Congo-Brazzaville: on the roads of the impossible, this stuck truck prevents us from passing! The road convicts force my admiration on the roads of the impossible! On the way back, from Kakamoeka to Pointe-Noire, I was supposed to take my return flight to France that same evening. When, after about thirty minutes on the track, we came across this stationary truck, one wheel stuck up to the axle, I immediately thought about my flight that evening, and the fact that it was seriously compromised. Especially since Kakamoeka is located in a sort of dead end, and there was no real possible plan B. Unless I have another vehicle from Pointe-Noire come to pick me up, on the other side of the vehicle... But, after having made an observation trip on the ground, it turned out that there was just enough space by going along the side of the track, in the vegetation. Phew. I was close. Next time, I will make sure not to have to travel a difficult track on the last day of my trip! WIKIPEDIA on Pointe-Noire: Pointe-Noire is the economic capital of the Republic of Congo, located in the far south of the country. Located in the west of Africa, on the Atlantic coast, the city is the natural outlet of a major communication axis between Central Africa and international waters; as such, it represents for the Republic of Congo an economic lung fueled by the activity of the Djeno oil terminal and its deep-water port. With more than 1.1 million inhabitants in the urban area, Pointe-Noire has become a department in its own right divided into six districts. Also called Ponton La Belle or Njinji, it is twinned with the French city of Le Havre in Normandy. Since the early 1980s, Pointe-Noire has continued to grow and attract new inhabitants, mainly due to the oil activity of Total (formerly Elf Congo), ENI (formerly AGIP - Azienda generale italiana petroli) and other oil groups, but also because the city was generally spared from the clashes following the civil war in Congo-Brazzaville that shook the country in the 1990s. Pointe-Noire benefits from a tropical savannah climate, fairly mild during the day (from an average temperature of 21.4° in July to 26.8° in March) and an even milder temperature in the evening (around 22° to 26°). The climatic year is marked by two dry seasons, one short from January to March and the other long from June to October, interspersed with two rainy seasons of about two months each. The city is located in the extension of a narrow coastal plain below a plateau that extends the Mayombe, a low-altitude mountain range, which separates Pointe-Noire from the capital Brazzaville located 510 kilometers to the east. This relief explains not only the difficulty of communication between the coast and the Congolese basin (hence the name of the department), but also the need for the railway line to export the resources of the hinterland from Pointe-Noire. On a finer scale, the site of Pointe-Noire is interspersed with hills and marshy valleys. The coastal dunes and sandy marls recall the characteristics of the lido coast that gave rise to the depression where Pointe-Noire was established. The population of the municipality of Pointe-Noire is approximately 715,334 inhabitants according to the 2007 census, spread over six districts: Lumumba, Mvoumvou, Tié Tié, Loandjili, Mongo Mpoukou and Ngoyo. Pointe-Noire has experienced a very high population growth rate, averaging approximately 4.5%, since its founding until the 1990s. Today, growth remains strong even though the density of the department-commune is the highest in the country with 16,369.2 inhabitants per km2. The agglomeration is estimated to have around 1,100,000 inhabitants. The essential characteristic of Pointe-Noire is its extensive urban development, which results in the uncontrolled consumption of space. This high consumption of space is also due to the construction method that favors horizontal expansion for most of the city, particularly towards the East. As a result, the agglomeration, in less than fifty years, has grown exponentially and has largely exceeded its original limits to today cover 1,144 km2. From the point of view of national origins, the Congolese population represents approximately 70% of the population of the municipality compared to more than 90% in the whole country, the rest being made up of nationals of the Democratic Republic of Congo (15%), West Africans (5%), Lebanese and European expatriates, some of whom are the product of illegal immigration that the country is trying to combat as part of the large-scale national operation Mbata ya bakolo, particularly in Pointe-Noire.