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I don’t know what time it is. Jeg ved ikke, hvad tid det er. I don’t know what day it is. Jeg ved ikke, hvad dag det er. I don’t know what month it is. Jeg ved ikke, hvad måned det er. Luckily someone reminded me that it was Mother’s Day so fortunately, I did not let that slip by without letting my Mom know that I am still alive… where, I don’t really know. Heldigvis nogen mindede mig om, at det var Mors dag så heldigvis, jeg ikke lade det glide af uden at lade min mor vide, at jeg stadig er i live… hvor jeg ikke rigtig kender.

TWBR crew in from of La Pyramide, Pointe Noire, Congo TWBR besætning ind fra La Pyramide, Pointe Noire, Congo

It has been over three weeks now since we arrived in Pointe Noire, and it seems like we are no closer to getting our Angolan visas than when we first applied for them. Det har været over tre uger nu, siden vi ankom til Pointe Noire, og det ser ud som om vi ikke tættere på at få vores angolanske visa, end når vi først er ansøgt om dem. “Come back tomorrow,” “Come back Wednesday…” I do not think they understand that I no longer want to come back. "Kom igen i morgen", "Come back onsdag…" Jeg tror ikke, de forstår, at jeg ikke længere ønsker at vende tilbage. If I had my way, I would forget Angola even existed. Hvis jeg havde min måde, jeg vil glemme Angola engang eksisterede. Unfortunately, reality interferes with my fantasies of jumping off bridges with bungee cords and going to rugby matches in South Africa, Angola clearly out of sight in the rearview mirror of the Tundra. Desværre er virkeligheden griber med mine fantasier om at hoppe ud broer med bungee snore og gå til rugby kampe i Sydafrika, Angola klart ude af syne i førerspejl af tundra. Reality forces me to acknowledge Angola’s existence and come to terms with the fact that we have no choice but to drive through it. Virkeligheden tvinger mig til at erkende, Angola's eksistens og affinde sig med det faktum, at vi har intet andet valg end at køre igennem den.

We tried to see if it was feasible to skip Angola, we really did. Vi har forsøgt at se, om det var muligt at springe Angola, vi virkelig gjorde. We investigated shipping the trucks, a drastic step considering how painful the shipping process has been in the past for us, but we have reached the point where we are willing to endure that pain to progress the expedition. Vi undersøgte shipping de lastbiler, et drastisk skridt overvejer, hvordan smertefulde transportfirmaet processen har været i fortiden for os, men vi har nået det punkt, hvor vi er villige til at udholde de smerter til fremskridt ekspeditionen. In true keeping with our past experiences, the shipping companies informed us that for hefty fees they will be more than happy to transport our trucks around Angola in the amazingly quick time frame of 50 days. I sandt overensstemmelse med vores tidligere erfaringer, de rederier underrettet os om, at for heftig honorarer de vil være mere end glade for at transportere vores lastbiler omkring Angola i forbavsende hurtigt tidsramme på 50 dage. No one was ready subject themselves to that type of pain just yet. Ingen var villig underkaste sig denne form for smerte blot endnu.

