Angola, part 3

Bit of a recap:

We are now into a fairly good routine. At the end of the day we can set up camp very quickly, in under 10 minutes if we try. As soon as we stop Ray takes down the day’s statistics then sets up the Trayon unit and Avril get the dinner prepared. If it is a 2 day stop we put on the fly, erect the shower tent and put out solar panels. Getting up is a different matter, no matter how hard we try it seems to take 1 - 1.25 hours for morning ablutions, breakfast and to get packed ready to go. We have repacked a couple of times and now seem to be approaching the optimal storage solution, given the space available.

Breakfast can be toast, porridge, muesli, fruit, rusks or what ever else is around. Lunch has always been on the move; so sandwich or cheese and biscuits or maybe a salad. Dinner is typically a BBQ and we sit as a group around the fire talking nonsense (as Koos would say) with the group. We normally have some vegetables or a salad with the meat – often cooked on the coals in Al foil.  We have also prepared curry & rice, fried rice and other delicacies! etc. On a number of occasions others in the group have backed bread on the coals – delicious.

The vehicle is holding up well. A few electrical connections have shaken loose by the constant bumps (control wire to one of the compressors, switch for the extra head lights). The major successes are the under tray table, the Mitchley fridge, the water purification system and the liquid fuel stoves (even in Angola the RSA’s cannot refill their gas bottles – there are different fittings all over Africa). The major disappointment is the Kenwood unit in the cab. It is very hard to read in the sunlight and constantly frys the iPod (which then takes 24 hours to recover and recharge). The airbag suspension fitted by Opposite Lock in Adelaide remains broken. The passenger side leaked from 1^st fitting and despite a repair by OL just before shipping, it still leaks badly. I am not sure it works.

Serendipitously, it seems that a tour with Koos and Jose is a great way to ease into the trip. Koos does a fantastic job, no detail is too small and he is always available to assist. He visits all of us at the end of the days driving and prior to starting in the morning, just to check on things. Jose handles all the administration with local authorities; it is an education to see how he handles things. As it turns out, his handling of the border issues at Ruacana saved us a sum of money. We are getting to learn how to do things in a safe environment; drive on the wrong side of the road and 4WD in new terrain etc. We are also giving the vehicle a good work out whilst in the company and with the knowledge of the close team.

The local drivers here are reckless. Koos: “these chaps are absolutely fearless – they are not scared of death”. They pass at high speed on blind corners, coming to the crest of a hill etc. In a convoy this is not too bad as there is chatter between the cars (Koos has lent a radio to those without). There are a lot of wrecks from crashes along the road

We are very slowly getting used to being the object of curiosity. Where ever we stop a crowd gathers to watch us. Even when camping, a group gathers to openly stare, come close to the vehicles and look at everything. We are not yet totally relaxed with this, the major concerns being the need for privacy for ablutions and the fear of opportunistic theft.

There is a large difference between the provinces in Angola. In the south the Cunene province is very poor with little established infrastructure. Here we bush camped and it was mostly. Namib province was a little better, with towns and some decent roads. Lobito & Benguela province is the pick so far. Very clean, no rubbish in the streets and they sweep/rake the beach. The province that contains Sumbe is not up to the others. Sumbe smelt from rubbish rotting in the streets (in a number of locations) and the road out of town is really littered with rubbish for many kilometres.  

Day 17: rest day. Ray washed the car, Avril washed the clothes.

The vegetation now is more tropical, palm trees, large green trees and vines. We left the group and drove back into Soyo to have lunch with Bob (and another shower!).

It turns out that the local administrator had instructed the police to look after us the whole time we are in Soyo. So they came to the camp site and stood watch all night. In addition the local police commander paid us a visit. We also had a group of youths in close proximity to make sure we felt completely watched.

Angola is keen to attract tourists and so they are doing their best to look after us. Our impression of the Angolan Army and Police is positive. We always give them a wave and invariably they either salute or wave back.

There must be crime, however, where we camp whilst people come to watch us, there does not seem to be a “fear” of theft. We tend to leave doors etc open – a habit we will need to get out of in the future.

