week 93 - 95 - last days together with Toby & Olga, malaria recovery and slowing down

Entering Guinea was quite easy, we crossed at a small border Crossing with very friendly officers. Of course, we had already applied for and received our online visa for Guinea. Other than some other travelers, we received the approval straight away, so we had no trouble entering the country. The road was funny, it was a perfect tar road in between the villages, but inside the villages, the tar road stopped and it was a bumpy ride on a dirt track. For our first night in Guinea, we found quite a cool little spot to camp along the main road. Besides the many mosquitos, no one bothered us there. (Looking back I’m thinking that this might have been the place where Tom and I were infected with Malaria, but we will never know for sure. All I know is that there were a looot of mosquitos.) The next day, we left early and continued towards a river, where we stopped to make a coffee and have a small breakfast. While we were preparing our brekky, a family passed by, of course, curious about what we were doing here. The Dad of the family hunted some kind of wiesel and presented it proudly to us. He also tried selling it to us but we declined politely. After some talks and assuring them that we did not want to buy and cook the wiesel, we continued.

The road got worse and worse, that kind of annoying tar road where you find more potholes than tar. We therefore decided to leave the main road and drive a 4x4 track called «la route café». It was a beautiful track, but since we were still traveling in the rainy season, it was at times challenging. Some parts were very muddy and I managed to get our Defender stuck in the mud quite badly. Luckily, Olga and Toby were there, and we had the necessary tools, like our winch so that we could pull ourselves out again 😉

Halfway in, we looked for a nice spot to spend the night. It was quite hard to find a spot off the track, it was only the small road and to the left and right there was either thick forest, fields or villages. We found a relatively private spot at the entrance to a village, but of course soon after we had installed our camp, all the kids from the village were around our cars and watching closely what these strangers were up to. It was quite funny to interact with them without really being able to talk to each other. Just after we finished our dinner, a thunderstorm was building up, but luckily, it just passed us. However, during the night, it rained heavily and the track was therefore even muddier the next day. We continued and managed to finish the track without getting stuck again.

Our plan was to drive through Guinea along the main road and visit a beautiful waterfall some other overlanders have told us about. It was too far to reach the waterfall in one day, so we looked for another wild camp along the main road. In the evening, Toby was talking to Martina, his wife, on the phone. She managed to get some days off work, and she, therefore, was thinking about flying to Morocco so Toby and her could drive back home and enter Europe together. It was a fabolous idea, but also, for Toby, this meant he would be under even more time pressure. Him and Martina started to plan their trip, and Toby now only had 12 days until he had to be in Marrakech. Driving to the waterfall to spend an extra day was no longer an option for him. Since we didn’t want to end our shared journey so abruptly, we decided to skip our trip to the waterfall and instead look for another nice spot to have a final evening together and celebrate the end of our journey together.

So, instead of driving to the waterfall, we continued towards the border to Senegal the next day. We already had a spot in mind that we found on iOverlander, which was right at a river close to the border. Just a few meters before we arrived at this spot, some police officers informed us that the road was blocked because a truck was stuck and blocking the whole road. This happened literally right at the place where we wanted to camp, but now there were dozens of cars, which were stuck for two days already, and therefore, the place was very busy and packed with people. It was another authentic and funny “Africa moment”: A truck gets stuck and blocks the road for more than a day and everyone just arranges themselves around it. The road quickly turned into an unofficial campsite with many street vendors selling their products. We decided to turn around and look for a place a bit more private. After some driving, we found the perfect spot close to a local village at a small river. We went for a dip in the river, enjoyed a bottle of wine and a nice dinner and we flew the drone to see if they managed to fix the truck in the meantime. Otherwise, we needed to plan a new route so Toby would make it in time to Marrakech. To our surprise, they had fixed the truck. We were so lucky! The huge lane was moving now, so when we left the next morning, the road was completely free for us to continue.

