angola
Angola
VISA INFO:
An important point for anyone coming down this route, intending to travel through Angola, the visa is a difficult issue, but not impossible.
We started asking for the Angolan visa in Accra (Ghana), then in Abuja (Nigeria), in Libreville (Gabon), in Brazzaville (Congo) and in Kinshasa (DRC). Every Angolan embassy said NO, sometimes giving very silly excuses, and sometimes not even allowing you into the embassy grounds. EVERYONE else has had the same result. At Point Noire it's the same, even with letters of invitation.
We managed as follows:
Travel via Franceville(Gabon) into central Congo along a very sandy road/track to Obouya and then continue down the fairly good tar road to Brazzaville.
Stay at the Hippocampe restaurant/hotel in Brazzaville for free, thanks to Olivier and Kat (the incredibly accomodating and generous owners who are well travelled and understand the needs of overlanders).
Cross the Congo river by ferry from Brazzaville to Kinshasa, which is a straightforward but incredibly slow and educational experience.
Travel through the DRC to Matadi on the Angolan border.
Apply for a 5day transit visa from the consulate in Matadi (which is issued on the same day for US$80.00). This is the only visa being issued at the moment and is not extendable within Angola, regardless of what the Matadi staff tell you. We were even shown the visa rule book in Lubango.
Angola is drivable in 5 days. We could have made it in 3.5 days. The far north and far south have very bad roads but the central roads are fantastic. Due to vehicle problems, we were restricted to a maximum 45km/h throughout and we still made it. We have been safe travelling in a single landrover the whole way down. When we stopped on the side of the road, we were constantly asked by passing police and civilian vehicles if we needed any assistance.
Due to Angola having so many unfound landmines, we only bushcamped were we could see recent tracks.
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Friday 22nd February 2008:
Into Angola at last!!! We arrived at the Customs and Immigration office and got the carnet stamped within minutes by a friendly man who luckily spoke English, as our Portuguese is non-existant. Next we sat and waited for the Immigration officer to arrive for work, 11.15am seemed a bit too early for him. He needed to stamp our passports. While we were waiting, we watched Portuguese children's TV with Barney and others jumping around in a room to various kinds of music. Louis and Daniel had crossed over with us and were waiting too, so we chatted further.
Eventually 'the man with the stamp' arrived and took our passports through to his office to grant us entry into Angola. With more than half a day of our precious 5day transit visa wasted, we set off into Angola. Daniel had been keen to drive in a Landrover Defender to feel what it was like compared to a Toyota, so him and Heidz swopped cars for a bit. Landy's are much more comfy than Toyota's, according to Heidz, because in our Defender you sit up straight rather than slouched, so any bumps don't affect your coccix. We pulled out from the border post and descended down the entry road into Angola, following alongside the massive Congo for a while and then passed through newly built brick villages that seemed totally deserted of any people. It was weird driving through these ghost villages which had been cleared of any trees or bushes, and were built with proper bricks on hard rock ground. Apparently the areas are cleared of foliage because mosquitoes and Malaria are such a problem. When there is no foliage there is nowhere for the Malaria lavae to breed.
Angola is really beautiful, but its roads are non-existent. We drove on mud tracks, through huge dammed puddles that were deep and made both vehicles look like real mud monsters instantly. Duzi2 was far from white, but turned to a gross browny colour. A lot of the water was very smelly so we made sure we kept our windows closed. Some stretches of the northern entry road were like driving through the jungle again, others like driving through muddy Cameroon and others like driving down a perfectly manicured, hedged driveway into a grand home. We saw various versions of the Angolan flag flying, the red and black flag with the rifle and sickle, and the red and black flag with the red rooster and the rising sun. We thought that maybe the sun and rooster flag were to show the political party affiliation of the village.
Through all the mud driving, we heard some new noises appearing and a deep groaning rumbling sound happening every now and then from the back. We stopped and checked many times but couldn't figure out where the noises were coming from. At just before sunset, we pulled over on the road between Lufico and Tomboco as our front wheels had started to whobble very badly again, at speeds over 45kms, worse than what they had done in Ghana. The spare wheel at the back had become very loose and even the spare wheel holder had become loose, so this was what had caused the new noise coming from the back. We were driving on our own by now, as Heidi had swopped back into Duzi2 again sometime earlier, so we found some rocks to chock the wheels and got the jack out to check the swivel pins and swivel pin housings on both sides. While we did this all passing vehicles whether police, trucks or taxis, stopped and asked if we needed any assistance. This was so good for us to see as we had been a little concerned about driving down through Angola on our own with the wheels playing up. By this time though, Daniel and Louis had also arrived and stopped to see if they could help too. Between us we realised we couldn't do too much, so resigned ourselves to the fact that we would probably need to drive long hours through Angola at this restricted speed to make it in the 5 days allowed. From here the two cars went their separate ways as the Canadian brothers stopped to find food and fuel, and we pressed on towards the coast.
