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

Waiting, waiting, waiting…

We are currently in Pietermaritzburg, waiting for the Kota Lawa to dock in Durban. The vessel was a couple of days late, arriving off Durban on 24^th August. Since then it has been at anchor in the Durban outer harbour waiting for a berth. The current best estimate is it will dock 08:00 tomorrow morning, 30^th August.
We knew we would need to learn to wait in Africa, we did not anticipate it would be so early in the trip.

We left Melbourne on the 14^th August to Singapore. We had a pleasant couple of days there, doing the normal tourist things. Looking at the shops (our cases were too full to buy!) and eating. We went on the “hop on – hop off” bus around the Island, walked around the new marina precinct and went to the night safari at the zoo.

We caught up with Derek Fisher (ex BG Tunisia) in Singapore and had a wonderful dinner with him. Surprisingly, it turns out he is a Republican.

We left Singapore for Johannesburg at 02:00 on the 17^th August. At this time the vessel ETA was still 22nd August.

It was 2^oC when we arrived in Oliver Tambo airport. The airport was very efficient (no issue with not having an onward flight) and we were quickly on our way to Pretoria to stay with Avril’s brother. It was great to spend some time with Graeme, Jenny and Alex. Lots of catching up and talking! On Saturday evening we went to a show at Monte casino in Johannesburg.

We used the time in Pretoria to get visas for DRC, RoC and Gabon (if you are going to follow the blog, you will need to work out the acronyms). They were all very simple to get. The RoC went out of their way to be helpful issuing the visa in 3 hours instead of the normal 3 days. So we now have visas all the way to Cameroon, where we meet the kids for Christmas.

We receive daily updates on the ship ETA. It soon became clear that we would be looking at delays. So, we took the opportunity to go to Cape Town for a few days. It was really great to catch up with our niece (Brittany) and Avril’s uncle and his family.

We went around the wine route to Stellenbosch, Franshoek etc. Despite the incessant rain we had an interesting day. The mountain scenery is spectacular. The South Africans have yet to discover the concept of a measuring line on a glass, so when you order a glass of wine – that is what you get.

We stayed at Camps Bay (full breakfast at a foreshore café = R 20 i.e. A$ 2.80), watched wonderful sun sets, walked through the down town Bay area and strolled around Kirstenbosh Botanical gardens. Then, back to Pretoria.

The daily shipping report continued to be discouraging. We had intended to visit with Jen Crooks in Pietermaritzburg. Jen is Avril’s “twin” from university days and the person who convinced her to take a safari to SWA/Namibia in 1978. We had originally planned to spend the weekend of 20/21 August with her, but with the delay in the ship, we pushed this back to the 27/28 August. We went to a bird park and small game farm near the city on the 28^th.

Steve and Ing Marshall have arrived in Cape Town. We had originally planned to meet them in Springbok in the northern Cape (to look at the wild flowers) – now it looks like to we need to make alternative plans.

Fingers crossed on the ship!!!

The Vehicle

For those interested some information on the vehicle.

Most importantly is the big thanks to Peter Mitchley. The vehicle purchase and modifications were done with the great support and assistance of Peter. We could not have done it without him.

Mind you, I am not sure what he will do with his weekends now I am not there to take all his time.

We purchased a 2006 Toyota Landcruiser, HDJ 79R, from the South Australian government auctions.

We decided on the 4.2 Turbo diesel model as reports on the newer V8 were not encouraging. Also, the new model required higher specification diesel, which will probably not be available in some parts of Africa.

With assistance from Enzo at Northpoint Toyota in Adelaide, we set about making appropriate additions and modifications.

1.     Suspension: stronger springs and shock absorbers from Old man Emu. Vehicle upgraded to 3, 500 kg. Firestone airbags to assist the rear springs.

2.     ARB Diff Lockers; both front and rear. Fitted by ARB in Regency Park. Thanks to Craig and all the blokes there, nothing was ever too much trouble.

3.     Diff and gear box breather extensions.

4.     The vehicle came with winch.

5.     Vehicle electrics: Ctek D250S battery isolater and charger. 2^nd (Optima) battery fitted. Hella driving lights.

6.     General electrics; all by fitted by Torsten and the great people at Mobiletek in Adelaide. Kenwood GPS and general entertainment system. They also installed rear parking sensors and a reversing camera (integrated into the Kenwood unit) and a permanently wired tyre pressure monitoring system

7.     Internal fittings: bonnet & head light protectors, side window windshields. Internal roof console; this includes hard wiring of multiple cigarette lighter points to keep GPS devices, phones etc charged. Seat covers. Window tinting.

8.     Long-range fuel tank 150 l.

9.     ARB roof rack

10.  The aluminium tray which came with the vehicle was replaced with a custom made steel tray and was built to include a large cabinet behind the driver’s cabin. This was done by Dekkers in Adelaide. Michael was fantastic –a true professional. Even the smallest change was not too much trouble. The cabinet, which is dust proof, holds 2 spare tyres, Honda generator (in an easy slide draw on the driver’s side), 2 draws for odds & ends (on the passenger side) and a water treatment system.

11.  4 x underslung tool boxes. One holds 2 permanently wired ARB compressors. The others have recovery gear, spare parts and tools.

12.  Trayon camping unit (www.trayon.com). We chose this unit as it allows for internal seating (in case of rain, privacy etc). There were many modification to this including:

·         removal of the LPG system in favour of electrics (Ctek M300 battery charger, 1,000 W inverter, marine quality circuit breaker panel, 120 amp hr deep cycle battery, many additional 12 v outlets).

·         Installation of draws in the cupboards etc.

·         On the commissioning run through the Australian outback we found that the Trayon unit with its long bolt down threads could slide about on the tray, so we installed stoppers to maintain a minimum distance from the cabinet and also ties to provide additional security.

·         Sound system with iPod, radio, speakers etc

·         Secure compartment with safe

 

We are looking for a name of our expedition transportation i.e. what do we call the vehicle. Suggestions welcomed.

On the Way

We will depart Melbourne on the 14^th August for a couple of days in Singapore before arriving in Johannesburg on the 17th August.

We have been advised that the vehicle will now arrive in Durban on the Kota Iawa on the 21^st of August. There has been some stress with the documentation to temporarily import and then export the vehicle (Carnet). We sent the carnet via the postal service. Australia post insisted that it arrived in South Africa. South Africa Post insisted it never arrived.  

So, thanks to the fine efforts of the AAA and RACV, a new carnet was issued in 24 hours. The Australian customs assisted by signing the new document in Melbourne, rather than insisting that it be resigned in Port Adelaide. So, the new carnet is now on its way to Durban (fingers crossed).

Steve & Ing Marshall (from the UK) are saying they will join for the RSA & Namibia legs of the trip. So if that comes off, it will be great to have company.

The tag along tour through Angola is proceeding. It is planned to start at Ruacana on 13^th September. http://africa-bushcraft.co.za/ . Many thanks to Peter Richards, Maria and the crew at Minbos for assisting with the Angola visa.

The kids should join us in Cameroon for Christmas. Gabrielle is working up the details for that.

The only other fixed date thus for is that Olympics in London.