Tuesday, April 14, 2009

My own heart of darkness.

In an attempt to follow in some famous footsteps, face Africa's final frontier and have a little adventure i accepted Ziz and Zane's offer of free flights in and out of The Congo.

The truck was on it's was to Lake Kariba for a mellow trip of a house boat and given the politics of the group, my feelings of being on the outer circle and the opportunity to have my own 'crazy' adventure i was eager to accept such a kind invitation.

I have always been interestiong in The Congo, an almost mythic country, unmapped, uncharted until late in the piece and the setting for Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness'- I could not think of a better place to go.

The drive to the airport filled me with anticipation. I could not get my good byes to my truck mates out of my head Even though we would only be apart for 4 days our good bye felt final. As the truck drove up the dirt track leaving me in the custody of my Zim mates i began thinking have i done the right thing?

As the land cruiser speed into town, my eyes photographed Lusaka for one last time and I watched the sun make rainbows on the soviet style high rises remembering back to Dorthy in the Wizard of Oz and felt i too was about to enter another world.

Surprisingly bureaucracy at the airport was minimal- Zane gave our papers to an attendant and in only a few minutes we were ushered onto the tarmac.

We were flying a small plane (a cesner i think??) and aside from the boys, there we two armed guards and a french translator the other 4 seats were empty.

The guards guns made me nervous, i had never been that close to one (it was virtually on my lap) and i was praying that it would not be used, well not in my presence.

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I never did get to the end of that adventure.... at the time of writing my mind was full of pictures, African vistas i longed to capture for my blog but now as i sit in a stinking hot net cafe, persperation dripping from every pore my inspiration has surprsingly disappeared... next time.

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