With it now being dark we had hoped to beach camp a few kilometres south of Nzeto, but when we got there, we had an uneasy feeling, so decided to rather drive further on and try and bush camp further south, to try and make up as much ground as we could in our first day. Heidz wanted to camp on the beach, but we couldn't find any other tracks leading to the beach, and we were very cautious about going off road due to all the landmines still present in Angola. We found a cleared bush camp, with the sound of waves crashing in the distance, and eventually set up for the night at 12:30am. A long days drive.
Saturday 23rd February 2008: Bush camp near Musserra, Angola
GPS Info: S07° 33' 59.0" E13° 00' 57.8"
Miles Today: 320 Total Miles: 15347
We woke up to the view of the sea not too far in the distance and decided to try and drive down along a small track, a few kilometres on from our bush camp. We gave a lift to some locals along the track who stood on the rocksliders and held onto the roofrack. They were fishermen and women who were walking towards their boats. When we parked Duzi2 we were instantly offered some lobsters, fresh from the mornings catch.
We walked a short bit along the beach, which had no shells...which Ross was pleased about, as it meant Heidz couldn't add any more to her growing collection for a while. The water was cold and clear and the beach reminded us of the Algarve in Portugal.
We drove on to Luanda at the very speedy speed of 40km/h, as this way the wheels stayed normal and didn't feel as if they would wobble right off. Stopped off at Barra do Dande, to look at the beach, but it was dirty and full of rubbish. There was a Blue Crane fishing in the bay, which was interesting to watch.
Next we joined the long slow traffic jam into Luanda, which was easy driving as it didn't go much faster than 20km/hr. All the traffic is funneled in through the heart of Luanda, including its port. They seemed to be doing roadworks on the road too, so this added further to the delay. There is no ring road skirting the city, which is huge and sprawled. There are traffic jams everywhere, but most drivers are well behaved. On entering the city we spotted a U-Save Shoprite and we both got quite excited at the prospect of getting some food from home(SA), but it was very expensive and not at all like a real Shoprite. We drove on towards the harbour down the modern prominade lined with smart glass skyscrapers leading to the fancy yacht club. We pulled into a petrol station to fill up and were pleasantly surprised at how cheap the diesel was (AK29/l about 20p/l).
So much for diesel being expensive in Angola. Food definitely seems to be, but not diesel. We were offered every kind of fake watch and brand-name sunglasses under the sun by the hoards of street sellers that swamped around the car at the petrol station. We bought Tempos and a Magnum as big treats, but they melted so quicky. While we were trying to eat our fast melting ice-creams, a man came to the car and told us we needed to clean our car. We told him we'd just arrived from northern Angola and it was due to the bad Angolan roads that it looked so bad. To this he replied, "I am talking as a policeman and you need to come with me to the Chief of Police's office across the road..." He wasn't in uniform and we thought it was a wind up to get us to wash Duzi2 at the car-wash next door to the petrol station. We promptly ignored him, drove off and headed out of Luanda in the direction of Sumbe.
On our way we followed the Angolan coastline looking down onto the Atlantic Ocean on our right. We stopped off at Miradouro de Lua, a place overlooking an eroded area of land that looks like a mini Grand Canyon, with a mixture of red, purple, white and grey rock. "It's a canyon of moonlike cliffs that cascade dramatically into the Atlantic Ocean," as the Lonely Planet Africa describes it. This was pretty spectacular and totally unexpected. We marvelled at how beautiful it was, especially in the light of the setting sun. We took a few photies before setting off on another late night's drive towards Sumbe.
We drove through a large portion of the Parque Nacional da Quicama, but saw no wildlife at all. As it got later, we drove through an area that seemed to rain small bats. It was awful as they all flew straight towards the windscreen and then got stunned and some of them even got their little thin wings stuck in the wind screen wiper blades. The only way not to hit them, would've been to drive with no lights on, but that was not an option and there was no moon, so it was very dark. We had to press on as we were only covering such a small distance in the daylight hours, due to our speed restriction, even though we were starting to drive just after 6am!
On our approach to a small village soon after Porto Amboim, the heavens opened to a mighty heavy rainstorm. The rain soon turned the road into a river and we decided to pull over and wait it out as we had very poor visibility. We drove on a few kilometres from Porto Amboim on the road towards Sumbe and found a small track leading down to a good bushcamp, again after 12am. The land was flat and cracked open due to being so dry. We set up and tried to sleep, hoping the heavy rainstorm had passed us.