Day 16: Ray’s purchase of fish (sole) from a passing fisherman last night was not successful, the fish had a poor texture, though we did not get sick and that is a plus.

Boring though it is, another hard day of driving for Avril. The number of heavy road construction vehicles seems to have caused a lot of damage to the road. The Chinese construction drivers go at high speed with little consideration for other drivers. A further hazard is the dust thrown up with these vehicles. We stopped along the way to buy fresh bread – very nice.

The object of the day was the mouth of the Congo River, which we reached ~ mid day. The police along the trip had monitored our progress and reported on the next town/village. To our delight the authorities had organised a full police escort for our time in Soyo: to the river mouth, the local market and finally to get some water. We are not sure that the store holders in the (large) market wanted to shift their goods to make way for our large 4WDs, but they did any way.

The market was large and interesting. Not the hell that some other blogs had suggested.

The weather remains reasonable pleasant – high 20s to low 30s.
We left the group at the end of the day to visit our Bob Schultz, a friend since Ray’s Zambia days. Given that Bob was staying 5 star, Ray took the opportunity to grab a shower.

We are camped at  Quifuma (Kifuma) beach, some 30 km south of Soyo.

172 kms, S 06⁰ 23’ 29.0’’  E 012⁰ 25’ 37.4’’

Day 15: There was some very light drizzle in the morning, so we packed up damp. even though Ray got bogged on the beach and needed the whole team to extract him (!) we managed to be ready to go on time at 08:00.

The great interest of the day was stopping at a mine clearance operation, run by the Angolan Army, and getting a briefing on the operation and the equipment. These blokes are truly brave.

We had lunch on the beach at N’zeto and Ray bought some grilled chicken from a local vendor to have in a sandwich.

Otherwise the road remains poor (except for 38 km of good tar). 122 km in 7 hours. Lots of dust with the Chinese construction drivers.

We are camped 30 m off the beach (in a green area!) near Macula. S 06⁰ 58’ 08.1’’  E 012⁰ 48’ 53.3’’

Day 14: up early for a 07:00 start. Avril had a very hard day’s drive. Initially onto the tar, then around the Luanda ring road (we did not stop). Luanda was mini chaos, but not in the big league of Cairo! A few kms outside Luanda the road deteriorates badly. What was a tar road became so badly potholed that a bulldozer has ripped most of it and pushed the tar to the side of the road.

Not too much of interest along the way; still the baobabs and Euphobia Candelabra now with some woody shrubs. There are few people; only some clusters of huts from charcoal burners. At one of the bigger villages we bought freshly baked bread – a nice treat for morning tea. We also passed a mine clearing camp and the markers along the road make sure we do not stray into the bush.

The weather is really quite pleasant, at a guess mid to high 20s, with some humidity when we are close to the coast. We are camped right on the beach near Musserra, crashing waves and pure white sand.

9 hours driving for 280 kms.   S 07⁰ 34’ 35.4’’  E 013⁰ 00’ 14.1’’

Day 13: we remain camped at Praia do Onca. A relaxing day. We drove back to the Kwanza river for a ~ 3 hour river cruise. Otherwise, just relaxing and cleaning. It rained a little last night and as we move up the coast the clear blue sky’s of the south have become progressively more cloudy. Fingers crossed the rains hold off for another 4 – 5 weeks to allow us the trip up the N1 in DRC.

Day 12: last night we dined at the captains table (thanks Isobelle). A fairly uneventful day; we drove along a series of ridge lines/hills and then down into valleys. As we are near the sea, the valleys tend to be the deltas of the rivers and hence green and very fertile. Above the valleys it is dry and almost lifeless. We commented that there even seems to be a lack of bird life along the route.

We stopped at a restaurant on the beach for a break and made the mistake of ordering some salad & chips. The salad was one very small tomato, sliced, plus 3 slices of onion plus 3 olives: A$ 3.00 and ~ 15 chips for an extra A$ 3.00. You buy a bucket of tomatoes at the side of the road for A$ 1.00, so we were very shocked at the exorbitant price, the cheek of asking so much and the lack of food quantity; it is not like the raw materials are all that costly.

