Woke after a fantastic night’s sleep – without net. Bread man arrived in time for breakfast so ate rolls with Marmite before heading down to Beach de Bobbles. Washed, wrote a post card, and then lay back and dozed. Back to the truck where we watched a huge ant train demolish a banana skin and a march fly.
All aboard Stanley. I climbed into the crows' nest and dried my clothes as we drove on. Stopped for the first time - there would be many - when a huge black snake crossed the road in front of us. Then again to admire a beautiful handmade guitar with a carved wooden back and tin-can lid.
A large audience watched us lunch on avocado on bread beside a narrow, slow stream offering no drinkable water. Stopped for baboons, after lunch, and then to admire three beautiful village drums with time-worn skins. Men played them for us, putting the skin near the fire to increase the pitch. During a shopping stop I paid 50 Zaire to have my voluminous ostrich pants sewn, the women around me laughing at the size of them and continuing to laugh even after I and my funny pants departed. We stopped several times more, for bananas - we bought a whole bunch - and then for fifteen minutes of frenzied trading in a small village. While Kel stood outside Stanley letting village children listen to his Walkman he smiled as we hung out of the truck swapping t-shirts and shorts for baskets and bows and arrows. I traded an old t-shirt for a beautiful little woven pot and bought a winnowing basket for 50Z. That Stanley that moved on looked like ye old jumble sale van hung with hats, baskets, bows and arrows.
Pulled off the road under a swollen grey sky and got our tents pitched just before a torrential downpour. Bob filled our water bottles with rain running off the cook tent under which Vicki directed the cooking, including a massive potato peeling effort.
The site rapidly filled with villagers eager to trade bows and arrows, pipes and balsawood toys. I exchanged another t-shirt for a well-used gourd pipe, its bottom darkened by smoke and hands.
The storm passed quickly, in plenty of time to eat (tinned) hamburgers with onions and tomato sauce and spuds. Markus kissed me when I gave him mine.
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