Happy birthday Matthew. We hope you are very spoilt by your mom, dad and big sister, Jenna. We hope you get more animals for your birthday because we've heard you still love them the most.
Sunday 24th February 2008: Bush camp near between Porto Amboim and Sumbe, Angola
GPS Info: S10° 56' 49.3" E13° 52' 43.6"
Miles Today: 328 Total Miles: 15 675
A few hours into the early morning, and the heavens opened again and rained constantly until we got up. We packed up as quick as we could as it was still raining. The area we had chosen to bushcamp in had also changed drastically to become a sticky clay base, which stuck to our shoes like glue, and we suspected we may have a problem driving out. However we put Duzi2 into low range and set diff-lock on and crawled out of there without any problems.
The road from Sumbe to Lobito was fantastic new tar, but sadly we were still restricted to 40km/h. On approaching Lobito, we noticed that the hills on which the outskirts of the city were being built were man made and looked like they had been formed from rubbishdump landfills. It almost looked as though they were expanding the city northwards and had built brand new big homes and had planted groundcover and grass to hide the rubbish filled earth. Sounds bad, but looks good.
As we entered Lobito centre, our eyes were on the lookout for the Shoprite we had been told was to be found here. It wasn't difficult to find, but was 15 minutes from closing. We dashed in and bought a few things, including a cooked chicken, fresh white baguette, zoo biscuits and pronutro.
Feeling very happy with ourselves, we drove on to Benguela driving alongside the only railway line running in Angola at the moment. This used to be far longer but since the wars it has only been running between Benguela and Lobito. We have found out though that the Chinese have just been awarded the contract to rebuild the railway link all the way back up to the DRC.
After Benguela however the road deteriorated into a series of earth detours, passing many baobab trees, roughly following the line of the new Chinese road being built towards the south. On this route we were stopped at one stage by a huge construction vehicle parked across the road, while they blasted through a hill ahead of us. On one of the detours we pulled off to have a picnic lunch under a huge big baobab tree. We had a most delicious lunch of chicken and mayonaise on fresh warm bread rolls. We both ate so eagerly that we ended up with saw tummies, but were very content.
The road to Cacula is very beautiful and picturesque, climbing steeply in altitude and passing many rocky outcrops. We stopped to take advantage of the many photo opportunities presented to us, and as night fell we pressed on towards Lubango as far as we could. The road on the detours however got progressively worse and we started hearing a horrible sound coming from the front left wheel. Upon investigation, stopping at the side of the road, we found the steel mounting cone for the front shock absorber had severed off completely and had even pierced a hole through the top of the mudguard. We drove on very slowly, but when the spotlights started flickering we realised we had to stop immediately and decided it was too late, being 12:30am, to sort something out and decided to just bushcamp on the side of the road and sort out the problem by daylight tomorrow. Judging by the sounds we could hear and the fencing we could see nearby, we thought we had parked near a village and expected a huge audience in the morning. We opened up the tent without putting up the side poles of the tent and were in bed within 5 minutes. Within a further 5 minutes we could hear footsteps outside, but with nothing for them to see they soon disappeared. Shortly after this the rain came down once again.
Monday 25th February 2008: Bush camp between Cacula and Hoque, Angola
GPS Info: S14° 32' 20.3" E14° 05' 05.5"
Miles Today: 69 Total Miles: 15 744
We woke to bright, clear, sunny skies and packed up with no visitors, just waves from passing cars, trucks and cyclists. The fence we noticed last night, was a cattle fence, but no cattle seemed to be around. The village we thought we'd parked in was actually only a few huts quite far away. We had breakfast and then got to work getting the shock mounting cone and the shock absorber off the front left wheel.
With wobbly wheels and only one front shock we hobbled into Lubango, over some terribly pot-holed Angolan roads. We had a competition going between us to see who would spot the big white statue of Christ first, which Ross won. We had directions of how to get to ISTEL to meet Andreas, who we'd met very briefly in Brazzaville. We planned to pop in and say 'Hello' before setting off on our way to bushcamp near Cahama on the road south so we would make it out of Angola in 5 days, and not have to pay the fine. The scenery was beautiful yet again and we were glad we were able to see it in the daytime.
At about 12noon we pulled into ISTEL (Institute Studie Teologica Evangelise de Lubango) to find Andreas, who we discovered was a teacher at ISTEL. We met him sitting at the front reception and then were very kindly invited to stay and join him and his family for lunch in their home on the ISTEL premises. We felt really bad to arrive at lunchtime, but were VERY grateful to Andreas and Astrid, who let us shower, wash our hair and become human again. They didn't know us at all and we must have looked and smelt quite a sight after 3 hot days of bushcamping with no showers. Andreas and Astrid are Germans who have been living and teaching in Angola at ISTEL for the past 5 years, but are heading back to Germany shortly. They have 4 beautiful children, Elisa, Nicolas and Johannes,who are able to speak English, German and Portuguese, and their baby Mattheus. They also have Johanna, a lovely young German family friend who's aupairing for them and staying with them for a year voluntarily. After we'd cleaned up, we joined the family for a delicious family sit down lunch starting with Grace being sung by everyone in Portuguese. We also met Sheila, a Canadian who teaches at ISTEL too, and descends from a family of missionaries.
