When you fly over Congo, you miss the adventure of traveling like the early explorers. Much of the landscape is just as untamed as it was 100 years ago. Traveling from city to city can be just as treacherous, too.
Air travel not only saves time but it saves wear and tear on your mind, body, and soul. The adventure of the land travel is forgotten after about an hour. Flying directly to Bulape from Kinshasa will save you 4-6 days because you will have to fly on a commercial jet to Kananga. A day or two later you would drive up to Bulape which is just 170 miles. But it takes about 9 hours or more.
First, your mind rejects the notion that constant jolsting is fun. Most to the time you feel like an amateur cowboy strapped to a mechanical bull.
Next, your body starts to ache and throb. Actually, you may think your body has become super sensitive because you feel every bump in the road.
Finally, you are willing to sell your soul to the devil to end the trip. You pray for the vehicle to get stuck, or an elephant to stand in the middle of the road to block it. Of course, there are no elephants in central Congo.
Sorry, nobody was crying and screaming when we got in the plane to from Kinshasa out to the village of Bulape. Driving up to Bulape from Kananga is the proverbial t-shirt trip. Once is enough. You survived it.
The plane is charted through the Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF).
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