Domaine de Katale by Julien Harneis

With Aniset, we left Goma at 08h00 to drive the couple of hours to Rutshuru about 80 km away. The road flanks the volcano of Nyirangango, and goes over the lava fields from the eruptions of 1977 and 2002. It cuts in out of the nondescript and empty Virunga national park.The road is the main economic artery for Goma. We passed dozens of wooden bicycles bouncing down the slope carrying bags of cabbages and charcoal and a couple of articulated lorries carrying 20ft containers from Uganda. The road goes through the Domaine de Katale, a half abandoned coffee plantation. The plantation covers tens of square kilometers. Once it had its own airstrip, still marked on Google Earth, and a water pumping station. Decaying complexes of offices and housing line the road, half of them occupied by soldiers. According to Aniset it belonged to a Belgian who died when his plane crashed into a lake in the 90s. It must have once fed many families in the surrounding villages.