Andreas, also a Landrover 110 Defender owner, had phoned his trusted mechanic about our wobbly wheels and severed shock mounting cone, and organised for him to help us after lunch. He had also phoned someone at the DEFA office in Lubango to find out about the possibilty of extending our visas for a further 5days, and that didn't seem a problem, but we needed to go in person after lunch. Ross went with Sheila to the mechanic in Duzi2, while Heidz went with Andreas to the DEFA office in town. We needed a colour copy of our passport photo page, our Angolan visa and two id photos each, together with a letter from ISTEL saying we were staying with them and why we needed an extension. It was fairly late when we got to the DEFA office so agreed to get the letter done and return tomorrow morning. Andreas and Heidz joined Ross at Meteorland, where the mechanic and Duzi2 were. We needed to have the panhard rod bushes pushed out and replaced with new ones, which the mechanic couldn't do himself so we went to a place in town to do it for us. With the new bushes in the rod, it was fitted and Duzi2 seemed all right again.
Astrid, Andreas and Sheila had arranged for us to stay in a room at the Meteor compound, which was run by a Canadian missionary family, Wings of Love, who fly various people out to help others in isolated rural areas. These could be for medical reasons, missions, aid work, etc.
This was a real treat for us. On saying good-bye to Andreas he set a time for us to join them for dinner. We had a lovely evening with the Kammer family and watched a brilliant dvd with Astrid, Andreas and Johanna. Johanna and Astrid even rearranged their special catch-up night for us. We also found out that Andreas and Astrid had travelled around Africa 17 years ago in a Unimog, all kitted out for overland travel and they had also just returned from a trip across to Tanzania in their own 110 Defender. We have been so blessed by this amazing family and have been blown away by their faith, witness and love.
Headed back to Meteorland for a superb nights sleep in their huge bed.
Happy birthday Rosie (Aunty Roe). We hope you are very spoilt on your special day. We know you'll love spending some of your birthday with your new precious grandchildren.
Tuesday 26th February 2008: Meteorland Compound, Lubango, Angola
GPS Info: S14° 53' 28.2" E13° 29' 39.4"
Miles Today: 58 Total Miles: 15 802
We woke up really late this morning. The curtains in the room we were staying in kept the room very dark and we didn't realise the time, until suddenly we noticed it was 8:30am and we were meant to meet Andreas at 9:00am. We hurriedly got our stuff together, paid Gary for the room, after a brief chat, and headed off to ISTEL to meet Andreas and have our letter for the Angolan visa extension signed by the Institute's director.
After Andreas had typed up the letter in Portuguese and had it signed and STAMPED (which is always a symbol of importance in Africa), Astrid drove us to the DEFA office in Lubango, with a quick detour via the photo-copying shop.
The reception we had from the lady behind the counter was much cooler than the day before. After looking through the papers we had produced (exactly as specified by her the previous day), she told us it was not possible to extend the visa as it was a transit visa and not a tourist visa.
Besides, she said the letter from ISTEL was not on an official letterhead. She also produced her official Visa Rule-book, which stated that transit visas could not be extended. All communication was in Portuguese between the DEFA lady and Astrid, with us giving concerned and disbelieving looks at the appropriate times.
Eventually after much confused chatting, Astrid motioned to us that we were to leave. Once outside she explained that we needed to rewrite the letter stating all countries we had been travelling through from the beginning of our trip, to show that we were in fact tourists just wanting to pass through Angola, as part of our route through Africa. This also had to be on an official letterhead, for extra effect. This still did not however guarantee that we would even be granted an extension, even though worryingly our current visas expired in about 5 hours time and the border with Namibia was at least 12 hours drive away, over a notoriously terrible road.
We felt so glad that Andreas and Astrid were helping us, but at the same time so guilty that we were taking up so much of their time, with such ridiculous political games. They now spent even more time typing up the new letter and trying to find the Institute's director to sign it again.
While all this was happening Nico, a Dutch missionary working at ISTEL, approached Ross and asked if it was possible to take a load of English Bibles with us, to hand out to anyone we came across in the english speaking countries we would pass through. Most of the people in Angola did not read english, and the books which had been donated to ISTEL would all end up being mouse food. It was the least we could do after all the help the Institute had overwhelmed us with.
