Angola
Day 171 22/06
Club Nautico, Luanda
15 429 miles
I think we have officially found the worst roads in Africa! Angola once had good tar roads but all that is left now is odd patches of tar in between HUGE potholes. We've been lucky to do 100 miles a day after 9 hrs driving since entering Anola - hard work and tiring. There has not been a lot to the country so far. A few very small villages dotted about and Nzeto which is a very run down Portugese looking town. Luanda also has a very Portugese feel to it and is a very expensive place. We are staying here one night before pushing south. We don't have much time to hang about as we only have 5 day visas and this is already day 4 with 1500 kms to go!!
Day 176 27/06
Bush Camp, Between Chibemba and Cahama
16 199 miles
Well the road situation improved slightly south of Luanda. We had a good long stretch of tar and some good gravel roads until we hit the mountains. The road over the mountains - although not very long - took us ages with some low range sections and some very steep, scary ascents and descents. Beautiful scenery and I think we found the most deserted place in Africa. We had to bush camp every night and, as usual, somebody would walk or drive past but one day after leaving our morning camp we didn't see another soul until the following day. I think that has been the first time ever that we have bush camped and not seen another person or been near anybody - even in the Sahara we had camel traders passing. After the mountains we passed into more desert like scenery, very similar to northern Namibia and then up a spectacular mountain pass - luckily the road is intact here. We climbed up 1800m and had really cold nights from then on. Anyway we are now 160 miles from the Namibian border so with any luck and as long as the roads don't deteriorate we will be out od Angola tomorrow. It's taken us 10 days!!