We have hit the road again. We decided not to stay in Cape Town any longer. We were not ready to deal with all the power cuts and after almost getting our front bumper and winch stolen we were ready to leave. The car had a lot of work done as well. We got the exhaust welded and bent back into position, got new tyres, painted the roofrack, got new body mounts on the rear, changed front springs to the matching EMUs on the rear, repacked the front right wheel bearing, changed all oils (20 liters!) and cleaned the whole car of dust and mud. Next to that there were plenty of little bolts and nuts missing or just needed tightening. The car was ready too.
Luvo - Angola
Our worst day of our trip was about to have a major turn when we stopped at a catholic mission to ask if we could camp in their yard. We were warmly welcomed by an Italian pastor and before we knew it we were eating pasta and drinking beer and whiskey. They wouldn’t let us camp as they had a whole room prepared for guests (which are rare in this part of the world). Shower, own room and even electricity! We received a tour around the compound, involving the school and orphanage. What a great place to be. The next day we were sad to leave, but our visa days were counting. We still had a whole country to cross.
Luvo - Angola
Our worst day of our trip was about to have a major turn when we stopped at a catholic mission to ask if we could camp in their yard. We were warmly welcomed by an Italian pastor and before we knew it we were eating pasta and drinking beer and whiskey. They wouldn’t let us camp as they had a whole room prepared for guests (which are rare in this part of the world). Shower, own room and even electricity! We received a tour around the compound, involving the school and orphanage. What a great place to be. The next day we were sad to leave, but our visa days were counting. We still had a whole country to cross.
In Luanda we stayed a few days with very welcoming friends and we were lucky to have them! I will never forget the amazing Argentinian steaks they prepared for us. They even organised our next stay at a beach club in Lobito. We were allowed to camp on the beach next to the club and use their toilets and showers. Unfortunately again we couldn’t stay longer.
The drive towards Namibe was very interesting. It started out with a very good tarmac road, but ended up being a dusty truck missing bridges. One time we got stopped by a fast flowing river that was about a meter deep. No one dared crossing it as everyone was waiting for the river to slow down. After 2 hours it was still exactly the same and we decided to give it a go. Slowly entering the water it soon started flowing over our hood and pushing us to the side. The nerves started acting up fast now. The water was pounding against the side and the tires were losing traction. The engine was losing power as it was about to stall. We were already in first gear but not in low range yet. Stupidly regretting it at that moment we stopped in the middle of the river to change to low range gears. Water pounding against the side, the whole car was shaking. It had a bit trouble to get going again but we managed to start pushing ourselves slowly towards the other side. Finally at the other side we opened our doors and water was flowing from everywhere. Luckily we took extra time at home to waterproof the car. Makes you feel alive these kind of moments. All other cars followed soon after, now they knew it was no problem.
Wild camping further down the road was good to settle our nerves a bit. There was no one else around and a stunning sunset made a good place to camp. After setting up camp we looked around to find some firewood and we noticed big foot prints of cats around the camp. We decided to camp anyway as we were way too lazy to pack up and find another place. Nothing bothered us until we were eating breakfast the next morning. A kid was walking past our camp and the moment he noticed us, he started running away immediately. We had a laugh and 10 minutes later we see a group of people staring at us from the nearest hill top. This moment we decided to start packing up to leave, just in case. They were faster than us so as we were packing up a man comes out behind of a bush and started coming towards as. I give him a friendly greeting and give him a hand. He didn’t accept it and left me hanging. Ok I guess no friendly people. I walk back to the car and we started packing up the last few things. In the meantime more people arrived and coming out of the bushes. Before no time there were about a dozen of Bushmen with big knives and spears standing around us. I give another try to communicate, but as I had no words of Portuguese and they didn’t know any English this became a very awkward communication. I fish out a few words here and there like Armos and figure out that they are worried whether we have guns. They were just trying to protect their own people I figured, so we showed them our car and try to tell them we are just camping here for the night. I try to tell them we are “tourists” but this soon became misinterpreted as “terrorist”. I say “no armas” and everything becomes a bit less awkward when they started laughing. I said OK and we got in the car and left. Next time I’ll definitely try to pick up some more Portuguese.
Further towards Namibia we were entering Lubango going up a high mountain range. Its strange to see this pop up out of nowhere as we have been driving over flat areas all the time. We drove from sea level all the way up to 2200 meters and we couldn’t see a damn thing as it was all cloudy. The temperatures have dropped from 35 degrees all the way down to 7. We decided to camp there anyway, and luckily we did. The next morning the clouds were gone and we were rewarded with stunning views over the flat lands.
We were so surprised about the pureness of the Angolan people. The landscapes are so untouched and we were received so warmly by many people. Many people skip out on Angola because of visa troubles or the high expenses, but it was so worth it for us. I hope we will be able to return some other day to explore this country some more without a short time limitation.
We filled up all our fuel cans before we left Angola, as it was super cheap here. Entering Namibia was no problem and soon we were at KFC eating fried chicken wings. What a huge contrast these two countries have. A few days ago we ran into a group of Bushmen and now there were ATM’s, fast food restaurants, good roads and facilitated camp grounds everywhere. Now it was time to relax.