ANGOLA Bom dia amigos! crossing a portuguese speaking border for a swiss couple in africa was a new experience and another time a fixer helped us getting through this jungle of paperwork to make it over in a reasonable time. the language barrier was there but of course Tom Rüegge learnt me so much of Portuguese on our last trip to Brazil that it was a peace of cake to communicate with the locals finally. ;-) angola has been in civil war for many years and to our surprise we didnt feel any tensions anywhere between people, no matter where they come from. it was a very warm welcome and a peaceful atmosphere that made us camp in the bush or at the beach every night in this country. as hotels, restaurants and general living are so high priced, we were forced to keep our budget low this way. heading up to lubango, over to Namibe and further up to Lobito, we came through mountaenious passes to beautiful beaches with stunning views. beautiful. luckily and in the middle of nowhere we met other travelleres on their way down to cape town. they gave us very valuable info about the west coast in general. also did they guide us to a place in lobito where we could have our oil changed. - when we got there, we got hit hard by angolan hospitality and friendliness! Obrigado Marito for showing us round in Lobito - what a time! also in Lubito, we met another couple travelling africa - pretty crazy as we havent met that many people on the whole east coast ever. between Lobito and Luanda, it was said to have some of the best surf in the country which we wanted to explore. we did some... and for all the surfers out there, its worth it bringing your boards down here for sure! we had a stopover in Luanda for our Gabon visa. we could stay at the Clube Naval do Luanda with a beautiful view over the skyline of the city. as we got to some remote beaches lately with our super-high-clearance-2x4-offroad-van, we thought we are ready to drive anywhere now. two days later though we got stuck on the beach quite seriously, as the tide started coming back slowly. you should have seen us... Gianni trying to get the van out of the sand, Fabi digging a channel around it to protect it from the incoming water! crazy! without the help of 5 fishermen, we would probably still be hanging out there. ;-) Angola rocks, thats what we have to say! we got into D.R.C. two nights ago (17.5.14) - what a border!!! but more about it next time! were not sure if the pictures will follow right now as its hard to upload pictures if the power turns off every ten minutes! :-) welcome to congo my friends... with love Gianni and Fabi
Posted on: Mon, 19 May 2014 16:21:37 +0000