Then we crossed the Kwanza river and are currently camped on a private property in a palm grove ~ 100 m from the beach – waves can still be heard. The water is now warm, but the beach very steep, so there is a large under tow.

Thanks to Louis Lombard for the opportunity to stay here.

Ray drove 274 km on good tar (you should understand that good tar still has corrugations and deadly potholes). Praia do Onca: S 09⁰ 12’ 45.9’’  E 013⁰ 04’ 22.1’’

Day 11: we ate at a local restaurant on the beach front last night; which was really quite pricy. We reckon that the cost was on a par with Australia. Having looked at a few restaurants, it seems that the going rate is quite high. We had a restless night, the locals decided to party to dawn (literally). Whilst Avril dozed, Ray got up and was rewarded by the sight of a couple of killer wales swimming close to shore.

A relatively straight forward day. We stopped at a hectic local market to buy a few things; ~ 2 kg bananas for A$ 1.00!

In the morning we had mountains through the heat haze on the left and then wonderful beaches on the right in the afternoon.

We stopped at a bridge over the Quicombo River and watched the local women washing their clothes. There must have been dozens on them, with the cloths spread out over the surrounding ground to dry. Of keen interest was the reactions of the baby’s strapped to their mothers backs going up and down as mother bent her back over the wash boards. They must have a head ache at the end of the day.

Then onto Sumbe for a quick stop. We then went to some massive water falls (volume wise) on the Queve River.

Koos Moorcfoft had been the RSM of the RSA special forces (and was later also the Sargent Major for the RSA army!), so he briefed us on the battles fought by the FNLA and South Africans in 1975 through this area.

Tonight we camp on the beach at Sumbe. Yet again Avril has a sea facing room and can go to sleep with the sound of crashing waves. Avril drove the 268 km (including ~ 70 km round trip to the falls).  S 11⁰ 11’ 52.9’’  E 013⁰ 50’ 04.2’’

Angola, part 2

Days 5 & 6: we spent 2 days at Flamingo Lodge. We took the opportunity to completely clean the vehicle and to reorganise our storage arrangement to (hopefully) a better system. On day 5 the mist stayed over the area all day, and it was quite cold. In the evening we took a drive to a spectacular canyon (multi coloured, sandstone – according to geologist Avril)  near by – we supplied some nibbles for the sundowners. On Day 6 we did get some sunshine. We had a nice fish meal at the lodge dining room on the last night.

Day 7: a reasonably leisurely 07:30 start to the day. Ray’s turn to drive; after the rough trip to the tar road, it was a made road for the rest of the day (confirming the accusation that Ray always gets the easy driving).It is good that we are learning to drive on the “wrong side” with a right hand drive vehicle under the careful and caring eyes of Koos. This will serve us well for the future.

We passed through Namibe and did some basic shopping and also bought vegetables from a road side market. Then we drove up the absolutely spectacular Leda pass. A great feat of engineering and fantastic views along the way and from the top. Unfortunately there was quite a heat haze, so it was not good for photos – memory will have to suffice.

We then visited a Dorslander Trekker monument and graves. We had a quick look at the statue of Jesus the King – a smaller version of the one in Rio and one of three in the world.

Tonight, luxury again – showers! We have a nice camp site on a strawberry farm. 272 km. S 15⁰ 00’ 27.1’’  E 013⁰ 24’ 25.4’’

 Day 8: After a very cold night, we set off at 07:00, Avril driving for a very tough day – 11 hours. We rated the road in 4 categories: made road, very badly potholed; made road very badly potholed and partially deteriorated ; made road fully deteriorated ; not really a road at all.

In the morning we went to the look outs at Tunda Valla – truly breathtaking. The sheer drop must be well over 1,000 m. The view over the surrounding countryside fantastic. Unfortunately, there was a strong wind and a haze, so pictures will not do justice.

The drive was just hard work. There were large baobab forests along the way and in the distance, through the haze we could see what looked like some great mountains.

We looked at the thermometer at lunch: 47⁰C outside in the sun & 40⁰C in the car.

