A breakfast search of our campsite found the three Swedish passports and Geoff’s towel on the ground. I understand why the y discarded the passports but don't know why the towel was undesirable. We pulled out of camp but stopped again at the offenders' village, the barefoot thieves running for cover on seeing our truck and disappearing into the grass behind the huts. One of the boys had left his plastic shoes and a metal rolling ring in our camp and Ben armed himself with these to walk through the village. But what he planned I don't know and he did not return with any more contraband.
When we left it was to drive on a red road through thick leafy green. Decided to stop and shop when we saw a machine grinding dried manioc to flour, the sickening smell permeating the market. Wandered through the aide clothing stalls, again disappointed by the inappropriateness of some of the stuff donated to these countries, including long line men’s and ladies' singlets and all manner of trousers and shorts, from torn cotton to plaid to corduroy.
We stopped for another shop just prior to lunch. Ann and I were on guard but had no hassles at all. We watched a huge flock of raptors diving onto the road but could not see what they were picking at. Enjoyed a big, scrumptious lunch of pate and mashed avocado sandwiches followed by a huge helping of fruit salad.
We drove on past more roadside collections of rectangular mud brick buildings with thatched roofs. Most of the huts were very run down and most of the villages looked more squalid than what we've been seeing. And while we get smiles and waves from some people in these villages, especially from the women and children, others are very aggressive.
We made an afternoon banana and pineapple stop, with Nikki and Kel trying to check out prices while those on the truck yelled conflicting advice on how to check the ripeness of pineapples and bananas and what was a realistic price. In the end Nikki gave up and didn’t buy anything. We stopped again to buy 14 circular cane stools which we strung together and piled onto the tents, completely blocking the view from the crows' nest.
Mid-afternoon we reached the Chutes de Boali, a grander waterfall with several separate cascades along hundreds of metres of rock face. The water poured into a series of wide pools linked by rapids, and we washed in the shallow running water below, holding onto the rocky bed to stop ourselves being washed away. Spectacular but lacking the special wonder of the Chutes de Telo, where we had the unspoiled beauty to ourselves, because here there is a tourist complex at the top. The Encounter Overland truck arrived as we were leaving and gifted us with the leftovers of the two Peters' chocolate birthday cake.
Moving on, trying to lose EO so we can have a quiet night before reaching the capital Bangui, we lost fourth gear: old Stanley is decidedly clunky again.
We pulled off to camp in another roadside gravel pit close to another village but the people here welcomed us with smiles, and one lovely man helped us make a fire and pitch our tents in the now familiar semicircular defensive position. Decided not to post guards tonight put most things away.
Wrote in a letter to (big sister) Annie about how easy it is to take the aggression we experience personally and only Nikki’s suggestion that they have had a terrible time at the hands of the French helps me understand their antagonism to white people.
(Since gaining independence in 1960, the CAR has experienced ongoing conflicts between government and rebel forces and Christian and Moslem factions, multiple coups, ineffective peace-keeping missions, and extreme violence, with hundreds of thousands of people killed, displaced and exiled. The situation was not too bad during our traverse and late in 1986 the country transitioned from direct military rule to a single-party civilian state - but lead by a general. It is now officially a presidential republic, but the country's problems are ongoing, and the CAR is one of many countries on our 1985-1986 route that have long been unsafe for tourists. The Australian Government currently warns against visiting the CAR "due to the dangerous security situation and the threat of terrorism, kidnapping and violent crime.")
Caption: Chutes de Boali by Friedhelm Zwahlen
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