Don't Panic

Alright folks, here's the status of things. I haven't posted since Bamako, Mali and all hell has broken loose once again. Since then we left two more of our crew behind. One by choice and the other because of money problems. I have taken on more roles than ever thought possible. I am the Director of Photography as well as the initial shooter position. On top of that, driving shifts have increased and most days average around 20 hours of shooting/driving. The remaining 4 cast members have done nothing but push through mishap after mishap. Weeks behind schedule at this point, we sit in Brazaville, Congo. The teams' stay in Benin consisted of Nigerian Nightmares. We didn't get our visas in time due to lack of pictures and paper work. It took almost a week to get the visas after things were finally sorted out. We did however make a drive out of Cotonou, the capital I believe, to a beach resort where we camped and waited. Taking a run along the Atlantic Ocean helped with frustrations and such. I got to witness a village set fish nets in the morning, and pull them in later that night, all to the tune of amazing african song. We spent our final day in the Nigerian Embassy locking in our visas. At the time I was battling a possible malaria scare, due to the fact 3 of us still haven't purchased our pills. The entire day is a haze really and I was utterly worthless. Our excitement of finally entering Nigeria was short lived when we hit our first military check point. Little did we know that about 80 more lay in our future. It took far too long to push through the country but we pressed on nonetheless. We got our Cameroon visas within hours of going to the embassy, which was actually so fast, we weren't quite prepared to get back on the road. Cameroon was a bit of a blur as well. We drove through the most Indiana Jones-esque road at that point and we have nicknamed our night drive Witch Mountain. Let's just say, Harrison Ford can go F himself after what I drove through. We blew a tire and ruined oil skid plates by driving at night, in the rain, up a half mile high mountain side. Our editor, who was having bowel problems at the time, had to make a pit stop, in the rain, in front of the production vehicle. We drove straight through the night to Yaounde, Cameroon. We arrived at the Ideal Hotel, no lie, that's what it was called, and immediately started on car work. The production vehicle needed a couple stitches and we got plates fixed on the two remaining cars. Great city footage and money problems ensued. We gained our Congo, Gabon, and DRC visas after two days and 300 dollars and got back on the road. We left for Gabon at a blazing pace. With the roads as bad as they were, we made it within a couple dozen kilometers of the border before things went horribly wrong. Our leader, John Lovejoy, had a slight mishap with his baby the VW. As we were making up time, he pushed himself a bit hard and ended up dozing off behind the wheel. Yours truly awoke to Tony, our mechanic and cast member, yelling for a camera man and quick feet. I ran back to find the car parked into the side of a bridge, devastated. We camped for the night and towed it back to a small town 5 kilometers behind us. I spent a few hours of that morning filming a young man "spear fishing" in the water under the bridge John so narrowly missed. Two days and lots of filming later we were amazed to receive the car in perfect working order, a few blemishes, but otherwise sound. Back on the road that night, we were making great time. I was riding in the VW with John and Lucy, our resident Aussie when one of the most jarring moments of my life arose. Since it's the dry season, dust and debris clouded John's vision causing him to drive into yet another bridge. This time the car was finished. After debating flipping the car over with our air jack and man power, a man showed up asking to take the car for himself if we gave him 15 minutes to gather his brother and friends. Very illegally, we have him papers and cannibalized the vehicle and crammed into the remaining cars and jammed our way to the next town. We slept outside of a bank. Yep. That's about it. Our Suzuki, the remaining cast vehicle, was having problems with it's immobilizer, aka, the bane of the first Renaults existence. Myself, John, and Tony took the car to a mechanic/electrician the next day, where I got to witness the engine lighting on fire, while shooting of course, and subsequently driving off the lot. Welcome to Africa folks. With two vehicles in tow, we made it to the small town of Loutete'. We were told that a police escort was necessary to press forward, due to the fact that "ninjas" aka "bad boys" were on the roads. After hitting the station we came to realize that they were too drunk, and or tired to take us. We camped outside the police station and headed out the next morning. We road along with a military escort from a small town along terrible roads to the next checkpoint. We luckily met an English speaker in the small town, which, after a small discussion, talked a driver into letting me ride on top of a proper African produce truck to film from a higher perspective. Needless to say, one of the craziest experiences thus far. Riding atop an immense truck carrying oranges and 10 Africans definitely changes your perspective on commuting. We then hit the worst 300km of the trip on our way to Brazaville, Congo. After we realized at the checkpoint that the production vehicle's front driver's side wheel was basically sitting sideways in the wheel well, we decided to send it on ahead and a snail's pace. I spent the day in and out of the Suzuki, filming and getting one hell of a work-out pushing the toy size car out of sand and dirt. We ended the drive with an immense puddle of knee deep water, which, against all odds, the Suzuki made it through. We spent the night on the side of the road. Actual road. Proper, wonderful, glorious pavement. The production literally limped into Brazaveille after a tire blowing around 7 am and destroying the A-arm 50 meters in front of the ferry entrance to Kinshasa. That being the case, the team wasn't able to get our Angola visas started today like originally planned. I sit now in front of this very foreign piece of western technology debating on whether or not i'll make my July 14th flight. The team is in high spirits, but the idea of getting to Cape Town by the 10th seems hard to grasp. John did the drive 6 months ago and mentioned that 5 days of 23 hour driving got him from Kinshasa to Cape Town. Meaning we need to leave this place by the 5th to even make it possible. The shows final episode is under strong debate and yours truly sits in thought. TIA. (This is Africa) Cheers all.

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