While we were waiting for the director to return to ISTEL to sign our new letter, we decided to sort through the box we had been carrying on the roof, which was full of things we had brought with us to give away along the trip, like blankets, pads of paper, toys, old footballs, pens, etc. (This was definitely NOT for people who just begged for, or demanded stuff from us, but rather for those who helped us out or were clearly in need.)
As we now needed to make space for the bibles, we had to get rid of something else. It made sense then to ask Andreas to distribute the extra stuff to the various missionaries at ISTEL, who each had their own communities who would appreciate these things.
Once the director had signed and stamped the new letter, Andreas drove us to the DEFA office once again. This time it was as though the lady behind the counter was a different person. She smiled at us when we arrived and took our papers to check through them. It seems as though she has one approach for women and another completely different approach for men, or she is the latest incarnation of Jekyl and Hyde. Anyway she motioned us to sit down and wait while she took our documents and passports to the back office.
Suddenly, amazingly, a man walked through from the back with our papers and walked up to greet Andreas warmly. It turned out that he was one of the directors at DEFA, and was also one of Andreas' students at the Theological College. Andreas had contacted him the previous day to ask his advice on the whole visa issue, and he now assured us that he would process the extensions required. Normally with a visa application, we would also need to deposit the fees at a local bank and produce the deposit slip with the application, but as this would mean even further delays, he said we could just pay directly. The cost was $11.30 each for a further 5-days. He even said the visas should be ready the same day, and he would contact Andreas when this was done. We drove back to ISTEL very chuffed that the impossible had just happened.
While waiting for the passports to be processed, we decided to take a drive up the to Christo Rei (the massive statue of Jesus with outstretched arms) on the hill overlooking the city. This was modelled on the Corcavada statue above the city of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, and is one of three in the world, with the third being in Lisbon, Portugal. The drive up was very straight forward, and the view from above was amazing, even if it was very overcast and grey. It was very cold, as another of Angola's storms was brewing.
From there we drove across the top of the plateau past Humpata on the road towards Namibe, to the west, to the Leiba lookout point. Because we were just driving to the viewpoint and not actually driving down the amazing mountain pass, we did not have to pay the Kw200.00 toll at the top of the pass. We would need pay this tomorrow though when we drove to the coast.
The view was absolutely amazing and SO completely different to what either of us had expected from Angola. The scarpment dropped steeply for about 1000m to the plains below. The pass was clearly visible from the side as it wound it's way around hairpin bends through the dense green mountainside. A full river flowed down the valley, alongside the mountain pass, in an amazing series of beautiful tall waterfalls and rapids. We stood there for ages trying to take it all in, and just being amazed and surprised that somewhere so beautiful existed, so close to South Africa, which neither of us had heard of before now.
As it was getting late now, we headed back towards Lubango. We had decided to camp outside Andreas and Astrid's home in the ISTEL complex and shortly after setting up the tent we were approached by Andreas, with our passports in hand. The visa extensions had been granted and Andreas' student had even dropped our passports off. How's that for first class service!! A miracle if ever there was one. The extra five days had however started today so that left us with 4 extra days to use exploring around southern Angola.
Very happy birthday Magnum (Uncle Cliff). We hope you are very spoilt on your special day and are treated to many chocolate treats from your gorgeous little grandchildren.
Wednesday 27th February 2008: ISTEL outside the Kammers House, Lubango, Angola
GPS Info: S14° 55' 25.3" E13° 28' 00.0"
Miles Today: 301 Total Miles: 16 103
We are thinking of the Schmidt family today as it was a year ago that Grandpa passed away. We will be praying for you all and thinking of you, especially Granny Herta, Paps and Gisela.
We woke up and were on the road towards Namibe fairly early. It was grey and cool, but we weren't complaining after all the heat we've had over the past couple of months. Also when you hear people have been living in drought conditions and have been praying for rain, we can't complain when their prayers have been answered. Many Angolans said to us, "We've been praying to God for rain and now when it comes we can't complain if He sends too much." We drove down the European-like Leiba Pass with its tight hairpin bends, trying to capture it with photos, but that's never possible. The pass meanders through dense forest and drops down by 1km to the flat open valley below. There was a mist over the valley, but sunlight lit up the one edge showing off the beauty around us. Below the pass, we drove through another really beautiful area of green bushes and Baobabs, and really interesting rounded rock formations balancing high on top of one another. We've both been so surprised at how beautiful Angola is, and we've never heard this about it before. It's just such a shame that it's so extremely difficult to get a visa to get in to see and enjoy it!
