A Remote Bamboo Grove

The Democratic of the Republic, DRC, (formerly Zaire) is a most beautiful country. As large as the United States east of the Mississippi River, it probably has only a several hundred miles of decent, black-top road. To be fair, in DRC, many "roads" are rivers but lack of fuel is a limiting factor for the movement of boats.

This photograph was taken on a remote track in Equateur, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), in the mid-eighties. The bridge was in excellent shape, which was the reason for my stopping to admire it. Some stalks were a full six inches in diameter at the base, and later, I learned that this bamboo was a giant species. These groves were planted by missionaries; bamboo was used as a building material by the villagers.

Photo by: D. Messinger