Congo, Angola and Namibia
In Africa there is always some difficulty to face.
Despite having obtained and paid for a visa for Gabon, I decide to skip it and go through Congo Brazzaville instead. I took this decision because the last 80 km in Gabon are particularly difficult, due to the extremely muddy road and deep puddles of water.
So I find myself in Congo, with a perfect tarmac road! There is a different problem here however, of no small importance: a fuel shortage! Petrol stations won’t sell it, perhaps by way of protest against the government’s imposition of an excessively low price, and prefer to sell it on the black market.
Unfortunately, this can be a risky way to buy fuel for an injection motorcycle, so I purchase a tank to carry an extra 10 litres with me.
In Africa, every decision you make brings its own difficulties with it. But the local people are straightforward and always very friendly, and I find friends immediately in Ouésso.Going through Congo to cut out Gabon turns out to have been a wise choice: in fact, with the extra tank of fuel I even have enough to make it to Pointe-Noire on near-perfect tarmac.
Once, while crossing the country, I glimpse a gorilla at the side of the road. It watches me for a moment, before escaping into the forest. I’m sure you can imagine what an incredible feeling that was!
In Pointe Noire, the level of traffic is so ridiculous that it takes me an hour to get to my hotel, just 5 km away.
I spend Christmas day here, placing a request for an Angolan visa online, which needs to be approved.
In Cabinda, an Angolan exclave in Congo, my hosts at Amigos da Apicada help me to use a brand-new navigation service that takes me from Cabinda to Soyo, across the Congo River.
On 31 December I move into Cacuaco, a suburb of Luanda, where I spend a fantastic New Year’s Eve in Luis’s campground, created for Overlanders.
Not only does Luis provide a campground tailor-made for Overlanders, he also helps all travellers obtain a visa for Angola.All that’s left for me to do, then, is stay going south. After ringing in the new year, my African adventure resumes on 2 January, this time towards Cape Town.
I stop off in Benguela, Lubango and Ondjiva, the last stop before entering Namibia.We are in the rainy season and these days live up to that name, but despite this I manage to make it to Namibia
I spend the weekend in Windhoek, the capital city, before reaching and crossing the Tropic of Capricorn.
Here in Namibia the days are long and extremely hot; after all, it is the middle of summer.
The thought that I have almost crossed both hemispheres with my motorcycle, bought in April from Moto Macchion, fills me with satisfaction!
You can certainly cover a lot of ground on a motorcycle, but more than that: you can make your dreams come true!
