Day 83: Heat is killing us

Soutpiel Safari
John & Jenny
Wed 26 Jan 2011 17:24
Day 83: Wednesday 26 January 2011.  Chez Alice, Lome Togo.  N06 10.087 W001 20.437   Distance driven 0 km
 
Last night was very hot, very humid and windless.  We have to have the bug screens in the tent zipped in place but they do cut down on airflow. We lay awake for hours, dripping wet, and woke early also dripping wet.  We have to find a solution. Neil of Great Trek South, who did the trip last year has suggested buying a 12 volt computer fan, which is what they did and apparently it worked well. It is very annoying to think that back in SA we have a spare 12 volt Hella fan sitting in my workshop!
 
It has been very humid all day and we have spent most of the day under the fans in the camp site restaurant, apart from two trip to town to lodge or Gabon visa applications, and later to collect them.  This has worked well so we will try for the DRC visas tomorrow.  We have to move the Land Rover tomorrow to charge the fridge battery as it is only lasting 2 nights in these temperatures. We badly need the AC adaptor, that was supposed to be supplied with the fridge, so that we can plug in to a mains supply when we want to stay a few days in one camp site.
 
We are now well into the Equatorial Africa part of the trip.  I think from now on we have left the dust and the desert behind us and will be experiencing much more humid conditions with lusher vegetation and, later on, some rainfall. We  just hope we can get through the more difficult road sections in Cameroon, DRC and Angola before the rainy season really sets in. 
 
I now have a wife called Vancouver!  Mr Visaman, in writing out Jenny's visa in her passport, has copied the details from the page with her US Visa and not from the back page. As that one was issued in Vancouver, he has transcribed her name as "Vancouver Crickmore-Thompson"!  Hopefully, no one will notice on the Gabon border at the end of February!