We arrived at the border to Senegal in the afternoon around 3pm, and thought, we could easily enter Senegal, where our paths would part with Toby and Olga. But of course, this didn’t go as planned. When we arrived at the border, the officer in charge informed us, that we could not leave the country with our e-visa. He explained to us that we needed to drive to Conakry (550 kilometers away!) to get an actual visa in our passport. Of course, we argued that this could not be true. First of all, we were already approved into the country with this visa and only wanted to leave, second, no one ever informed us about this rule when entering the country, nor was it written anywhere when we applied for the vias online. They officer was really annoying and unfriendly! He then informed us that it was his lunch break now that he wanted to eat (at 3pm…) and that he would take care of our issue after his break. He sat down in front of us and started eating. We were of course not very amused. When we talked to another officer, he told us that we would get the exit stamp not here but a few kilometers further down the road at the next checkpoint, so we decided to climb into our cars and drive on. Now, the unfriendly officer wasn’t amused anymore. He jumped out of his seat and called us back and we stopped the cars again. After some more arguing, he finally went back into his office, made some copies of our passports and told us we were fine to leave. We receieved the stamps in our passports at the second checkpoint and after the third checkpoint for the costums, where they stamped our Carnet de Passage, we thought we could finally leave. But now, the road was blocked because they had some kind of flag ceremony at the military checkpoint, so we had to wait again. While we were in the car waiting for the ceremony to end, I took a picture of this happening. When they were finished, we continued, and after a few more kilometers, we were stopped again at the very last checkpoint. They told us to wait, and suddenly, a car full of police officers apperaed. They were screaming at us and running towards me and asking for my phone. After they calmed down, I understood that one guy saw me taking a picture of the ceremony, and this was strongly against the law, since it was a military checkpoint. I didn’t think of that, and now, we had to drive back to the police station. They took my phone and checked all the pictures and we spent another hour talking and arguing with the guys. Finally, they made me delete all the pictures of the ceremony (which I proposed to them in the first place) and we were fine to go. When we arrived at the other side to enter Senegal, the border post was already closed, so we were forced to sleep at the border post. On the bright side, we had another evening together with Toby, but it was definitely not a the most cozy one. We didn’t feel like cooking so we got some street food at the side of the road and then went to bed. The next morning, we were able to enter Senegal, it took only a few minutes and we were in the country. Tom and I were heading straight towards the Gambia, since we wanted to visit this country and spend a few days there. Toby decided to come with us and enter the Gambia as well and take the route straight through this tiny country inside of Senegal. We entered the border, which was quite easy again. No visa was needed, the only thing that took a bit longer was to get a Temporary Import Permit for Olga, since Toby’s CDP was expired. But after a couple of hours, we were able to enter the Gambia. We looked for a nice restaurant where we could eat lunch together before Toby would continue in another direction. We hugged and sad our Farewells and then Toby and Olga drove off. It was quite a strange and sad feeling.

Tom and I decided to slow down a bit, now that we had some more time. We had spent so much time in the car the past weeks and we were looking forward to a couple of days without driving. We therefore only drove a little bit further west to Janjanbureh, where someone had recommended to us to visit a historic slave house. Unfortunately, it was not open when we arrived, but we met a super friendly local guy who runs a small campsite and he invited us to stay there. It was a very nice place, right at the river and very private. We enjoyed a quiet afternoon there and cleaned our Defender since it was very dusty inside.

The next morning, we started with a workout, something we also hadn’t done in weeks. After a coffee, we met the guy who gave us a small tour through the slave house. Compared to the one we had already seen in Ghana, this one was very small, but the story was just as bad as the one we had already heard. A truly sad part of African history.

We continued towards the beach and drove south, where we found a perfect spot to wild camp for a couple of days. Because it was the rainy season, there were no other tourists at all. We had the beach completely to ourselves together with some locals who were fishing and working out. The weather was great during the day, but every night, a small thunderstorm appeared and we listened to the rain and watched the lightening in our rooftent. We enjoyed these very relaxing days.

From there, we headed towards the capital Banjul. We wanted to explore the city and get some things done, like laundry and a proper car wash. We didn’t find a place to do our laundry, except one place that charged a fortune, so instead and also beause of the heavy rains, we started to look at Airbnbs and found a place with a washing machine for a very reasonable price. We booked the place and were able to check in immediately. We decided to go out for dinner. Banjul had some very nice restaurants and it had also been a while since we had our last date night, just the two of us. We found a nice restaurant in town, but unfortunately, during dinner, Tom started to feel unwell. It got worse and worse, so we quickly went home as soon as we finished our plates. Tom went straight to bed. He had a small fever, so we did a malaria self test, which was negative. However, he didn’t feel better at all. The fever went up and down and we did a second test after 12 hours, but it was negative again. I started to get worried becuase his fever didn’t go away, so we decided to go and see a doctor. We found a small clinic, and they took great care of Tom. He got tested for all sorts of possible diseases and received a positive malaria test…

Luckily, they also had a small pharmacy at the clinic, where we could get all the necessary pills. Of course, it was bad news that he was infected with malaria, but on the other hand we were also relieved since we now knew what was wrong and had the right medication to treat it. But it would definitely take time, so we went back “home” and extended our booking for another couple of days. Tom definitely needed to recover and feel better first, before we could continue our trip. Luckily, the treatment was very effective. He was feeling a lot better very quickly. I spent a day at the beach while Tom stayed at home in the air-conditioned room, and after two days, he felt a lot better and was ready to continue the trip. We went on the ferry to cross the Gambia river and drove towards Senegal, where we now wanted to take a few days and explore this country as well.

We were driving a beautiful road along a salt lake, but we decided to look for a campsite instead of a wild camp, so Tom would have a proper bathroom at least and in case he would be feeling worse again, we could also get a room.

