Day 130: Lubango
Soutpiel Safari
John & Jenny
Tue 15 Mar 2011 07:28
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Day 130: Monday 14 March 2011. Hotel Amigo, Lubango,
Angola S14 54.899 E013 30.311 Distance driven 592 km (new
record!)
I had an excellent breakfast at the hotel and the
enjoyable company of a group of South Africans consultants working on an
agricultural development scheme.
I filled up with diesel and pressed on south, anxious to
maintain the excellent lead i had built up over two days. The road from
Sumbe to Lobito was good fast tar and from the outskirts of Lobito to Benguela
was a similarly good road. I called at a bank ATM on the outskirts of
Lobito to draw cash and then re-programmed the GPS for Benguela. It
immediately took me on a circuitous by-pass of Lobito which was quite
frightening as it was a pure 4x4 track through a poor housing district, unused
to vehicular traffic. The residents were hostile and, at one stage I
thought I was about to be lynched. Lobito seems to be built on a series of
quarries and this route took me across an escarpment between two quarries.
It was so rough that sections required low range gearbox! I was glad to
get out of there in one piece.
I detoured in Benguela to Nancy's Guest House to see if
I could rest there and get some lunch, found that i couldn't and pressed on,
finally having lunch way outside Benguela. My intention was to have an
easy day and finish early, but that was not to be! I called at a small
hotel in Chongoroi, found the owner too drunk to converse with and assessed it
to be a trucker's brothel, so drove on. The road as far as Chongoroi had
been excellent new tar and very fast, easy driving with very little traffic but
soon broke up after Chongoroi, the tar finally disappearing altogether at
Quilengues, some 415 km from Sumbe.
From Quilengues for 55 km to Cacula, the "road" was a
very difficult 4x4 track, very rough, very potholed and with extensive mud
sections. Average speed dropped to 20 kph. This section could not be
accomplished in anything other than a very capable 4WD or a truck, of which
there was a constant stream coming northwards. By this time it had started
to rain very heavily and, not being able to have the windows open, I had to use
AC which made the driving even more difficult as the power loss at low speed is
very noticeable. With the rain, the bush camping option wasn't attractive
but the next accommodation was in Lubango - 100 km away, and it was getting
dark.
Fortunately, after Cacula we were back on new tar but
with surprising "missing" sections which caught me unawares in the dark.
However, with white lines and cat's eyes the rest of the drive into Lubango was
fairly straightforward.
With a day's run of 592 km, I have done 1535 km in 3
days and have only about 450 km to do to reach Namibia, with 2 days in
hand. From now on I'll take it easy. The hotel Amigo is a funny sort
of place but my room does have a Bath and hot water so I am looking forward to
the first hot bath in 19 weeks!
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