Angola: Cunene to Congo River Mouth Part 3 Sept 2010 – The Road South Paul & Lin Fisher plus “Fred” The Cruiser Club Mascot Day 18 – Quifuma -Yet another chill sit and do nothing day Quifuma Beach

Much muttering to-day about sitting around keeping the fridge’s down. Why ? Kobus with the 4500EFI develops a problem with his aircon clutch. It gets Mcguvered. Day 19 another early start in the dark - 206 Kms Back down the same crap road through a baobab forest and then into Ambizette where we stock up on bottled water. Then to Musserra and the building site camp except that Jannie pipes up; Umm isn’t that a beach over there and Koos is despatched to find out. We get to stay instead on what is the best beach camp, by far, so far !!! With stunning lagoons as well. All it took was a little initiative. Everyone REALLY happy about this. Lucky Find Beach Camp

Look at what Lin got and she brought it home !

Day 20 to Caixito to Uige 440kms

What a crap day – road from real hell this time. Packed up in the rain and dark - 4 hours to travel a mere 130kms to Caixito – you just get so tired of it all – Then a tar road though a mountain rain forest and pass, stuck behind a slow moving SAF freight truck and Koos wouldn’t overtake, so all the maniacs from hell arriving at the back of the slow moving convoy just took their chances and forced their way into the convoy when they ran out of space. Tempers quite heated today – a lot of people really fed up. Magnificent trees in the forest, oh to have been able to enjoy them but nowhere to pull off. We eventually pull into Uige at dusk some 12 hours later. The police chief won’t let us camp in a quarry – nothing wrong with it at all – he says not safe for us – yeah right !! He just wants his bottle of whisky and thus leads us through town with sirens and lights flashing – everyone else STOPS (!) to let us pass, drives us through the market where they normally camp with the locals gawping and on and up to a new camp – the old bombed airport and we set up camp all in a neat row – until he’s gone – in front of a bombed hanger. He leaves two cops to guard us !!! Everyone really tired. Another Road Statistic

Road to Caixito

Coming down into Quibax having left the forest

Yet another roadblock

All lined up at Uige

Uige

Day 21 – 229 Kms To Calendula Falls Really lovely day to-day. Roads not too bad. We go into Uige town for shopping. Nosso Supermarket – what a joke – like Russia in the old days. They have over-ordered spaghetti so shelf after shelf groans with the stuff. Plus they have wooden spoons which are spaced out at half metre intervals along a really long shelf of five tiers to make it look full – it of course only draws attention to the stupidity. Nothing to buy but cool drinks and Zoo biscuits, no water no bread, nothing that you actually want. We would do better in an open market. Moving on out of town and back into the countryside, which it has to be said, looks like the Dundee area of Natal. Then in the middle of nowhere a small town called Cambatela – lovely old houses much abused but on the long central grassed reservation a Catholic Church like a Cathedral – you simply can’t believe that its here. We stop for lunch and photos. Cambatela

Moving on we get yet another Police Road block – more time wasted. Then eventually we pull into Calendula and head for the falls and being a Saturday all the locals are there with their boom boxes – nice one Koos ! Eventually they bugger off and we are left in peace & quiet and spend the night listening to the waterfalls. Some thunder & lightening and quite cold. Calendula

The Bathroom – Koos Jannie & Heinz

STUFFED ! About the only Giant Sable you’ll likely to see in Angola

Day 22 – Cuanza River Beach - 357kms

Early start in the cold & mist - fairly good road – beautiful countryside – lots of old Military hardware left by the road side and warning of land mines. This road also not on T4A – We go to Pedras Negras (Black Rocks) amazing formations, travel up into the hills to the top. Evidence of old fighting here – bullet holes; I pick up some old AK47 casings. Pedras Negras

We move on and eventually come down to the old Cuanza River bridge and camp on the beach there – it’s a Sunday so the beach is full – nice one again Koos – The youngsters stand and gawp – the noise is unbelievable – they drink and drop the bottle – there is no agro - everyone is friendly, but eventually they get drunk and at sun down push off home through the scrum of vehicles parked at the narrow entrance and

leave all their mess & litter behind them. We swim (upstream!) and do our washing in the river. Beautiful spot. Cuanza River Bridge Beach Camp

Another Market

Day 23 – to Waku Kungo Late start, avoid all the broken glass & cans – I won’t mention the area that passed for an open loo – Tar road mostly, good, with some potholes – you start to define the day by what sort of road it is !! Very beautiful countryside with lots of wrecks by the side of the road – some good farms well laid out with foreign aid. Man, this land is good farming land, the stuff just grows here. We visit Bridge 14 and get a history lesson on who did what to whom – Koos comes into his element at last. His eyes twinkle as he re-tells the story. Standing in the blazing sunshine. Then move off to the town of Wako Kungo – rather nice town, lots of shops where you can actually buy something. I go into one looking for whisky – do you have whisky ? Yes – leads me to a shelf with Cognac – here sir is French Whisky !!!!Somehow I don’t think so. Eventually the real bottle store opens –young white Portuguese woman at the till showing quite a lot of her top half – her husband ? - comes to her and obviously tells her to close up her overall – I smile ! I get Whisky !! plus I buy some Portuguese wine & olives etc. I am happy. Quibala ancient Portuguese Fort on hill top - lots of bombed buildings in this town.

