ANGOLA

Drive Sleep Drive

According to other travellers, the road for 150 km from Matadi via Lufico to Tomboco was rough, but from there to Nzeto, a further 50km, was newly graded thanks to our friends the Chinese. It was 10.30am when we left the border and we were soon onto the notorious rough road, and it was as bad as the reports we had heard. The road was narrow and altered from a rock hard laterite with potholes to thick sand with potholes to a hard surface studded with jagged stones. None of these are easy to drive on or good for Proper Job so we proceeded with due caution. This type of driving requires total concentration so we rotated shifts every two hours to ensure we did our best to minimize the chances of damaging Proper Job. We managed to average around 30km per hour so we reached Tomboco in five hours. The drive itself took us through a fairly unpopulated area along the Angola Plateau and when we went through any villages the people waved and cheered. We did see a large snake crossing the road on the way, probably fleeing the numerous bush fires that plagued the area. We only came across one police barrier along the way and after a quick hello and paper check we were on the way again. It would be interesting to do an index of ‘Poor Roads’ travelled in Africa, but this one would make the top five. .

When we reached Tomboco the promised Chinese tar road was there and we sped along its 50km length all the way to Nzeto. Our goal was to pass through Nzeto and find a beach camp spot along the road to Luanda. There was a camp waypoint on my Garmin GPS so we decided to drive there. As soon as we left Nzeto the road deteriorated again to a rough mix of broken tar, sand and rock. The turn-off to the campsite waypoint was about 10km south of Nzeto and accessed along a two kilometre minor track. We found the turn-off and headed down it until we arrived at the coast. We were stunned by the superb location. This part of the Angolan coast is very beautiful and unpopulated. The sand is white and the surf high quality. We gathered wood from the shore and made a fire to cook. A goat herder wondered by with his goats, waved to us and headed off along the beach. The sun had started to set and it turned out to be a super sunset with gorgeous shades of red. I would have liked to have stayed at this spot for a couple of days but with only three and a half days to drive 1800km through Angola there was no way we could spend more time. In fact, the reality is, you actually ‘drive-sleep-drive’ your way through Angola.

The following day we planned to get south of Luanda, the capital of Angola, which lay about 250km away. Doesn’t sound too far until you take into account the state of the road. We knew it would be another day’s tough drive and so we headed off at 7am. The road was bad and we managed to average about 35km per hour, arriving 50km out of Luanda by 1.30pm. From here on into Luanda is a brilliant tar road and we quickly covered the remaining 50km. Luanda is an example of another polluted crowded African city and I hate being in these. We did need to get some more fuel and were surprised that for a country with so much oil wealth there were relatively few petrol stations. The ones we did find always had long queues, but after opting to pass by a few we settled on filling up near the business district. We waited in the queue for about 45 minutes as the two attendants alternated between operating the two out of the four pumps at the station. Patience is a virtue in these situations and we ended up buying a couple of expensive mars bars as treats. The attendant was shocked at how much diesel Proper Job could take, but I smiled as the cost per litre was so small compared to all other African countries.

We left Luanda and wound our way down the coast road heading as far southwards as we could before it was time to look for a camp spot. We had heard of a place called Barra Do Cuanza which is at the northern side of the Parc National da Quicama, so headed for there. David of ‘Lizzy Bus Land Rover’ had told us of a Portuguese run restaurant that allowed camping in the car park. The road south of Luanda is a quality tar road and we made good progress. When we reached Barra do Cuanza we checked out a couple of restaurants but could not find the right one. We then went through the Toll Gate and went down a side track that led to the river. Passing by a bombed out tank, we realised we had taken a wrong turn started to reverse. Almost immediately we were halted by three soldiers who ran down from the bridge and looked like they meant business. Looking around I saw that we had strayed into a military camp, and the soldiers sternly pointed this out to us. They demanded our passports and I turned on my best broken Portuguese to explain who we were and what we were doing. Eventually things calmed down and stilled completely when I presented them with a small packet of cigars that previous owner Will Calderwood (Mind the Elephants) had left with me to give out as gifts in appropriate situations.

