18th & 19th February 1986 : Invasions

I have lost/misplaced the diary page containing most of 18th and 19th February. Forty years on, most of the diary's thin, scribble-covered pages have come loose from their binding and to have lost only one is a miracle. Essentially, we left Kisangani and somewhere during those two days of driving we learned that trouble had again erupted in Tchad.

...Couldn’t believe we’d just missed another war and the thought of N’djamena in the midst of it again was sad after just being there and being strangely fond of the bullet-ridden town. (A day after 200 French troops arrived in N'djamena, the first there since France withdrew 15 months earlier, a Libyan airplane bombed the Ndjamena airport; the Libyan press claimed the bombing was the work of TChadian rebels.) Seems wars are following us.

We camped in another quiet gravel pit which we quickly discovered was a thoroughfare for armies of tiny red and large black ants - we watched a red swarm literally pull apart an enormous horsefly. Nikki and Kel had to move their tent twice after separate invasions and our footwork around the camp was a parody of breakdancing. The jungle was loud with animal noises, including a rock hyrax, which let rip with its blood-curdling scream.