Hitchhiking tales from Sergei Lekai

Sergei Lekai

About the cyclists of Zaire

In Zaire there was a lot of interesting things. In that large territory, there are no paved roads, only trails through the jungles over long distances. And all populated places, including small towns, are supplied by long-haul cyclists who travel in caravans of several dozen people.

We walked for five weeks along these trails: we entered from Uganda into Zaire and headed to Kisangani – a large city in the center of Congo on the eponymous river, from where you can continue by barge. While we walked, we got acquainted in detail with how the transport network in Zaire is set up. For long-haul cyclists, any populated place has a rest area where they spend the night: a shelter with a campfire. In each village, there are repair shops with services like pumping up tires, changing a tube.

Cyclists ride downhill, but uphill they walk, pushing their bikes. The trail is heavily damaged in places: mud, knee-deep puddles. They load about a hundred kilograms onto one bicycle, the loads can be very diverse: 120 liters of gasoline, for example, or sugar in bags, beer, cola in crates, furniture. They cover 50-70 kilometers a day, and trips: 200, 400 kilometers one way. They load goods where the asphalt ends, and go. The bicycles are the simplest, road bikes, Chinese made.

There are local traffic police, police or soldiers, who stand on these trails and collect bribes, tribute from cyclists. Just like on regular highways: you earn – you have to share.

Thus, goods delivered to the interior cost enormous amounts of money: a bottle of cola $0.33–$1.5. This despite the fact that a dollar a day is a good salary, if a person works at all, because most of the population only digs their garden and does nothing else.

And I thought at first: what nonsense, why haul cola and beer, no one will buy at such prices anyway. It turned out – they do buy, because for locals it's a way to touch modern civilization, luxury. They cannot buy expensive watches, smartphones, and cars like we do; instead, they buy a bottle of cola and drink it, always in plain sight of others. Only the very rich can afford it: police, military, local bosses.

In towns and villages cut off from civilization, there are a few cars that arrived there back in the days of Belgian rule, when there were roads. Now they have deteriorated, turned into trails, there are no bridges, river crossings are by canoe. The rich ride motocross motorcycles, while the rest ride bicycles or walk.