Landing in Lubango

Lubango is the third biggest city in Angola and because we wanted to get to know a bit more of the country than only the Namibe, this was where we flew to.
At the airport we had Jeff, the lodge keeper, waiting for us. We had no idea how he looked like because when we booked he just said "don't worry about that, I'll find you"! And so he did.
I think it wouldn't be that hard. There aren't that many people looking like tourists in Angola you know...
Anyway, he got to us and took us to the car in which we would go to the Namibe. The car was a Toyota Landcruiser, not the newest but not an old one either. It had maybe 2 years, but this wasn't the chocking part. The chocking part was the whole off road preparation the car had in it! Double chockers in each wheel, huge off road tires, special suspension, the works!
When I saw it, I thought to myself "this guy is an off road geek". He spent the same amount of money in preparing the car that he did in the car itself, but it was so clean, and e paint job so scratch less that I was honestly convinced all that was just for show! Boy, was I wrong... But that's for another post!So Jeff suggested we should get moving, go to the Tundavala before lunch, and then head to the lodge of a Portuguese friend of his to get something to eat. And so we did.





















(Lubango from the top of the hill)

The Flamingo Lodge

The Flamingo Lodge was our final destination in Namibe. The place where we were staying. When I say Namibe I'm referring to the area, not the city. The city of Namibe was about 70km away in a straight line.
The lodge belongs to a South African guy and is maintained by a young couple of biologists that live there and tend the place while they do their research.
To get there we left the city of Namibe and drove 70km on the beach (literaly on the beach).


(our car on the beach - we had to take air out of the tires so it wouldn't sink in the sand. The guy on the picture was Chico, our cook / bush guide / fix all guy)

It is imposible to get there if you don't have a 4x4. Even if you take the "more normal road" you still have 40km of riverbed to get through, and the total distance is about 90km instead of 70km.


(welcome to Flamingo Lodge! - yes, those are whale bones!)

The place is very very neat and well taken care of. It sits on the beach and is surrounded by mountains and cliffs. You're now in the middle of the Namibe desert, a couple of kms north of the skeleton coast.
You have the main building with the bar and restaurant on top of a hill, and on the beach you have the guest houses (or should I say huts).


(the beach accommodation)

Every house has two or more beds, and a private bath with hot water (a luxury in a place like this!). Our hut had already an occupant when we got there. A bat. We were disturbing the poor creature that lived there all year round. This ended up being very useful because of the roaches. Bats eat cockroaches.
The problem with roaches is (maybe it's an urban legend) they love crawling into tight spaces.
A friend of ours told us a story that happened to him in a trip to Indonesia where a friend of his had a roach stuck in his ear for a week before the local doctors found out and were able to pry it out.
We always slept with ear plugs...


(the view from our bedroom was incredible)

We were there during winter time so it was a bit cold / windy to hit the water but I imagine that during summer time this is a wonderful place to be if you want a beach holiday in an exotic country!
Even not being good for a day at the beach, you never get bored for there are too many things to do around here. Just ask the lodge keepers, they will tell you which activities you can do.
We even went fishing (we caught nothing, but it was fun!).
Check out the ride for the fishing expedition:


(can you guess what happened to this poor car? They rolled it over. No one got hurt fortunately. As it was totally wrecked they just chopped off the ceiling, included one wood board on each side of the car - to keep it from folding in two - and there you have a fishing car!)

The trip to Namibe - Intro

This trip needs some previous comments.
i didn't just decided it was a good idea to go to Angola on vacation. I would probably be one of the 3 people that did that in the last 20 years or so!
The reason I went to Angola was to visit my girlfriend who was there working for a few months and, as a big part of my family was born there, I decided it was time to go and see the country I'd heard so much about while growing up!
First stop was Luanda, obviously, and only the next day we went to the south.
There are 5 tons of advice I should give you before you visit Angola. The most important:

• It would be best to visit if you already know someone living or working there.
• Visas are extremely hard to get, and quite expensive too. Tourism visas are virtually impossible to get
• Book a very nice (and very expensive) hotel. 5 star will do. Under that you'll be putting yourself at risk. I stayed at the most recent - Epic Sana. Quite good.
• Don't think for a moment that 5 stars mean anything like you're used to in Europe or the US.
• Be careful where you keep and show your money.
• Try to hire a driver (most international rent-a-car companies will get you a car with the driver) and avoid driving yourself as much as possible. If something happens (and it is quite easy to happen) you'll be a deep trouble if you're the one holding the steering weal.
• Book everything in advance.
• Always have 1000 kwanza bills on your pocket. You'll be distributing them as candy. "Bribes" are as common as the air you breed (police road blocks, airport, ...).
• Try not to walk by yourself on the street. Even during daylight it may not be advisable.
• Never carry a laptop, camera or cellphone in sight. You'll lose it almost for sure.
• Sunscreen is mandatory.
• Do the full medical checkup and vaccines (check with your medical centre which are the mandatory vaccines you should get). They wont let you in if your vaccines are not up to date and if you didn't get the mandatory ones).
• Mosquito repelent. You need to bring at least one gallon of it! Seriously, you should carry some mosquito repelent with you at all times, and keep spreading it in your skin (feet an all).
• There is a lot of poor people, so if you get easily upset by this just don't go.
• Everywhere you get to there are lots and lots of small kids on the street that will approach you. Most of the times they just want to talk to you and sometimes ask you for some money (but not always).

All in all, I loved this trip because it had a special personal meaning for me, but also because this is an amazing country.