Day 119: Rain and more rain

Soutpiel Safari
John & Jenny
Thu 3 Mar 2011 18:39
Day 119: Thursday 3 March 2011. Bush camp near Ndende, Gabon  S02 11.999 E011 12.346 Distance driven 247 km
 
Last night, just after dark it rained heavily, in fact just as it should in the tropic.  We had torrential rain for about an hour and then a steady rain for another couple of hours, with a little more in the middle of the night.
 
This morning dawned still, heavy and cloudy, but relatively cool which was welcome after yesterday's heat. We called at the cyber cafe before heading south, the first email in 10 days!  I expect it is going to be very irregular now until we get home to SA.
 
The road south was a mixture of superb new road, interspersed with sections of new road under construction by the Chinese. It looked very odd to see Chinese in coolie straw helmets working in pouring rain and mud!  Yes, we had more rain, much more and this time with thunder and lightening.  Luckily the road, although very muddy, was not badly potholed so we kept a good average speed. 
 
On a couple of occasions now we have had a mysterious mechanical noise from the right rear wheel.  it comes and goes and I am not sure what it can be.  The most obvious problem would be a worn wheel bearing so, tonight I jacked up the car and checked all 4 wheel bearing for wear but found none.  The mystery remains but it is rather worrying as we have a lot of driving to do in the next two weeks and no services.  If it is a wheel bearing, I can replace it myself and I have two spares.
 
All being well we shall cross into Congo tomorrow, on schedule.