Friday, February 27, 2015

Day 30 Pedras Negras - Waku Kungo

In to morning we went to see Calandula Waterfalls. They are one of the biggest in Africa by volume. 105 metres high and 400 metres wide:

We drove to Malange city, nice, clean and freshly restored and painted houses:


From there we drove South to Mussende. Uhhhh.... Yesterday we thought we drove the worst road in Angola, but we haven't seen this! It wasn't road with potholes, but potholes with some road! :) For more than 100 km! That was also like a charcoal country - you could see burning charcoal on the sides of the road and selling bags of it everywhere.

Video of the road:


The we got to town Mussende and we hoped the road would be better... Mussende town video:

From there we took the road West to Quibala, at the beginning the road didn't look promising...

But after 35 km new tar road, we lucky because sun was getting down and we have to start looking for a place to sleep. Video of the road:


Beautiful sunset on the road:

And Cuca-time :)

We arrived to Waku Kungo town. After dark. We saw a church and asked for a padre if it was possible to camp at their place. uuuh what a mission!!! The priest had to call police sergeant, he asked for all the papers: passport copies, car papers, visa etc... It all took more than an hour to do all that. After we pitched our tent one of priests passed us and said in incomprehension: AND NO GASOSA FOR ME??? But we had a nice guy guarding us, very modest and humble and we shared some beer with him and gave a small tip in the morning... That was the first night of the trip we experienced really heavy and long rain. It thundered and rained the whole night! This was our camp at church ground:


Thursday, February 26, 2015

Day 29 Tombo - Pedras Negras

We have done the whole coastal side of Angola and now it's time to move inland. So we are heading towards Calandula waterfalls. We had to drive back to Luanda ring road because the road to Tombo nursery is a one way road for 35 km. Our road led us to village called Dondo. On the way there was a major accident - the passenger bus drove off the road - we saw helicopters landing and many ambulance cars passed us.

Video:


Halway to Dondo the road was good tar, but after that... UUHH... Must have been the worst road we drove in Angola! Potholes, pothoes and potholes! Every few dozen metres a big pothole. 65 kilometers took us ages to drive and we needed a lot of patience. The road was divided by concrete blocks to prevent driving on the other side, so you couldn't drive around the potholes:

Anyway the blocks didn't help much as everyone chose whichever lane they preferred. Here is the video of the road:


And some got into trouble with police for driving on the wrong side:


What we saw was very sad - big baobabs being destroyed with excavators:


We drove through the Dondo town which lies on the banks of the Kwanza river:




Dondo Citydrive video:



After Dondo we headed South, we crossed Kwanza river, some truck in the bush:


The road is very beautiful, scenic green bush:

55 km South of Dondo we turned East and we got to the village called Calulo. What a great surprise it was! Apart of derelict buildings left form Portuguese time, there were new apartment blocks, functioning library, church, decent guesthouse and restaurant, and good hair saloons :D





After Calulo the road turned North and we went to see a coffee plantation where it would be possible to camp, there was also restaurant and hotel. We talked to the security guy and he said the boss wasn't there and it wasn't possible to stay there so we turned back. The drive to the coffee farm was very beautiful:



So we continued our drive North. The road became smaller and smaller and we were hoping it won't disappear, as it used to happen to us before :)

Finally we made it to Kwanza river (again) and saw some nice rapids there:
Video:


From there we drove to the place called Pedras Negras, the road was new tar rad with no cars. We arrived at Pedras Negras and found a great campside on the rocks with full moon:


Us looking for a campsite:
Travel Map
Photos

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Day 28 Ilha de Luanda - Tombo

In the morning we took a drive on Ilha de Luanda where there are the top restaurants, hotels and clubs of Luanda:

And then drove around centre of Luanda, growing skyscrapers side to side with many portuguese style buildings left form the old times: Many new shops, office and apartment buildings.


Soon after the scenery turned into mountains of rubbish and sewerage, giant potholes and you forgot that 5 minutes ago you've been into a 21st century modern capital :)




When we got out of Luanda we went to see the Shipwreck beach (also called Kar Marx beach named after the largest shipwreck), there are couple of dozens of shipwrecks rusting on the beach, its quite impressive scenery:





Then we headed back to Luanda ring road and decided to try to find a camping that we read about in the Bradt guide... It is called Tombo nursery and is by the Kwanza river. The road was sandy and bumpy and we hoped the camping will be still there as that was our only option. 

Arrived at the Tombo nursery we were looking for SeƱor Helder to ask him if we could camp at his plant farm. He wasn't there but we were allowed to camp.
Tombo Nursery video:

That was a great spot, few metres from the river! We went for a walk:

And our campsite:


Preparing lunch for the next day:

Coleman multi fuel cooker:

Our guest this night:

Travel Map
Photos

Monday, February 23, 2015

Day 27 Mossulo - Ilha de Luanda

This was our last day on Mossulo island in Luanda... We knew we had to leave today and atmosphere was sad, because we made very good friendships. We went for a coffee to the nearby resort with Ana Goerge:


And after the lunch we had to leave which was very sad moment... But we knew we will meet people that we met on Mossulo again for sure! So we were on the boat to back to Luanda... When we got to our car we saw we had a puncture:

So we fixed the problem and were on our way to Yacht Club in Luanda where we knew it was possible to camp. From the yacht club you can see skyscrapers mushrooming over Luanda:

We walked to Ilha which is where Luandas Creme de la Creme goes. We went to the restaurant called Cais De Quatro for a drink and decided instead of having main course that costs 60 USD to go for a hamburger on the promenade :) Which turned out to be the best hamburger we EVER HAD! two types of ham, two cheeses, eggs, salads, tomatoes, onions, potato sticks, sauces, you name it! For. But it was absolutely delicious and full of happy locals eating dancing and drinking to the music blasting from boom-boxes :) We knew we made a good choice :)

We went back to our campsite at Yacht Club and we had not the best nights sleep because of the loud music from nearby bars and restaurants..... 
Our Campsite at Yacht Club in Luanda
Yacht Club Video: