15. Angola
You are looking at posts in the category 15. Angola.
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Updates En-route: 30th April 2008
Posted on April 30th, 2008 by 2muppets.
Categories: 16. Namibia, 15. Angola
Post Location: GPS Map
Date: 30th April 2008
Location: Opuwo – Namibia.
Distance travelled since last update: 160 kms.
Muppets say: We are in Namibia and don’t have clamidia. Yay!! Sleeping in bush bungalows, a night out of our tents! Off to say howzit to the Himba people tomorrow (see pics of them on Google.) Feeling relaxed at last - can almost push our bikes from here!!
Updates En-route: 29th April 2008
Posted on April 29th, 2008 by 2muppets.
Categories: 15. Angola
Post Location: GPS Map
Border crossing point: Namaounde, Angola
Updates En-route: 28th April 2008
Posted on April 28th, 2008 by 2muppets.
Categories: 15. Angola
Post Location: GPS Map
Date: 28th April 2008
Location: Lubango – Angola.
Distance travelled since last update: 350 kms.
Muppets say: Camped in the grounds of a $220 Lodge. Spectator sport for the locals. Valentino Rossi’d the spectacular Liba Pass and visited the Rio Esque Christ Statue on our day off.
Angola, a forbidden treasure
Posted on April 26th, 2008 by 2muppets.
Categories: 15. Angola
Post Location: GPS Map
Apologies for the delay in updating the site, however as you will read from Dan’s post below this one, we can definitely blame extenuating circumstances!!
The sense of relief after collecting the new parts at Kinshasa’s airport was immense, but this was to be outdone by the sheer joy when we fired up my bike not only to find that the starter was now firing up much quicker and smoother, but that the new carb needle had completely fixed the poor idling problem (running rich) that had been plaguing it for the last month. Of course we still had another 350km to ride two up on my bike back to Matadi but having my bike repaired had us both in fantastic spirits. We have since discussed how each of us had started making contingency plans for what would happen if my bike died completely (what seemed like a very real possibility leaving Matadi), but neither of us wished to broach the topic with the other until all avenues were exhausted.
The ride back to Matadi was obviously less stressful, no coughing KTM to coerce around corners and up climbs, but we did hit nightfall with roughly 150km to go! The road surface is excellent and it was a full moon, but riding 2 up on a 640 at night with a fair amount of heavy vehicles on the road does bring on the odd ‘puckering up’ moment. However for me this little night time adventure is indicative of Dan and ours friendship, not only do we have the utmost faith in each others abilities (I nodded off a couple of times on the back) but our sense of humor was never far off – Dan and I breaking into dreadful karaoke, not warning the pillion about the impending speed bumps taken at pace, and the inevitable jibes about bad lines/gear changes/etc. We arrived in Matadi late into the night and set to work replacing the parts Dan stripped of his bike to get mine working. By midnight we had 2 beautifully running bikes and were fast asleep in our tents ready to make an assault on Angola in the morning.
It was a strange feeling packing up the next day without Ed & Josh, your daily routine adapts so quickly and we had gotten quite accustomed to Josh boasting about the good music he had listened to the previous night, and Ed getting ready in record time then walking around reading his book whilst rubbing his dreadful beard. The reason we pushed so hard to get back to Matadi was that our Angolan visas expired the following morning – so after a quick stop in at the embassy we were assured that this would not be a problem as the visa starts from the date the passport is stamped not the visa issue date, kiff to the max! What was not so kiff however was the hour it took for the ‘chef’ (head honcho) at Angolan immigration to see us, and issue said stamp.
Our route from Matadi took us south west down what the Michelin map terms ‘secondary roads’ to the coastal town of N’zeto. On the most part these secondary roads are in very bad nic, potholed to shit, and offer no riding pleasure – this route however has got to be some of the most enjoyable technical back country riding you can do on a public road. It had everything: rocking climbs, deep puddle crossing, rutted descents, clay forest sections, etc. To some this must sound like madness, and yes, of course we would have preferred to do it on an enduro bike, but the 640 is as close as you get in the adventure bike market – and after 4 months of confidence building in the bikes, combined with some lengthy delays, getting bike and rider covered in mud for 260km was just what the doctor ordered!!
