Cameroon - 20 January, 2001

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Travel Distance

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We are up early this morning.  We do some last minute packing and then load up the truck.  By 9 AM we are on our way to Douala and the international airport for our flight to Nairobi.  The drive is uneventful (thank God) and we get to the airport at noon.  We unload our bags from the truck and head into the terminal - it is sad to leave Christie, our home for the last four months.  We do, however, hope to see her again in East Africa as she will be shipped to South Africa and then driven up to Nairobi to meet us in about 5 weeks.  We will keep our fingers crossed.  The total distance traveled in West Africa was almost 21,000 km - by truck, minivan, pirogue, foot, taxi, etc.

We head into the terminal and Mark and Rick take care of the tickets and getting us checked in.  We are flying Cameroon Airlines.  It is not too difficult as we do a group check-in, which also makes it easier for the luggage allowance.  After some quick farewells, we then need to head straight through to immigration and the gate as they are getting ready to board.  We pass quickly through immigration and get to our gate.  There are a number of passengers already getting ready to board and we join the line.  It is free seating, so we want to get in and get a decent seat and a place for our bags.

The flight is full and we need to head to the back of the plane (a Boeing 737 that seems to be quite new), where we are able to find a number of seats together.  We wait for everyone else to board and we then take off pretty much on time. We are heading first for Kinshasa, then it will be on to Nairobi.  Today is the first day the airport in Kinshasa is open since the death of Kabila.  The plane has lots of journalists heading to Kinshasa to cover the state funeral of Kabila.  We have a snack and drink on board and we land in Kinshasa shortly after 4 PM.

Everything is normal at first.  Those passengers going to Kinshasa get off and the rest of us wait for the plane to be prepared for departure.  But then, all of a sudden, some official looking people board the plane and seem to be looking for someone.  In the end, they go to the toilets at the back of the plane and seem to find the person they are looking for there.  There is some discussion in French and the official looking people leave.  The guy they were looking for then starts to talk to all of us in French.  He seems to be saying that he is glad that there are so many journalists on board and that he is not liked in Kinshasa and if he is taken off he will be shot (we are not quite sure how accurate this all is he spoke in a strange accent, so it was hard for the few French speakers to follow what he was saying).

The crew ask to see his ticket and boarding pass and they confirm that he is a passenger to Nairobi. Some more official looking people come on and talk to him, but he refuses to leave.  He continues to say things to us in French, standing in the aisle and talking loudly.  After a while, the captain makes an announcement that we have a diplomatic incident where they have a passenger they cannot force off the plane and the Kinshasa officials will not let the plane leave.  We are here for the duration.

Officials keep coming on and talking to the guy, but nothing much happens. Finally, after about 2½ hours, a few more officials come on, who who appears to be from the Cameroon embassy and they seem to persuade him to walk up towards the door.  All of a sudden, there is a struggle and the guy is dragged, fighting, off the plane.  Two soldiers grab him from each side and frog march him to a car near the terminal.  He is shoved inside and the car is soon surrounded by what seems to be like hundreds of officials, police and soldiers.  Some officials then come on board the plane and search for his bags and in and around his seat. They pull out a number of pieces of paper.  They then tear apart the toilet he was in and come out with some additional papers.  The papers have writing on them, including what seems to be names and numbers.

Shortly after this is completed, the plane is prepared for take off and we are allowed to leave.  Once we take off, the pilot announces that we will first be stopping in Brazzaville to re-fuel as there is not fuel in Kinshasa.  This flight only takes about 15 minutes.  Once we are on the ground, no one gets on or off and all they do is refuel the plane.  We are told to take off our seat belts while they do so.  The refueling takes about an hour and we are then on our way to Nairobi.  We finally get our dinner served to us - it is actually not bad.  It turns out to be quite a good airline.

We finally land in Nairobi shortly after 1 AM local time.  See Kenya 2001 for the continuation of our Trans-Africa trip in Eastern and Southern Africa.