Dry Land... Where art tho'?

And here we are in Namibia, been a while since we had internet connection specifically since our 3G bill rolled in, I won’t even mention what it was but we refrained from even trying to link up.

The last 2 weeks have been fast but fun! We were seriously looking forward to Gabon, the one country we had read about and were particularly keen to see the mystical surfing hippos, beach ellies and of course some gorillas! We headed for Libreville, the capital, so we could try and resolve our Congo visa and find out about flying into the secluded reserve Luango on the coast. Libreville is expensive so we decided to drive North of Libreville to the land tip Cap Estas where we found the village Mama and managed to agree that we could camp in front of her house which was on the beach. Yet another beautiful spot, and Thomas from the local restaurant took us out to the village bar for the evening and even insisted on paying for our beers! We had a great evening despite our broken French!

poor trees!

The Congo visa was a no go unless we bought another (the entrance guard made us re-dress twice before we were allowed in even though I was wearing a long dress and Andrew a collared shirt – our embassy outfits) and Luango was closed due to the government not having reissued the airplane license to get there – oh Africa! So we now needed to hot foot it out of Gabon to hit Congo by the 11^th March.

We did however stay at the Albert Schweitzer hospital in Lamberene which was fantastic which is built on the banks of where 3 rivers join. The museum was really worth a visit and they have set up the Nobel Prize winner’s old hospital pretty much as it would have been – you don’t want to have had to have dentistry in those days! The Dr is specifically famous for having set up the hospital for Leprosy sufferers and to imagine how they were so intrepid to head into deep Gabon in the early 1900’s is remarkable!

Albert Schweitzer Hospital

We unfortunately hit Congo at 5pm on a Friday which is a no-no in Africa – drunken border officials and the potential of beers or cigarettes in the car was more a priority than getting our formalities done. But nevertheless, we managed to escape the policeman trying to catch a lift with us to South Africa for greener pastures and the toothless wonder who kept repeating my second name as if he could taste me, and slept the night in the only “Auberge” in the village. For $5 you get a double bed with fan and mozzie net, concrete slab in a grey facebrick room just big enough for the bed and a wooden slat door – and free bar music thudding and loud neighbours – but you can survive anything for a night!

No comment!

At this auspicious place, we also came across a traveler from Luxembourg who apparently (no English, some French) had traveled by ‘camion’ (truck) from Dolisie (12 – 18hrs) and was not being allowed into Gabon. We are not sure exactly what happened as his visa looked correct but he was told that he had to go back to Brazzaville and fly in to Libreville instead. So what transpired is that he hopped in the car with us and we drove him back to Dolisie. It is amazing how when someone ‘official’ either makes a mistake or misunderstands there’s no going back and although all seemed legitimate for him to cross the border, you can bet that some misunderstanding along the way resulted in the initial suggestion to fly in which then became the only way.

I had spent the night wide eyed as our Luxembourg hitchhiker had told us how the road to Dolisie was absolutely “CATASTROPHE!!!!” and “DANGEREUX!!!!”. With this in mind and the distance, we hit the road as the sun was rising and within 10mins came across the first stuck truck and our hearts sank. But this was really it and yes the roads are pretty appalling and the rains have started but we got to Dolisie by early afternoon and gave Boban a slightly different experience in Mo which he called “royale”.

and the roads with rain begin (Congo)

You can usually bank on staying at a Catholic Mission in most towns which is what we did in Dolisie. You are usually welcomed by the nuns and provided with a spartan but adequate room and feel safer by the fact that it’s a religious institution. From Dolisie we headed for Pointe Noir which is divided between poverty and secluded and expensive expat communities. You can camp at the Yacht Club but it would have been difficult to sleep due to the heat and the many begging hands everywhere so we opted to stay in a hotel and spent a luxurious night with a/c, a pool and white linen – what a treat! The next day was out of Congo into Cabinda, out of Cabinda and into the DRC. Cabinda is part of Angola and the visa overlanders get issued is a double entry 5 day visa so you get 5 days for Cabinda and 5 for the rest of Angola and if you look at a map, you can quickly see how ridiculous 5 days is to get through such an enormous country.

You can always bank on staying at a mission

We spent 2 nights at the Sisters of Jesus and Mary mission in Moanda and even wandered down to the beach to find a barbeque and bar and the whole community dressed in their finery for the occasion. It made us feel scruffy when we looked down at our grubby camping gear and you certainly stick out like sore thumbs! But nothing like some fatty kebabs, fried fish, fried plantain and a few beers to while the afternoon away. The remnants of the war are all around you in the DRC specifically the deserted grand hotels that would have been spectacular in their day.

