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== Hitch-hiking in the South ==
Experience in 2012 from member [http[User://hitchwiki.org/community/members/Thumbingmyway/ |Thumbingmyway]] hitching in the south, coming in from [[Kitwe]], [[Zambia]], is as follows: [[Kasumbalesa]] to [[Lubumbashi]], DRC: As you get to the border town, the human & vehicular chaos is intense. There are many scammers and touts offering to escort you through the border, get you a taxi to Lum'bashi etc, be firm and politely ignore them. I found most of them to be Congolese, and that's no judgement on the people or country, just the facts. Don't listen to the lies that you can't change Zambian Kwacha in Lum'bashi, you can. If you want, you can also change at the border at a bureau, or from a private person, if the rate is better.
Leaving [[Kasumbalesa]], [[Zambia]], is easy. Stamp out at the immigration counter (walk around to the back of the building) and that's it. Walk through no-man's land to the the DRC border post. you will be greeted by sentries at the boom-gate. One will will out your details in a register and another will escort you inside where the bribery will begin. They will take you to a room full of men and ask for a fictitious "entry fee" of $20. I refused, and after a while they let me go, but they tried every trick. They then tried to make me pay for injections I didn't need, like Cholera and Typhoid innoculations. I have my Yellow-Fever one so that was fine, but they tried to bribe me there too, even saying I must just pay for the stamps to say that I've had them. I refused and didn't pay. When I eventually got to the immigration counter so the guy could stamp me in to the country, he asked me directly to give him money and I refused. Eventually he stamped me in, but I dug my heels in and left the compound. The sentry whom I first met at the boom-gate then tried to get me a taxi as I was leaving but I declined saying I was hitching. I was in the compound for 45min to an hour, it was tough going, but I refused to be robbed of myn money.
Side note: I got my visa for the DRC in [[South Africa]], from the embassy in [[Pretoria]]. It was about $148 for a 1-month tourist visa. Sent photos, completed application, invitation letters, proof of payment. They rejected my first application as they said I wasn't allowed to hitch in the country. My second stated road transport via cars, and then some flights and they granted me the visa.