“The Alamo” at Waku Kungo

Church Camp Site

Detail

We camp on a lawn next to the extraordinary old church at the top of the hill – Its like we’ve set foot on the film set for The Alamo – it even has bullet holes all over it. Just as we set up camp the heavens open and we all get soaking wet – how we laugh – it

stops as soon at it started so we dry off soon. Jannie is more concerned about his wood for the fire. This man is the “Hout Meister” he did not miss one day in getting firewood for his nightly braai. This is what was most missing from this tour, a central fire for everyone to sit around at night – only Jannie had a fire and the group moved in and out on different days – we were never all around the fire at the same time. The town is nice, 1400 Metres up, and there is a park opposite the church, well laid out & neat, we meet a south African here who is running the local hotel and has plans for the area. We have met quite a few south Africans on this tour and they are all enthusiastic about business opportunities in Angola it would seem that you just need a pet General in your pocket – brown envelopes me thinks ! Road South to Menongue

Bush Campsite

Unlucky Aardvark

Day 24 – Bush Camp north of Menongue via Huambo 527 kms

Ilse told to-day that her Pajero will not be re-delivered to her in Huambo as supposedly arranged and that she must go with the driver across the country to Lubango – she is not impressed and leaves most unhappy. So now only 6 cars & Koos. Kobus at a stop manages to drive over a concrete post that he has just used and damages the bullbar & high-lift jack on his 4500EFI – he only eventually sees the funny side of it ! Everyone a bit tired now I think. Arrive at our camp – very hot late afternoon. The camp has changed from the month before and earthmovers have re-arranged it so some park up on a little hill only to get invaded by bees first thing in the morning Janie & Romi are stung quite badly. During the night some of us hear an almighty bang – two blokes on a buzz bike manage to collect an aardvark and kill it and almost themselves in the process – they get patched up and eventually go unsteadily on their way, which is more than can be said for the poor aardvark. Okavango Bush Camp South of Menongue

Sunrise at Bushcamp

Day 25 – Bush Camp next to the Okavango River South of Menongue Okavango River

Maybe I’m imagining it but Lin and I start to think that the locals are less friendly here than what we have experienced in the rest of the country – the kids are a nuisance or maybe we’re just tired. I don’t know. But they are becoming a bloody pain. We see lots of old Military equipment and more mine fields and one legged people – terrible thing to happen to them. Will take years & years to clear these areas if ever. We were supposed to stay two nights here but Koos has changed his mind and now wants to push on – people who have made on-going arrangements are less than pleased about this new development. The camp in on the riverbanks but is a fair walk to get to the river. Day 26 – South to near Savate 150KMs Sunrise Last day in Angola

Short journey so we end up setting up camp very early and have the usual battle to keep the fridge down. As we arrive so early Jannie & Romi decide that they have had enough and so leave and head straight for the border and home. I have a feeling that they made a wise choice. We are tempted but reckon that it might be better to be in a group when crossing the border in view of how onerous it was coming north. Koos gets another puncture to-day – his tyres are not good, he already has a tube in the first puncture he got on the way up. It takes a lot of messing around to get his rig right. Strange that his should be so poor when he made it clear to all of us in the missives he sent prior to the tour of the need to have new tyres plus, if possible, three spares. Most have two.

Day 27 – The road to the Border. Early start and a final crap road to the Border – they have been building a new road for this route for over two years now we are told, but what we have is deep sand with lots of detours – if anything comes the other way you simply have to stop to let the dust settle before continuing, its that bad. Koos said that he has never made Rundu before 4.00pm on any previous trip – somehow I can’t quite work this one out – it is not far to the border and whilst it is fairly busy when we arrive (reckon that Jannie probably did quite well getting there in afternoon) It’s a breeze and I even get Freds passport stamped too. It’s before lunch – Lin looks at me and mouths Vai – so we make hasty goodbyes all around and shove of before anyone want to inspect the Cruiser.

To be on one’s again and the sense of freedom that that implies cannot be under-estimated, plus to be back on a good Namibian sand road – what joy ! We skip the joys of Rundu and head down the road to Grootfontein where we have a lucky find, just outside, the Kalkfontein Guest farm; heavily decorated by beautiful Jacarandas – a real room, a real bathroom – a loo, and a swimming pool followed by a great dinner cooked by someone else at last. We are in 7th heaven.

We take a week to return to Cape Town travelling down through our favourite spots in Namibia. A total trip distance of 10,430 Kms – 6 weeks in all. Conclusion. We did enjoy the experience of travelling this far & wide. We learnt a lot about ourselves, and the fact that we could be, for the first time totally self-sufficient. I can think of better ways to spend 6 weeks and I have said here and in my other report what I thought the shortcomings of this particular tour were. No not, ever, underestimate the traffic and the way these people drive – they are certifiable and show no mercy. I think it would be interesting to go back into Angola in a few years time when they may be better organised – but you are always going to need someone who speaks some Portuguese. The beauty of the middle of the country would be well worth a more relaxed viewing and I wonder what the high ground along the border with Zambia would be like. My Cruiser – Stuffed windscreen at Ruacana on the way up, faulty lights from all the shaking around, minor water tank leak – NO PUNCTURES !!!! – Thanks BFG KM2’s Do not, ever, underestimate the traffic and the way these people drive – they are certifiable and show no mercy

I don’t see any reason why a private group of say 3 or 4 cars could not do this trip on their own provided that you get a sponsor in Angola and can get a Visa. The roads are bad but hey, that’s why we have 4x4’s - and if you can go at your own pace and camp here and there, which I think can always be arranged with a local chief, there should be no problem. Certainly the locals are friendly and make no move to hassle or rob you. Probably Luanda will be different but even in large towns like Lubango, Lobito, and Huambo we were never hassled. Smile and smile and smile…………………….. More pictures at : http://picasaweb.google/lostshepard00