Can You Survive the Congo Basin Trip for 30 Days With Ash Dykes?

British explorer Ash Dykes is about to set off on a jungle expedition down the Sangha River, paddling more than 700 km through the Congo Basin in an inflatable raft. So we put you in the raft and worked out what would actually get you first in the Congo rainforest. Most people guess crocodiles. They're wrong. In this Congo documentary, we cover: 🐊 The real crocodiles of the Congo jungle (not the ones you'd expect) 🦛 Why hippos are the animal you should really fear on the water 🐍 The Gaboon viper, the snake with the longest fangs on Earth 🌡️ The physiological stress of paddling through tropical forest humidity, and why your sweat stops cooling you down 🦟 Malaria risks in the DR Congo, and why mosquitoes kill far more people than every hippo and crocodile combined 🌊 The Congo River: the deepest river on Earth, and the rapids where seven adventurers vanished 🌍 What happens to the Congo Basin rainforest 250 million years from now Ash has survived the Amazon rainforest, Madagascar and the Yangtze. The Congo is his toughest test yet. He's set to depart around October 4. ⏱️ Chapters 0:00 Intro 1:02 Choosing the River 1:56 The War Question 2:42 The Boat 3:10 The Heat 4:06 Nights on the Riverbank 4:50 Snakes 5:31 The Crocodiles 6:31 The Hippos 6:57 The Real Killers 8:15 The Ebola River 9:03 The Inga Rapids 9:46 The Deepest River on Earth 10:37 The Hidden Swamp 11:10 Hendri Coetzee 12:20 The Future of the Basin 13:51 What's Next 📚 Sources WHO malaria estimates (Democratic Republic of Congo) · US Geological Survey (Congo River depth) · University of Leicester / Nature (Congo peatlands) · Penn State heat research · Farnsworth et al., Nature Geoscience (2023) · American Whitewater · National Geographic · BBC Wildlife · UK Foreign Office travel advice · UN MINUSCA human rights reports    • Update   #ashdyke #congo #congobasin