Day 134-135
13th - 14th April 2007, Cabinda	previous entry next entry

Day 134 13(Friday)/4. Catholic Mission, Cabinda, Cabinda

5°33.74'S 12°10.68'E. Miles today 95, Total Miles 12263

Hurrah, we finally made it into this tiny piece of Angola. The good tar continued into the town of Cabinda, quite a strange but huge town, with a strong Portuguese feel. We definitely stood out like sore thumbs and attracted huge amounts of attention. Kinda Truman Show like. With no idea of where the Catholic Mission was, we headed for a way point we had jotted down for a "seafront bushcamp", which turned out to be a very public car park, where locals were selling bunches of enormous crabs and fresh fish engulfed in a halo of flies. After chatting to the crab seller in our now makeshift Portuguese, we asked him where the Catholic Mission was. Oh, it was right behind us! Excellent. Turned out to be a lovely place but bustling with activity, which led to more snippets of the Truman Show. But it was free and safe camping and the use of a somewhat mouldy smelling shower and loo.

Day 135 14/4. Cabinda-DRC (Zaire) border

5°44.51'N 12°17.74'E. Miles today ?, Total Miles ???

And so we enter Zaire today. "Slow down, my brother and sister, " would be the words from Colin, our friend on the bicycle but we are both keen to get to Namibia, as we still have east Africa to explore before the money runs out. Another day, another country, another border crossing. The road was good all the way to the border. A small amount of confusion on the Angolan immigration side as after filling in some silly forms and waiting for them to make various phonecalls, I suspected something was up. "Um, just checking but we are actually leaving not entering the country. You see here is my entry stamp already right next to the visa. Now, we just need the exit stamp." After a short wait for them to find an inkpad, we were stamped out and on our way to Zaire.

Day 134-135

13th - 14th April 2007, Cabinda