Ray managed to withdraw cash from a local ATM with a Visa debit – which is handy.
Tonight we camp right on the beach just south of Benguela
319 km. S 12⁰ 36’ 26.4’’  E 013⁰ 15’ 35.7’’

Day 9 & 10: we are camped right on the very pleasant (& clean) beach at Lobito. It seems that we are leaving the influence of the Benguela current behind us – last night was mild and humid, no doona needed. Though the sea has that feel of the ocean off south west Victoria, a bit chilly.

Today we basically replenished bread, fuel (~ A$ 0.40 per litre – take note Andreas!!!) and food (a bit like a feeding frenzy for us, as we also stocked up for DRC). Fortunately the supermarket accepted a Visa credit card.

We stopped at a restaurant, most people just had a beer, but Ray decided to have the local speciality – stew of lentils, pork and chicken with rice.  

The local immigration officials visited us on the beach for a roll call and to welcome us. Very nice.

Ray’s turn to drive – 65 Km, mostly on dual carriage way! Mine you, Avril needed to drive after Ray had a beer. S 12⁰ 19’ 55.5’’  E 013⁰ 33’ 36.7’’

Angola, part 1

On the evening of the 13^th, out group had all gathered at Ruacana. We had a full briefing from Koos Moorcroft (the tour leader) and then a BBQ with a few beers.

Day 1 (14^th September). We had a leisurely start to the day, leaving the camp ground at 09:00. Namibian Immigration and Police were very efficient. However, the customs chap decided to have a sleep in, so we had ~ 1.5 hours spare. Koos & Jose (our Portuguese translator – speaks 12 languages) went to the Angola side to get everything organised and the rest of us went to look at the Ruacana falls (which are unfortunately dry due to irrigation and hydro electric demands). There is something quite sad about a great waterfall with no water.

The Angolan side was efficient – but very slow. The police checks were very meticulous. There was a small issue with our Angola visa – but a phone call to Maria @ minbos (who originally arranged the visa) and Jose’s charm resolved it all.

Then we drove 112km over some fairly bad roads – but not serious 4WD, to our camp site (S 16⁰ 58’ 49.3’’  E 013⁰ 56’ 12.1’’). We looked at our temperature gauge once today, saw it was 38⁰C, and decided there was no benefit in looking again!

Day 2: Given the hot day, we decided to go without our doona for the night. This was an error, the night was freezing and half way through we needed to get up and retrieve our warmth. After a very early start 05:00 alarm (did you know such a time existed???), we set off for a long day’s drive.

Avril drove today. 156 km in 10 hours. We passed through some interesting, but small mountains most of the day. Some very demanding 4WD sections, Koos (tour leader) called this the valley of 1,000 dongas. Lots of river crossings etc.

We passed many Himba villages and groups along the way. This confirmed to us that the concept of living close to nature is not for us. They scratch out a very basic existence in trying conditions; hot and desert.

We camped at S 16⁰ 41’ 08.0’’  E 012⁰ 50’ 33.0’’. For the 1^st time we set up the shower tent – successful commissioning achieved. Our evening preparations were watched by a small group of Himba children.

Day 3: The highlight of the morning was the look on the faces of the Himba kids when Ray powered up his electric tooth brush! We set off at a more reasonable 07:00.

Ray drove, the going was still trying 4WD, but not as exhausting as yesterday (according to Avril – and Koos!). One of our GPS’s keep asking if we wanted to switch to pedestrian mode. The mountain scenery was quite spectacular and we then passed into the Iona National Park and areas with numerous and large Welwitschia gardens. 

We had to register with the local police (Jose our tour interpreter took care of this) and took the opportunity to get some water from the police compound.

117 km in 8 hours. We camped at S 16⁰ 30’ 59.6’’  E 012⁰ 26’ 23.6’’

Day 4: a rather tedious drive today, very rough roads interspersed with long sections of bad corrugations.  There was one challenging river crossing, which Avril handled with great aplomb.

