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Fw: Ons Angola trip report.

1 of 14 2009/04/06 01:03 PM

Subject: Subject: Subject: Subject: Fw: Ons Angola trip report.

From: From: From: From: "T.D. du Plessis" <[email protected]>

Date: Date: Date: Date: Wed, 1 Apr 2009 11:28:47 +0200

To: To: To: To: <[email protected]>

Hennie

Ek het al heelwat male julle Web tuiste besoek en gebruik onderandere vir Angola info, hierby is my terugvoering van ons Desvakansie in Angola as jy dit wil plaas ( op aanbeveling van Anton van Schalkwyk) - laat weet maar as jy dit wil gebruik of as jy dalkdie foto's in ander formaat soek. Ek weet nie of dit nodig is om te noem nie maar SA4x4 tydskrif gaan dit ook plaas.

Verskoon die paar tik foute wat daar dalk nog mag wees.GroeteT.D. du Plessis

Our family “ADVENTURE” to Angola There is a curse on the word “adventure” which brings bad luck when ever I use it to describe anouting, well this one is behind us and it was a true ADVENTURE.

It all started in the 2nd half of 2008 when we decided to go to Angola, my wife and I with kids ages 5,7and 9 and our friends a couple. A lot of research was done on Google, and information was gatheredfrom people who had caught the fish, traveled the routes and ate the food. I formed the opinion that you can go to Angola for 2 reasons. 1. for fishing, 2. for exploring, we went

for the 2nd but took the rods with just in case. Our adventure started with a bang, not with a good one but with the sound your car door makes whenthe children didn’t close the door after climbing out to open a farm gate and you drive through itclosing the door with the fence pole, luckily it was only a small dent and scratch, this happened as wehad to detour because we missed a turn off and ended up in front of the gate to Etosha, you can imaginewhat feelings this created. We set up camp at the Kunene River Lodge and had some good birdsightings. I added the Rufus Tailed Palm Thrush in his clay nest to my life list. Day 1Our friends arrived and we all had to refuel at Ruacana only to find out that there wasa price decrease coming so there was no petrol or diesel as the owner was waiting for


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the price decrease before ordering fuel. We detoured 70 km to Otapi and after leavingI discovered that someone did a closer inspection of our goods on the back of thevehicle, but luckily nothing was stolen. We also discovered that our front numberplate was lost and this before the Ruacana border crossing, well we trust God in ourjourneys and off we went and the crossing went all well, we were inspected and thecars looked through but didn’t have to unpack at all. At the Namibian border theofficials could not find my engine number and eventually gave up the search,fortunately we had police clearance on our vehicles and off we went. We drove on andfound a camp spot at about 17H00 next to a slow flowing pictures stream. We were inAngola, celebrating and spirits were high.

Day 2We were in deep Mopane fields and the scenery was marvelous with granite mountain ranges coveredin green as far as the eye can wonder. We left at 09h00 and traveled 200 km for the day passedOncucua, setting up camp at 17h30 next to the Elalla River. The day was full of river crossings, somedry and some wet, but nothing to thought to handle. Upon stopping to set up camp our companion’svehicle wouldn’t start, this sent some shivers up our spines, luckily we discovered that it was due to a

blown battery which seems to have been tightened to much, we used the 2nd battery to start the engineand was back in the spirit of seeking “adventure”. During the day we met some Himbas and discoveredthat even they were submitting to the modern life by using motorcycles to travel between towns andvillages, what a sight to see a Himba on a motorcycle! Our camp S1644226 EO1314964.