Luckily, he felt fine, and we spent a night at “La Ferme de Saly” , a hotel and campsite with a huge pool area, where we went for a dip and enjoyed a cold beer before bed. The next morning, we continued towards St. Louis, an old colonial town which seemed to be a nice place to visit. We read about a photo gallery and exhibition, so we decided to go in for a cultural experience. The exhibition was great and spread throughout the whole city in various beautiful old buildings. We spent a lovely afternoon strolling through the small town and looking at the photographs.

Before dark, we left the city and continued towards the beach, where we wanted to wild camp. However, when we arrived, the beach was packed with locals who were enjoying their day off, since it was a Sunday. We parked next to a hotel and decided to chill at the beach until it would get less busy and we could set up our camp. It was very cool to mingle with everyone at the beach. There was a dog who seemed to really like us, he wouldn’t leave our side during the whole time we were staying at the beach. After sunset, most people left and we slowly walked back to the parking lot and our Defender. The security guard came towards us and asked if we wanted to stay for the night. We said yes and he offered us to open the hotel gate, so we could camp and sleep inside the gate with more privacy. We didn’t expect this at all and it was such a nice gesture of him! We cooked a small dinner and went to bed soon after. The beach dog was staying next to our car all night, and even brought two dog-friends along. We later found out that they all belonged to the hotel:-) The next morning when we got up, I was somehow not feeling great. Very low on energy but I thought maybe I just didn’t sleep that well. We packed up and offered the security guard a small tip for letting us stay here, but he refused to accept it! We greatly thanked him for letting us stay and continued our journey.

We drove towards the border to Mauritania. I didn’t really feel better at all, it actually got worse and worse, and by the time we reached the border, I barely managed to stand up and wait in line at the immigration office, I had to sit down all the time. Luckily, the border crossing was very easy and relatively quick. Tom managed everything he could on his own. The visas for Mauritania, we received on arrival against a payment of 55 Euros (it was much cheaper to pay in Euros than in Mauritanian currency). Theyalso didn’t accept our Carnet de Passage, and we had to pay for a temporary import permit, but it was not a problem and also a straightforward process and not very expensive. Soon, we were ready to enter Mauritania. Our first destination was Nouakchott, the capital, where we planned to stock up for a few days in the desert. But by the time we reached the city, I was quite sure that something was wrong. And after Tom just had malaria, we figured we best don’t lose time and go straight to a hospital. We found a clinic and I told them my symptoms. I got tested for malaria and I was positive. They gave me a prescription with all the medication which I easily received at a pharmacy and told me to come back the next day for some further tests. Unfortunately, everyone at the clinic was only speaking French, and even though I do know some French, it was rather hard for me to understand all the medical terms and explanations and why I had to come back the next day.

We decided to not camp and look for an Airbnb instead, since it was crazy hot and I just wanted a cooler place to get some rest. Unfortunately, getting a sim card and internet was another mission in Mauritania. Apparently, it used to be very easy to get a sim card here, that’s why a recent terror attack was planned by using Mauritanian sim cards. Because of this incident, they had to change the security measures to get sim cards and now it was almost impossible to buy one without a local passport. We drove to a campsite in town we found on iOverlander, where they had wifi, and explained our situation. The guys there were super helpful. They let me rest in their restaurant, which had comfy mattresses on the ground (a very common thing in Mauritania) and Tom was allowed to use their wifi and could check for a place to stay. He found an apartment which was rented out by a French family. They were super nice! We were able to check in right away and even got a small discount. They recommended another international clinic where the doctors could speak English, in case we needed further assistance for my malaria treatment. We were both very relieved when we arrived at the apartment and finally got to rest. It was another busy border crossing day, but me being sick made it even more exhausting for both of us.

week 74 - 76 - exploring Eswatini, safari times and a perfect farewell to South Africa

Tom and I were a bit nervous regarding the border crossing to Eswatini after our experience at the border to Lesotho a couple of weeks earlier with our still pending visa extension application in South Africa. It turned out that our worries were unfounded; the immigration officers at the border post asked for the receipt of the pending application and stamped us out - not a problem at all. From Eswatini, I expected something similar to Lesotho, maybe because of the similar size of the two kingdoms, but the vibe after the border was actually very different to Lesotho. Eswatini was quite touristy, good tarmac roads and many signposts to show you where the next attraction was. Also the houses along the street were more modern, a lot of them with two storeys. We had already planned a nice route together with Urs and Barbara. Our first stop was at the famous Swazi Candle factory. Next to the factory there was also a restaurant, a crafts market and many other stores to buy souvenirs. At the factory, we could watch the people working there making candles and forming all kind of animals and other things with the wax.

