Forgive me for beleiving a Michelin map but it seems there is a route due south from Kinshasa passing thru the Uige region of Angola

Ive looked around the net and Hubb but cant find anything. With only a five day transit id like to know if this route is a go before commiting to it

I guess the DRC side could be challenging even if the Angola side is good

Any news would be good

Thx Tim

Hi Tim,

I spoke to a South African man today whose company mines in the south of the DRC at Solwezi - quite far east on the map. According to him the roads in the south go COMPLETELY TO PIECES in the rainy season. My father-in-law also goes to the same area about 4 times a year and has exactly the same opinion.

Depending on what you travel with this may be good news: Lois Pryce from the UK did the 5-day Angolan crossing from north to south in 2006, I think, on a smallish motobike in rain and made it in 5-days, woman-alone.

I'm aiming for a traverse to Zambia from Luanda in the 2nd half of May on an F650GS Dakar. When are you scheduled to be there?

Kobus

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"The fates lead him who will; him who won't they drag." - Anon

Back in 2003 we crossed into Angola through Maquala de Zombo/Uige, then it took us 5 days to enter. The Angolan border guards didnt really know what to do with us and eventually escorted us to Maquala. The roads were quite bad, lots of bridges still blown up and sandy streches. Luckily we were on a 30day visa so no rush.

But now a few years on, its probably all chinese tarmac !!! lol Tim, Enjoy Angola before you enter the tranqility of Namibia (I think we've met back in Oz at Craigs Hut 2008?)

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Amsterdam-Australia 2007-201x Amsterdam-Capetown 2002-2003

Craigs Hut indeed, how you doin? good i hope.
Im leaving Yaonde tommorow and alas i only have a transit visa for Angola and am not sure wether i want to incur the rath of the angolan customs on the Namib border

Where are you???

Do you remember Adam on the Dakar, well hes in South America but now on a DR 650.....hes seen the light!!!!!

Thanks for the help, ill ask when i get closer

Adam traded his Dakar for a DR... lol. But I'll still bet his wearing his nice BMW suit... lol. DR's are pretty good i reckon, especially good value if bought in Oz.

The RTW road has stopped for me in Indonesia, married and got a kid now... So my travelling is now limited to driving to Dili - Timor for a Indo visa renewal and someday back to Netherland of course...(on a DR?...lol)

Its a cliche but for me travelling through Nigeria/Cameroun/Gabon/CongoKandB/Angola was the highlight of my transafrica, enjoy (and take care dude!)

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Amsterdam-Australia 2007-201x Amsterdam-Capetown 2002-2003

I am in Brazzaville now and plan to leave to DRC and then to Angola on Tuesday. Any suggestion for the route through Angola is most welcome.

Is anyone around at the same time?

All the best
Albert

Hi Albert,

Are you planning to travel straight down to Namibia or are you heading for Zambia? If for Zambia, I'd be real interested in the route you're planning to take.

Kobus

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"The fates lead him who will; him who won't they drag." - Anon

See this:
http://www.mindtheelephant.com/blog/...1_archive.html

The route we did is roughly described on there and we pulled it off in 3.5 days last year. I'm assuming all the road building was finished for the cup of nations, so it should be even easier now.

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Route update through Angola

DRC Songololo crossing into Angola, south to M’banza-Congo (has a fuel station) is a doable dusty piste with some ruts around. SW to Tomboco has fresh Chinese tar and descent piste, they are preparing the rest of the way to N’zeto for tar. Made Sogololo to N’zeto in one day, filled the bikes with bottled fuel at N’zeto and had no problems with it (the red coloured hotel is on the main street opposite the couple of old disused fuel pumps).

N’zeto – Musserra, is a mix of sandy (follow the tracks which is not as deep but this is not dune fields) and hard packed road.
Musserra south, a little sandy in places (not as much as before) and crappy broken tar that makes it difficult to get a good rhythm going, stick to the sides off the tar where possible, takes a while to get through. The road forks SE to Caxito, back on the dirt after short tarred section, I went SW to Luanda and was tarred all the way.

Luanda - Porto Amboim – Benguela, is good tar.
Benguela – Quilengues, good tar (small section to be done yet).
Quilengues – Cacula, is tarred then has 35-40km of rougher piste.
Cacula – Lubango – Quihita(I think?), good tar.
Quihita – Cahama, slightly corrugated piste beside the roadworks which leads onto long tarred section. Cahama hotel/bar/restaurant/ S16’17112, E014’18.4115, ask for Elvis! 3000Kz/night, place to get your head down with secure parking in Elvis’s place.
Cahama – Humbe, about 90km of a rough and potholed route which makes it a slow going section, off to the sides it’s a bit smother, allow over 2hours for this bone shaker.
Humbe – border, smooOOooth tar.

Regarding fuel, there were queues at the stations in Angola (city queues where longer but the gasolina queue was not as bad as diesel) but if you’re sensible and fuel up outside the cities you’ll save a bit of time. You’ll get fuel in Angola so don’t worry but plan ahead to be sure as you’ll only have 5days to cross. I didn’t top up in Cahama (racking was tied together and didn’t want to load the bike more) and the pumps were dry in Xangongo with people waiting. A top tip if you are running out is look for a mobile phone mast, hopefully you’ll find guys looking after generators that will sell you some. The guys in Mongua sold me some for 100Kz per litre through the fence (still cheap fuel!), usually 40Kz but they would need to replace it, it guaranteed to keep moving across the border and everyone was happy. The other stations I saw towards the border had no gasolina either but the very last one right at the border had some so I queued for 5-10min and topped up my tank. I could have hit these places at a bad time just before the tanker arrived as people were waiting…?

A word of warning once in Namibia (oh, bikes have to pay 115N$ for road tax at the border, carnet doesn’t cover this), I got caught doing 80kph in a 60 zone. Was up for a 150N$ fine that meant me doubling back to pay it (couldn’t do a runner) so asked if I could pay without getting a receipt. He asked for 100N$ and made sure he didn’t write a ticket (TIA), happy days. Oh apparently bikes should also have there lights on when riding.

Doing Angola in 5days is not as bad as you think, on a bike, and Namibia will have you staring at things you haven’t seen for a long while after the west coast route (hopefully find a washing machine soon!). It’s all lemon squeezy from now on…

Hope this info helps. Have a goodin everyone!!!

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Don’t believe everything you hear! People love to tell a good story...

Thanks!

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