a little bit about our options for onward travel, as per map above...)

Option 1 is rightfully so because at this point this is the route we
prefer. It will allow us to get to west and north-west Africa and will be a more interesting trek toward getting to Europe, plus, we already have
all the maps and info as this was our original route. However very
little information can be found about the real conditions ie safety,
health and other when crossing the DRC on the river.
Overland travel
was possible via Kisangani and the Northern DRC to Central
African Republic (CAR) and was fairly common among hardy travellers +- 15
years ago. Less so since then as we have found only one person, an Irishman
by the name of Paul Tuthill, who did it last year on his bicycle. We
got in contact with him and this was his response:

"hi. there's a guy called sam (samuel.devaux@voila.fr) based in
Bossinga in CAR. he works for action contre la faim. he'd be able to
give you good advice. as far as i'm aware, eastern CAR is lawless. my
experience, however, was just as bad in government controlled areas as
rebel territory. i was held up several times by child soldiers on the
road ... See morefrom Goré-Béboura-Boguila-Bossinga, but on the whole,
all they asked for were cigarettes. a good trick in CAR & DRC is to
say you're missionaries, as fear of god's pretty real, and they'll be
less likely to mess you around // roads throughout CAR & in DRC (from
Akula-Gemena-Zongo) are pretty abysmal, even in the dry season, so if
it's wet season, you'll be months, not days! DRC was properly crazy! -
all the time, people either dancing or fighting... & corrupt beyond
words // had very few problems in uganda, if any // CAR/DRC was the
craziest, yet most rewarding part of my trip. not sure i'd risk doing
it again, but unbelievably glad i did it."

In addition to the hearty welcome described above, the roads (tracks)
in the Northern DRC are much for the worse and beside that, no information
could be found, not even from a Belgian UN logistics officer based in
Kinshasa, about the real situation on the ground. (this was an average day travelling this route in the 90's- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEO9cD3aHfg and also http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcwxEue8_mI&feature=related ) Therefore the only real possibillity for crossing the DRC is driving 1000km from Uganda/DRC border to Kisangani from where a barge/boat could be sought for travelling (us and the vehicle) to Kinshasa. This trip was described in the past to be an approximate 3 week journey in slightly
less than comfortable conditions. The barge is a large floating
platform where 100's of people, animals and cargo are stacked like
sardines with the mighty Congo as ablution. The photo above i think is
from 1991 but again it sounds like conditions have deteriorated much since then. Incidently the car pictured above (and its occupants) have been travelling around the world for the last +-25 years. see here...

Also here it seems very little information can be found without actually travelling to Kisangani.
We have spoken to numerous people about the prospect of travelling on the Congo river
and the responses range from "why not fly??" to "no problem!". Our most promising lead at this point is a businessman we met at the DRC Embassy by the name of Jean-Babtiste Ndeze. He is Congolese and owns a logistics and transport operation in north-eastern Congo. Apparently they own or rent a large 50ton barge for transporting goods (including some UN freight) from Kisangani to Kinshasa. By the end of the week we should know if it will be possible to 'catch a lift' on this barge. Failing that the only other option for this route would be to get the visa to drive the 1000+km to Kisangani in order to scout for a spot on a barge, risking having to drive all the way back to Uganda should we fail to do so.

Option 2 is skipping Central Africa all together and pushing north into Sudan. The idea would be to cross into southern Sudan from Uganda and travel all along the Nile (and staying well clear of the Darfur region of course) up to Khartoum. This option seemed pretty plausible after speaking with the Sudanese Embassy as well as the southern Sudanese representation here in Kampala despite the conclusion of the elections there, the first in about 25 years i think. The only indication we have found of recent tourist travels in Sudan is in Khartoum and north thereof and in the south up to Juba, virtually nothing inbetween (except a guy on a boat down the nile) and certainly not by road. Less enthusiastic about travel in south Sudan were our respective embassies (well, except mine, who said "enjoy!"). The Canadian and Belgian representation here in Kampala urged us not to go for reasons of security, post election instability and very bad roads, at least between Juba and Khartoum.Of course if we had to follow western government warnings about travelling in Africa we would only 'safely' travel to Namibia and Botswana, which is why we are still trying to confirm the real conditions by speaking to various UN personel we had met operating in the region. Joel at the moment is researching the possiblity to travel to Juba by road and then to Khartoum by barge on the Nile. I guess pending the possiblity of this option travelling from south to north Sudan by road may not be a real option. Options 2.x might still be possible, see Option 4. Our concern with all onward travel options into Europe from Sudan is primarily financial. Since our carnet (document allowing the temporary import/export of our vehicle) does not list Egypt means we have to arrange it there, a costly undertaking. This in addition to the fact that Syria and Jordan would present similar problems. Shipping our vehicle from Port Sudan to elsewhere in Europe is also possible but we imagine equally if not more expensive. I guess for us the most ideal scenario for onward travel from northern Sudan would be to turn back to SA but without travelling through the same countries, except Tanzania which we don't mind doing at all. the border between Lybia and Sudan have been closed for years now, besides, the last we heard the Lybia stopped issuing visas to Europeans because of some incident in Switzerland.

Option 3 is a definate no-no after we've spoken to paramedics working in south-western Sudan. Increased LRA (Lords Resistance Army) activity in CAR and specifically on the borders of DRC, CAR and south-western Sudan has completely ruled out this brilliant idea.

Option 4 (for now not indicated on the map) would be to travel west to Nairobi in order to obtain visas for Ethiopia (as their embassy here don't issue them to foreigners) and from there enter Ethiopia and then on to northern Sudan. We are not so keen on this option as failing to travel further into Europe would mean turning around and backtracking through Ethiopia, Kenia, Tanzania then on to South Africa (although Mozambique and Malawi will be a bonus).

So until we have more concrete information about option 1 & 2 we'll be staying here in Kampala.