Overland adventure travel

Our Angola visa saga continued in Matadi where we spent the day filling out forms and presenting ourselves to the official in charge who proceeded to ask the most ridiculous questions in one to one personal interviews. John did most of the translation (some of the questions asked were more than funny - " What's your fathers mothers brothers sisters name ???" - " Are you political ???" - " How many brothers does your mother have ??" - "What religion do you profess???" - Most of us were scared to claim we were not of any religion in case it caused any offence - hence resulting in visa problems) The questions had caused us to lie like cheap carpets - and ironically, when we received the passports back with our 2nd Angolan visa - we noticed that they had actually been issued and started from the day - and as it was already 3pm we had officially lost a day out of the 5 day visa ArgHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! Some or all of us must have been little bastard children to our parents and all this hair tearing visa aggravation was somebody's long awaited payback. On the bright side - tea, coffee and biscuits were provided - devoured in speedy time. At the border, only 30 minutes away, we filled in yet more forms and then camped in the 100 yards of no-mans-land because the Angola border had closed for the night.

April 3rd was our 150th day of the trip. The border crossing into Angola was pretty average and as we drove in, thinking that we had already experienced the worst roads in Africa, we discovered that the "road" literally was a gap between the vegetation. It would not have qualified as a "green lane" in the UK. However, the countryside was pleasant rolling hillsides, very green and grassy.

The next day the roads were no better as many gulley's had been washed away by torrential rain. We had a problem early in the day when we came upon a huge hill which we all felt there was no way of getting up - as it was so steep and muddy. We ended up pushing, running, and falling - whilst the momentum seemed to carry the truck up the hill (after a lot of spinning and smoking of the back tyres) which was at least a quarter mile. Unfortunately that momentum failed to carry the 4 big metal sand mats up as well - which were manually carried by us. We also helped out two 40' ton lorries, one stuck and one with flat batteries. The Automobile Association recovery service couldn't have done it better, an excellent Oasis Overland publicity exercise. Luckily for us there was no rain today. Our Swiss Landrover buddies (Tamara and Simon) were still keeping us company along this stretch of the journey until Namibia.

Awful roads all day again on our 3rd day driving through Angola, we managed to do about 140 km after driving for 12 hours. This day also saw the start of what became even worse for us than the bumpy roads, Tsetse flies. We attacked these vicious, biting monsters with the same determination that they displayed in trying to bite us. It would have made excellent slap stick comedy, all of us hitting and slapping, had the possible resulting sleeping sickness not been so serious (that and the bites really do hurt like hell).

An early start for us the next day, but this time a reward of the most beautiful site we had seen in a long time, tar seal road, making our drive into Luanda a lot of more enjoyable. The capital seemed at first like getting transported to Brazil or some other South American - carnival clad atmosphere. Our first intro to the city was driving through the ramshackle favela type shanty towns (All busy with everyday life and goings on) which were all spilling down the hills around us - before getting to the more developed and high rise area of the centre. After a recent massive flood, the whole of the main road had been washed away, sea containers, lorries, boats, telegraph poles and trees were piled up in the side of the river.

The ex-colonial Portuguese influence is apparent throughout the entire capital. Mainly evident in the language, music and also the attractive to the eye examples of scantily clad dress of some of the locals. Definitely a few times you would have to stop and remember which continent you were actually on. For those of us who have been to South America, it was a nice re-intro into a seemingly easy going way of life. One that is dominated by a want and need to have fun and the attitude of making the most out of what you have and not what you haven't.

Luanda, being one of the most expensive cities in the world - saw us camping up at the local yacht club for free - what a score. Ok, so we camped on a patch of reclaimed land just inside the security gates, but the position was excellent and just down the road from the seafront promenade. Great views of the city by day and night were ours to enjoy.

Daz had the 7th birthday on trip - celebrating in style with the most unconventional birthday cake yet. As we were no where near your everyday shops and supplies - improvisation was called for here. None of the usual sweet chocolaty- birthday treats were available - instead a built up dome like mound of salami with birthday candles and all !!!!Daz's favourite truck food stock and one we only had on very rare or special occasions.

In Luanda we encountered the same problems that we had all throughout Africa so far, no water for the shower, back to the bucket/cup system. We began to discover that almost everything in Luanda was more expensive that anywhere so far. At the artisan market a statue you would have been able to buy for $6 in other places was $45. A standard mask which in Nigeria, not the most touristy of places, was $15, was $80 in Luanda!! Someone was a happy chappy until he realized that he would have to share it with all of us savages as well.

One weekend afternoon, we heard about 10 gunshots about a mile away from our campsite on the way into town, some of us hoping that John and Adam had got past that point of trouble as we knew they had just walked into the city. Unfortunately for them - they hadn't missed the excitement - and to our dismay were actually part and parcel of the commotion on the street . Four youths mistaking John's bulging pockets for a wad of money (meanwhile only containing extracts from the diary which you are reading right now) tried to mug him. Luckily for John and Adam, a passing motorist with a gun stopped and fired into the air. The youths ran off chased by the police and one was killed! John and Adam then spent an interesting time at the police station along with 3 rather battered suspects. John was a little shaken but we managed to wash away most of the tears over numerous beers.