Back from Angola!

[El Stiemo]

Here some pics from our Angola holiday, I will do a write up tonight.

Pics

001 Baobab tree just after the border
1.004 Scorpion vally - literrally hundreds of them after the rain
1.008 Bridgge over the Kunene River at Calueque
1.011 Road to Chitado
003 Road to Ovipaca
006 Mountains at Ovipaca
009 Oncocua River
015 Tyre pressure for beach driving (0.9 bar)
022 Elf caught by me
026 Old Lighthouse on road to Lucira

More follow

[El Stiemo]

Some more

First one is of Baia Dos Elefantes Village

Then some scenery at our Baia Dos Elefantes camp

Last one is of friend with the Bonnitos he caught

[El Stiemo]

Still more

First one - Padda's Oil pump repair with Nivea cream
Next - Baia Farta Coconut trees
third - Tar road Benguela - Lubango where it's still reasonable (it gets worse)
fourth - Evidence of war
fifth - Zona Minada - Minefield

[El Stiemo]

Almost done

First one - Christo Rei at Lubango
Second - Street Vendors en route to Leba pass
Third - Leba pass
Fourth - Landmine (not detonated)
Fifth - "Lost" in the bush

[El Stiemo]

Last ones

First - Back home in Nam at last!
Second - Government Toyota Prado in need of Land Rover to recover, he ran that Corolla off the road in heavy rain and both ended up next to the road
Third - Klein Windhoek river running through our suburb after heavy rain, there is no bridge over this river here.

[Geobloke]

By eck these pics remind me of Sarawak in the 80s and early 90s! Damn I miss those roads! :D :rolleyes:

Looks like you had a good ol road trip fella! Whats the deal with the nivea and the oil pump??

[El Stiemo]

Hi Geo,

what happened: One of the breathers of the tappet cover had come off and lots of sand and dirt had entered that hole, meaning sand in Oil. Not good. This sand then settles in the sump, because it is basically downstream of the oil filter.

When revving the engine hard, the pump opens fully and it sucks the sand through the oil pump and sand wedges open the piston of the oil pump which means that when you next try to start it, it doesn't have any oil pressure as the pump piston is fully open.

We disasembled the pump and cleaned everything, but you need to prime it with something as the pump won't work if there is air in the system / vacuum. Ideal is petroleum Jelly as it dissolves completely in Oil, but we had none, so we took Nivea Face cream, put it in the freezer to make it denser and used that on the pump. Thankfully it worked as I would not have liked to tow Padda out of there...

Bush repairs...

[Geobloke]

By eck fella the joys of going walk about eh?? :rolleyes: Glad you got it sorted tho!

Who's face cream was it?? yours?? ;)

[El Stiemo]

By eck fella the joys of going walk about eh?? :rolleyes: Glad you got it sorted tho!

Who's face cream was it?? yours?? ;)

:D No I use "eau de la mer avec poussiere" :D

[Geobloke]

:D No I use "eau de la mer avec poussiere" :D


Oooo eck "water of the sea with .......", not sure what that last word is!! ;)

[El Stiemo]

Oooo eck "water of the sea with .......", not sure what that last word is!! ;)

poussiere = dust

[Geobloke]

poussiere = dust


Oooo so is that how you get that manly rugged look then?!?!?! :D

[El Stiemo]

LOL

No its when you have to save the fresh water for drinking and bathe in the ocean...

[Madoobri]

Nice photos, thanks for sharing them with us :)

[toppa]

Great pictures, im jealous!!!!

Cheers

[El Stiemo]

31 Dec 2005
Route from Swakopmund north along the coast to Henties Bay, Fuel, to Uis and Khorixas. One rolled tourist bus en route, 3 injured. Administered first aid and continued when emergency services arrived. On to Kamanjab and Hobatere Lodge Campsite. Party in the bush, only one other vehicle at camp.

01 Jan 2006
Continue north to border at Ruacana, Fuel in Ruacana - only Diesel, no Petrol. Padda (the green Defender) has to go to Outapi to get Fuel (ex Ombalantu). 140 km's extra. Border crossing at Calueque, Namibian side smooth but no customs officials present, the police let us drive after a search of the village did not yield any customs officer. Angolan side three hours, police officer drunk as a skunk actually fell off his chair twice while filling in the vehicle forms...
Continue in direction of Chitado after crossing Kunene River.
Camp in riverbed next to road, rain at night.

02 Jan
Continue via Chitado and Oncocua to Ovipaca, road is passable but slow going, when I get out to take a photo (barefoot), I notice hundreds of scorpions everywhere... the reentry into the vehicle was quite rapid.
Camp west of Ovipaca. Rain at night.

