Ola,

The route the last 2 days.

Where do I start… Lets start with a goodbye.

Nellie and I left Etosha at 7am. He was heading back to SA via his uncle’s farm in Aranos, Namibia and I was heading for the unknown.

The day started out really good. There was a nice cool breeze keeping the pants and jackets tempratures down and a good tar road to get us to the border. We made the 30km to the B1 in no time and I had a last smoke and said our goodbyes!

Leaving Etosha

Saying our goodbyes.

I knew I was heading for the unknown once I hit the border town next to Angola. Poeple changed, not that many smiles and waves and I coudnt understand a word they were saying! The crossing with Namibia was long as they didnt know what to do with the Carnet de Passage. I managed to convince them that I knew what I was talking about and I got the stamp done!

Getting to the Angolan side was not so much fun. It must have been 40-45 degrees (:)) and I had all my gear on and trying to figure out where to go. I am still in the paranoid stage where I am too scared to leave my helmet and jacket with the bike. So we start… Passport stamped, check. Next up customs. Me:”Hello, can you stamp my carnet please?” Official:”Você tem que ir lá e pagar 6.331 kwanzas, depois que fazer 4 cópias de seus documentos. Depois que você ir e falar com aquele homem. Depois que você chegou aqui eu carimbar e você vai!” Me: “O Shit!” “Mama Mia” “nou is ek in die k.k” So luckily old Amos was ready to lend a hand at a nominal fee. He could speak what he calls Afrikaans.(Its debatable). Amos was a champ helping me with the paperwork and translating what they call here “Portuguese”. I had to pay $100 to get the bike in but I dont care I was in and getting some air through the old jacket.

I stopped to fill up at the local station. I filled up an empty bike and gave the guy 1000 kwanzas, for those of you that are not familiar with the Angolan currency, thats R100 or $10. Crazy I know, petrol here cost R4.50 per liter. I exchanged some money with the local mafia and I was off. Little did I know what awaited me…

Local mafia.

I heard the road was bad, I told myself that the road in Lesotho was bad. I know BAD roads… Was I wrong. 100km/4 hours.

The road was really bad. I had to let the shock cool down a few times.

I also found some remains of the war. Now its classics.

Eventually the good tar road started (the one I heard off), but I was in a bind. I didnt know if there was more gravel to come and it was getting late. I was going to sleep in Cahama but when I got there a guy told me its tar all the way. I decided to give it a bash to Lubango!

On the way!

I was cutting it fine, I was going to break the rule on the first day alone. Riding at night. I reached the town just about as the sun was setting. My GPS read 4km to Casper Lodge, I made it or so I thought. I got stuck in Lubango traffic for 1 hour. Cars and bikes everywhere, pushing screaming and looking for a gap. I was stuck in the middle, I couldnt take a gap as the bike is too wide and I was stuck behind a truck throwing out huge black clouds of smoke. Nice, this is what adventure biking is… yeah right!

I made it eventually after 13 hours on the bike. I was wrecked. I pitched my tent and that was that. I slept on the grass, no energy to put out the stretcher.

I felt so sorry for myself and extremely lonely. I wondered how I was gonna get through the rest of Africa with only my first day alone. I decided to just go too sleep.

Day 7.
I woke up refreshed and ready to git the coastal town of Lobito! I also realised that I had to move my watch an hour back!

My campsite. With free wifi (is was down unluckily)

Downtown traffic in Lubango

I headed out west, direction Lobito

The road was a good tar road, the scenery started to change and my old friend came to visit me, Mr “I will make you sweat young man.”

Me, hot!

After 300km I stopped at a newly built service station too escape the mid day heat!

I eventually arrived in the coastal town of Lobito. Its a cool little town with a big port. I bought a sim card to message Deidre that I made it. I road around and tried to find place to spend the night. I was directed to Zulu Restaurant. They told me I could camp next to the restaurant on the beach!

Lobito

I grabbed a beer, cooled down and couldnt wait to have a chat to Deidre.

I felt alive again today but also had a lot of thought on the road ahead. Its gonna be tough but I accept the challenge. I am of to Luanda tommorow to meet up with Ferdie. We got in touch via Deidre’s dad and I am looking forward to meeting him.

Thank you for everyones well wishes and comments on the blog it means the world to me. Have an awesome friday where ever you are. I am off to grab a bite to eat and an early night!

Cheers
Riaan
Lobito, Angola