
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The snakes, crocs, and hippos were secondary to his danger from man:

In another hair raising moment he decided it would be best to hire four brothers who owned a shotgun to protect him.

For five days and nights, Valatay, Leonardo, Maurice and John were there to protect him along a strip of the river known as The Abattoir - due to its history of cannibalism and reputation for criminal activity.

Mr Harwood said locals they came across would regularly question the brothers and ask why they had not yet killed him.

Others offered to come and murder him in the middle of the night so they could 'share his money'.

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Nevertheless - his experience was a very positive one:

But despite the constant threat of death he said he was inspired by many of the people he met.

'I found the people of the Congo to be an absolute inspiration,' he told the Guardian, 'I believe we could all learn a great deal from their courage and resilience in the face of adversity.'
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Much more at links above; the Guardian's is preferable as it is, as I noted, Harwood's own account - but the Mail's does have great pictures also, and summarizes Harwood's experience.

wfgodot said:

Two excellent articles, with pictures; the first is Phil Harwood's first-person account in the Guardian about becoming the first to canoe the Congo from its source to the sea:

Canoeing the entire Congo river… and living to tell the tale

And, from the Mail on Sunday:

Snakes, crocs and machete-wielding tribes: How Briton canoed solo down 3,000-mile Congo river... and lived to tell the tale

The snakes, crocs, and hippos were secondary to his danger from man:

Nevertheless - his experience was a very positive one:

Much more at links above; the Guardian's is preferable as it is, as I noted, Harwood's own account - but the Mail's does have great pictures also, and summarizes Harwood's experience.

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Fascinating! Thanks for sharing

Reality Orlando said:

Fascinating! Thanks for sharing

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My pleasure.

I love these kind of stories.I know I would never visit any of these kind of places but I am fascinated with how life is elsewhere outside of my safe little homestead.

Can you imagine the kind of spiders there'd be too?OH MY!!!!

Large trees seemed to be covered by giant sheets of white silk blowing in the wind – in fact they were gargantuan house-sized spider webs. On one occasion while trying to sneak around a nasty rapid, I inadvertently brushed against one and was instantly covered in a million spiders – crawling in my mouth, my ears, up my nose. If I hadn't been such a rugged adventurer, I'd have screamed like a little girl; or at least, if a fisherman hadn't been sitting on a rock watching me.

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Okay, forget the crocs, snakes, hippos, and machete guys - I'm dead of heart failure right here.

There are alot more things then just snakes and crocs. You go far enough up in the river or the nile river you will see people that have never seen other people and these tribes are still using the canibol. Not to mention the venomious spiders and Lizards and lets not forget the non venemous but just as deadly snakes like the anaconda and the rock ball python if they happen to bite you thier gonna wrap around and around you and squeeze you untill u stop breathing or heart stops beating plus break everybone on both sides of your chest.Even the fish can kill you ,have a recent cut that is still bleeding just a little bit and the piranas go on a freeding frenzy..theres also fish like the Goonch. this one i seen on Nat .Geo , after 6 hours and a dislocated shoulder they land it and bring it on shore its so big one guy demonstraits by opening the fishes mouth and he crawl right inside that fish could swallow a full grown man. And the one i like is the electric eel , when it is dry season fish stay away from crocks but during the dryseason the water gets lower and lower untill its like a soupy mud pit and u can see the eels flaping all over the place I saw this also on Nat Geo but the crock now has many free meals easilly. thos one croc was about 17 feet long and he grabs on to one of these eels and then u see the crock start convulsing . The eel is electricuting the huge crock it only lasts about 3 minutes and this massive crockodile is belly up dead from the electric eel ...

I enjoyed this so much though I can't understand at all why someone would take this journey on alone. I think he may have a bit of a death wish. How in the world will he top this?

WOW!

Gotta share with my DH.

LOL!


Ran the Amazon with my DH in my mid-20s. For 3 weeks.

It was scary.

Except we met so many people who lived there, their entire lives. And they were not scared. At all. Nor did they think we should be...However, they were rather afraid of blonde hair.

The spider monkeys ... afraid of nothing.

Cool vid. :tyou:

I read The Heart of Darkness-- I was NOT inspired to take the trip! :thud: I wonder what he's going to do next? Stroll the Arctic Circle?

Quiche said:

I read The Heart of Darkness-- I was NOT inspired to take the trip! :thud: I wonder what he's going to do next? Stroll the Arctic Circle?

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Favorite line:

He cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision - he cried out
twice, a cry that was no more than a breath - "The horror! The horror!"

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