03 Jan
Skirt Ovipaca Mountains in rain to get to the Oncocua river crossing before all the water from inland reaches it and makes passing impossible, luckily only small rivulet, no problem.
Continue to Tombua (ex Porto Alexandre), Fuel, camp on beach south of Tombua. I get stuck with Mühle (white Def) in the dunes outside Tombua as tyres still rock hard. after deflation and getting the car out, four kids from the about 50 spectators hang onto the back and let themselves be dragged across the sand by the car, the last one let go about 500m further... Seemingly their local sport.

04 Jan
North via Tombua to Namibe (ex Mocamedes) and on the old Benguela road to Mucuio south of Baba. Find private bay and camp for two nights. Shop in Namibe, prices hair raising (N$ 90,- for a bottle of olive oil = 9 Pounds approx). Diesel cheap as chips, N$ 2.10 per litre (about 20 pence).

05 Jan
Fishing from shore and boat whole day, I got a Snapper, some Elfs and a fish that I have no idea what it was and it wasn't in the book so we rather chucked it back.

06 Jan
Further north in the direction of Lucira, tar road goes from good to potholes to gravel to two - track. See old lighthouse close to Lucira. Camp en route next to the road in riverbed. Bees everywhere at campsite. Vehicle check reveals that one of the breathers had come off on Padda and she sucked sand into the oil. Sh*t. See story above.

07 Jan
Trundle along to Baia dos Elefantes which looked promising on the map. Negotiate for permission to camp with locals, the younger of which had certainly never seen a European person. Road is a two track that had last seen a vehicle some years ago, apparently. It certainly drove like it.
Find beautiful campsite, camp for two nights.

08 Jan.
Vehicle repair as above.
Fish, get Bonnitos and Yellowfin Tunas and dive for Perlemoen (a large Oyster). Drinking water running low.
Paddas owner catches a tuna which in turn cathes him. Lures have two three prong hooks, the back one was in the mouth of the tuna but it was fighting so much in the boat that the other hook ended up in his leg. Nice.
Operation of removal successful, had to push the hook through all the way, cut the front off and remove it in reverse. There is no way you can remove a fish hook in reverse without much damage otherwise, luckily I did not have to cut his leg open. Disinfected, bandaged, he is fine. Have Chivas in celebration.

09 Jan
Leave Baia back to main road to continue to Benguela, road is an absolute joke but not funny, low range work, 1,5 hours for 10 kms. Reach Baia Farta in the afternoon, lots of wrecks next to the road, not all mechanical failures. Baia Farta has +/- 10.000 people and several fish factories, however no running water. Fill up water from a cistern in someone's garden. When repacking the canisters, a Campinggaz gas bottle blows up in my face as it was not properly packed away and punctured when something else crushed it. Got a huge fright, but no injuries. Luckily I was not smoking at the time...
Camp south of Baia Farta on beach, fish, get Kawakawas (sort of Tuna).

10 Jan
Visit Benguela, what chaos, traffic from hell and apparently no rules whatsoever. Money chaning in bank takes forever, they do not accept ZAR on the black market here like in the south. Shopping, check out campsite in Benguela (no, thank you) and continue to Baia Sul just outside Benguela. Camp at beach.

11 Jan
Drive to Lubango on tar road that has seen absolutely no maintenancesince the Portugese left, and that was 30 years ago. Take 14 hours for 385 kms.
Damage: One flat tyre (nail), one front spring.
Reach Lubango after dark (you do not want to drive after dark in Angola as most vehicles do not have proper working lights), completely exhausted, sleep in Sommitour Lodge.

12 Jan
Visit Leba pass and Christo Rei, also Swapo Camp (this is where the mines are), continue after shopping and fuel to Cahama.
Potholed tar route, we get "lost" in the bush while looking for a two - track alternative which are faster than the tar road.
Camp in Bush

13 Jan
Reach border after much bush driving, this time no problem one hour both sides.
Camp in Hippo Pools Campsite just downstream of Ruacana Falls in Namibia.

14 Jan
Head to Windhoek, rain practically the whole way. Rescue government vehicle. Hmm, on a Saturday...?

[El Stiemo]

Just to give you some idea what I am talking about when I say the words "bad road"...

[K&S]

Nice pics. Really great adventuring. It's what owning a Landy is all about. Glad you didn't find any land mines.:)

[Doris110]

Hi El!

Great trip, pics are awesome! What camera were you using?

Athol

[El Stiemo]

Thanks. Was a super trip.

Athol, That is a Fuji Finepix 510 ES Digicam.

K&S - Oh but we did... One minefield on the road from Benguela and lots of mines in the old Swapo camp in Lubango of which the one was not yet detonated. Also a Stalin Organ at Luibango and a SAM 7 at Namibe...