The road from Lubango to Namibe was very good tar with road markings, even when it was going through the middle of sandy desert regions. We stopped off at a signpost to Flamingo Lagoon Lodge, and drove down about 5km of soft sand to see a large, very old, giant Welwitschia Mirabilis. These are weird plants that have adapted over hundreds of years to live in the harsh, dry desert conditions and are only found in certain areas of Angola and Namibia, in the Namib and on its foggy fringes. This one was very big and had a strange, browny, orange stick flower in it's centre.
Welwitschias are a dwarf conifer that are thought to represent an evolutionary link to flowering plants. Welwitschias can grow for over 2000years, but not too sure how this can be told, and only sprout one pair of leaves which eventually become a tangled heap on the ground. They aren't pretty plants, but are interesting in that they are so weird. We were very careful to stay on the visible tracks which we could see had been recently used along the sand road, to keep safe from landmines and to not get stuck.
From the giant Welwitschia Mirabilis, we drove on along the lovely road to Namibe. We passed small sand dunes, ridges that looked like canyon walls which had been weathered in interesting shapes, and all the time could clearly see the sea (Atlantic Ocean) on our right. We turned off to the left at a sign on the main road marked 'Arches', and drove on through beautiful landscape almost canyon like. Duzi2 looked like she/he had been transported to somewhere in the badlands of the States. The track dropped down a few metres below road level, dropping us onto the floor of the canyon. We felt so small and in awe of the natural beauty around us. We drove on a bit and parked in a dead end area with about 5 locals around. One offered to be our guide, which we declined as the path seemed pretty obvious. Wow! Neither of us expected to see what we did. Passing the locals' goats and then coming across huge hardened sand (rock) arches that had been weathered to form a 'gateway' to a vast inland, fresh water lake/oasis, in the middle of the desert! The water must come from a spring and supports all sorts of life - human, animal, fish and birdlife. We spent quite a while just taking it all in. It reminded Heidz of a place Nats, her sister, had been to in the States, near Lake Tahoe. We explored all sorts of caves and tunnel paths, eventually crawling up a steep section of sand, stone and fossilized shells. Heidz was in her element and we both felt like archaeologists on a dig, finding real fossilized shells from who knows when. After many photos, we returned back to the car.
We had no small change to give the locals for having the priviledge of seeing this amazing oasis, so decided to give them some sweets and a football from our 'give away box'. We got the compressor out and pumped up the leather football, with the children all sitting on a platform nearby, looking on as if Father Christmas had just arrived. We gave it to the elder of the settlement, telling him it was for all of them. He was so appreciative, he couldn't stop saying "Obrigado, Moito obrigado", thank you very much in Portuguese. As we pulled off he gave it to the children and there was much excitement. These people had nothing and it made us feel so good that we could contribute in a constructive way and not just give money, which would unfortunately probably just be spent on alcohol, which is a very big problem here.
From here we rejoined the road and arrived at Namibe, a lovely fishing town, with newish buildings and a good road infrastructure. We drove through it towards Tombua, as we thought we could maybe beach camp along the beach somewhere near there. On our way we passed many deserted, ruined, double-storied buildings, almost saloon looking from the Western movies. These looked Portuguese in design style, and were staggered and isolated along the side of the main road at various intervals, surrounded totally by sand and dunes. We arrived at Tombua, which is a very busy and rather neglected town, as the sun was setting. People live in the ruined buildings, shops, offices and dock sheds, but they are all falling down and look very unsafe, with no windows and peeling paint on the walls. These buildings must have seen this port town VERY differently a few decades before and it's so sad to see these grand old buildings literally just falling down. There were people and children everywhere, so we knew there was no way we could beach camp anywhere around here. We decided to head back to Namibe and then take the road north towards Lucira and Benguela, to try and find a beach Andreas and Astrid had recommended where they sometimes camp.
It was now dark, but luckily we were familiar with the road, from driving on it earlier on the way in, so knew where to watch out for shifted sand, etc. We turned off another sandy track shortly after joining the Lucira road from Namibe. This seemed to head towards the sea, as shown on the GPS, but it was too dark for us to see for ourselves. We were trying to look out for the railway bridge Andreas had told us to turn at, but it was too dark to see any railway at all. Eventually we arrived at the sea and had the entire shoreline to choose where we wanted to camp. With so much choice it was hard, but we did find a lovely spot from which we could see the white of the waves as they crashed onto the rocks not too far away. From this we knew there must be a beach and a way of getting to the water to swim in the sea. If our spot was wrong we could easily move in the morning when we had daylight. We could hear the crabs scuttling on the rocks as the tide must have been going out. By torch light, we saw the crabs were huge and some were even bright red.
As we were opening the tent, the rain began again, so we slipped inside and settled for a warm, dry night's sleep to the sound of the sea nice and close. We were both excited to see our spot in the morning, and were thankful to have finally stopped driving for the day, being close to midnight again.
