Explorer Mikael Strandberg

Captain Jon Cadd preparing for another odd flight. This time with a bunch of explorers who feared the long drive from Epulu to Kisangani in a car on the worst road on earth. So, Jeff, always generous, decided 2 hours was better!

We flew into Kisangani by a small air craft from MAF piloted by one of the organisations great characters. Jon Cadd have seen, heard and done most things in life. I remember the MAF pilots as vividly as anything else from my 2½ years on a push bike through Africa. Most of them, like Jon, has a lot of humor as well. You need that to survive Africa. But, I also remember one pilot, who didn´t have enough humor. Whilst cycling through East Africa 1989, where I was accompanied by one of my best friends, Steve Jewell, we stopped at the MAF compound in Dodoma, Tanzania, and Steve helped one of their pilots to pull a propeller of a plane. And whilst doing that, suddenly oil gushed out of a hole and Steve, never tactful, shouted:

“Holy shit!”

The pilot of this profound Christian organisation looked at Steve, with great seriousness and said:

“I guess you could call it that…..”

Jon had far more humor and distance to himself and life. He cruised over the great African rain forest with ease. Now, whilst flying for two hours from Epulu to what was formerly known as Stanleyville, we were so close to these broccoli shaped tree tops, so at times it felt like we could touch them. Only on and off was the thickness of the forest cut up by mud brown rivers snaking through the denseness. Except the pilot, it was Jeff, Olly, Patrick, me and a slightly terrified Emmanuel. Everytime I asked him if he was ok, he smiled in his usual charming way, but most of the time he probably prayed that the flight would be over as soon as possible.

Downtown Kisangani looked pretty much the same as when I came through here on a push bike 1989. Even though that had faced two devastating wars since then.

The airport in Kisangani looked like it had gone through all levels of the hell described in Dante’s inferno. This revelation and the heat hit us badly, as did the officials of the airport. Even though the worst of the cleptocracy created by the former dictator Mobutu Sese Seko is gone, officials still spend a fair amount of time trying to find faults in the passports belonging to travelers. This time, correctly though, they noted that Olly and Patrick´s visa was overdue by a day. If it hadn´t been for Kennedy´s extra ordinary contacts and skills, that could have ended with Olly and Patrick in a dreary prison cell, whilst Jeff and me enjoyed the entertaining Kisangani street life seen from a bar in the center of town. I say dreary, because I found out, at the bar, that two Norwegians are imprisoned in this out back and far beyond town.

“It is two young men who just got a bit a stray, they wanted a bit of adventure and things went terribly wrong” , a Norwegian from their Angola Embassy said whilst gulping down a cold beer, “They are not doing to well at all. They´re freaking out and are terrified that they will be moved to the prison on the other side of the river. It is supposedly even worse than here on this side.”

Some 1,300 miles from the mouth of the Congo River, Stanley founded the area’s first trading post for King Leopold II of Belgium in December 1883. The city was known first as Falls Station (or "the Post Stanley Falls" or "The Falls" or simply "Boyoma" the African name of Boyoma Falls) and then with Belgian colonization of the area, it grew into a settlement called Stanleyville (after the explorer Henry Morton Stanley). A city terminus of steamer navigation on the Congo River, the town began as a Belgian trading post. It has been the major centre of the northern Congo since the late 1800s.

I have to say, I feel really sad for these two young men. Kisangani isn´t the place where you want things to go wrong. Am also amazed that one of the charges is spying. The question is for what? What in earth could the government of Norway be interested in when it comes to Congo? How to make good matoke? Better to go to Uganda then! Or, maybe they like many other countries are interested in the vast quantities of diamonds that are around Kisangani. At least if one is to judge by the street signs, where every other store seems to deal with diamonds.

“Buy one for your love” , Jeff said, “Then she will never leave you. Diamonds are forever.”

When I passed through here 1989 I was really ill after over eating bananas, pine apple and home made peanut butter. I spent most of my time in a bed at Hotel Kisangani. I saw much more of this extra ordinary place this time. It is really run down after the Mobutu years and two wars, but still has great character in many ways. It is, also, really in the middle of Africa,  it came to fame through Henry Morton Stanley and it is a micro-cosmos of all of the bad and good things of Africa. Everything from poverty to the great African laughter and spectacular natural beauty. The great life line of the continent, the great Congo River, is impressive. This also applies to the last reminiscence of the architecture from the colonial era.

