10 pieces for a cleaner world: Glimpses of Angola – Part 2 (DRC to Angola to Namibia)

Crossing over the border from the DRC to Angola, we changed much of our wad of cash back into Angolan currency (Kwanza) as we weren’t there long enough to spend much money. As Kwanza comes in larger denominations, however, sadly the wad was no longer a wad, instead just a handful of bills.

Again, we had only a 5 day transit visa to cross the entire length of Angola, so it was pretty much drive, drive, drive the entire time. But we were overly excited to actually be in Angola as it was so hard to get a visa!

On the drive I noticed some white tape on the side of the road which said ‘Minas’ followed by a skull and crossbones and then ‘Mines’.

Angola still has many landmines but they are in the process of clearing them, particularly with the construction of new roads.

Our first bush camp was in the landmine vicinity so we weren’t able to stray very far from where we camped, even if we needed to find a suitable place to pee or dig a hole! We did want to get a photo of a landmine nonetheless so a few of us walked up the road and found this one, marked only by the posts surrounding it and the rubbish on top of it but without the tape.

On the drive the following day, we found an entire area around a baobab tree fenced off with the tape.

It made sense: soldiers would probably rest under the shade of the tree… and for good reason – during the middle of the day, the heat was intense – probably the hottest we’ve experienced so far on this continent. But then it can also change at the drop of a hat. One day it turned, with only one or two ‘warning’ raindrops and then it just pelted down. And the rain was absolutely freezing cold. The poor boys got out of the truck in the middle of the downpour to put down the tarps on the sides and on what we call ‘the beach’ (area up the front of the truck where you can lie down on cushions). Needless to say they got absolutely drenched and frozen.

Burnt out army tanks were not as prevalent as landmines, however, and we only saw a handful of them on our quick drive through the country.

On the second day, we were less pre-occupied by landmines and army tanks, and instead by these strange looking flies. There were only one or two of them to start with but after a while, the truck became infested with them. Just what we needed - another plague. As it turns out these flies started biting us and when we realised they were Tsetse flies which cause sleeping sickness, Lee and I quickly put up her mozzie net tent in the aisle of the truck and ensured there were none in there with us, what we labelled ‘contamination’.

It was an incredibly bumpy ride sitting on the floorboards, but well worth it as a) we were protected from the tsetse flies and b) we must’ve provided some entertainment to the police at a check point we passed. As the policeman got up on the truck to inspect us, he looked at us quizzically as he was essentially met with a vision of the three men sitting on seats and the two ladies sitting on the floor in a pseudo cage! He gave Nev a strange look and said something to him in Portuguese which we could only imagine what it meant.

There are tsetse fly traps everywhere in villages and alongside the roadworks. The traps are dark blue and black as those colours attract them the most. Guess it didn’t help that the truck’s seats are dark blue, as was the top I was wearing. Note to self: next tsetse fly invasion – do not wear dark blue or black!

Another incident to keep us all amused was when I managed to step in some tar at one of our lunch stops.

Not realising what it was, I tried to scrape it off my foot and flip flop, which evidently only made it worse. So my fingers also became covered in tar. Water didn’t help. Neither did Swarfega (industrial hand cleaner). But then Haydon suggested petrol and Nev siphoned some off for me and put it in a bowl. Success! I dunked my hands in the petrol and the tar came off immediately. It was a bit trickier scrubbing it off my foot and flip flop. But I got most of it off aside from a few tiny bits of stubborn tar. Now the only problem I had was absolutely reeking of petrol! That smell still might’ve been a bit better than some of the boys after the lack of showers though! ;)

Most of the nights involved some kind of ‘experience’ such as: a couple having sex in a nearby truck; a near accident with a truck spinning around 180 degrees on a wet road; locals coming over in the middle of the night to check us out; Josh’s tent flooding… But perhaps the most ‘memorable’ was when two locals came over to tell us we couldn’t camp on their land. It was neither fenced nor marked so we didn’t know we couldn’t camp there. But then the truck also needed repairing so Nev was hoping to make the most of the last remaining hour of daylight to start fixing it. Not speaking Portuguese did not help in the negotiations but one of the men was very aggressive and we managed to understand that he wanted us to call the cops on our phone as he had run out of credit! Meanwhile the other man was standing there with one hand down his pants and the other holding a shining knife blade (also right near his crotch). Not surprisingly we refused to call the cops (on ourselves!) and packed everything up. As we tried to leave, however, the aggressive man stood in front of our truck, trying to prevent us from doing so. After we exhausted all possible negotiation tactics, we eventually had to edge forward little by little until the man had no choice but to move or get runover. Luckily he opted for the former.

