A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it. - George Moore

16 July 2019, Dolisie to Mila Mila, 68.29km
Auberge 1,000CFA (R25)

Four roads radiate from the intersection outside Dolisie: the road south into Dolisie proper; the main highway, west to Pointe Noire, east to Brazzaville; and a dirt road north to Kibangou and beyond to the Gabon border, our destination. From our hotel on the outskirts of Dolisie, it was a 7km ride to the intersection, the Kibangou road taking us almost immediately past a toll booth waiting for a tarred road to toll, onto red dirt, and into a world choking on dust. From the tops of mild inclines, we could look down on the red road, undulating through bush. The bush lining the road coated in red dust and coloured bronze, the bush beyond, variegated greens. Later in the day we came across a large morning-glory whose leaves were clotted with dust, but whose flowers, blooming fresh each morning, were a pristine white. So dusty was it when vehicles passed us that visibility dropped to just a couple of metres, and we saw one driver with a scarf tied cowboy-style across his nose and mouth.
The first 20km were in good condition, the road already widened and prepared for tarring; thereafter a mixed bag, some OK, some ankle deep in talcum powder-fine dust, some clay cracked to tortoiseshell, some embedded rocks, some loose stones. I am afraid of falling, my fear exacerbated on dirt, so until Charl persuaded me that the dust was so fine it would not yank my handlebars from my hands as would loose sand, I often walked the dustiest sections, slowing our progress considerably.
We saw the Chinese road construction engineers busy with measurements, one wearing a traditional straw hat. We saw, tethered to a couple of parked logging trucks, cocks crowing, a fresh meal in the making, no doubt, and saw logs fallen from overloaded vehicles and abandoned on the roadside. We saw small bodies of water the colour of greenstone, sometimes filled with waterlillies. We saw homesteads of tiny huts and swept earth, where, in small numbers, roamed goats, pigs, ducks and chickens. We saw people working hard to scratch a living from a patch of earth. One couple in particular stands clear in my mind’s eye: their hut, maybe eight square metres standing on a small segment of cleared bush, both the man and woman working with hoes between whatever it was they had planted. Some villages boasts a small shop, poorly stocked, some homesteads sell Airtel airtime and loose cigarettes. Daily chores, like fetching water and pounding cassava, take up a lot of time and energy. We saw people lolling at ease under trees and in open lapas providing shade and air. We saw children at play in the dust, coated as we were from top to toe. We saw poverty, and perhaps even hunger, but not, thank goodness, starvation. In one village, a group of young boys chased after me on my bike. This happens fairly often and usually I slow to give them a chance to race my faster steed. Today, one of the boys grabbed at my flag, a no-no in my book. I stopped the bike and turned to look at them, and they took immediate flight.
We met a modern young Chinese couple in a pink car, the man sporting dreadlocks, and their older friend travelling a section with them. They left Canton in June 2018 and have driven China, Russia and Europe and nearly completed their Africa leg to Cape Town. From there, they will ship the car and themselves to Argentina. Their friend leapt from the car and photographed us from every angle. They had met Blanca travelling ahead of us…
In Mila Mila, and English-speaking forestry worker walked us over the road to this new auberge, a wood hut on a cement base with shared bucket bath and pit toilet, and considerably more pleasant than its extraordinarily low price suggested. The host brought us plastic chairs to sit on outside our room, and water in a ubiquitous yellow container. These, when full, are heavy to lift and carry and pour from, yet we see local woman lugging them from rivers everywhere.

For today's route see below photos
For overview route, click on ROUTE tab above…