We drove back to the main road and eventually found the restaurant Imbondeiros do Kwanza Lodge which is located on the beach. The Sunday buffet lunch was still being served so we got stuck into the feast. The Portuguese owner immediately offered us the use of the car park as a camp so we set up for the night, caught up on some admin and hit the sack.

The following day we also had many hundreds of kilometres to cover so we needed to start early. At dawn we packed up and quietly drove back to the main road. The military men that we had encountered the day before were on the bridge and waved at us cheerfully as we went by....they obviously liked the cigars !. Our intended destination lay about 700km away at Lubango. The road winds along the mainly deserted coast and through the coastal cities of Lobito and Benguela before heading inland. The landscape was become noticeably drier the further south we got. The beaches however did not look as nice as the ones in the north of Angola.

Getting through Lobito and Benguela was no problem and we headed inland through a scenic range of hils towards Lubango. It was interesting to see the remains of bombed out tanks and other military vehicles along the way, and I wondered if these were Jonas Savimbi’s UNITA or the South African army’s invasion in the 1970/80. We still had a few hundred kilometres to drive and we realised it would be touch and go as to whether we would make it to Lubango that evening. Definitely the key to getting through Angola in time is to make use of the very good roads....speed wise.

Reaching Lubango that evening was key. From there you could drive the last 300km, of which 85km is very poor, to the Namibian border the following day before it closed. We then hit an unexpected poor section of road and it was quite surreal coming from the brilliant tar road we had been driving on for most of the day. It was back to 30km per hour on dirt roads for 45km and this meant we would not make it to Lubango that day. After 20km we came across a Spanish group whose 4x4 vehicle had broken down. We stopped and offered them a lift to the next town so they could arrange for a tow-truck. Along the way we were shocked as they told us the price of things in Luanda; US$6000 per month for a one bedroom apartment, US$20 for a bag of tomatoes in a supermarket etc......you get the picture. They also told us Angola has many good things to see, but travelling to the east of the country is virtually impossible. After dropping them off and wishing them well, we proceeded onwards and eventually hit the tar road again which was still 60km from Lubango. It was by now 5.30pm and we did not want to push our luck so we drove off the road along a cattle track and found a space to camp.

The sunset was glorious that evening and reminded me of the time I worked in the Karoo, Northern Cape, South Africa. Funnily enough David and Jane in the Lizzy Bus later pulled over and camped a few hundred metres away. A few villagers turned up again to observe what we were doing but we were so tired we did not have the energy to engage them in light humour. We made some soup and ham sandwiches and hit the sack, knowing we had one final 300km push to make to the border the following day.

The following morning we were greeted by another glorious sunrise. We had a quick cup of coffee and at 7am drove back to the main road. We opted to fill up with cheap fuel in Lubango and then made our way towards the south side of the city. The main road was closed off and ended up having to drive through a river to get out.

The landscape continued to get more and more arid as we made our way towards Namibia. We made good progress along the quality road but eventually came to the expected poor section of road. Again you spirits drop as you mentally prepare for hours of a slow crawl dodging potholes. We eventually came to reasonable tarmac road and sped towards the Namibian border. When we arrived at the Angolan border control we were quickly approached by a couple of locals who directed us towards a set of offices. We quickly got our passports stamped and then went to customs. Lo and behold, in the queue were Dave and Jane of Lizzy Bus, so we teamed up to try and find a way through the confusion that followed. It seemed you had to pay on exiting to have your Carnet De Passage stamped. Again we argued our corner but were told if we did not want to pay then you have to go out the border you came into Angola. That was ridiculous so we both coughed up the US$36 fee and got our stamps. The story was not quite that simple though as we also had to present the customs with a copy of our driving license (and show the original) as well as a copy of our Angola visa. The cost of getting out was stacking up but we were keen to get into Namibia.

We drove through into Namibia and cheered. Border formalities were straight forward and the Namibians were very professional. We were through at 4pm and only had 50km to drive to Ondangwa. We were looking forward to relaxing over a cold beer..

It would have been nice to have spent a few more days in Angola. The people are nice, the police rarely stop you, but the cost of everything (except fuel) may well prohibit people from doing this. In reality, Angola has so much oil wealth it probably doesn’t care about tourism.