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Day 3We left at 08h00 and took the northern route marked as “not recommended” on T4A,the route it self was much overgrown and in someplace only a single spoor leadingthrough Mopane and thorn bushes, the route it self was not to difficult but had somemore challenging river crossings since it was not used that often. The worst was thescreeching noises of rubbing bushes under and on the side of the vehicles, it made meconsider VPS protection but it was to late to spill any tears now. The last rivercrossing at Pediva was quite a rush with much more water and bigger rocks hiddenunder the water surface. This track was much desolated and getting back to the maintrack gave one the feeling of being back in civilization although we where still far fromanything. We traveled 108 km for the day and set up camp at 17h30 in a lovely plainscattered with granite outcrops much the same as at Spitskoppe back home (S1615029


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EO1232197) Surprise for the day was an Afrikaans speaking Himba from Windhoekand many tweety birds – as we started calling al the Himba children shouting forsweets, sweets, sounding like tweets, tweets.

Day 4We are back on the road at 08h45 and visit the now almost famous Angola Welwitchia, and place ourspecially prepared stones on the stone pile that we brought with from Windhoek. (A bit of a turn downwas that some people are turning it into a waste pile, and little did we know that we were still in cleancountry) We reached the Arco Lake with its mud houses and palm leave roofs lining the edge of thelake creating a beautiful sight, after this we had to cross the app. 200m wide now in semi flood riverfeeding the lake, this didn’t pose any problems as it was very wide but shallow with only some mudtowards the end and comparing it with the “sinkpad” from the Welwitchia to here it was a breeze. Wearrived at Tombua, drew money at the BOB, filled up our water from the local municipality officesunderground water tank and replaced the battery (@ N$ 1 700-00 ouch). Thanks to Mr. Ressamo andsome locals who helped us during their lunch break. Tombua is clean but has a nasty fish smell andafter some nice photo opertunities in their harbor with old fishing boats lying in pain and decay we setof to find a camp. There was also no diesel available. Be prepared for the little dune as you leaveTombua, this one doubled our hart beat and by the behavior of the local kids I could see that we werenot the first ones to get stuck and give it another high revolution go. We set up camp at a little lagoonjust south of the first ship wreck and were not to far from 2 fishermen making a living on the beach.


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Day 5, 6, 7

Time to take out the fishing rods, my first catch was a Leer Fish, 2nd on line was some small buggerthat stung me in the finger, my hand started to pop up but as the fish were biting there was no time formedication now. Next was a shad, after inspecting and showing of its nice teeth it got hold of the samefinger and bit me right next to the place were I just got stung, now it was blood all over, hey butnothing that an old rag cant temporarily fix, the fish are still here, the kids caught some smaller fishand all seemed to quiet down when next I hooked a “sand haai” in the back, while retrieving myspinner from it’s back it electrified me sending me off with a huge jump! This was if for the day, I hadmy share, stung, bitten and electrocuted I packed up and settled down for the next few days whichpassed by with spectacular waves filled with phosphor in the evenings and a lake full of jumping fish. The kids enjoyed the lake and the wife’s caught up on their tans.

Day 8Our batteries were charged and we left at 10hoo heading for Forado Camp. Next was the Orca Lake,this is worth a visit as you get to stretch your legs and see some beautiful scenery on a guided tour, thiscan become a bird watching paradise. We stopped over at Namibe to refuel, here we paid N$ 6-50 /ℓ, Ithink we were done in compared to the rest of the countries fuel prices, which was in the range of N$3-50/ℓ. Namibe was a bustling town with a packed water front area; this must have been a very nicetown judging by the layout, architecture, harbor, big palms and wide streets. We reached the Foradocamp turn off at about 14h30. Don’t bother turning off, Forado Camp is none existing, we reached two

dead ends, the 2nd after following the river with vague tracks and a lot of rocks, boulders etc coveringour way and ending in a dead end with huge boulders which washed into the river and a chain blockingthe once excising road. On our way we passed a painted sign reading “my beach”, what a nice piece ofdirty property, a pictures quiet little sand beach surrounded by huge cliffs on both sides, a smalldammed up river on the one side for fresh water, and some dilapidated stables, ruins of an old housewith a clay bake oven still standing and 2 old fisherman boats lying in decay. Two locals inhabit someold living quarters it seems and with their pigs and goats seem to make a living here, tired andfrustrated we set up camp at 17H00 S1444152, EO1217294.