In the morning we drove into one of the west African coast fogs – 67 kms from the sea. Along the way we passed a lot more Welwitschia gardens, including the largest plant we have seen. We stopped at Lake Argo (Argo is Portuguese for arch) along the way. This reminded us of an Egyptian oasis. Mind you they could learn a bit from the Egyptians on how to cultivate to the maximum extent and how to tend gardens.

182 km in 8 hours. We camped on the sea at Flamingo lodge S 15⁰ 34’ 11.1’’  E 012⁰ 01’ 18.4’’.

We are blessed to be with a great group of people. Very welcoming and generous. In the evening there is a communal BBQ, BYO food etc. Lots of interesting conversation and humour. There are very good cooks in the team – so we have had freshly baked bread on a number of nights, freshly caught fish etc.

Finally on the way…

Late on Saturday 3^rd we got the news that the container had finally been offloaded.

We tried to fly down to Durban very early on Monday morning as the customs people were meant to be at F.A.T.S bond store at 09:00. Unfortunately the RSA infrastructure & transport had a further surprise. After taking off from JHB airport, we were forced to return to the terminal – fire engines etc were waiting for us on landing. Poor maintenance practices had led to a residue of oil in the jet engines, creating smoke in the cabin.

You can only begin to imagine our frustration! Now knowing the work practices of RSA Customs, we were very fearful of further material delays in Durban.

We finally arrived in Durban airport and got a taxi to the F.A.T.S warehouse. In fact we met the customs people on the way into the store – they were very late as well (who would have thought!)

After vehicle checks, we were on the way.  Odometer reading: 74,967  GPS: S 29^o 52.041’  E 35^o 00.170’ 

We returned to Pretoria to load up provisions, buy some mud terrain tyres to replace the current spares and get a professional mechanic to give the vehicle the once over. Of course this all took longer than planned – Koos Moorcroft (Angola tour leader) had arranged a very responsive & quick mechanic. But, the mud treads are a slightly higher profile than normal tyre treads, so it took time to get them into their right space. So rather than the leisurely packing we had hoped for, some of the “stuff” was thrown into the vehicle to be sorted, classified and packed in the proper place at a later date – an ongoing chore.

To try and make speed, we decided to transit through Botswana via the Trans Kalahari Highway rather than going to the western Cape, saving > 500 km.

We passed through both RSA and Botswana immigration and customs at ~ 1900hr on Tuesday 6^th September. Discussing our plan to travel to London proved to be the best ice breaker – I think they all thought we were smoking something! We then spent the night at some quite costly accommodation (I am not sure what lodging classification it falls under). The staff prepared us an egg & bacon sandwich - one of us had a cold beer (maybe a couple of beers!) and we watched the 1^st half of an England – Wales soccer match.

Again a very efficient and quick border crossing from Botswana into Namibia.

We finally met up with Steve & Ing at a the Kalahari Bush-break game farm 80 km east of Gobabis, 28 km from the Botswana ~ Namibia borders. You will be as surprised as I was to find them at the bar, having cool beers! So as not to be impolite, Ray joined in a beer. Then off for the 1^st nights camping. Everything worked well and Ing cooked a magnificent Chinese meal with a minimum of equipment.

It was now time to slow down!! Get rid of the stress of waiting for the vehicle and get into overlander mode.

From the game farm we went to the Waterberg plateau. This was a reasonably long drive. In the morning we were raided by the resident baboons, who managed to procure a loaf of bread from us. We then walked to the top of the plateau; from the top it seemed like you could see forever. The roads below reminded us of the pictures of the lines in the Atacama desert. We then set off for Etosha and the Namatoni rest camp.

We spent 3 nights in Etosha – not bothering with the early morning drives, rather taking it slow and easy. We did drives through the park, but also managed to fit in sun downers back in camp and further wonderful meals. The game was plentiful - lots of the common game. The highlight, if there has to be one, was seeing rhino on two separate occasions (it was been a long time since we have seen rhino) – we also saw a large pride of lions, giraffe, red hartebeest, elephant, kudu, impala, springbok ( not the rugby-playing kind!!), warthog, wildebeest etc.

