Angola

Another eventful border crossing this time involving a demand for 50,000 dollars and an argument caused by sitting on a desk.  When we arrived at the border post Elza went off with the policeman to register and get our passports stamped whilst Witt drove to the village to find the Customs man.  Elza still had not emerged out of the office by the time the carnet had been stamped and Witt had dropped the man back to the village.  Suddenly Elza called for the boys to come as the man had started to demand $50,000 to stamp our passports.  Then we heard shouting but it turns out this was due to Graham sitting on the guys desk and causing him great offense; from this point on the man refused to stamp our passports and we did not know what else to do to make him change his mind, especially as we could not speak Portuguese. Luckily whilst Tubbs was admiring the view over the lake she had met a woman, Fyfy, who spoke English and Portuguese. We asked her to come and she placated the man and told him we were sorry for causing any offense.  Then his boss arrived and at first they told us to go back to Congo because he wanted photocopies of our visa, this of course was impossible without a Congo visa and after more explanations they agreed to stamp us into Angola!

Fyfy invited us to stay in her garden, next to the border post.  By this time it was late and we were cautious about where we could camp because of the threat of land mines still lying around since the civil war, so we accepted gratefully. We keep hearing different stories about the mines, Fyfy told us that it was safe in the area and we later heard that the road we traveled was still to be checked for them! Fyfy was great and invited us to watch an English movie so we spent our first night in Angola watching James Bond!

We were ready to go early the next morning. To thank Fyfy, Jen gave her some clothes for her baby and Tubbs offered to take their pictures and send them to her. At this point she disappeared for ages to bathe herself and the child and eventually came back all dressed up for the picture! 

The scenery here is lovely big green hills scattered with grey rocks and the piste climbed so we got great views. The piste however, is not so wonderful.  The potholed tarmac at Noqui quickly became a red dirt piste all the way to Tomboco, deep muddy holes churned up by lorries with steep climbs and descents.  The piste in most places was wide enough to let one vehicle pass at a time, being not much more than a track.  High grass often hugged the piste so reversing back for lorries was fun. Vegetation sprayed into the vehicle covering us in salad and depositing different varieties of insects in our laps.  The tsetse fly which lives in this area also liked entering the landy. The Tsetse spreads 018sleeping sickness019 and is attracted to large, blue objects and was obviously very excited about seeing Sid! We noticed that lots of people hang blue and black material devices in the trees to attract and traps the flies.

We met hardly any traffic on the road and the villages were isolated. For the people of Noqui on the border they did all there shopping etc in Matadi, Congo but for these villagers they looked like they had to be pretty self sufficient.  There was nothing for sale in the villages we past and it was not until Tomboco that we found bread. It took us 8 hours to drive the 120km to a bush camp, 50km north of Tomboco.  We had to use 4x4 a lot and averaged about 10mph.

The first obstacle we encountered the next day was a bridge supported by tree trunks with metal sheets resting on top, it looked very dodgy. As we drove on the landscape changed supporting the curious shaped baobab trees and trees that resembled cactus on a stick. After Tomboco the piste became slightly less rough and we gathered a bit more speed and we got to Nzeto about 3 hours later. Being next to the sea, Nzeto felt less humid. It was a strange town and looked like at one time he had been rather grand and popular. It now looked deserted with a few people sat outside their houses and children walking around with their white school laboratory uniforms on. Hardly any traffic made its way down the 2 lane main street which, if they had bulbs, could be illuminated by street lamps.   

As we made our way toward Ambriz Grahams bonnet popped open and no amount of fiddling, pushing and shoving would keep in place until it was strapped down.  We stopped in a deserted road material lay by for the night.   

We made it to Luanda the next day, Friday.  It is the most rundown, dirty and poverty stricken city we have seen in Africa.  The city used to have 450,000 people living in it but during the 40 years of war that plagued Angola thousands of people flooded to the city and now over 3 million people live here.   The city cannot support itself. In the one hour it took us to drive to the commercial centre we passed through the shanty towns full of people and rubbish. There were people everywhere and the potholed, muddy, wet roads were full.  People were hawking goods in every available space.  The commercial centre was like entering a different town. Modern buildings, Portuguese style places and wide seafront boulevard over looking the harbor. 

