I have just loaded new photos from The Congo. At Christmas 1984, my friend Dwain Bloyer and I boarded the Col. Ebeya river boat for an 11 day trip from Kinshasa, on the lower Congo River, up river to Kisangani, on the upper Congo: a 1200 mile continuous run of the great river. It was an extraordinary life experience. Unfortunately, when I moved to Bangkok from Charlottesville, Virginia in 1996 2/3 of my shipment was stolen (in Virginia), including my personal photos and slides of my Congo travels. Fortunately, Dwain had a set of slides from our trip (although no where near as good as my lost photos - hahaha!) and, when on a vacation to Bangkok a couple of years ago with his wife Sharon, brought them to me. I had them hastily scanned and have just today gone through them to see if they are good enough for posting. They are not of a quality I normally accept, but as a "record" of those experiences they are priceless. I have added many more in my Travel Photo Bank: Congo at this LINK.
The Col. Ebeya. Thanks to Jeff Shey for this photo, another Jeff who took the Col. Ebeya up the Congo River. He has a great web site HERE.
The massive river boat and barge train in the background is the Col. Kokolo, the sister ship to the Col. Ebeya I took up the Congo River for 11 days in 1984.
That's me on the deck of the Col. Ebeya surveying the produce. The ship was actually a waterborne city of 3000 people that moves up through the Congo jungle region buying and selling goods as it went. The decks became fuller and fuller the further up into The Heart of Darkness we went.
The scenes along the river banks were breathtaking in their humanity.
Timeless Congo River Life.
The lovely and wonderful Congolese people. For more photos of my Congo experiences, please visit this LINK.