After this first stop, we went to visit a crafts market and then stopped at a cultural village, where we learned how the people in Eswatini had lived in the earlier days. They also made a performance with some traditional dances and songs, it was a beautiful show. Our first night in Eswatini we then spent just next to the cultural village at the “Legends Backpacker”, where Tom had already stayed on his previous trip through Africa; however, this time, he wasn’t sleeping in the dorm but in our Defender :)

The next morning, we headed towards Sibebe Rock, a granite mountain in Eswatini. It is the second largest monolith in the world after the famous Uluru in Australia. Of course, we wanted to visit this place, and it was a very cool trip. On top of the enormous rock, there is a lodge. You can drive up there; the street was bumpy but not a problem for the Landcruiser of Barbara and Urs and our Defender. When we arrived at the lodge, we were amazed; it was very nice! It had a huge pool, a restaurant, a zip line, a nice bar and of course a very nice view; apparently, a new investor was putting some money into it, so everything was still quite new. We parked our cars and hiked a short trail about 30 minutes to the highest point of Sibebe Rock and took some pictures; when we returned to the car, it was already noon, and we decided to stop at the Ramblas restaurant in Mbabane, Eswatini’s capital, with a population of only 95’000. The restaurant was described to be the best in town; so we wanted to try it. It was nice, but I’m not sure if I would drive the extra mile for it, though ;)

Our next planned stop was the glass factory, another tourist attraction and cool place where we could see the workers making some beautiful glass art. The day went by quickly, and we did not have time to visit the oldest mine in the world, which is close to the factory. We, therefore, drove to Hawane Lodge to spend the night. It was a beautiful place with a very friendly owner who was originally from Uganda. He was very interested in our travels through Africa, so he joined us at the campsite and we had a lovely night around the fire.

The following day, we drove back to the mine. Especially Tom was very interested in visiting this place. We had a very friendly guide who showed us around; a part of the mine is still operating and, therefore, strictly secured, but the rest is open to the public.

From there, we drove to the Phophonye Waterfall, where we went on a short hike down to the waterfall and enjoyed lunch in the Phophonyane Falls Ecolodge’s beautiful garden. We then continued to Mbulezi National Park, where we spent one night. The road was quite wet from the rain, and we didn’t see many animals on our way to the camp. The campsite was very basic. The following day, we decided to drive straight to Hlane National Park, where we were more lucky and got to see many rhinos. We enjoyed watching them and then continued to our last stop in Eswatini - Mabuda Farm, a campsite that had been recommended to us by other travelers

At Mabuda Farm, we planned to spend a few nights and relax, after the quite busy program of the past few days. It can get exhausting and overwhelming to visit so many new places. The campsite was indeed lovely, unfortunately, we were not so lucky with the weather. Everything was wet because it had been raining quite a bit. On the bright side, they had a great coffee shop where they sold their self-grown coffee; of course, Tom and I enjoyed this place a lot. Still, after two nights, Barbara, Urs, Tom, and I decided to continue because we all had some things to do. Barbara and Urs had to drive to Richard’s Bay to receive their new Carnet de Passage, which had been sent there from Switzerland. Tom and I also wanted to get across the border to South Africa because I had some catching up to do with blog writing and the Internet in Eswatini was rather slow. Furthermore, Christian, a friend of Tom from Switzerland, called us to let us know that he was in Cape Town with another friend of his, Fabio. We told them, that we were already further east, quite a stretch away from them. The two spontaniously decided to fly to Durban, Fabio’s parents knew the owners of a private game reserve called Sensiri Plains, very close to where we were staying. They didn’t have any bookings for the next couple of days, so they invited us to spend some days there! That’s how quickly we changed our plans and instead of driving to the Hluhluwe National Park to go on some self-driving safaris, we drove to Sensiri Plains to meet Christian and Fabio and enjoy some days together.

The lodge was beautiful, we had amazing game drives every morning and also in the late afternoons together with Tim, the manager of the lodge, who is an amazing safari guide. Suzette, his wife, in the meantime spoiled us with amazing food; we were back in feasting mode ;) The rest of the time we enjoyed the beautiful lodge we had all to ourselves. The weather was hot and we mostly just sat in the pool with a glass of Suzette’s tasty Sangria.One afternoon, Tim took us to the shooting range, where he shoots his guns. He let us each have a go, definitely a first for me to shoot a pistol, I also missed the targets terribly bad, not a natural talent here ;) Tom on the other hand, did a great job!

It also turned, that Tim and Suzette were camping enthusiasts. They had already planned a short holiday in Kosi Bay for a few days after we left the Lodge. Tom and I had also planned to go there with Barbara and Urs. So after our short retreat at Sensiri Plains Lodge and catching up with the visitory from home, we first drove to Sodwana, to meet up with Barbara and Urs. The landscape and beach in Sodwana is absolutely beautiful; we explored it the next morning on foot and had the whole beach to ourselves.

