We beat him home, I think our paths diverged at the Congo (we said nope and boated around, he went through I believe) -- we were in touch briefly last year and contemplated tackling the congo in a group.

I think he's doing Asia also, and we chose to "first world" Asia instead of trekking through. We sent our car back to Portland from Cape Town and did Asia/Aus/NZ like proper tourists with rented cars. :)