Thinking of ways around Angola Thinking måder omkring Angola

We investigated driving back around to Brazzaville, through the “pool area” where rebel groups known as “Ninjas” lurk in the jungle waiting for vehicles to pass, collecting valuables from motorists with the aid of rusting, yet still fully functioning Kalashnikov assault riffles. Vi undersøgte kørsel tilbage rundt for at Brazzaville, gennem "pool-området", hvor oprørsgrupper kendt som "Ninjas" lure i junglen venter for køretøjer til at passere, indsamling af værdigenstande fra bilister ved hjælp af rustne, og stadig velfungerende Kalashnikov overgreb riffles. The funny thing is, in considering this option, the Ninjas are not our biggest concern. De sjove ting er, at overveje denne mulighed, Ninjas er ikke vores største bekymring. We have instead been focusing on the reports of overlanders being turned away at the DRC border for not having onward Angola visas, (even though they are reportedly issued at the border town of Matadi) Having already paid large sums of money to take the ferry across the Congo River to Kinshasa, with the end result of being denied entry, coupled with an expired Congolese visa and a mounting pile of “paperwork problems,” aka financial problems, this option could backfire and leave us in a much worse position than the one we are in now. Vi har i stedet været fokus på rapporterne fra overlanders bliver væk i Den Demokratiske Republik Congo grænsen for ikke at have videre Angola visa, (selv om de er angiveligt udstedt ved grænsen byen Matadi) Efter at der allerede er betalt store summer for at tage færgen på tværs Congo-floden til Kinshasa, med slutresultatet for at blive nægtet indrejse, kombineret med en udløbet congolesiske visum og en montage bunke "papirarbejde problemer," alias finansielle problemer, denne option, kan give bagslag og efterlade os i en meget værre situation end den ene vi er i nu. We do have some Dutch friends whom we met in Nigeria that are in the process of making the Brazzaville-Kinshasa-Matadi run this week and based on what we hear back from them, will decide if we will follow suit. Vi har nogle hollandske venner som vi mødte i Nigeria, som er i færd med at gøre Brazzaville-Kinshasa-Matadi køre denne uge og er baseret på, hvad vi hører fra dem, vil beslutte, om vi vil følge trop.

Little did we know, another problem was looming on the horizon Little gjorde vi ved, er et andet problem var truende i horisonten

However, even if we wanted to pack up shop and make a run for it, there is no fuel in Pointe Noire and both trucks are nearly on empty. Men selv hvis vi ønskede at pakke sammen butik og gøre en kører til det, er der ingen brændstof i Pointe Noire og både lastbiler er næsten den tom. That’s right, they ran out of petrol a few days ago, gasoil (diesel) is expected to run dry in the near future and according to our friends at the Toyota dealership, the supplies will not be replenished for another few weeks. Det er rigtigt, de løb tør for benzin et par dage siden, gasolie (diesel) forventes at løbe tør i den nærmeste fremtid og i henhold til vores venner på den Toyota forhandleraftale, leverancer ikke vil blive suppleret for et andet par uger. The situation is so bad, that they do not have any more Jet-A aviation fuel at the Pointe Noire airport, so all airport operations have been temporarily suspended as well. Situationen er så dårlig, at de ikke har nogen mere Jet-A flybrændstof i Pointe Noire lufthavn, så alle lufthavnsoperationerne have været midlertidigt suspenderet godt. Apparently, the supplier has had some refining issues that have resulted in production shortages. Tilsyneladende, leverandøren har haft nogle raffinering spørgsmål, der har resulteret i produktionen mangler. All this is very ironic considering how many times we have watched the sun set over the Atlantic at La Pyramide over the last three weeks and subsequently watched as the flaming, burn-off of gas from oil rigs a few miles offshore slowly lit up the darkening sky. Alt dette er meget ironisk i betragtning af hvor mange gange vi har set solen sat over Atlanten i La Pyramide i løbet af de sidste tre uger og efterfølgende set som den flammende, brænd-off af gas fra boreplatforme et par miles offshore langsomt tændt op mørkfarvning himmel. Signs of petroleum production are everywhere here in Pointe Noire. Tegn på råolie produktion er overalt her i Pointe Noire. In fact, on some days you can even smell it, yet for some reason, there is no fuel. I virkeligheden om nogle dage kan du selv lugte det, men af en eller anden grund, er der ingen brændstof.

Oil is coming out of the ground here in PN, but it goes somewhere else Olie kommer op af jorden her i PN, men det går et andet sted

To top this all off, I have somehow managed to contract malaria again, only days after starting to feel better from the last bout and Shoppman finally lost his odds battle with the local mosquitoes as well. Til top alt dette ud, jeg har på en eller anden måde lykkedes at kontrakten malaria igen, blot få dage efter begynder at føle sig bedre fra sidste kamp og Shoppman endeligt tabt sin odds kamp med de lokale myg også. Twilight Zone I tell you, Twilight Zone. Twilight Zone jeg fortælle Dem, Twilight Zone.