It is also a very hot and humid place. This fact tires you easily and I can understand that as many as 30% of the colonial employees from Belgium, just freaked out after a short while in this area. They couldn´t take it, they almost turned mad. I read a book by a Norwegian journalist, Alfred Henrik Mohn´s book Kongo kallar, about the colonial era. Very interesting. Others returned to Belgium, couldn´t take the life there and returned to Congo. Which I also fully understand. There´s something profoundly deep with this continent, which always makes you extremely run down, but always wants you to return!

Don´t miss this slideshow of this great country!

Africa - it always wants you to return.....

This photo was taken in Nairobi 1989. I was really ill in malaria, a disease which would plague my life for the upcoming two years...I still finished my bicycle trip though. But it took me a year to cycle from Nairobi to Cape of Agulhaes. I wouldn´t have made it without the help of one of my best friends, Steve Jewell. Photo taken by Marc Freedman, another of my best friends.

Night has fallen over Al Ghubra. I can see the green blinking sign of Lulu Supermarket through the window of our flat and lots of traffic, as always, is on its way to Father Mammon himself. The air condition is on, I have done another pass at Horizon Gym in Athaiba and I am dreaming about a White Christmas. Five days until Santa is supposed to arrive….Christmas always makes my mood somewhat mellow and philosophical. I have spent most of them away from home, in non-Christian environments. I like Christmas, in the sense that it is a family gathering. I love my family. But for me, Christmas has also always been a time of deep thoughts and reflexions on the year passed by. And thoughts of other people suffering. Because when you are away from your family, you feel vulnerable and weak. Feelings that make you a better human being. And it pains me more than normal, that some people -I should say most- spends most of their life suffering. Basically due to poverty, injustice, race, religion, some tragedy, extreme environment and lots of selfishness. I have been very privileged myself and still is. But, whilst looking back at the passed year I came across some notes I wrote just before starting this blog.

14 and a half months have passed. I was than sitting in a cramped but charming and homely one roomed flat in Stockholm trying to figure out what to do with life. Now in a much bigger flat in Muscat, Oman. I am very content. But my life than was in limbo. Free of direction. Tainted by horror and agony. If somebody thought that the life of a traveler and explorer is always full of joy, forget it. Anyway, that day I wrote these ten tips what to think about when life just goes wrong, when tragedy strikes or hope is gone….they´re still valid!

1. Never, ever underestimate the love of your family. And the importance of having one. The same applies to truly good friends.

2. One can loose nothing by being a true human with all its good and bad sides. The truth is everything, but with some time of thinking before revealing it. Think before talking. Time heals. And wherever you are, no matter what circumstances, stand for who you are. Don´t try to be anyone you can´t be.

3. Never judge and condemn. If you don´t know the true story of what happened. One can have an opinion, but try to put yourself in the other persons place. It makes a difference.

4. Positive thinking always overrules negative. If you have negative people around you, get rid of them until the´ve eaten the humble pie.

5. Take time to be there for other people. You never know when things go wrong.

Santa Claus on ice? Why not? Santa here is one very good friend, Tomas Sjögren who runs Explorers Web together with his great wife Tina, who is in Santas arms here...they will get a white Christmas in Denver, Colorado. And me?

6. Accept responsibility and sort out the problem. Then move on.

7. Better give then take. In every aspect of life. One can never be to kind.

8. Be true to yourself. Tragedy strikes when one tries to be something one ain´t.

9. Enjoy every moment of the day, you never know, when it will end. So then, why worry at all?

10. Never, ever complain. There´s always tons of people who are worse off, no matter how bad your situation is. If you have been a good human when everything falls apart, there will be people there fore you. So being good and kind is a winner.

However, my own hell have been very strengthening for my character, I´ve learned a lot and I´ve been eating the humble pie. A visit to hell have been for the better. I come out of it as a better human being. More humble, more understanding, kinder, warmer and ready to live to its fullest limits again!

I still hope for a White Christmas even if it seems impossible! But than again, positive thinking helps! Stay tuned! Nothing is impossible….!

One of my oldest friends, Marc, said yesterday when I told him about another roller coaster story of my life which is happening right now:

“I say, go for it! Can´t wait to hear what comes next! Your life is more interesting and unusual than a science fiction book!”

It´s Marc and me on the photo to the top right here. It is taken by our common friend Steve Jewell in Mikumi National Park in Tanzania, I think 1988, when I was cycling from North-Cape in Norway to South-Cape in South-Africa and Marc started his 7 year all around the world cycle tour. The reason we are armed is that earlier that day, whilst walking through the high crass of the park, following a group of baboons and the two female scientists who´d been tracking this especial group and family for a year, suddenly we heard a roar and a female lion stood up in the grass!