The roads ranged from very good (new tarred roads constructed by the Chinese) to very bad (with us averaging between 6-15kmph on them). We got bogged in mud at one of our bush camps

and this time I couldn’t have been happier. It meant I could finally bring out my 100 dollar bill shoes (y’all!) that I’d bought for Cameroon but didn’t end up needing.

Nev, being unable to reverse back onto the road, had to drive further up the dirt road and find a place to turn around. A spiky Acacia tree had fallen over onto the road, however. Cue Nev with his chainsaw

and all of us tugging at the branches with entangled spikes and moving them off to the side of the road.

Once cleared, Nev drove up the road, managed to turn the truck around and then rejoined the tarred road. All we were then left to do was to extract a few thorns from our hands.

As you’d imagine with a 5 day transit visa through Angola, we had really, really long drive days. We’d leave around 6am and pull up to camp for the night around 7pm. And with only five of us in the back of the truck, here’s how we kept ourselves entertained:

· Sleeping

· Reading

· Snacking

· Drinking (this was mostly Josh and it started mostly prior to 9am)

· Guessing games – when we’d reach dirt road again (very contentious – is a diversion counted?!), when we’d reach the border, etc.

· Symbol pretending to lay an egg (repeatedly) (video available upon request!)

· Symbol creating a ‘Monkey Bus’ t-shirt which we all signed (he calls our trip the ‘Monkey Bus’ as all we do is eat, sleep and go to the toilet)

· Symbol suggesting we create a ‘Menu du Jour’ on the whiteboard (I wrote it up in French to make tinned tuna, tinned ravioli and tinned meatballs sound much more exotic!)

· Lee and I giggling like crazy to the ‘Jizz in my pants’ song and the dance moves she spontaneously made up for it (oh yes, I have a video people! – but you’ll have to get prior approval from Lee)

· Listening to Josh’s cheesy playlist to which Lee seemed to know most of the choreographed dance moves (again, video available upon request!)

But despite all the hardships, and potentially even because of them, we heart Angola. The scenery is stunning with picturesque villages

and a beautiful coastline.

And in Lubango, we were all ecstatic as we found Jesus.

Well, it was the Christo Rei (Jesus Statue) perched atop a mountain overlooking the town.

This was our only scheduled tourist stop in Angola (given we had to rush through it on our transit visa), hence explaining our excitement. I would still love to come back one day to explore Angola properly, and I hope it opens up to tourism in the future as it’s truly a beautiful country.

Thought it would be worth sharing my eating habits over the days we spent in Angola. Evidently we drove all day long and didn’t have a chance to shop, so everything was for the most part off the truck, or what we call a ‘floorboard special’.

Menu – Day 1

Brekkie – 2 minute noodles

Lunch – tinned tuna on rolls; me – just a handful of nuts (not hungry)

Dinner – 2 fried eggs with tomato sauce on a roll, with tinned cheese ravioli and Symbol’s mushroom fried rice

Menu – Day 2

Brekkie – didn’t eat – wasn’t hungry at 5.15am

Lunch – tin of cold baked beans

Dinner – penne with garlic, onion and cheese sauce from a packet (very tasty)

Menu – Day 3

Brekkie – leftover penne and half a tin of peaches

Lunch – bought my own – tub of yoghurt, mango juice and an apple

Dinner – Tinned sweet corn and peas, 2 fried eggs (corned beef for the meat eaters), smash (instant mash, just add water) and packet gravy with onions and garlic

Menu – Day 4

Brekkie – tinned spaghetti – couldn’t finish it

Lunch – muesli and peaches (yay – a treat!)

Dinner – tinned of cold baked beans and crackers with Symbol’s margarine (eaten in the truck using the upside down lid of the garbage bin as our table as it had pelted down with rain) – we are a classy bunch ;)