Then, we continued to Kosi Bay a few kilometers further north, where we met Tim and Suzette again at the Casitas campsite, where we spent two amazing days altogether. We went on a boat trip on the three lakes and of course, the legendary braais couldn’t be missed every night together with some bottles of wine. It was a perfect ending to our time in South Africa. After four months in this beautiful country, it was time for us to leave it behind and explore another new place - Mozambique.

week 72 - some more rain, new cultures and reunions

We woke up on our second day in the Addo National Park, and it was still raining. Furthermore, we received a message from friends from Jeffrey’s Bay warning against roadblocks in the area just outside of the National Park. Unfortunately, we have heard about this happening especially in eastern South Africa. Because some people are very poor in this country and unhappy with the government leaving them with nothing, they demonstrate and sometimes block roads and even damage cars, and rob people. This warning message triggered us even more after our experiences in Angola, and we realized that maybe, we haven’t completely processed what had happened to us up there… Of course, the shitty weather also didn’t really help with getting back into our positive travel mood. Tom suggested to drive to a hostel in Hogsback, a place he knew from his previous travels. It would be a safe haven and a good place to recharge our batteries, sit out the bad weather and plan our next steps. He texted Shane, the owner of Terrakaya Backpackers, who was happy to host us and had a room for us at his beautiful eco lodge. The weather stayed bad, but the place was lovely, with very welcoming people, dogs, cats, and many horses, a perfect place to chill. Shane also recommended a coach in the area who is dealing with people’s traumas. We decided to give it a chance and meet him and talk about our Angola experience. It turned out to be helpful in overcoming the fear of bad things happening on the road. We stayed four nights at Terrakaya, and on our last day, the rain finally stopped. Shane took us on a beautiful horse ride through Hogsback, so luckily, in the end, we still got to explore this beautiful place in the sun. We cooked a traditional Potjiekos, a traditional Afrikaner dish, cooked over a fire for our last dinner together, a delicious meal and a fun experience.

With new energy, we left Hogsback again, and even though the weather forecast didn’t look amazing, we decided to stick to our intended route and drive into Lesotho. This place was also new to Tom, so we had something new to explore together for the first time in a while. We spent the last night close to the border on a small campsite, had our car cleaned, and also washed our wet and dirty clothes from the past rainy days. After this, we felt ready to hit the road again. However, an unpleasant surprise waited for us at the border… What was supposed to be a straightforward and quick border crossing didn’t go according to plan. When we wanted to exit South Africa, the immigration officer told us he couldn’t let us leave since our application to extend the South African visa, which we handed in more than two months ago, was still pending. We showed him the receipt from the application, with which we were told we could travel freely in and out of the country. We already knew that the Visa office was far behind with handling the applications; they even informed us that, most likely, we would not hear back from them before the end of our granted visa but that this wouldn’t be a problem, we would just need to show our receipt and it would be fine. Apparently, the immigration officers at the very small land border to Lesotho weren’t informed about that. The officer told us that we should wait for his manager, who would be here in 2 hours, or alternatively, we could drive back to the next town with a VFS office (e.g., a two hours drive) to handle the situation there. Knowing that they probably wouldn’t be a big help, we decided to wait. I was already devastated because I was so much looking forward to visiting Lesotho. Finally, the manager arrived, telling us the same story we had heard from his colleague: If he would let us exit South Africa, the system would kick out our pending application, resulting in an overstayed visa for us and therefore, he would have to give us an “undesired” stamp, meaning we could not return to South Africa for 5-10 years. Of course, we didn’t want this, and also, Lesotho being a landlocked country surrounded entirely by South Africa, we would have been stuck there forever… The manager, however, understood our dilemma, and he also understood that it wasn’t our fault since we applied on time, paid the extension fee, and had done everything we needed. Luckily, he was very helpful and started to make a few phone calls. We waited again patiently, and another two hours later, he called us into his office again and informed us that he would let us pass. We were allowed to exit without being marked as overstayed. We were beyond happy and entered Lesotho.

The vibe after the border was very different to South Africa; we felt like being back in east Africa. The streets were bustling, kids were waving at us when we drove by, the houses were more basic and the people wore very traditional clothes. Above all, we felt very save and welcome. We bought two sim cards just after the border and were surprised by the excellent coverage throughout the whole country! It was definitely worth buying them. Our first stop was at Mount Moorosi Chalets, a cute little lodge and campsite, run by a local guy named Telang. He was very welcoming and even offered us a Rondavel for a reduced price. Since it looked like it would actually not rain for a night, we decided to camp. We were lucky and had a dry night; even the morning remained dry, so we decided to hike up the mountain, which is a historical place in Lesotho because in the early 19th century, an important battle took place at this place against the British. Telang knew a lot about it, and it was an interesting hike up.

