Recent Luozi crossings?

[bbevan]

It looks like I'll be crossing into DRC at Luozi in a couple weeks. Is the route doable during wet season? I'm on a bike and am apprehensive about the mud.

The "surfboard around Africa" blog reports that recently some people are being turned away there (for not getting visa in home country). Has anyone been through recently? I know that Jordan325 was there in September and didn't have any issues.

[gvdaa]

So how you crossed from Congo-B tot Congo-K in te end?

[bbevan]

I crossed via Luozi last Sunday. It was epic. The conditions were good for wet season. It hadn't rained much recently. There was still a fair amount of mud in the many valleys, but the climbs and descents were dry (but still very rocky and technical with deep ruts). Dropped the bike three times, once hopelessly in a ditch in no mans land. I'll be posting a video in the next few weeks on my motogains channel.


At the end of the paved road in Boko. You can see the town sign behind me.



It starts to get rough right away.



It's not completely bad, there are some decent sections as well.



Many muddy sections like this.




I'd picked the wrong line on this descent and had to turn the bike around and go to the left side of the rut. It could have been really bad (very hard to turn around had I continued further).







This was in no mans land. I dropped the bike in the ditch to the left. Luckily two men walked by a few minutes later. It would have taken me a long time to do on my own. I saw only a handful of people from Boko until after the DRC border formalities (still remote but increasingly more people), and no cars, so I was extremely lucky.



The road on the DRC side is better. It still sucks but isn't as technical. Oh and before the border on the Congo B side there was indeed a very good stretch of piste for maybe 20kms or so, very unexpected. But then no mans land is quite bad again.

I wouldn't do this if it were wet. The climbs / descents could be quite dangerous. I have little off-road experience though, im sure if you were into it and had a suitable bike it would be ok.

Ended up riding to Kimpese. Not a good idea to ride at night; should have slept in Luozi. Kimpese at night was chaos and ended up at a super loud and dark motel / nightclub. An absurd end to an epic day.

Nothing paid at border on either side. Congo-B guides were sadly drunk at 11am but friendly. DRC official was very friendly as were the people in the village there. Didn't stop at DGM at Luozi. Tried to get a passavant / TIP at Luozi but nobody was at customs. I just skipped customs on the way out at Luvo which is a disorganized border.

Btw there seems to be a nice little hotel in Louingui (near Boko) called Chez Nancy or something. You can't miss it, there are several signs and the hotel is prominent on the left side of the road. I would have stayed there rather than in brazza the night before heading to Luozi to save a couple hours. And the area seemed really nice.


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[gvdaa]

Thanks a lot. I plan to do this stretch in may, by car, in the opposite direction. Good luck in Angola. Nice country.

[chris.perjalanan]

If you´re in Luozi and need a decent and safe place to sleep + store the bikes go to the catholic mission. They gave me a nice room / food and were incredibly hospitable. They didn´t ask for any money but maybe that was because I already stayed 5 days at another mission along the way in the middle of nowhere directly after the border from Mindoulli ( Congo Brazzaville ) due to a broken frame and heavy rainfalls and so knew the right people. Had to transport my Vespa with the missions Landcruiser which broke down beyond repair half the way so I had to put the bike on a truck which once tipped over with me sitting on the top but luckily everybody survived and we managed to pull it up again.

Cheers,
Chris

[gvdaa]

Thanks. I am mostly worried being in one car. I get the impression it can take up to one day before another car passes by. That's not too bad. So I do not need to worry it takes three to four days?

[motolight]

Did the same route two weeks ago. Probably the first who did that on a heavy motorcycle (R1150GS with huge load of stuff). Quite challenging. Two very exhausting days. Luckilly I met english buddy on a landcruiser so we did that together in case of troubles but never got stuck anyehere. After all it was quite nice times adventuring together on this part of route. My advice: take a huge amount of water with you. You will need it.

On DRC side paid 20 dollars for carte d'entree (I don't have carnet de passage), but without receipt (obvious corruption). But had nothing to do with it because was short on time. After, 10 dollars with receipt for registration at immigration office.

Ferry cost 1000 franks (~1 dollar) for motorcycle and 16000 franks (~18 dollars) for car. Going 2-3 times per day so be prepared for waiting. 1000 francs for bottle of water or small plate of beans is normal price.

On the other side road is still not nice but better. Totally took 4 days for us from tarmac to tarmac.

Will post pictures and staff when reach SAR.