Angola part I

Getting into Angola (on April 19th 2013) was very easy, the carnet got stamped in 5 minutes. The entry stamp in our passport took a little bit longer. The border official wanted to know all the details about our trip in Angola before letting us go. Rosana told him that we were going to drive to the Mbanza-Congo and from there to the coast.
By the time we finally left the border control office it was time to find a spot to sleep. We drove about 10 km and then took an old road for about 1 km and parked there for the night.
We thought we were far enough from people to not to get disturbed but after about 15 minutes a guy with a rifle  came to us to find out who we were and what were doing here. After telling him that we were "turistas" and want to spend the night there it was ok. Apparently he was a guard of a nearby farm.

Bush camping with a view

Glue-sniffing guard

Rosana politely thanked him and told him goodnight indicating that it was time for him to leave. But we were too interesting to him so he kept staring at everything we were doing all the while sniffing glue, which we did not like in combination with him carrying a gun. Fortunately when the sun went down he went back to his village.

We had a quick dinner and went to bed early, only to be woken up at 10.30pm by the police. Apparently the border police had called the police of Mbanza-Congo that a blue Mercedes and a white Iveco were on their way. When at 7pm we had not arrived the police got worried and they started looking for us. We were almost 50km away from the town, 1km away from the main road on a dirt road, how they were able to find us we still don't know.
The police was very friendly, he called the chief right away and they were just happy that all was ok with us. This was a typical experience with the police in Angola: very friendly, concerned and helpful. Later we would have a similar experience driving through the Angola highlands.

The next day we drove through Mbanza Congo which was pretty much an ugly African city as we had seen many before. So we continued and drove to Nzeto on the coast, another ugly town that still showed the scars of the war in Angola.

Happy people all over Angola

Reminders of the war everywhere

It probably was a nice old Portuguese fishing town a long time ago. After Nzeto the road turned bad and it was slow going all the way to Embriz, where we arrived the next day around noon. While looking for a bakery we ran into some Portuguese guys who invited us to join them for lunch on a nice beach just south of Embriz. There we stayed the next two days to do laundry and relax from driving within in a week from Gabon to Angola crossing Congo and DRC and conquering the worst road of our trip.

China at work

Roadside meat market

Life does not suck

From Embriz we drove south towards Luanda. Fortunately we did not have to drive through Luanda which has been described as a city the size of half a million people inhabited by over 4 million people. Instead we drove east to the Pedras Negras and the falls of Kalandula.

We wild-camped about 30km from the Pedras Negras on a road that was under construction. At the beginning of the road we had asked some locals whether this was the road to the Pedras Negras and also about the status of the road. They told us that this was the road and that it was a very good road.

The first 30 km were very good after that, the last 25 became a dirt track that in some places was completely overgrown by 3 meter tall grass. It was clear that no one had driven there the last couple of weeks. The route was very scenic and we were getting some nice views of the Pedras Negras in the distance. There were some small river crossings and one swampy area. Here Patrick and Martine got stuck in the mud and we had to come back to pull them out.

The end of the good road to Pedras Negras

Pedras Negras

Dirt track to Pedas Negras

This is why we drive a Unimog: pulling our French friends out of the mud

The Pedras Negras are some big rock formations in the middle of the hilly Angolan highlands. Really pretty. We spent a couple of hours driving and walking before we drove further to the Kalandula falls.

The Kalandula falls are not as big as Niagara or Victoria falls but they are very spectacular. When we arrived late in the afternoon there were just some locals there who were washing their motorcycles and themselves at the top of the falls. We decided to camp at the falls and since it was almost full moon we had a beautiful view of the falls at night.

