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Adventures with Kingsley Holgate (22)

Adventures with Kingsley Holgate (22)

Date: 2016-08-26
We are still following the Land Rover Heart of Africa expedition, it's a story best told in the words taken from the scribbles in Kingsley's sweat-stained journals

Into Brazzaville we load the 3 Landies up with essential food and humanitarian supplies. I know that we have a daunting expedition ahead of us. We've been told about a track that could lead us towards the Heart. It's called the Corridor des Elephants. Wet with sweat, we cut, winch, dig, saw and slash. The Sweat Bees attack us in bloody droves. Big Deon slashes at the bush with his machete. He jumps back as a snake slithers into the undergrowth. A giant silverback gorilla races across the track in front of the Landies. The humidity rises. 'Can't do it,' says Brad. Can't carry on like this. Ross nods his head.'Brad's right - it's impossible. 'A bit despondent, we turn the Landies around and attempt another route. Sunset comes. We camp on a forest track, the fallen trees, like poached elephant carcasses, dead behemoths that that have fallen to the chain saw, as the logging tracks push deeper and deeper into the unending forest.

Our wet, muddy clobber hangs over the Landies like a Chinese laundry. Ross sends up a drone. 'Forest as far as the eye can see.' GPS can't pick up a signal, tree canopy too thick. He hoists it high into a tree to learn that we are 27kms as the crow flies from the HEART. Looking at the impenetrable forest my spirits fall. It could take forever. How would we cut a way through the thick undergrowth. Ross comes back into camp. 'Massive Storm coming,' he says. 'Looks really nasty - from the east, and you won't believe I saw chimps hunting..' I look into the forest wall. It seems totally impenetrable. Right now our mission seems impossible. The humidity grows. The bugs swarm around our head-torches. That's when Naz, our Congolese expedition member, comes up with the idea of Pygmies. 'They are the true forest people, the only ones who really know this world of swamps, rivers and following forest elephant tracks, they are one with the spirits of the forest. There's a group that lives in the village of Landoungo.' We'll go there tomorrow. One thing we all know. We're not giving up. The thunder echoes through the rainforests. The lightning cracks. 'Leave the plates to wash in the rain' shouts Bruce as we race for our tents.