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Day 9We leave at 7h30 with low morals after not finding Forado and looking forward to some nice ablusionsand some decent camping sites for a change. Our aim is to reach Cabo Lebo with two camp sitesmarked on T4A. The road leads through some beautiful mountain passes and with new tar roadsunder our wheels time flied by. We passed the lush green town of Bentiaba and other villages, here wealso met up with some other Namibians who where on a fishing trip. The villages are all small butpictures, with mangos and bananas in abundance. The road started to deteriate up to Lusira and thensuddenly the tar ended and changed to a gravel road under construction. We were in the mountainsand I mentioned that it seems that the warning from the other travelers about a “van Zyls” passwaiting for us was unfounded. We then passed a road construction camp and suddenly found ourselvesin first gear low range. We were averaging 4 km per hour for about four hours; my wife went fromcrying cracking to hysterical about the road situations. We set up camp next to the road at 17h00E1321450 EO1253524. We traveled about 250 km for the whole day. At least the surroundings werebeautiful and no more tweety birds. Everybody was tired but having loads of fun.

Day 10Today I lost all inabisions to take part in any more 4 x 4 competitions, trails or what else, I had my


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share for the year to come. We left camp at 7h30 and were met with oil drips in the roads where somediff or sump where repaired and a lot of rock to pass. We continued safely due to experience, slow lowrange driving and relying on a navigator for the best part of the morning. From Dumbe Grande theroad improved through to Lobito. We topped up our water at a village borehole pump next to the roadand passed some awesome seenary with valleys and mountains everywhere and dramatic sandstoneformations. We where back on a new tar road from Benguela and now pushed for the camp site atCabo Lebo, we arrived at 21h00 with the first indicated camp site leading to a road construction site,we set off for camp no 2 and descended down towards sea level. I was driving behind our companionsand when I felt my car starting to slip I stopped to see if all was well with the road ahead. Then a callcame over our radio “I’m stuck”. We were in a high tide plain and could hear the waves breaking notto far away. I walked over to the other car and was met by the sight of a bellied down to the earth 4x4,this was it! My wife wanted to go for help but my opinion was that we had the knowledge and knowhow and had to do this and get out ourselves. We had a winch on the stuck vehicle which we hooked upto my vehicle, dug some trenches in front of the four wheels and tried to winch out, no go. My vehiclewas pulled in over the slippery mud so I re positioned to a small grassed area, we tried pulling him outwith my vehicle but he was not moving an inch, I was only spinning on the spot. Hands in our hairmud in our shoes we re-assessed the situation and I remembered the LA sport video of lifting thevehicle with a high lift jack and pushing it out of the spoor. This gave me a new idea and off came theair jack. We dug into the clay below the spare wheel and inserted the jack, our vehicles were heavilyloaded but we succeeded in achieving a lift of plus minus 2 cm just enough to brake the suction, we dugagain in front of the wheels and used what we could to insert in front of the wheels, not much wasaround to be used. We winched again and this time had some progress forward – about 1 meter. Wehad about 15 meters to cover, we did this over and over and eventually we had one side of the car onthe clay but the other side was still cutting thru the clay and into the water under the clay. Werepeated the jacking digging and winching process for 3 hours and by now were covered in mud fromhead to toe! The surface we got stuck in was about 3 cm sand on top of a layer of clay of 30 cm thickfollowed by water embedded sand. Well we where unstuck and so proud of our accomplishment.Totally charged up we headed to a lodge indicated on the T4A and after waking everybody at about1h30 we were informed that there was no camping available and were given directions to Shalongovillage about 10 minutes away. We set of to the village but could not find the turn of and after about 30min drive we turned around. I pulled into the village that was 10 min away and saw that a truckstanding next to the road was blocking the entire gravel entrance road. We followed this road down tothe beach and behold there was a new development with chalets and restaurant. The owner came downto meat us at 02h30 and it was good to hear and communicate in broken English for a change. Wecould camp there on the beach and at 03h00 the kids where in bed.