Thursday 28th February 2008: Beach camp north of Namibe, Angola
GPS Info: S14° 51' 59.7" E12° 12' 40.1"
Miles Today: 125 Total Miles: 16 228
Waking up to a beautiful view of the beach with the sea and the waves less than 15 metres away from our ladder was a great feeling, especially knowing that we didn't have to go anywhere in a hurry today. We saw a few fishing boats as small specks on the horizon, but no other sign of civilisation as far as our eyes could see, even through binoculars.
Ross got up early and went for a stroll along the beach, noticing the amazingly different shells and the abundance of crabs everywhere. Sadly he also noticed the remains of turtle nests, with looted turtle shells lying all over the beach in certain places, with car tyres tracks heading from there back to the sand track running along the coast. He returned to Duzi2 and made a lovely early morning cup of coffee and sipped it while munching on Ouma rusks.
We had breakfast together overlooking our private beach and enjoyed the sunshine, reveling in the fact that we had most of the day just to enjoy the beach. While Heidi went exploring for shells, Ross took out the various magazines we have been carrying along with us, and caught up on some long overdue reading and browsing. It got hot really quickly and we were both a bit caught out with its rays, getting more colour than we had expected. Heidz spent ages shell exploring and creatively playing with various arrangements of all the different types of shells that were lying on the shore. The shells in Angola are very different to anywhere else we've been. They are fairly flat spirals on the top and look squashed from above. They look like ammorite fossils, and are brown or faded shades of it. The sea creatures obviously live underneath the shells. There were also pink and purple urchins, mussel shells, other twirly shells and bits of crayfish or lobster shells and feelers. With the tide being out we saw the huge brown crabs climbing all over the wet rocks. They were mostly brown in colour and some had one big red pincer, glad we never bumped into them in the sand in the dark last night. The crabs were scared of us and were very sensitive to our presence on the rocks.
We lazed about for most of the day cooling off in the cold, but very refreshing sea. It was really salty, but so lovely to be back in the sea again. In the early afternoon, we made a very yummy pasta and sauce lunch, with the thinking that we would only have a light dinner when we reached Tundavala for our bush camp later this afternoon or tonight.
The road back from the beach to Tundavala was really good. We drove back up the Leiba Pass, which was spectacularly back-dropped by dark black thunder clouds, which made us think we might have another rainy night's bush camp. The baobabs stood out brightly against the angry black sky. We stopped at Steve's house in Humpata to say 'Hello', but he and his two puppies weren't in. He has a massive 6month old St Bernard and a month old bullmastif pup.
We drove out to Tundavala in the mist and rain. Astrid had told us it is where they think the 'Edge of the world' scene was filmed in the movie 'The God's Must Be Crazy', where the bushman goes to throw the Coke bottle off the cliff into the clouds below. It is very high up and has very steep, rocky cliffs descending 1km straight down. We were both hoping to see this, but that wasn't going to happen tonight as the mist got thicker as we climbed higher in altitude and the drizzle increased to a steady hard rain. It was like being in a different world up on the top of the escarpment. There were scattered rock piles and lots of beautiful spots to bush camp in, but we drove on to a spot Andreas had recommended as it was in an open area, away from the look-out point, with spectacular views. We popped up the tent as the rain poured down and the monkeys or baboons barked in the trees/forest to the left of us in the distance.
We had soup and snacks in Duzi2, and decided to watch 'Class Action', the second of the double dvd box set Yoel had given us ages ago in Lope, Gabon. This was a clever legal film. With both of these movies watched, we had decided to leave them with Andreas and Astrid to enjoy tomorrow, when we pop in on our way past Lubango and out to Cahama.
Thankful for the duvet and the dry roof-top tent, we snuggled into a good nights sleep. Being at such a high altitude, the temperature was quite a bit cooler.
Friday 29th February 2008: Bush camp on top of Tundavala, Lubango, Angola
GPS Info: S14° 48' 47.8" E13° 23' 33.7"
Miles Today: 152 Total Miles: 16 380
The mist from last night hadn't lifted, so the spectacular views we were expecting this morning were not to be. We had a late start and weren't put off by the misty, wet conditions. We walked around the edge to try and see what small views we could, when the mist lifted slightly, and were both fascinated by the beautiful rock and stone colours - pink, red, blue, purple, etc, lying scattered all around.
Leaving for Lubango we still were unable to see any of the spectacular views, stopping at the look-out point, but there was only thick mist to be seen. It definitely does look like the location for the scene from 'The God's Must Be Crazy'. One more reason for us to come back to Angola, not that we need to find too many reasons to come back, as we both have loved our time here, even if it was short. Angola is a stunning country and one we'd definitely recommend exploring.
