After receiving a long awaited call from Andre / Hein (and nagging from my side…..:) ) “Hey OOOOMS, stel jy belang om Angola saam met die Troepe te gaan in 2013? (dit was Aug 2012)”
It was a no brainer!!!! Broke the news gently to the missus … and was set to go, yippee!!!
Date was confirmed for the 10 May 2013 (which changed to 2 days earlier …. as the troops could not contain themselves!) We had several briefing meetings (x7 to be exact), professionally conducted by Andre and Hein. Meeting place was held at the Military Lapa and ended with a braai and some refreshments….naturally! At one point (after the 4th meeting there were 9 vehicles confirmed 18 men, but this did not happen. In the end there were only 5 vehicles and 11 men.
Total distance of route: 7200km (Jhb / Botswana / Namibia / Angola / Namibia / Botswana / Jhb)
Route travelled:
Vehicles:
1) Toyota Landcruiser 4.5 Petrol – Hein and Tommy aka “SKROFFEL”
2) Ford Ranger 4.0 Petrol – Henk and Andre aka “ROOIKAT”
3) Toyota Hilux 3.0 D4D – Andre, Maritz and Jaco aka “ TROMPIE”
4) Ford Ranger 3.2 Diesel – JC and Phillip aka “WIT HINGS”
5) Totota Hilux 2.5 D4D – Mark and Marius aka “OOOOMS”
I would like to emphasize the amount of research that went into this excursion, was overwhelming!!! Obtaining information from the Net, Google Earth. MapSource, Medical evacuations, fuelling, road conditions, places of interest, land mine activity (yes there are still 12 000 000 mines in Angola lying around) Weather, SatPhone and many more.
Communication and organising such a trip takes LOTS of experience (before and during the trip) and each vehicle made use of VHF two way radio’s, which is an absolute must!
One of the briefing sessions with a kuier afterwards:
The ladies were also included in briefing session, in order to get to know one another. More on that later……
How do things work?
Well as we ended up being 5 vehicles each vehicle crew would “Officially” be on duty every 5th day.
The crew in charge would have the following responsibilities for the day:
- Wake the crew up (usually between 6h00 and 06h59) ….there is a reason for th 06h59….later…
- Ensure there was hot water for the troops for coffee and rusks
- Briefing of the days route
- Make and provide brunch for all (around 11h00 – 12h00 on route at a place of their choice)
- Find a campsite for the evening and provide supper for all the troops
- Communicate all points of interest on route for the day
- General radio communication for following vehicles
This system works very well, as everyone is involved in the “making the trip a success” !!!
4/5 weeks before we left we had to obtain our visa’s for Angola. So a date was set for our applications. Here is a list of requirements you must take along:
1 Applikasie Form met
2 kleur fotos op wit agtergrond2 Afskrif van paspoort
3 Oorspronklikke paspoort (met 6 oop bladsye)
4 Werks brief van werkgewer op brief hoof in PORTUGEES
5 Uitnodigings brief van Angola af in Portugees
6 Afskrif van Geelkoors kaart
7 Afskrif van elektrisiteit/water rekening as bewys van adres
8 Afskrif van bankstaat
9 Afskrif van ID
10 Voertuig papiere
Vir veiligheid sertifiseer maar al die afskrifte
So as time got closer to the departure date, and everyone was getting excited, Andre “Trompie” arranged some early accommodation for us in Maun … and we all agreed to depart 2 days earlier than planned. Fishing was on the agenda which needed no convincing,
We all met on the N1 North and the motorcycle guys (berede) accompanied us and said their farewells! They were to escort us back from the bush and would meet us in Windhoek some 3 weeks later. What a nice gesture!
I collected Marius (my partner on the trip) who had a tad more “stuff” than expected, but we managed to cram everything into my Van and were on the road within 15 minutes
We headed for Martins Drift border post and arrived there at 10h30. An hour later we were in Botswana and headed for Maun where we would camp at Island Safari Lodge.
After a quick snack break we headed for Palapya (S22 32.453 E27 05.273) and then left for Maun, Island Safari Lodge (S19 55.475 E23 30.543). At Palapya Hein noticed a problem with his tyre…..the rear rim was cracked! So we quickly changed the rim and tyre.
On route we stopped off at the pans for some pics.
We finally arrived at Island Safari Lodge in the dark, but were welcomed by Trompies mate…..4 de and 5de rat….(OB’s and chillies….!!!)
Booked in and had a fairly early nite! For the following day we managed to book a river trip with some promised fishing:
Lots of fish but they were small…..lol!!!
It was a lot of fun and would definitely recommend the boat / fishing trip
Rooikat was on duty and treated us to “Bunny Chow” which went down well after a hard day’s drive !
This camp was named “Captein Castle” as Trompie and his crew went for a kuier with his mate and upon their return around 02h00 came into the camp-site, playing the song on the radio! Well we were all awake by the music…lol!!!
The following morning we stopped for fuel in Maun and yours truly me and Marius, the OOOOMS crew were on duty !!
We headed for Lake Ngami (S20 27.251 E22 44.670)
After a quick look around we headed for the Bots / Nam border post. On route Hein “Skroffel” advised that he had another problem with a rim…..we stopped and can you believe it another cracked rim….
.
This meant that “Skroffel” had no more spare tyre’s or rims. We quickly call his borother in SA (Johan or Ouboet) and arranged x6 steel rims for Skroffel.
Brunch time:
After a healthy breakkie we headed for Mahango Game and border into Namibia (S18 15.458 E21 45.641)
Groot boom: Note no Skroffel as he headed for Rundu to have his tyres changed as it was Saturday afternoon and they were waiting for him! Steel rims is was going to be x6….
We met up with Skroffel in Rundu and all was already sorted! X6 new steel silver rims, I could see the smile on his face……NOT!!!
After some last minute shopping in Rundu we headed for our campsite Samsito (S17 51.003 E19 40.173)! Sadly we missed the boat trip owner Andy had arranged for us, but it was already dark by the time we arrived…..very nice camp site indeed, right on the bank of the Okavango.
As we were still on duty, for our meal we decided to make hamburgers and chips! The campsite was thereafter called “camp slapchips” and all tummies were full…
The following morning we headed for Katitwe border post (S17 37.233 E18 36.983)
The border crossing was pretty painless (2 hours later) we were in Angola. Just make sure you have “copies” of ALL your documentation, Drivers licence, passport and vehicle papers. Border fees per vehicle was 6400 Kwanzas and only payable in Kwanzas. Phillip found a lady that was willing to exchange Rands @ a reasonable rate !!!
And so we headed to Mononque…..
To be continued………