The plan was that after seeing the islands we would take an adventure up another smaller river towards an area with wild elephants and gorillas. We didn't see any...but we still had an adventure. As we took the first tributary off the main river the water went from dark bluish to jet black. it was incredibly beautiful and the water was so still that the tropical forest which was overflowing on both sides cast pristine reflections on the water.
As we got a little bit upwater, we started coming across some floating water hyacinths. it was pretty amazing how quickly they were coming downstream.
pretty soon things got a lot tougher though and we were having trouble finding navigable passages....a lot of pulling through spots here and there and cleaning the prop.
Then we hit the point of no return. we were totally surrounded by these things.
rebecca is consulting the map which was taken out of some old manuscript of a field study from someone who had studied wildlife in the area. there was definitely no mention of endless flowers in the water. this is actually the river between the trees on both sides. no visible water even.
We got a little crazy while we were waiting to get out. um...this is my boss.
we eventually got turned around and headed home. this is a typical congolese hut along the water.
mangrove forest. the roots are so cool. you can see that its the dry season.
here are the canoes on the beach. you don't sit in them....you stand and paddle.
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