Angola & Namibia

West Coast Complete

Disillusioned, jaded, frustrated, mentally and physically exhausted I have flown ahead of the truck by a week from Windhoek to spend some extra time in Cape Town to get some rest and recharge my flat batteries. The West Coast of Africa has been a great experience but the style of travel has definitely taken its toll on me. 1 shower in a month between Cameroon and Namibia, living in a sardine can with 19 other passengers 24/7, few activities to do other than sit on the back of the truck driving or setting up camp and cooking food. First world problems. Its not only me that has been affected however as one of our fellow passengers picked up and left the truck in bizarre circumstances on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere in Angola, rucksack on his back, walking off in the middle of the night. We think he is going to join the truck again once we leave Cape Town but we're still not entirely sure. Many positives have come out of all of this however and I have definitely learnt a lot about myself. Having been a bit flat of late but I've given myself almost 2 weeks in Cape Town to rediscover my lust for travel and hopefully the East Coast will be as amazing as I hear it is.

Our campsite view one evening

and the view in the morning

Picking up from my last blog we entered Angola from DRC and headed straight down to the capital Luanda to pick up our tour leader Ishi who had been back in the UK getting treatment and recovering from her battle with Typhoid. At this point I myself got fairly sick with some kind of fever which knocked me around for the next week or so but at worst all it really did was let me get some extra sleep. Angola is quite an expensive country so we could not afford to stay at any campsites (if they existed) so it was more bushcamping every night, only stopping in a few towns for a few hours at a time to have a quick look around and do some cook group shops. Fortunately we did have 1 campsite lined up right at the southern tip of Angola on the coast and we were all looking forward to it very much as everyone desperately needed to wash clothes and a shower would have been a welcome relief. Unfortunately for us the last 25km's of road to get to this campsite (which was a fishing retreat) was deep sand and just 1km in we began to get bogged. After spending an hour digging ourselves out and lowering the pressure on the tyres we continued on and did splendidly right until we got to within 1-2km of the campsite which was within sight which made it even more frustrating as we started to get bogged again right on the beach. The road (if you could call it that) was only about 20-30 metres from the ocean so you can imagine the sand we were driving on. Out came the sandmats and shovels and we dug out the truck for about 2 hours, moving forward inch by inch, replacing each sandmat as the truck moved forward. It began to get dark and after sending Warren up on a recon mission we discovered that the rest of the road for 1-2km to the campsite was just as sandy. After a deliberation between the driver and the tour leader it was decided to turn around. Doing a 3 point turn with sandmats on the beach however took another 2 hours and then another hour to backtrack where we had gone. 5 hours altogether I think we spent going 100 metres in either direction and everyone was absolutely exhausted. Dinner that night tasted absolutely amazing.

First bogging in the sand

Action shot just after we got out of a bog

Pulling a truck up that drove off an embankment

Entering Namibia 3 days later was a momentous occasion for us as it signified the end of the hardest part of the trip and was a step back into civilization as we know it. Immediately after entering the country we stopped at a shopping centre that had all the essentials in life that we had been missing. I personally bought a steak and onion pie, a chocolate milk, chips, chocolate and some bacon for breakfast. The next night we arrived at Etosha National Park and had access to better facilities than we did almost anywhere along the West Coast. The trip for us was about to get a whole lot easier.

Christo Redento in Lubango

Etosha gates

Not only did we get back to civilization in Namibia but we also got to go to Etosha National Park which for me was possibly the highlight of the West Coast. It is a premier game reserve and we were lucky enough to see giraffe, zebra, lions, different variety of deer, a black rhino, jackals, wildebeest, warthogs and many more animals. The viewing on the first day was fantastic but it rained heavily that night so we did not see as much the next morning.

2 lions I spotted if you look closely

From Etosha we travelled down to Swakopmund which is Namibia's version of Queenstown, skydiving, sandboarding, quad-biking, etc. The bars and nightlife here were good but the food was even better. We went out for our tour leaders 30th birthday one night and I had an Oryx steak, easily the best steak I've ever eaten. From Swakopmund we drove inland to the capital Windhoek where we chilled at the hostel and ate out again at another meat orientated restaurant. The next morning the truck left and I made my way to the airport to fly down to Cape Town. I now found myself near the beach in a private room with a comfy bed, a hot shower, Wi-Fi, a TV, a pool and a free amazing hot breakfast cooked for me each morning. I don't think I'll have too much trouble recharging my batteries here.

One of our early stop bush camps

Taking selfies

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