Arriving in Lubango at ISTEL far too early for a meal, we had planned to quickly pop in and say thank you to the wonderful Kammer family who have been so incredibly generous and gracious to us. When we got there, Andreas was busy teaching and Astrid asked us to sit and enjoy a coffee with her while we wait for him to return home. She then insisted we stay for lunch, which smelt heavenly, but we had both decided we wouldn't. Heids had a hot shower to warm up and wash the sea salt from her hair after our beach camp. The children walked home from school earlier than on previous days, maybe because it was Friday they finished earlier? Not sure. Andreas also insisted we join them for a stew lunch, which was so delicious, tender and absolutely scrummy. Sadly we said our good-byes to a family who have made such a huge impression on us. We pray God will go before them in their move back to Germany in a few months and provide them with the perfect home back there, as well as ease their move into a different form of ministry.
Both feeling low, we set off on the road to Cahama, which got progressively worse as we headed further south. It was fantastic having Duzi2 back to normal and able to drive at a normal speed, but due to the shocking potholes, we were restricted to our slow speed of below 40km/hr. As it got dark, we heard a familiar scraping noise coming from the front passenger footwell...we stopped only to find to our horror that the new shock mounting cone had severed off again! Dejavue. This time it took us less than 10minutes to get the mounting cone and shock off, and into the back of Duzi2. Hmmm, back to only one front shock on the horrific Angolan roads...perfect.
To top it off, the rain started to pour again. The road became invisible as it was so muddy before the rain, but with it bucketing down so hard, it all became a bit of a blur. This was quite scary. The ground on either side of the road was clay, low and totally flooded forming dams everywhere which isn't great when you're looking for a spot to bush camp on, and the rain isn't letting up. The first spot we stopped at had a green ground cover growing all over, which looked hopeful as a surface we wouldn't get stuck on, but there were bees everywhere, so we moved on. We did eventually stop off at one spot which was on higher ground, and had a slope down to the road so we wouldn't get stuck if the water rose too much more. It also had ground cover, but this time with no bees. We parked Duzi2 not too far off the road, but hidden behind a bush and set up our bed for the night.
One thing we both noticed about the vehicles and the big long truck drivers tonight, was how good they were. The road was very busy with trucks and brand new cars being driven in convoy to their new owners, over the road from hell. Every truck and vehicle on the road had all their lights working, drove carefully and seemed to look after their vehicle or truck, by not racing over the deep, sharp, broken tar potholes, which had now become full of water and invisible. We saw many Namibian registered trucks and even some South African registered ones for the first time. We can't wait for Namibia tomorrow, even though we are not yet ready to leave Angola.
Saturday 1st March 2008: Bush camp south of Cahama, Lubango, Angola
GPS Info: S16° 21' 46.7" E14° 28' 45.2"
Miles Today: 181 Total Miles: 16 561
Up and on the road fairly early on our way to Namibia, 'The promised land' as some call it. We were both sad about leaving Angola which we have loved, but very excited to get to Namibia. Luckily we didn't have too much further to drive on the horrendous road, which had become a slidey, muddy mess. It was very difficult to see the potholes due to all the water that had filled them, which made driving not so much fun, especially as we still only had one front shock.
The ground was thoroughly saturated with dammed water everywhere. We passed many old rusted tanks and armoured vehicles which had been abandoned, now sitting in pools of water. Reminders of Angola's war-filled history, which the people are still suffering from in the form of landmines. We stopped to take a few photies of the tanks, something that is so foreign from the world we know. Ross didin't think any of them were South African, but that they rather looked of Russian origin. As we got further south, the road improved to well graded earth, as the Chinese were preparing it for their new tar road. It's amazing to see what a hold the Chinese have and to see all the brand new road construction equipment, vehicles and other tools they use. Even though it was a Sunday, they were still busy, with the Chinese driving the graders and other new earth moving equipment while the locals were measuring distances along the road rather primitively. The last 40km of the road became a dream as it turned into a lovely new tar road all the way to the border.
Arriving at the border we were greeted by swarms of money touts with handfuls of South African notes, all ready to snatch our Angolan Kwanza off us. We ignored them as we didn't need to change and had no idea what a good rate should be. We thought we'd rather hang on to the few Kwanza we had and change them in a reputable bank in Namibia. We parked Duzi2 and went over to the Immigration counter (which looked like a take-away booth) to get our passports stamped. Next we needed to drive into a fenced off area and park Duzi2 near a converted container housing the Customs office. We got there to see a queue of people all waiting outside, but no person present behind the counter. Within a few minutes, a cheerful man appeared and stamped our carnet, which we needed to show to another man before the fenced barrier gates were opened allowing us to leave Angola and enter Namibia.