Can you see the waterfall behind us? yeah, we didn’t see it either …

From there, we drove to Semonkong, another Lodge with a campsite. As soon as we sat in the car, the rain started again. We texted the lodge owner, who informed us that the campsite at the Semonkong lodge was VERY wet. We decided to go there still and see what we could do. The owner, a lady originally from St. Maurice, was very friendly. She had spent a lot of time in Lesotho and told us a lot about the culture. The lawn of the campsite was indeed very wet, already the road to the lodge was super muddy, and our car looked again like we had just driven a Ralley. But luckily, they had a nice indoor kitchen and sheltered area for campers, so we decided to stay and sleep in the car - after all, our roof tent is waterproof. The following morning, the rain had stopped again, so we got up early and joined another couple for a hike to the highest waterfall in Lesotho. The weather stayed dry for our hike, however, the ground was very wet. We crossed many fields, and our feet were soon soaked. Still, we got to enjoy a breathtaking scenery; it was amazing to explore these even more remote places on foot. We enjoyed the hike, but when we finally reached the waterfall, it was hidden behind some big clouds; we literally didn’t see anything of the waterfall; we only could hear the water falling over the cliff. Thanks to our drone, we still got to take some pictures of the waterfall ;)

We hiked back to the lodge and enjoyed a hot coffee before we continued further north in our car. Our next stop was the Thaba Bosiu Cultural Center, a small museum, where we learned much about the Lesotho history and culture. Again, it was raining in the afternoon, but luckily, not very severely. We found another homestay on iOverlander, Metolong Backpackers, run by a very friendly man named Tlali. He welcomed us warmly, and because the rain picked up again, we spent the evening in a local bar close by, playing pool against the locals. When we woke up the following day, the sun was out again, and we walked down to the dam with Tlali’s trainee, a girl who studied Tourism Management in the capital city of Maseru and was here to complete a three-month internship. We were only her second guest, but she did a great job showing us around, and of course, she had lots of questions about Europe and all the places we have traveled to.

After these three rather wet days in the car on basic campsites, we looked forward to a hot shower and some shelter. All our clothes just didn’t seem to get dry anymore, it stayed damp inside the car. We asked a hotel in Hlotse, a town along our route, if they had a room and they offered us an excellent deal to spend the night. Along the way, we stopped again to visit another old cultural village with huts built into caves. The young local tour guide spoke English very well and explained much about the place’s history.

When we arrived at the hotel, we were amazed: It was a beautiful place, the rooms were clean and modern, and we enjoyed the strong hot shower and the comfortable bed a lot. We wanted to eat at the small restaurant but forgot to tell them when we checked in. When we walked to the restaurant around 8 pm, everything was closed already. So we returned to our room and cooked a small dinner on our gas stove just in front of the room :D

We woke up excited the following day: today, we would meet again with Barbara and Urs, our fellow Swiss overlanders with whom we had spent a fantastic time in Zambia and Botswana. They were back in Africa after a visit back home, and we had made plans to travel together again. We met them at a campsite called Mamohase, about an hour away. En route, we stopped at a car wash (yes again, the muddy roads kept our car very dirty) and at a tourist site, where we could see dinosaur footprints. Unfortunately, half of them were underwater because the river was very high. Nevertheless, we got to see two of them, and the size was indeed very impressive.

Mamohase was another locally-run campsite with a lovely view. The sun was shining when we arrived, and Barbara and Urs were already waiting for us. We sat together, and of course, we had plenty to tell each other. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t stay dry, soon again some clouds appeared, and we had to move our gathering under some shelter. The lodge owners, three cousins, were very helpful and brought some dry wood, so we could still make a braai. It felt like no time had passed since we last saw the two; we were excited to hit the road together again for some weeks.

week 55 - a not so warm welcome to Angola

The border crossing to Angola was not such a quick experience as our previous couple of immigrations because this country is not a very touristy destination. However, we were surprised at how quickly our online application for the e-visa was approved.

