Sad news from Goma

Yesterday the rebel group M23 took control of the town of Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This is a place I have been to when I went to climb the Nyiragongo volcano. It looks like the town was taken without much of a fight. Which in a way is a good thing. The civilian population of the city was largely spared. That doesn't mean that people were killed or injured however.

Even worse it means more instability in that part of DRC. The government in Kinshasa is far away and in recent years has been increasingly ineffective. I am not sure that the rebel forces holding the town will be any better. Especially considering the leaders of the group are wanted for war crimes. The rebel group is associated with and possibly supported by the government of Rwanda. This attack is similar to what happened 15 years ago which led to the First and Second Congo wars.

I am sad for the people in eastern Congo, because it looks like they will have more years of bloodshed and starvation to endure.

New Blog

Hello to all my readers out there. I realize that I haven't posted much in a while. My life has been boring and stable recently. So I haven't had any new adventures to post here.

Most of what I have to say now is about my life cycling around Seattle, and not in far off places of the world. I have created a new blog at www.bikequestrian.org to post thoughts and ideas about the world of cycling. I have already added a few things in there. My plan is to move some of my non-touring related posts there as well. The writing will be about more mundane issues of what I am doing and bicycle polotics. I hope you enjoy the new blog.

Fear not, I have no plans to get rid of this blog. For now it will remain a place where you can go back and read up on some odd destination or weird adventure. When I get ready to go on my next big trip, I will be sure to post it here.

-Dravis