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Day 11, 12, 13 and 14We chilled out at our new found camp site, and apon inspecting our friend’s car found the winch fixing


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plate to be bent and the welding on the chasse behind the mounting brackets to be cracked. The settingof the camp is in a little bay but it is crowded by a fishing village next-door who seem to use the sea asthere dumping ground with bottles, plastic bags, jackets being washed ashore regularly. But we stillhad a good swim. Ablutions had to be shared with all and had no doors and are still in a state ofrenovation. So hopefully things will improve soon. Bungalows are also available. Here we werefortunate to be joined by a new companion for the few days, we called him Woes, one of the local dogswho took us in and he regarded us as precious. He literally garded us and even went so far as toattacked one of the locals who he regarded as a nuisance at our camp, further he kept some drunksaway, played with the kids and went with us for strolls on the beach, much to the dismay of the otherlocal dogs. S0933201 EO1312077.

Day 15We packed up and paid N$ 135-00 per day, what a very reasonable price. Next we headed for Mussulo,what a disappointment; we drove thru rubbish stench and thick sand expecting to find Franks place orother developments along the bay. Eventually we turned around and headed back as most of thebuildings where in decay and new developments only starting in some places. Later on driving pastMussulo from the main land, it looked as if there where more development towards the end of theIsland and we might have turned around to early. We drove through Luanda in about 3 hours withoutany pr0blems, thanks to T4A. It was amazing to see people living between and in so much rubbish.New developments are evident everywhere and with people still occupying dilapidated buildings. Wewent to the ship grave yard where the road has been turned into a borrow pit and the anxiety overcamemy wife after driving thru Luanda as the scenery screened a place where one could be murdered andnever found. We turned around and set of to find a place to camp as it was getting late. We traveled tillafter Catete and set up camp in the bushes next to the road with landmines in mind we treaded lightly. S0909364 EO1351657.


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Day 16We traveled thru Dondo, Quizenga, Cacuso, Pedras Negras. This road leads you through huge forestsand some Kremetart forests that you can’t imagine the beauty off and past the outcrops of PedrasNegras which is truly amazing to see. We camped next to the road with a view of the Cuanza River. The roads are tarred and in a good condition up to Pungu Undonga where it changed to a good dirtroad. S0939071 EO1455582


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Day 17 We were in highway country again up to Lubango but the “go home” has bitten our companions. Verydepressed I made the decision to rather head for the border and sleep over in Namibia than to spendtime alone without any navigation in the Lobango area, as we had no Gps. We refueled in Lubangoand headed home. If you are informed as we were that the road has been tarred from Lubango toNamibia do not believe it. They are busy with it but you literary hit the first pot holes and you have totravel next to, onto and wherever possible for a few hours. This got me into a laughing state as well aswe were planning on a 3.5 hour drive to the border. It took 7 hours from Lubango to the border and at17h50 we whisked thru the Angola side – what and adventure – we where glad and sad to be home. Will I go again, yes, to see the Lubango area and more of the North and eastern areas just maybetaking a different road this time and some day the coast again. KM traveled 5900Water carried – 140 ℓ between two carsI had 40 ℓ diesel additional which was enough. Car Toyota D4D 4 x 4 with iron man suspension and added leave blade at the back.


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Problems, we were twice threatened to be locked up, once due to one drunk police officer and the otherbecause of a miss interpretation of the language – I think El posso means passport and not drivinglicense -, but other than that I felt it was save and found the people to be helpful. Little information isavailable and be self sufficient.Positively the country is in repair and it has beautiful vistas, mountains, mountain passes, escarpments,valley’s, rivers and forests, interesting ruins all the way and definitely worth the visit, buy your self anEnglish to Portuguese phrase book, it is help full.

Foot note: It is very important for all to be well informed and to be mentally prepared as the roads andevery day situations can be very stress full and tiring.

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