Today involved a lot of travelling and trust that there would be connections to get to Pointe Noire - a distance of 500+kms.

I have made Class Hotel in the Embassy area of the city, my home. Brazzaville is very different from the other parts of Congo. The centre is dominated by large presidential buildings some still empty, incomplete or decaying.

The final leg of the day was a ride to Brazzaville in a shared car for 10,000CFA. This was very sedate compared to the last leg. Three women and a driver on a beautiful cambered road, all the way to the capital through rolling hills and shrub covered land. It reminded me of the M6 drive through Cumbria.

One thing that you learn when travelling is never to make assumptions. Today tested me yet again around trying to control an outcome without having all the information.