When we reached the border, we definitely stood out with our big car. The border is bustling since Namibians and Angolans do not need a visa to travel to their neighboring country. Because most goods are cheaper in Namibia, many Angolans were carrying big bags of rice or potatoes and other groceries and walked past us across the border. We, on the other hand, were first stopped by a guy who wanted to see our Covid Test, which we did not have… We heard so many different versions of whether it was necessary to bring a test or not that, in the end, we decided to try our luck. Unfortunately, we weren’t lucky, and this guy wanted to see the test results and was very strict about it, even though no one else seemed to need a test to cross here... Furthermore, he didn’t speak English, so we had to ask one of the fixers for help. We usually try to avoid using fixers for border crossings, but this time, we needed help to communicate somehow. We were lucky and found Lukas, a fixer who was quite helpful. He managed to bargain with the Covid-guy; in the end, we could cross without a test. We then went to immigration, where an officer asked us to follow him to his office. He checked our e-visa application and then prepared our physical visas, which took quite some time, but the officer was very friendly and asked many questions about our travels; he seemed very interested. We had to go to the bank to pay for the visa when he was finished. Lukas showed us the way; we practically had to enter Angola and go to the bank while our passports were still with the immigration officer, which seemed very weird, but it was what it was. At the bank, the next surprise waited: we could only pay for the visa in cash (?!), and of course, we did not have Angolan Kwanzas yet. The cashier at the bank was also unable to exchange our US dollars for Kwanza (!!!). Luckily, a client at the counter next to us was happy to help and exchanged some dollars at an excellent exchange rate. So finally, we were able to pay the visa fee and could return to the immigration office to collect our passports. After we let the immigration officer have a look at our car because he was very interested, we could drive to the next counter: customs. The counter was very busy, and we had to wait for more than one hour until it was our turn and we could pay the road tax. We were already prepared to walk again to the bank with our paper when a local guy offered to pay for us using his phone (no cash is allowed at official counters, but they have an Angolan payment system for phones which was ok). We gave the friendly guy the money in cash. There was one last checkpoint before we could enter Angola, and Lukas advised us to bribe the customs officer so he would not search through our whole car before we could leave. We weren’t sure about that advice, and we told him we wanted to see if he was even interested in looking through our vehicle. He wasn’t interested at all, so we could leave the border and enter Angola without bribing the officer.

Besides driving back on the right side of the road, the change to Namibia was quite significant; we immediately felt like being back in East Africa, with many people on the streets selling their vegetables and fruits and bustling roads with goats and cows crossing everywhere. In Namibia, the vibes were more western. We stopped in the first town after the border to buy a local sim card. At the Unitel store, only one lady spoke English and could help us, but she was very friendly and interested. She had not met many tourists, even less those who travel by car. Once we had our sim cards, we got some more money at an ATM since our international cards didn’t seem to work here in the shops; they mostly only accepted an Angolan banking card. It was quite a stretch to Lubango, the first town we wanted to visit, and there were few places of interest on the way. However, it was already early afternoon, so we decided to check out one of the wild camping spots along the way. Beneath a giant Baobab tree, some people have camped before, and everyone seemed to have liked this spot. We drove on a perfect tar road towards Lubango and left the road halfway to reach the camping spot. On the way, we passed some old abandoned military tanks, which were still there from the civil war in Angola, which only ended in 2002. We soon found the Baobab Tree, a lovely spot to spend our first night in Angola. A local farmer greeted us; we offered him something to drink and tried to communicate using Google Translate, which was quite funny. After he left, we cooked dinner and went to bed. The following day we enjoyed a little breakfast while talking about how we had met so many lovely people in Africa. We thought back about how we both were a bit afraid when we first arrived in Africa and how we were a bit overprotective – maybe we should have kept that feeling and been more careful, knowing now what happened shortly after…

We packed up our camp and drove to Lubango, where we first stopped at a restaurant to eat a little lunch. Angola was definitely a more expensive country, which we realized after we had to pay the bill, and it was almost like being back in Switzerland. We would definitely need to cook ourselves a bit more here. We continued and wanted to drive up to Tundavala, a touristy hotspot 20 minutes outside the city. It’s a beautiful cliff with a fantastic view over Angola.

On the way, we quickly stopped at Le Chalet, a restaurant and store owned by Swiss people who sell great cheese. We stocked up on some Gouda, Tilsiter, and even Raclette Cheese before continuing further up to the viewpoint. On the way, we debated whether we wanted to wild camp up there, which many overlanders had done before us, or if we should go back to the city and look for a hotel. When we arrived, we were the only visitors, but two security guards came to the parking lot as soon as we had parked the car. We walked to the viewpoint, and some local Himba kids ran after us and asked for food and money. We gave them some fruits we had with us and went on to take some pictures. By the time we returned to our Defender, some more cars had arrived with mostly local tourists. One of them started talking to us; he spoke English very well, so we asked him if he could ask the security guards if we could camp there. He translated for us and informed us that they said it would not be a problem. However, they told us to sleep in the parking lot, where they could see us, as they would be there all night. We thanked them and were still unsure if we should stay because some dark clouds were slowly coming our way, and we were afraid that a thunderstorm would soon arrive. There were some more hidden viewpoints along the cliffs, so we asked the security guards whether it would be ok to drive along the beautiful offroad trail along the cliffs and check it out. They said it was not a problem and that it was safe up here. We informed them that we would come back later and decided whether we would sleep up here, depending on the weather.

