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Updated Information
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Date |
Camp Site or Accommodations |
GPS |
Distance Today:
300km |
Meals
Baked beans with fried plantains |
Weather |
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Cabinda, Angola |
20 April 2004 |
Catholic Mission |
5°34.744’S
12°10.686’E |
Odometer: 18326km |
Hot, Sunny, Humid 98F) degrees
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We left the boat yard this morning at about
8am and spent a few hours in town getting fuel, sending emails, and eating
pain au chocolate. We drove the 25 miles to the border on good tarmac. The
formalities on the Congo side were fast and efficient. Immigration on the
Angolan side, however, required more patience. One guy filled out a long
form for each of our passports, in triplicate, by hand. Next another guy
proofreads each of the forms. A third guy pounds out the information on an
old manual typewriter. We settled in on the back porch of the office for a
long wait. The locals, curious as ever, brought us an assortment of stuff
for us to buy. Elza bought a very cute pair of red shoes that match her
pants. Rumor has it that there are 25 pairs of shoes in the Pinzgauer!
After 3 hours of waiting, we learned that nothing had actually happened.
They had put all of our passports (we hoped) and a copy of the papers they
had prepared into a large envelope and sealed it. They explained that a
guy from the office had to accompany us to Cabinda where the chief would
inspect our paperwork. We reluctantly agreed and the guy got in the
cramped back seat of Rafiki, the 7-gallon water container hitting him in
the back when Witt hits the brakes. The first 25 km out of town was
horrible old tarmac with huge potholes and took over an hour. We
encountered one police checkpoint where a very drunk official stared at
the Moroccan entry in our carnets for about 5 minutes. It was nearly dark
when we reached Cabinda. After driving around on a confusing maze of
one-way streets for awhile (our guide didn’t really know where he was
going) we located the immigration office. We were greeted by a very
polite, well-dressed man (#4) but he was just a subordinate and we had to
wait for the chief to come from his house. The chief (#3) wanted to keep
our passports overnight. After a long argument he agreed to accept
photocopies. He sent a guy in a car to show us to the Catholic mission so
that he would know where we were. At the mission we were told that we
needed a letter of authorization from the police or immigration in order
to stay. So Witt and Slade drove back to the immigration office. While we
had been away, the next guy up the chain of command arrived (#2). He was
very unhappy that we had been given our passports back and followed us
back to the mission so he could inspect them. He was drunk enough that he
couldn’t stand without staggering a bit, so it’s fortunate that driving a
car is done while sitting. He wanted to take our passports to his boss
(#1) so he could inspect them. We weren’t very happy having some drunk guy
we don’t know drive off with our passports, so Witt, Slade, and Graham
followed him to a restaurant where #1 was having dinner with his family
and a friend. #1 seemed very unhappy with #2 for having interrupted his
meal. #1 and his friend across the table started a heated argument in
Portuguese that quickly degenerated into a full on shoving match with
tables being thrown and family members running for cover. #2 left and
started to get back in his car with our passports. Graham, hearing nothing
of it, grabbed the envelope and wrestled it away from him, whereupon #2
drove off in a cloud of dust. Our passports safely in hand, we drove back
to the mission where Krissy and Jen had made a quick meal. Hoping that the
morning would bring greater sobriety and less violence, we opened our
tents and fell into bed at 1030. This office seems to have a serious
problem with no one being empowered to make a decision. We figure we’ll be
seeing the president in a few days.
