Day 136-140
15th - 19th April 2007, Angola	previous entry next entry

Day 136 15/4. Bush camp, just off a side road, 18km South West of Mepala, Angola

6°15.05'S 13°38.92'E. Miles today 119, Total Miles 12487

Here's a funny bit of info: In a bid to boost tourism in Angola, wildlife is being introduced from South Africa. Sadly, the first four zebras were eaten (only $10 000 each!) Another snippet of useless information: there are as many landmines as there are people in Angola. Excellent. And so, as we entered Angola, the heavens opened with an almighty downpour and we found ourselves sitting for ages in the immigration office. Not waiting for the rain to stop but simply for the official to do his thing. He kept taking our passports up to the window for a better light and I resisted the urge to offer him my glasses, as he clearly couldn't see a blimming thing. Finally, we were on the road and well, they said the roads were bad and yup, they weren't kidding. Absolutely atrocious. Bad potholes and naturally lots of muddy sections, with poor old Dino sliding all over the place. Looking for a bush camp, we found a great spot just south of Mepala and had a few celebratory beers and some plantain chips. Despite, the re-occurrence of Itchy and Scratchy, spirits are high and the temperature is low.

Day 137 16/4. Bush camp, on the sideof the road, 25km North East of Nzeto, Angola

7°04.00'S 13°00.91'E. Miles today 84, Total Miles 12571

Ha ha……the drop in temperature was clearly just a welcoming gift. We awoke to sweltering degrees and plenty of bees. Back on the road of the devil, with it's sprinkling of dishevelled tarmac; it was not long before we reached our first obstacle. A huge tree blocking our path. Apparently, I had said "no" to a tree-saw when we were kitting out the car, (silly, silly girl!) so now it was just up to the axe and heaps of elbow grease. We then put Dino to good use and towed the branches we had cut off out the way. Didn't take too long but pretty exhausting stuff. We limped along this "road" at an appalling speed of 6km an hour! Passing through many villages, most of the people were exceptionally friendly but a few were particularly aggressive and there was noticeably a lot of begging. They all did seem very well dressed though, nothing like the poverty we had seen in West Africa. There is a strong fashion trend here for young girls to have their hair braided in a weird spiky arrangement. In fact, they all look exactly like that weird stick friend of Rupert the Bear. Just as the sun was setting and we were searching for a bush camp, we found ourselves in a spot of trouble. Having tried to avoid yet another deep pothole, we got Dino severely stuck in a muddy, watery ditch. Yup, emergency exit through the passenger door sort of stuff, with water pissing in the drivers door. With no trees about, we tried to use the ground anchor to winch ourselves out but the ground was too soft and it kept slipping. So, with a little deep bundu bashing, we managed to tie the hand-winch to a palm tree. After a lot of effort, we managed to winch ourselves out. No real damage, except I spent the rest of the night desperately drying the dollars and travellers cheques from the floor safe.

Day 138 17/4. Bush camp, on a deserted beach, 8km South of Nzeto, Angola

7°18.03'S 12°53.03'E. Miles today 25, Total Miles 12596

Now here's a real challenge. Take two, very tired overlanders and place them on the world's worst road. Up the outside temperature just a few more degrees, never below 35C please. Throw in a swarm of painfully biting tse-tse flies (who are always attracted to white moving vehicles) and lastly, add a touch of vehicle problems like dodgy brakes and the odd suspicious new rattle. Hmmm…..pure torture! This also meant we had to keep the windows closed (to keep the tse-tse flies out) Not ideal. Our only conciliation was that at least we were inside. The poor Angolians on the road and on the back of the trucks had to suffer far worse than us. A big thank you here to the Big Yellow Mog guys who supplied us with the waypoint of a secret beach spot just past Nzeto. What a fantastic place to cheer us up. Spent the afternoon checking the brakes out and playing in the sea, whilst the thousands of crabs kept us entertained. We were treated to a superb sunset and promptly got drunk together on cheap Angolan beer. It doesn't take much these days.

Day 139 18/4. Club Nautico, Ilse de Luande, Luande, Angola

8°48.05'S 13°13.41'W. Miles today 147, Total Miles 12743

Lazy morning just enjoying this secluded spot but we knew we had to get back on Lucifer's Highway at some point and head towards Luanda. Fortunately, the road does improve a smidgen and hurrah, just before Caxito, it turns into beautiful smooth tarmac. With rain clouds looming, we contemplated stopping in a bush camp for the night, as we had been advised to avoid Luanda in rush hour at all costs. "But how bad could it be?" we wondered and thought we'd give it a go as after all, surely we would be heading the opposite way to the traffic. Hmmmm…silly, silly idea! We got stuck in the dreadful traffic jam for three and a half-hours. This naturally resulted in a lot of people watching and I nearly fell off my chair when I noticed that all the woman were carrying Tescos shopping bags. What a laugh! Must have been some sort of mega printing disaster or maybe they just donated them. After crawling through miles of severe slums, all under flood, we suddenly popped out onto the glamorous coastal boulevard and peninsula, where we found our way to the exclusive Yacht Club, frequented by the more affluent oil workers and expats. The Portuguese manager was happy to let us camp for free and after a rather nasty cold tin of Marks and Sparks Meatballs, we collapsed into bed.

Day 140 19/4. Club Nautico, Ilse de Luande, Luande, Angola

8°48.05'S 13°13.41'W. Miles today 0, Total Miles 12743

With the measles finally clearing up and after a good night's sleep, we were both well rested and spent the morning doing laundry and talking to the number of curious onlookers. Feeling the need to stretch our legs, we took a walk into town (rated as the fourth most expensive city in the world!) and ogled at the fancy buildings along with the flooded muddy roads and horrendous parking problems. We stopped for a cheap hot-dog from one of the street vendors (one of the few cheap things in Luanda.) and searched unsuccessfully for an internet café. Back at the club, we were approached by the president of the Club, who was amazed at our journey and chatted with Rob for ages, giving us all sorts of tips for driving in Angola. He even changed some dollars for us. That evening, we were joined by Klaus, a Dutch guy working here on a contract in Luanda and keen to explore Africa further. He wanted to invite us to his house but alas, he had no water or electricity today. Just to remind us we are still in Africa. What a nice man. He brought us some delicious apple juice and we spent the evening talking and laughing about our journey so far. We have decided to continue south tomorrow, avoiding the main roads and heading off down the coast. Klaus advised us that to miss the traffic jam in the morning, we had to be on the road at 6.30am. Great.

Day 136-140

15th - 19th April 2007, Angola