Crossing the Congo Over Land and Water in a Hard Place

The story of three friends journeying across 2,500 miles of the toughest terrain on the planet in a very old Land Rover called 9Bob. Over two months in 2013, they completed the only north-south crossing of the Congo River Basin in decades, travelling from Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, to Juba, in South Sudan, a journey they had been told repeatedly was 'impossible'. On the way, they faced fierce challenges, ranging from jungle terrain, kleptocracy, fire ants, illegal mining and burrowing parasites, to factional disputes, destroyed bridges, non-existent roads and intense suspicion from local people. These difficulties, and others, found them building rafts and bridges to cross rivers, playing tribal politics, bargaining for Land Rover parts in scrapyards, and conducting makeshift surgery in the jungle--both on 9Bob and on one another. Conjuring all their combined ingenuity and resolve, they got through. But the Congo is raw, and the journey took its toll, exerting a psychological pressure on them that they hadn't expected. And although they all lost something in the Congo, this book is ultimately about the power of teamwork to overcome tremendous odds.