Kisangani
Stanley's old river station, almost on the equator, where the navigable Congo ends below a staircase of rapids and fishermen still work the white water with baskets.
- Arrival
- Bangoka International · FKI
- To the city
- About 12 km east of the centre
- Private jets
- FKI, airport of entry; daylight hours
- Best time
- January
The city
At the head of the river.
Henry Morton Stanley founded a station here on 1 December 1883; it became Stanleyville in 1898 and Kisangani in 1966. The city stands where the Tshopo and the Lindi meet the Congo, some 2,100 km from the sea and at the furthest point boats can reach upstream. Above it the Boyoma Falls drop in seven steps over more than a hundred kilometres.
There is no true dry season this close to the equator. Days hold at twenty-eight to thirty-one degrees all year and about 1,600 mm of rain falls annually; January is the least wet month, and October the wettest.
- Boyoma Falls The last of seven cataracts, at the edge of the city, where Wagenya fishermen lower great baskets from wooden tripods into the rapids.
- Notre-Dame du Rosaire The cathedral of Kisangani, a stone building whose roof burned in the fighting of 1999.
- The Tshopo The river that joins the Congo at the city, dammed to the north for hydroelectric power.
Arriving
Daylight landings on a long runway.
Bangoka International lies about twelve kilometres east of the centre, with a single 3,500-metre runway.
- Kigali 1 h 10
- Nairobi 2 h 05
- Lagos 3 h 35
- Accra 4 h 05
- São Paulo 10 h 50 long-range jet
When to go
January.
Equatorial: hot, humid and wet in every month, with highs of twenty-eight to thirty-one degrees. January is the least rainy month; the wettest stretch runs from August to November.
- 30° J 83
- 31° F 102
- 31° M 153
- 31° A 180
- 30° M 157
- 30° J 121
- 28° J 114
- 28° A 163
- 29° S 173
- 29° O 215
- 30° N 193
- 30° D 108
Elsewhere in Congo (Kinshasa)
More reasons to come.
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