Luckily we had a contact in Luanda, Rob friends of Marks whom we had stayed with in Chad.  He had been warned a few days before that we would be descending on him and informed that we had doubled in number to nine people.  We drove to a sea front bar and he came and met us. He had arranged everything for us including a place to stay at the yacht club (this is becoming a popular place to stay for us now!). He also informed us that everything would be closed on Saturday due to the bank holiday so we should go shopping immediately before they closed. To Kriss and Slades joy there was South African supermarket and with images of biltong they began to Bayo slobber.  Robs friend Mario then arrived, a keen land rover man with a passion for Angola and he started explaining all the places we should visit. 

In the supermarkets (very expensive) we could change dollars and euros to buy the food. Apparently there are no cash machines here and getting money out is very difficult, the supermarket, Intermarket is therefore a quick place to do it. You have to buy the food in the local currency so they provide a booth to swap money.

We finished the evening off in the yacht club bar with the Luanda off road club who kept up a long line of places to visit.

Rob carted us around all day on Saturday between 2 washing machines in different parts of town and then gave us free rein in his office to use the internet and phone home. Thanks Rob much appreciated. We also think his street cred has gone up with 4 girls following him around all day and raised a few eyebrows at his office!  That evening it was Robs leaving party which we were invited to. We had also been joined by 2 more overlanders that had spotted our tent from the road, Nadine and David and turned out had been communicating with the Americans via the internet. We had a fun night and Tubbs ended up at Pashos night club until 4 am, which seemed a good idea at the time.

6am Sunday morning we had to be up as Mario was taking us to Mussulo Island at 7am.  He arrived with a tired looking Rob and we followed them out to the island 40km from Luanda. It is a beautiful place and involved driving out onto the peninsular and through sand to reach Marios friends camping place.  Set up with hammocks (Tubbs very grateful for this, as feeling rather tired) and South African tents it is a weekend retreat and not for making money, the owner welcomed us to stay. We spent the day on the beach and even got a chance to go out on a little Hobie catamaran owned by one of the off road club.  We are very thankful to Rob and Mario for making all this possible, much appreciated! We were treated that night to Connies Sushi; she was very excited about making it having been without for 5 months and could barely contain herself when she found seaweed in the supermarket!

We spent Monday there also whilst some of the others returned to Luanda for shopping. Slade and Witt were successful in finding clams so that evening we made use of the camp kitchen and made a clam chowder, Nadine brought out her Foie Gras and Tubbs made a custard cake, another terrible meal. 

We set off the next day, now a convoy of 5 vehicles and 11 people! We passed over the Kwanza River and the road deteriorated into potholed tarmac. Nice drive though next to the coast.  As we drove Krissy and Slade were unaware that Tubbs and the others were cooking up a plan for their anniversary the next day. We took off into the bush towards a camping spot recommended by Expedition Overland, another overland couple.  We were hoping to camp on the beach but the high cliffs made descents impossible. We ended up at a quiet fishing village but there was not a good place to camp so we ended up in the pampa listening to the surf instead.  There was a lunar eclipse of the full moon that night which was beautiful to watch.

The climate has changed dramatically now, the humidity is dropping, thank goodness and it is much dryer.  The scenery is much more sahel like now, sandy with prickly pear cactus but there are no camels wondering around; the other difference is that on the other side of the road is the sea which is bright blue in the sun.  We drove around Port Amboim looking for lobster but when we finally located the market the fisher ladies said they were still in the sea. (At least that is what we thought they said, as it was in Portuguese).We were quite a spectacle driving around in our convoy!

The huge waterfalls at Binga, about 20kms off the main road opposite the National Institute of Petroleum were well worth the detour.  Three falls crashed down into the river and we swam around in our clothes to cool off.  We had lunch there and then moved on towards Sumbe.  We wanted to stop early that day so we could prepare for Krissy and Slades surprise evening. Luckily we found a good spot on the beach, big surf sweeping up onto the beach and herons flying around. Jen set up 2 chairs away from the cars looking out to sea with a little table and we announced that they were to sit back and that the rest of the evening was taken care of. Gin and Tonics in hand administered by barman Graham, they were happy to comply.  We had designed a menu for the 018Overlander Café019 which in true African style had lots of menu options but of course only several dishes actually available. Lots of soups and salads but for some reason Slade was not interested.  We had dips la vache qui rit and cream, Pork potjie with dumplings and Connie found some cheese and chocolates.  All this washed down with beer, dubious quality red wine and Nadine and David019s extremely strong T punch. Using 2 satellite phones we also phoned K and S parents which was a big surprise, especially for Slade!

