I am half woken by a low humming buzz, i open my eyes to see that the sun hasn't broken the skyline yet as its still very early in the morning. I recollect that last night, we found a camp past a sign that sais 'entry prohibited', right next to the dense Gabon rainforest. I see a fly on top of our tent but am not bothered, so fall back to blissful sleep. Minutes later, I am awoken again by the same buzz, but it's somewhat louder. I take a closer look, realising the buzz is not the byproducts of flies but bees! They are increasing in numbers, and fast. We have to pack everything as quickly as possible as soon, they are in hundreds. They swarm us, they are everywhere! in our tent, roll bags, panniers, jackets & helmets. I cant sit on my seat to ride off as its a newly found beehive. Rob tries to move my bike but incidently gets stung on the finger, which blows up his whole hand (he can't bend his fingers to pull the brakes on). We have to run down the street to try to debee ourselves.........
(Amazing, or unamazingly the same scenario happen again the next morning 300km away from the original sight.)

fallen trees stop us on our goat track paths

After Poubara falls & walks over raging rapids on a traditional vine bridges made by locals we head to The Congo. We ride all days through tough roads (if you can call them roads), the rainy seasons have started, so its slippery, muddy, chocolate slush on the road, it's getting dark & we have no place to stay... The Africa Twin then gets stuck in a glue pot, proving too heavy for the 2 of us to get out. As we are attempting to pull it out, 3 ladies dressed in beautiful traditional clothing come round the corner carrying babies & buckets on their heads. They gracefully stand in the mud to help us pull the mothership out. In strain, I realise that 2 of the women look over 60!!!! Amazing agility.

We hit MUD MUD MUD, its a gluepot

We hit the equator....to the southern hemisphere

Its very dark after we find the next village, but the extremely friendly chief offer us a traditional mud hut to stay in for the night. So they set up a tarp over wooden slates with a holey mosquito net. Tinned meat for dinner mmmmmm

Bushmeat on the menu for a local we passed

A shower by the river with enquisitive kids