It has been a while since the last blog, and much has happened, as you can imagine. After leaving Morne in Botswana, we travelled for a day or two through the northern part of Namibia and then into Angola. In earlier blogs, I’ve talked a lot about how wonderful Namibia is, so I won’t add any more now.
The people of Angola looked after us in many ways. We spent 10 nights in Angola, stopping at several different locations. Almost everywhere we visited, people helped us progress through this journey.
On our first night, we stayed at the Obama Guest House and were befriended by the owner, Silvio, who looked after us. He helped us change money, took us on a half-day excursion to an amazing mountain vista (with views somewhat like those experienced in the Blue Mountains), organized a SIM card for our phone, and even bought us some data.
We then ventured towards the coast, spending a couple of nights just south of Sumbe. At a bank there, the manager helped find a money changer. He spent 2- or 3-hours sorting things out and even sent a staff member to fetch the cash while Craig and Barry advised him about possible visa requirements for Australia. The banks and most shops or ATMs in Angola don’t accept Visa or MasterCard.
We then travelled further north to Cado Ledo, where we were helped by the wonderful Morne Rodriguez, the manager of the resort we stayed at. This area has several resorts, and the one we found, Dorce Mar, was within our budget. Morne provided insights about the history and current politics of Angola and offered to help with the rest of our stay in Angola.
We even managed to get a quick surf in at the famous Cado Ledo point, reputed to have a 3 km long wave when it is pumping.
Morne advised us of a cheap hotel on the outskirts of Luanda, where we spent a couple of nights getting some car maintenance and the exhaust on Melissa repaired. This all happened in a wonderful way because we met Ricardo, the proprietor of RiJo Supplies, a 4×4 specialist, who allowed us to grease and check on the cars for free. He also advised us about an exhaust specialist, Vilop Escapes (“Escapes” is Portuguese for “Exhaust”). The proprietor was so amazed by us that he had his team work on the car and build a new exhaust system—all for free.
Then there was Antonio, who waved us down with wonderful English, helped us change US currency, guided us to the Republic of Congo embassy, and took us to a specialist local gin bar where they gave us a tasting of this amazing local gin while we ordered a pizza from over the road. He helped us do the crew change over when Rod left and Jayden arrived.
We stayed 2 nights at the Naval Club in Luanda, which had a special little area for overlanders to camp for free. We met George, the president/owner of the club. He set the area up because he is a much-traveled overlander himself and the owner of a 404 Peugeot, so he was very impressed.
We were even looked after when we camped at a “gasolina station” that had no fuel. (Many Angolan fuel stations seem to run out or only have one or two pumps working at any one time.) The guards provided us with some security, and the staff befriended us.
Again, we received help and support when we found out that the ferry between Soyo and Cabinda was not working. We received good advice about the best border crossing—Luvu—to get into the Republic of Congo without pre-arranged visas, by getting a transit visa at the border. Here, we were helped by a wonderful gentleman around our age who spoke English, Portuguese, French, and, I think, Italian.
And other little things.
The trip is quite amazing ( as you could imagine … .but some times you have pinch yourself ) We have had some amazing help as outlined above .
But little things keep happening that are quite amazing. here are a couple of little examples… the other day at mechanics workshop… offered to us for free by Richado ,( mentioned above ) whom we met on the road at tourist spot … Barry needed something to check the oil level in the differential… it has to be flexible ( back In Busselton where he lives he uses peppermint tree leaves ) … I think cable ties … go to find one in the other car and walk from the workshop to the other car and about half way there on the ground in middle of car park in a cable tie. !!!!
And another little example … we go to the Republic of Congo embassy in Luanda to sort out our visa applications … the embassy official checks all our documents and then ask is we have an interpreter to fill our the forms that are in Portuguese…. And at that moment a young guy who speaks English and Portuguese turns up and is happy to help. And then the embassy official helps too. … and these are just a couple small examples…
So, although Angola is not in any way set up for tourism or overlanders like other Southern African countries are, it has opened its heart to us with the way we’ve been helped. It seems that almost every time we needed help, someone provided some amazing support.
Congo support us too. !
We are now in Kinshasa now … the capital of DRC. Intense place. Absolutely intense. Hectic growing population … a hectic everything … But had amazing help ( bit only cost a few $$ ) from a Man of God …Patrick and the Japhet help us to find a hotel. After an 8 hour drive to get only about 200kms. Traffic astonishing!!! And checkpoints police stops ( after $$) and road tolls-for roads that included following trucks through a mud bath… and the wreckage of broken down or smashed trucks and cars and through city streets, actually a section of the highway into town that was think with mud and probably every know bug. And plastic waste like you have never seen it. !!!!
We arrive at a place we understood to be a hotel at about 4:30 pm and a crowd flocks tothe car … it’s getting late and we need a place to stay. And then Patrick ( the man of God ) and then Japhet a young student turn up. Both Speak great English . They take me for a ride on Motorcycle ( taxi) about 10 minutes away to a hotel called … Enjoy Palace … a place we can afford with secure parking and a restaurant … it meets our needs. And they come and help the next day get a couple of other things sorted out.
There seems to always be someone to help!!! …. We are all very pleasantly surprised…but I am going to call it helping spirt from now on.. Or maybe it’s St Christopher…. The patron Saint of Travellers….what ever it is we are blessed most of time. But challenged too. It is what makes this kind of travel adventure so rewarding.
