Republic of Congo: Getting there & around

You can fly to Brazzaville from Libreville (Gabon), Douala (Cameroon), Johannesburg (South Africa) and Luanda (Angola). There is a daily ferry service between Kinshasa in Congo (DRC) and Brazzaville. The trip costs US$25.00 and takes 20 minutes, though you should reserve a total of two hours for the over-complicated border bureaucracy on either side.

Instability in the Pool Region has meant passenger trains between Brazzaville and Pointe Noire via Dolisie (Loubomo) have stopped running. A fine tar road goes north from the capital as far as President Denis Sassou Nguesso's home town of Oyo. Beyond that the roads deteriorate. From Owando onwards the journey north can only be made in a convoy of 4-wheel drives, stopping every twenty minutes for one vehicle to pull the other out of a hole. The coast also has a new road which reaches right down the coast to the Angolan enclave of Cabinda.

Shared taxis and minibuses run on an ad hoc basis between towns and villages. They are ridiculously cheap, great fun and crammed with Congolese taking chickens and even goats back to the capital from their village.

From Brazzaville's MayaMaya airport Trans Air Congo runs four flights a day to the coastal town of Pointe Noire and two flights a day to the towns of Dolisie (Loubomo) and Nkayi. Flights to Imfondo leave once a week.

Alternatively, barges run from the Central African Republic all the way to Brazzaville, although they leave irregularly, and the journey can take anything from ten days to three weeks depending on the vessel and whether the rains have come. Known as the 'Congolese Highway' this is a preferred mode of transport for many, with barges crammed to the teeth until they resemble floating towns. They are a truly Congolese experience but settle down for some communal living at very close quarters. Most barges are operated by the logging companies so ask around at 'the Beach', Brazzaville's river port.