The falls at full moon

The next day we started our drive to Benguela, a town on the coast, 300 km south of Luanda. Whenever we have a chance we ask the police or a local about the road ahead of us, so we are mentally prepared. Even though most of the time the road is completely the opposite of what they tell you and in most cases worse than we were told. So also this time. There was a roadblock and the police was diverting traffic. One of the possible roads to Dondo was blocked (a 30 ton truck tried to cross a 10 ton bridge, so now there is no bridge anymore) so at least we did not have to ask) so we only asked about the state of the road to Dondo. According to the policeman the road was excellent, new tar all the way to Dondo. Well after 6 months in Africa we were a bit skeptical and indeed after about 100km the tar road stopped in the middle of nowhere with no signs of it being continued anytime soon. It was as if someone suddenly thought after constructing a 100km tar road through the bush for three or four years that maybe it is better to spend the money somewhere else. So we were again on a bone rattling piste full of potholes.

Again the scenery was beautiful and after Dondo the road started to climb even more. On one of these climbs suddenly smoke started to come out of the dashboard that quickly filled the cabin. We stopped the car, shut down the engine and got the fire extinguisher ready. We thought oh shit, but as quick as the smoke started it disappeared. When we looked at the damage we saw that there was a short circuit in the cigarette lighter and that the cable started to burn. Fortunately it did not burn any of the other  many wires that are stuffed into the dashboard, so we could start driving again. That night we stayed at a farm that was being run by Cubans. In Angola you have many big farms (fazendas) like you have in Namibia and South Africa.

Great scenery all over Angola

Camping at a farm

The next day we continued our drive through the Angolan highlands. At the end of the day when we looked for a place to sleep we just took a little dirt road off the main road to the coast. Some locals drove by on motorcycles but no one really bothered us until early in the evening when the police came by. Probably some one had told them that we were parked there. The police was very friendly but they found it better if we drove to the police station and camped there for the night.
Of course  we did not want to move anymore, we had just repaired a flat tyre on Patrick's car and were just starting to prepare some food. Fortunately we still had the jack and other tools near the car so we explained in our best Portuguese (sometimes it is better not to show that you speak the language, so Rosana did not say anything) that we had an issue with the car and could not move. The police now had to call his boss and told him that the people in the mountain were tourists and that they speak a thing that he could not understand. But in the end we were allowed to stay but only after they explained that we had to be careful of mines. On one side of the road were we had parked there were rocks painted red indicating that the area had not been cleaned of mines yet. Something we did not know, so it was good that the police stopped by, the next day all of us still had our limbs when we left.

Camping on the side of the road that was free of mines

Another 1 million dollar view...

The road through the highlands was very nice and we made it to Benguela without any problems. After traveling through western Africa for the last three months it felt like we were back in civilization. Between the town of Lobito and Benguela there was a lot of construction going on, new roads, railroad, shops, stadium, airport, carrefour style hypermarket etc. 
Benguela was an ok town but nothing special, we stayed there two nights at a guesthouse that is run by an American woman who also has an English school on the same premise. The second night we spent three hours talking with her students so they could practice their English. It was interesting to talk about all kind off topics from the war to religion, to corruption,  our trip and the future of Angola. Most of the students were young and seemed to be very frustrated with the way things are going in Angola. Too much corruption and even though Angola is rich not enough money is going to healthcare and education. Salaries are low and the cost of living very high. Angola was by far the most expensive country we traveled through even though it was the cheapest country on our trip, mainly due to diesel for 40 cents a liter (1.60$ a gallon, that is more than 50% cheaper than in the US) and all the wild camping we did.
In Benguela we also met other overlanders, a Dutch couple, Jeroen and Sonja who are on a 14 month journey through Africa. We had met them already in Yaounde (Cameroon) one evening and it was very nice to see them again in Angola.

A new bridge near Benguela

City camping without a view

They joined us for the last 10 days in Angola. We decided to take the coastal route to Namibe and from there back into the Angola highlands to Lubango.
The first night we ended up at a small fishing village where we camped at the beach. Some of the villagers came out to stare at us but after sunset we had the beach to ourselves and we built a nice fire.

Watching the locals watching us