Submitted by rootsinafrica on Fri, 23/05/2008 - 14:28.
We
left Benguela after a lazy morning having breakfast, having another luxurious
hot water shower, and finding directions to the internet café, our laptop
refusing to connect to the wireless internet at Nancy’s. We had even less luck at the internet
café, so left Benguela with many unsent emails sitting in the outbox.
We
drove north to Lobito,
a “modern” port city with all the dirt and squalor of Angolan
cities in evidence, without the historical charm. But we were happy to see that
the rumours of a Shoprite were true, and proceeded to stock up on products from
as far afield as Argentina, Portugal, and even South Africa. True to the
exorbitant prices of Angola,
we nearly passed out at the till, but at least we had some nice provisions.
Always a pleasure to fill up Stan though, as the diesel here cost R4.50 per
litre!!!
One of the typical villages
Heading
along the coastal road, we drove
through the sprawling mass of Sumbe,
and pressed on to the coastal town of Porto
Amboim. In the gathering dusk (will we ever learn to
arrive early!) we approached one of the
beachfront restaurants about accommodation, who kindly offered us a “room’ for
the night – in a converted container with no window, at some astronomical
price. When we asked about camping, a local English teacher moonlighting as a
waiter, by the name of Nelson,
negotiated on our behalf that we camp on the beach in front of the
restaurant. We gratefully set up camp, and decided to have a meal at the
restaurant. Unfortunately the nameless soup didn’t agree with Annaliese, and
she was to suffer the after ,effects for many days afterwards.
We
left early the next morning, heading north
for Luanda
and were stunned at the good roads. We reached Luanda in good time just had to watch out for
the crazy drivers. It seems that the locals’
driving skills are non existent as they are obviously not used to better
roads and drive at very high speed with no knowledge as to how to control their
vehicles. There were many wrecks on the roadside as evidence of this.