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Updated Information
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Date |
Camp Site or Accommodations |
GPS |
Distance Today:
58km |
Meals
Chicken pot roast |
Weather |
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Moanda, Democratic Republic
of Congo (DRC) |
21 April 2004 |
Nunnery in Mounda |
5°55.828’S
12°20.647’E |
Odometer: 18384km |
Partly Cloudy, 96(F) degrees
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We went back to the immigration office at 8am
as we had promised to bring copies of our Angolan visas. We were greeted
by #4 (the polite one) who said we could go and provided an escort to the
border. The 20km to the border was good tarmac and we arrived there before
10am. The Angolan side was fairly efficient once the customs officials had
arrived from Cabinda. The DRC side was somewhat less so, and after
visiting police, immigration, customs, and the military we finally left
the border at 130pm after an exhaustive police search of all four vehicles
that left us tired and hot. The track to Moanda was bad, but tarmac had
never been attempted so it could have been worse. Moanda seems like it has
long been expecting lots of oil money that has never arrived. We can see
many oil rigs from the shore, and there are helicopters buzzing back and
forth from the platforms. After checking in with the immigration office,
we went to the Catholic mission looking for a place to stay. They wanted
US$50 for our group of nine and, when we said it was too expensive, they
suggested that we try the nunnery instead. The Sisters of Charity charged
us $20 and had a lovely verandah where we cooked and relaxed. The sisters
even had cold beer in the fridge which was most welcome. We talked with a
South African guy staying there who had come from Matadi. He advised us
not to drive after 5pm for security reasons and that the first 120km is
very slow. |
Jen takes a well-earned nap after a hard day's overlanding
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Updated Information
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Date |
Camp Site or Accommodations |
GPS |
Distance Today:
228km |
Meals
Sausage with mashed potatoes, sauerkraut |
Weather |
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Matadi, DRC |
22 April 2004 |
Sisters of Charity Nunnery |
5°49.891’S
13°27.655’E |
Odometer: 18612km |
Cloudy, Humid, 99(F) degrees
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The sisters made us a
wonderful breakfast of omelettes and freshly baked bread along with
excellent homemade yoghurt. We left Moanda at about 830. The track was
very slow with deep ruts. Fortunately it hasn’t rained recently and the
track was mostly dry. It would be almost impassible after a couple days’
rain. We were pleasantly surprised by the infrequent, quick and friendly
police stops. We reached the north side of the Congo River in the
afternoon and were treated to a wonderful view of the city crawling up the
hillside. We joked that it looked like an Italian Mediterranean town . As
usual our thoughts turned to food and we started discussing alfredo sauce
and chianti. The Congo river is spanned here by a very modern suspension
bridge that seems very much out of place here. We were charged a
reasonable US$2 to cross and found another nunnery to spend the night at.
We hope to get our Angola visas tomorrow and be on our way.
Click on the photo to see a larger version. |
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Updated Information
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Date |
Camp Site or Accommodations |
GPS |
Distance Today:
0km |
Meals
Chicken Potjie |
Weather |
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Matadi, DRC |
23 April 2004 |
Sisters of Charity Nunnery |
5°49.891’S
13°27.655’E |
Odometer: 18612km |
Cloudy, Humid, 97(F) degrees
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Witt and Elza went to the Angolan embassy this
morning and were confronted with a bizarre array of asinine requirements
to get a visa. First, and most insulting, was the US$80 they wanted. Also
required were photocopies of all of the pages in our passports. We argued
vehemently that nine passports times twenty pages each amounted to a large
book that would cost a fortune. They amended their requirement to include
just the pages with visas on them, which still makes nearly 100 pages. The
two-page form we have to fill out for each applicant costs 1000 Congolese
Francs, or almost three US dollars. We told them we would take one form
and copy it, but they wouldn’t hear of it. In any case the chief isn’t in
today and won’t be back till Monday, so we’re stuck in Matadi for the
weekend. We are hoping that the chief will be a little more reasonable.
The nunnery we’re staying at also happens to be a primary school and we
were inundated with little kids running around screaming. They were
naturally very curious about us, and the teachers who had admonished the
kids to leave us alone were standing back a little but just as curious as
the kids. We spent the afternoon relaxing and Jen made a wonderful potjie
for dinner. |
Urs watches as the school children gather around Some school kids checking out our gear
Urs watches as the school children gather around
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