On the 6^th May the temperature crept up to 40C, the sun was burning and the more in land we drove the hotter it got. The road was rough going but the scenery inland was good to look at; the arid and rocky Benguela mountains. We had been told that land mines are often concentrated around bridges. We saw red and white posts that marked areas suspected of having them and these areas were often directly outside villages.  The people here were very friendly and we passed many people on the hot tarmac or gravel in bare foot carrying heavy loads on their heads. We gave away flip flops to some very grateful ladies. We drove through the crowded town of Lobito, which nestled in the sandy hills reminded us of towns in Israel. We fuelled up having been advised to fill up where we could due to queues and garages often running out.  We made it to Baia Farta just south of Benguela where the cold ant artic current gets its name. During the day Tubbs had not been feeling very well, really tired with a headache. The others suspected a hangover but by the evening Graham took her temperature and it was nearly 40C. Although the malarial tests we did were negative she had all the symptoms and took the anti malarial drugs, Fansidar anyway. Not that she got any sympathy, Slade reading out all the nasty tropical diseases that she could have!

The following day, Tubbs feeling somewhat better we moved on again. According to the Americans we are passing through scenery just like that of South Colorado, Nevada and Arizona. It is like a lunar landscape; rugged vanilla and brownie grey stone hills ran next to the road with a helter skelter strata running through them. These wind eroded, sun baked hills are dotted with scrub and prickly pear cactus.  This road from Baie Farta south is rough and we averaged about 30 mph. What is great is that after all the aridity we would suddenly pass through lush, green valleys.  By the afternoon, Tubbs having left K and S for the air conditioned Defender (because of the fever and no other reason Slade!) we were in an Air mountains landscape, hills strewn with rocks and boulders all balanced on top of one another. The piste grew rockier and rockier and we crawled along. Slade was very pleased to be doing this 4x4 piste as this is what he built Sid for! (He said for the hundredth time)

We had a great camp that night on the cliffs over looking the ocean and were treated to a beautiful sunset.

The nights are cold now, a real change from a few weeks ago. The drive to Lucira was another stunning one. The piste is rocky and slow going but winds through valleys of white quartz and huge red streaked cliffs. After Lucira the tarmac began and we drove through more Colorado country before suddenly coming round a corner to wide flat plains. We pulled over onto the beach, at another camp recommended by Mario, who we had now found out had a reputation as Angolans equivalent to Ozzies Crocodile Dundee. The cliffs were lined with different coloured sands, reds and yellows.  The surf was huge and noisy like the Guinness advert with the white horses. 

The next day the boys all had a strange rash on different parts of them. We could not figure out where it came from. It caused pain but did not itch, odd. Not a good week for illnesses.

The road although tarmac was not in great condition and all the bridges had washed away, so it was a good thing it was the dry season. We climbed up the abandoned lighthouse at San Nicolau.  It then took 2 hours to drive to Namibe where we picked up brand new tarmac to take us into town. Urs and Elza were going to leave us here but decided to continue with us to Namibia.  So after lunch we left the rather weird town of Namibe which had been built for lots of people but seemed quite empty.

The next day started off well. The road wound up like a spiral onto the plateau past big layered cliffs coloured with cream, red and green streaks. At the top were fantastic views over the valley and canyons. In Lubango we pulled over to get fuel and a man reached into Connie and Graham019s car and took their bag. He pulled out the purse and took their money before chucking the bag under the land cruiser. Connie had been in the car at the time but had reached over to close the opposite window after the car had been surrounded by kids; whilst her back was turned the bag was nicked. It happened quickly but luckily they got their passports back. We decided to get of town ASAP but could not find any garages with fuel or without big queues until a South African guy led us to a garage.  Tip: fill up where you can and do not wait for the towns. Be aware in towns, keep window up and doors locked!

Just out of town the Pinzy started emitting white smoke an indicator she was burning oil.  We drove in the afternoon but when the boys pulled the engine apart that night there was no oil left inside and the valve guide on cylinder 3 had broken.  They decided to disable it completely and run on 3 cylinders. After, only driving 8 kms the next day the smoke was just as bad and the oil gone. Turns out the oil was running out of the holes taken out by the push rods.  An ingenious solution of putting corks in the holes was performed.  11 km later there was still white smoke and the oil was gone again.  With 300km to Namibia the Pinzy would not make it. This time a bolt and locktite glue was put in the holes and the white smoke disappeared. Luckily 40km later we stopped and Urs checked the oil level; again all the oil had leaked out. Pulling the Pinzy would be the only way as we had no idea what to do next. Slade backed up the landy and we took off. On a crap potholed road it was a bit of a mission. We would get lots of joke mileage out of this later.  We all took turns pulling the Pinzy to the Namibian border which we reached the next day. 

