This episode covers the last days Jacqui and I spent in eastern Zaire on our way from visiting the mountain gorillas in Virunga Mountains National Park to the Ugandan border post at Mpandwe on the foothills of the Rwenzori Mountains (Mountains of the Moon). We travelled by truck, ute, minivan and boat. We spent nine hours one day sitting at a corner waiting for some transport to arrive, surrounded by children repeatedly reciting the four French phrases they knew. It tested our patience. We made it to Butembo and decided to take a shortcut to the border post via the fishing village Kyavinyonge on Lake Edward. The trip down to the village was a nightmare. Very drunk fishermen loaded up the only vehicle with their empty fish baskets and about twenty people on the back of the ute. I was perched on the side edge with only one handhold as we negotiated a track off the side of the mountain down to the floodplain, full of hairpin bends and steep drops. I thought I was was going to my doom. However, we made it down to the village on the edge of Lake Edward, where we were put on immediate house arrest until they decided what to do with us. After a couple of days, they let us continue our journey catching a minivan. We crossed the Semliki River via a makeshift vehicle ferry poling across while looking out for hippos and made it to the Congo/Ugandan border post. From there we travelled via more minivans through Queen Elizabeth National Park to Kasese. At one stage, we spent the night at a rustic camp site with a sleeping platform above a large entertainment area. I fell up the roughly hewn stairs and sliced my toe open at the base. I then had to manage treating the wound without adequate medical facilities and the real risk of picking up all sorts of bacteria and parasites, such as bilharzia (a parasitic flatworm that spends some of its lifecycle in freshwater snails and then infects humans through mainly contact through the water).   Life lessons include learning patience as everything works on African time (i.e. no schedules), and questioning some of my life choices when my life comes at risk, putting it into the hands of inebriated drivers on a suicide drive down a mountain side while perched on the side hanging on with one hand. I made it down but anything could have happened. I also discuss the issues with becoming injured when you are travelling off the beaten path, too far from medical facilities. A first aid kit is an essential travel item with enough supplies to see you out until you reach suitable medical facilities.    Cover: The fishing village of Kyavinyonge on Lake Edward, Democratic Republic of Congo. (Source: MNCTV Congo) --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/justine-murray0/message