On my way to Uganda, not far from the Uganda border, I could choose out of two (dirt) roads only (a third option would lead me to a small civil war in the north of Uganda, that is no choice). A bad one and a very bad one. Because the bad one was bad enough for me I choosed to take the shortcut from Mambassa to Beni. The other main dirt road of north Zaïre was actually the only road, connecting the north from Zaïre to the east of Zaïre. But because of the raining season and the enormous potholes, it was impossible for the old Fiat and Mercedes trucks to pass. There was no traffic possible for several weeks already! The road I decided to conquer was too small for the trucks and therefore not so bad, I thought. Well, it happened that a few trucks made this road a little wider by cutting some extra trees along the road, a few weeks ago. Zaïre had another very bad road extra.
It was a wonder that the bridge on the picture was still covered with wooden planks for 75 %. We only had to move some planks from the beginning of the bridge to the end, while we were standing in the middle of it. I mean, what would you do if you were very poor and you lived near a bridge with nice wooden planks. With every day one truck passing. Maximum. Well, I would take all the planks. For my hut.