On the final night at Namatoni we decided to dine out – a great way to finish our time with Steve and Ing. Early on the morning of the 12^th, we said good bye to Steve & Ing. They went south and we have come north.

We did some final shopping on the way to Ruacana. We discovered that credit cards do not work at fuel stations (you need a fuel card), so needed to withdraw cash on a credit card – hate to think what the per litre cost of that would be!

There has been a slight delay in our border crossing. Some of the group thought the crossing was on the 14^th, not today. This is probably a blessing, it gives us some time to pack the car properly, do some minor maintenance etc.

Coming out of coldish Melbourne/Adelaide winter, the weather here has been quite hot. We have not seen a thermometer, but imagine it is mid 30s most days. In addition, it is very dry – so even Ray has taken up using moisturiser (but the manly sort!

Still looking for a name for the vehicle.

Durban Chaos (& incompetence)

As things transpired, we have had to have great patience with Durban.

08:00 on the 30^th became 01:00 on the 31^st, became 10:00 on the 31^st. The vessel finally docked and then, the gods were truly against us: the wind picked up and made container offloading potentially unsafe. So further waiting.

Originally we were advised that our container was on the top level and priority offloading had been organised for us, so we could expect our container to be offloaded ~ 1 hour after the vessel had completed its paper work (later we were advised that there was 1 container on top of ours and later still 6 containers on top of ours).

Offloading commenced ~ 20:00 on the 31^st, however the clearing agents told us they were working extremely slowly (got to love government monopolies).  Then, one of the cranes over the ship broke down making offloading difficul; then they could not clear containers off the quay side quick enough so that slowed down offloading, then we were informed that they were back-loading as they unloaded, then the bureaucrat who needed to sign off the day’s plan decided to turn up late and so the saga continued.

As events turned out, the supposed priority offloading did not mean anything. On Friday morning, they had offloaded 1,000 containers – but not ours. They just offloaded according to their original plan! We spoke to the shipping line manager who said our container would be off loaded on Friday, then by 08:00 Saturday. But, of course customs do not work over the weekend. So, Monday 5^th earliest.

We have come back to Pretoria for R&R with Graeme and the girls. Very relaxing to be among family and forget the last week.

Meanwhile, Steve & Ing are travelling independently, with a vehicle load of wine & beer waiting for us. It is a big disappointment not being able to travel with them, see the Namaqualand wild flowers and visit Kgalagadi Trans frontier park (one of our top 3 in Africa).

We did visit the customs clearing agents (F.A.T.S) in Durban to impress on them our urgency. They have been absolutely fantastic and gone well out of their way to help us (e.g. they have had a vehicle on standby at the docks waiting for our container for more than a week!) but ship movements and vessel unloading fall under the Durban Port Authority.
We went for a drive around the port and it appeared to be quite dirty, disorganised and chaotic.
Based on my experience, Durban port must be worst in class. Very poor planning and inability to schedule even a few hours out.

We used some of the time to visit Umhlanga Rocks, where Avril spent many Christmas holidays. For her it was traumatic; the hotel of her childhood/youth had been demolished and a high rise complex built in its place.

As you can imagine, the ongoing day by day then hour by hour waiting has caused some stress. We managed to remain positive until the 30^th/31^st. After that mmmmm

Jen & Roger were the perfect hosts and really made things much easier. They assisted us in every way, B&B, emotional support, tour guides and great company, Big thanks to them.

For those interested how events transpired: on the 29/07 we were advised of a 21/08 ETA, on 4/08 the ETA slipped to 22/08 (the schedule as originally advised in Oz), 10/08 the ETA was 22/08, 15/08 the ETA was 22/08, 17/08 the ETA was 25/08 (the day we arrived in RSA), 18/08 the ETA was 26/08, 22/08 the ETA was 26/08, 23/08 the ETA was 26/08, 24/08 the ETA was 27/08, 25/08 the ETA was 28/08, 26/08 the ETA was 29/08, 29/08 the ETA was 30/08 at 08:00, became 31st at 01:00, became 31st at 10:00. Offloading commenced ~ 20:00 on 31^st