From N’Zeto we took the coastal road down to Luanda, with the intention of cutting around Luanda and hooking up with the main road south on the other side, however fortunately for us we bumped into a local lad (also works erecting cell phone towers – big business in Africa clearly) Lenny who had working in SA for 4 years, he advised that we rather take the coastal road from Luanda to Lobito as it is excellent tarmac. We happily followed his advice, which has proved to be on the money, guud one Lenny! The downside of this plan was that, yet again, we would be navigating into an African capital city after nightfall – this brought on all the usual fun and games but the silver lining was that the very kind pork & cheese ex pats in Luanda offer free camping and ablution facilities at their swanky harbor side yacht club, result!
With the help of Tracks4Africa’s latest auto-routable GPS maps we were able to make a painless escape out of Luanda and stretch our legs on the 500km of fresh new tarmac that lay ahead down to Lobito. It quickly became apparent that whilst it was great to be covering miles quickly and safely on tar, our hearts really belong to the dirt roads. 350km south we overnighted in the coastal town of Sumbe, a little town that sports a palm lined beach that is flanked by huge Dover style white cliffs. The highlight of Sumbe was watching a little lad of roughly 8 years desperately try to do back flips on the beach like his older mates, only to pull off a quarter of the rotation and land squarely on his head. After 4 crash landings his dogged perseverance gave in and he ran off into the ocean grinning from ear to ear.
A family friend of ours, Les Becker is currently working on a project in Lobito and has very kindly put us up at their beach front house for the last 3 nights. A luxury that we very rarely get to enjoy is simply relaxing on a couch, watching TV, and enjoying a cold drink – so that is all we have pretty much done for the last few days (incl some bike maint and a spot of fishing). A huge thanks to Les and his colleagues for taking us in and letting us have the run of the place!
Tomorrow morning it’s a big day down to Lubango (6 hours) then from there its on to the Namibian border - the last country before SA can you believe it!! Namibia is a very special place to South African’s, and having never been there but read countless outdoor magazine articles on its majestic dunes, fantastic wildlife, and skeleton coast, I am chomping at the bit to get stuck in.
Before signing off I have to say how impressed I have been with Angola, the countryside is wonderfully varied and absolutely remote – connected with tracks and dirt roads that are a bikers dream. The Angolan people have been incredibly friendly, and even in the capital Luanda, where usually the hussle and bustle means very little one on one interaction, we had fantastic conversations full of ooohs, aaaahs, and hearty laughter. The sad part however is that the Angolan government seem hell bent on not letting tourism flourish, a 5 day transit visa is all you can muster and given the cost of the visa itself and the extension ($180 per person for 10 days in total) it is unlikely that the situation will change anytime soon.
So we are still on track to finish at Cape Point on Sat the 24th May – would be great to see you there if you are in the mother city, or at least for the drinks session that evening! Following the end of the trip we are taking a well earned holiday with family up the garden route, up to Maritzburg, then on to Joburg. A delayed 30th / welcome home party is in the planning for the 2nd week of June in Jozies, more details to follow shortly, but yes, signed posters will be available!
Cheers
Jody
PS. Our trip odometer is reading 17 800km’s !!
If you would like to peruse our exact route on Google Earth, simply open the KML file attached below, you will obviously need Google Earth installed on your PC. You may need to slide the time bar (located on the top right of your Google Earth screen) across from the 2nd Jan to the 24th April to see the full track. Check out the 2 day desert loop near the Algerian border - hard core baby!
Updates En-route: 22nd April 2008
Posted on April 22nd, 2008 by 2muppets.
Categories: 15. Angola, 14. DRC
Post Location: GPS Map
Overnight point: Luanda, Angola