The morning before the border crossing we met some of the local villagers who were watching us. We gave the kids some of our born free t-shirts which they were pleased with. The last few kilometers out of Angola we passed the wreaks of blown up lorries and rusting tanks all reminders that a war was going on here not so long ago.

Have to say we were all really surprised at Angola. A beautiful place, great 4x4 opportunities (one way of explaining the roads) and for us hardly any police stops or harassment. One of the nicest places we have been with loads of opportunity to do more exploring.

Angola Summary

Piste Information

Noqui to Tomboco, 10.5 hours (170 km)

Rough, narrow, potholed piste, lots of mud 4x4 required in places. Lots of vegetation and humid

Tomboco, N019Zeto, 3 hours (86km)

Slightly faster, potholed tarmac

Nzeto to Caxito, 4 hours (230km)

4 hours (roughly). Police stop just before Caxito and have to register in town.

Caxito, Luanda, 1 hour (61km)

Good tarmac, 1 hour

Luanda to Mussolo island (40km)

Great drive on sand across the peninsular, great scenery.

Mussolo Island to Porto Amboim (about 265km)

After the Kwanza Bridge the tarmac deteriorates. Lobster apparently available in Port Amboim. Bread can be found and other goodies.

Kwanza Bridge S 09.19.491 E 13.09.959

Porto Amboim S 10.43.773 E 13.45.644

Porto Amboim to Binga Water falls (about 25km)

Close to Porto Amboim. Turn left at the National Institute of Petroleum S 11.07.507 E 13.56.07.  20 kms further is the falls.

Porto Amboim to Sumbe 1.5 hours (about 56km)

Tarmac not bad

Sumbe to Lobito (about 170km and 4.5 hours roughly)

In Kicombo (nice river) S 11.19.554 E 13.49.461 (good lunch spot just below, Mario tip)

 Very arid and dry but good scenery. Piste rough going and slow

Lobito to Benguela (30km)

Lots of traffic and traffic jam

Benguela to Baie Farta

Well worth it for camping on beach, see bushcamps

Baie Farta to Lucira (220km, 2 days)

Lucira S 13.52.000 E 12.32.000

Road gradually deteriorates and the piste from Lucira to Cimo (100km) has never been paved. Rocky and slow going. Beautiful scenery. See bush camps

Lucira to San Nicolau

Tarmac good condition but bridges washed away

San Nicolau to Namibe 2 hours

New piste 40km from Namibe.

Namibe to Lubango (177km 4.5hours roughly)

New tarmac and currently being improved. Then road deteriorates but is stunning as it climbs up crazy, windy road towards Lubango. Great views over valley if turn left immediately at top of crazy road before peage point

Lubang, S 14.56.072 E 13.28.093

Lubango to Namacunde border (1.5 days including breakdowns)

Driving across plateau.

Horrible potholed tarmac up to Humbe. Then it gets better. From Humbe onwards bombed out vehicles on side of road. Ondjiva to border 40km of great tarmac!

Can take piste from Cahama to Namibian border. Very scenic. About 6 hours including lots of photo stops.

Bush camps

Noqui Border Angola                                                S 5.51.783                       E 13.26.103

Road btw Lufico & Tomboco Angola                        S 6.31.445                       E 13.32.416

Road btw Nzeto & Ambriz Angola                            S 7.37.939                       E 13.04.797

Yacht Club Luanda Angola                                        S 8.47.924                       E 13.13.458

Bushcamp btw Cabo Ledo & Porto

Amboim Angola                                                        S 10.26.785                     E 13.35.699

Beachcamp just s of Sumbe Angola                           S 11.17.379                     E 13.49.771

Beachcamp N of Baia Farta Angola                           S 12.36.534                     E 13.15.453

Cliffcamp N of Santa Maria Angola                            S 13.19.174                    E 12.40.177

Beachcamp S of Lucira Angola                                   S14.08.988                    E 12.22.274

Bushcamp W of Lubango

 nr. Caraculo Angola                                                   S 15.01.204                   E 12.43.140

Bushcamp S of Chibia Angola                                     S 15.31.447                   E 14.02.535

Bushcamp S of Cahama Angola                                  S 16.19.243                    E 14.22.219

Tips

Hard to get money (Inter market supermarket in Luanda exchanges money)

Dollars readily accepted

Fuel in Luanda very cheap 8p/litre for diesel at yacht club, similar outside

Fuel up at any given opportunity as often in town there is no fuel or long queues

Keep windows up and doors locked in towns as we got robbed in Lubango.