I remember the female scientists had told us before, if this would happen, don´t run! They did! And so did the two armed rangers we had with us, so the only one´s left, glued to the ground like three termite mounds, where Steve, Marc and me. Most likely by pure shock, even though I do seem to remember that Steve, also one of my best friends, afterwards said that he was cool as a postcard and just wanted to study the behavior of the lion…Sure, Steve, I also remember you were having it off with one of the scientists….

I also remember it all happened so fast, and since I am such a coward, I took a step behind Marc, so if the lioness would go for an attack, it wouldn´t be me who got killed. Sorry Marc, I do believe it was all instinct….Anyway, the lioness, as all wild animals, feared us more, and turned around and slowly ran off away from us. That is why we are armed. And that is also the reason we have hair and look young, which is not the case today…

I often get questions what my old partners on route are doing today. Steve, he joined me in Maasailand aswell, where he met his wife Theonestina, with whom he lives in Canada today and have two children. Last time I saw him was 5 years ago and he was extra-ordinary fat. He is still one of the funniest people on earth and i talk to him on Skype irregularly. Marc isn´t to thin either, today, but a successful business man and runs a spa in Williamstown. On and off he´d like to hit the road again and just came back from a tour in Namibia. read about it here! Marc is a very generous, smart, funny and extra-ordinary kind person who right now lives by himself with his love of life, the Golden Dream, his dog. He will in some capacity be involved in the Expedition and my future. He is one of my very best friends. Last time I met him was also years ago, I think 2 years ago, when I visited him in Williamstown for the second time. He was known as Hub Sprockett in Africa. And Steve went under the name of Steve Clitoris. Or at least that is how he was presented at a conference somewhere in Africa. I think it was Mbeya. That time was the funniest in my life. I had ten good laughs a day, African style. An African laughter is different to all others. It begins in your stomach, than kind of rolls all the way up to your mouth where it explodes! Best feeling on earth it is, and it is a long time since I was even close to a laugh like that. I think it was very close in Yemen though.

There´s not a lot to laugh about in Sweden. Maybe life was better before, as the old people tend to say. Nope, from now on, I will find my old habit to laugh! This is my next little personal project, laughter!

I just finished a book that I have had tucked into my bookshelves since 1988. It is called The Fearful Void written by a bloke called Geoffrey Moorhouse. It was given to me by a very good friend that I have lost touch with, unfortunately, for more than ten years, Ed Sismey. He is the one to the right on the photo, next to Steve Jewell and me, all resting whilst cycling through the Atacama Desert 1986. Ed gave it to me, because he knew I was going to pass the Sahara on a pushbike. The book scared me then, asmuch as it does today. Regarding, Ed, or Lucky Ed, as we called him, I am sorry to have lost tocuh with him. I don´t even know where Steve is at the present, even though he is one of my best friends. I believe somewhere in Africa, since he is married to a Pare woman he met during our Maasai Expedition 2000. Probably looking, as always, for food. And that brought me back to the book I have just finished, as part of my research into the upcoming Expeditions.

It is an odd feeling planning an Expedition, sitting in a comfortable environment, not realizing all the immense hardships waiting, until suddenly, most likely in the middle of the night, you wake up and feel terrified. This happened to me at four a clock this morning. I suddenly realized, soon I will suffer from the discomfort of immense heat, millions of flies, gut rot, incredible pain all over, acute tiredness, lack of hope, worries of surviving and tons of misunderstandings with people I come across or travel with. Easily forgetting to overwhelming positive experiences waiting. What I look forward to the most is getting away from the Duckpond I live in called the West, away from all gadgets and time limits. But, the book scared me, it showed everything that can go wrong. This git called Moorhouse, writes lovely, but he lacks most things an explorer should have, because everything possible, and then I mean everything, goes wrong. He sets out to become the first person ever to cross the Sahara by foot and camel, makes it half way, ending up in Tamanrasset , which I passed on a push bike and liked 1989, but the story is full of terrible mistakes and he is complaining about everything. Most of all the people, locals, he travels together with. They try to cheat him all te time. He almost perishes but still doesn´t forget what painting he has seen at Le Louvre or chapels visited. Themes he comes back to regularly. It is written in 1973. He does so many errors, because he wasn´t properly prepared and doesn´t just have what it takes.

But the book should be read by anyone attempting to cross the Sahara or doing a major Expedition. Because it shows what one should not do. And it is a good read. He reminds me a lot of Lucky Ed, who is, together with Geoffrey Moorhouse, the unluckiest guy on earth. But Ed never complained about other people. I will dive into Thesigers book Arabian Sands for awhile, to set my heart right.