And another mission (DRC) where we bumped into Stanley and Julia again with their 2 girls, Senna 15months and Oewyn 5yrs

We left the DRC very early so as to hit Angola and start our 5 day visa clock. There are 2 main roads you can travel, either the inside “highway” or the coastal road. We picked the inside road for the first half of the country so that we could travel quickly and try to get to Lubango and try extend our visa. First off we travelled the whole afternoon once border formalities were complete through windy mountain roads and little villages – quite beautiful but had to eventually turn around once stopped by a policeman who had to mimic using a canoe to explain to us that the bridge further down the road (past Madimba) was no longer and there was no other way around! There went day 1 but we did bushcamp in an old quarry and had a river bath which was all part of the adventure. Then the next day we had to retrace and hit the coast expecting to fill up in N’zeto which is a substantial dot on the map with an airplane symbol implying petrol (to us anyway) as petrol is cheaper in Angola than DRC so we had not yet filled up. We just made it to find a dusty single rd town with a few rusty pumps in the middle of the road that had clearly not worked for years and years. Hmmm, now what? We managed to flag down a Portuguese lady in her diesel Land Cruiser and with much pointing (Andrew and I will beat anyone at charades after this trip) we managed to find out that Mo took Gasolina and not Gasoleo which was another new word we needed to learn in Portuguese Angola – we had just gotten used to asking for ‘essence sans plomb’. Anyway, we ended up paying double for the cheap petrol as we bought bottles from a house on the side of the road.

Don’t bother trying to get an extension, we wasted our time at Immigration in Lubango as the initiative was zero and a transit visa was a transit even though we tried to explain that we wanted to explore the coast, spend money and do what tourists do, even for an extra 5 days….but no!

Filling up with gasoline in N'zeto

We bush camped again outside Xangango so that we only had a 2 hour stretch to the border the next morning, we’d get into Nam early and start heading to the west to explore. Hah! What a morning that was. The rains have seriously started and of course it has already resulted in Namibia flooding in the north. We had the most exciting, hair raising and unpredictable drive. We decided to take the ‘shorter’ cut from Xangango to Ruancana but not only being the only car on the road and no evidence of any other tracks, we started splooshing through the odd puddle, skidding through slooshy mud and it got wetter and wetter until we met up with one massive lake where the road was supposed to be – now what? We found a little village (i.e. 3 huts and a small herd of cattle) and were directed in our best Portuguese understanding and a map drawn on the ground onto another potential route but no indication of a border on this route and of course we weren’t keen on another smuggler’s route episode but we had little choice.

Bushcamping in Angola 

Another bushcamp in Angola outside Xangango

At this point we heard another car in the distance and quickly found his tracks and started to follow – it was quite phenomenal what this car in front of us was doing and was a lot braver than what we would have done without the reassurance that we wouldn’t be stranded in Angola for months in the middle of a vlei.

ok, but what's on the other side?

Mo swimming!

Mo waiting to cross the river

Hundreds of metres of knee height water not knowing what was waiting for us further on and less and less possibility of turning around. We hit the overflowing river and could not believe we were supposed to go through but again, there were tracks going in and no sign of the vehicle so we pressed on. Once we got across the river we both looked at each other almost in surprise that it was possible – go Mo and Andrew! I think we were about 10km from the border according to our GPS when we came around the corner and saw the last thing we wanted to – a Land Cruiser drowning in the middle of a mass of water. Gulp! This time he didn’t quite make it.

at least there are winching trees around!

here goes nothing!

there she goes!

We apprehensively wandered up and were at least relieved that they were still running but in a hole. This is when serious 4x4 started when we had already breathed a sigh of relief once we were through the river. We tried to approach from behind to winch them out, Mo then got stuck, we then winched ourselves out onto a bank and then winched them out and there is no way I can explain the terror of what I was feeling whilst Andrew was getting max 4x4 satisfaction! I don’t think we could actually believe it when we got through and somehow came to an official border we did not know about – I don’t think I have been that happy to see dry land, we made the 5 day visa limit and although the first camp in Namibia at Hippo Pools Community Camp was partly flooded, we could still camp in a few sites and spent the rest of the evening replaying our adventure over and over, giggling hysterically and still a little gob smacked that we made it. We have however decided that we’ve done enough swimming in Mo for now and so the dry and good tarmac roads of Namibia have been a welcome relief!

hmm, now we also stuck

passenger vehicle we had been following

AJ in full swing!