We drove along the gravel road and soon were out of sight from the parking lot. We decided to cook dinner up here and then see whether the thunderstorm would come here or not. If yes, we would drive back to the city again and sleep in a hotel; if it stayed dry, we would sleep in the parking lot next to the security guards. We stepped out of the car, took pictures, and started cooking. It must have been around 20 minutes after we had arrived there when suddenly two guys appeared from behind our car. We didn’t see them coming at all, they were wearing black masks over the head, with two holes for the eyes and one for the mouth. One was holding a knife, the other a beating stick. Of course, we immediately knew what was going on. And there was no one around who could see or hear us. They told us to sit on the floor, or at least that’s what we understood since neither of them spoke English. They kept asking for “Dolares” and wanted to tie our hands, but we told them we would get the money for them. I got up and returned with our wallet and gave them all the Angolan Kwanzas we had, which was quite a bit, because we only just pulled money. I hoped that they would leave, but they didn’t. They kept asking for more money. I remebered the Namibian and US-Dollars we still had and gave them the rest. They started looking through some compartments in the front of the car and found my apple watch and our GoPro, which they also took. They kept asking for more money and wanted to tie us again. One guy started to get very aggressive; he kept yelling “Dolares” and “more,” but we didn’t have more cash. The other guy started to take off my jewelry. Thankfully, I left all my valuable jewelry back at home, and I was so happy I did at that moment. I gave him my bracelet and the rings I was wearing. He probably thought the ring on my ring finger was my wedding ring and didn’t ask for this one, a robber with manners at least... By that time, Tom and I started to get very angry; these guys were taking forever and it was obvious that there was nothing more for them to take. Our phones, we had both thrown behind the driver seats when they were approaching, I’m not sure if they saw it, but I think they were not interested in the phones anyway because, without a code, they are useless. In the meantime, the thunderstorm had arrived; it was very windy, the sky turned black, and it started to rain and even hail. We screamed at them that they had everything and there was nothing more to take. Tom began to stow away our cooking gear, which was still out. I think they were a bit confused and of course still couldn’t understand a word we were saying. We started yelled at them that they should finally leave us alone, and one guy seemed to understand what we were trying to tell them or he just got nervous too. He pulled his aggressive buddy away and they finally backed off and ran in the other direction. We threw everything that was still lying around in the car, jumped in, and drove back to the main road. We didn’t even stop at the parking lot to tell the security guards about what happened; we were terrified and just wanted to get away from that place.

We drove straight to one of the nicer hotels in Lubango, which seemed like a safe place, and asked if they had a room. They did, and the receptionist named Saida was very helpful. We told her what had just happened to us, we were soaking wet and still under shock. She immediately offered to come to the police station after her shift and quickly showed us our room, where we first took a long shower to warm ourselves. We then went to the police station close by together with Saida. She translated for us, and the officers told us we needed to go to the central police station. Since we had left our car at the hotel, they offered to drive us, but the only vehicle available at that moment was the car from the troubleshooter guys. So we had to jump on the back of their car, together with four armed police officers, and they drove us with turned-on sirens to the central police station of the town. We there had to tell the whole story again, and the officer, in the end, asked us to come back the next day. He wanted to drive up to Tundavala with us so we could show and explain to the police how and what exactly happened. It was already after 9 pm when we walked out of the police station and of course, we didn’t feel like going back up there early the following day, but we did what we had to do.

Unfortunately, the next morning, Saida had to work again so she couldn’t join us. We drove to the police station the next day in our car and drove up to Tundavala with two officers. When we returned to the police station, an entire investigation team was waiting for us, and we again had to tell them everything so they could write the official police report. This time, we had to use Google Translate, so I’m pretty sure it’s a bit of a funny report to read if you speak Portuguese, but at least we could communicate. The officers were very friendly and took us seriously, which felt good. It took some more hours but in the early afternoon, we were finally done and could return to the hotel.

At around 8 pm, they called us and asked whether they could stop by to show us the final police report we would need to sign. 4 policemen came to our hotel to show us the report. There were some minor adjustments necessary and they offered to come back the following morning because we told them we were planning to leave Lubango the next day. So on Sunday morning, after the incident, which happened late Friday afternoon, we already had the final police report in our hands - we were very impressed with the Angolan police.

We hit the road again, but we were not very relaxed, to be honest. There was another viewpoint of the city; a smaller version of the Christ the King statue from Rio de Janeiro above Lubango. We drove up there, but everything reminded us a lot of Tundavala, and we barely dared to step out of the car when we arrived at the parking. There was a security guard up there, and we parked right next to him and only quickly left the car to take pictures. A little boy was begging for money and food, holding his blind grandfather and we already felt very threatened by the two of them.

We continued to Serra de Leba, another viewpoint. Unfortunately, we were all alone; just one other car with two local tourists was parked nearby. We sat in the car and had a little mental breakdown because we didn’t dare to leave our car. We realized that there was some recovery time necessary for us. We weren’t sure if we should turn around and leave Angola again, but somehow turning around and going back to Lubango didn’t seem very appealing either. We decided to continue and drive towards Namibe, a town at the beach, and hoped for some good weather and lovely places to get some new and pleasant pictures in our heads.