Leisure time in Lubango

We are reluctantly leaving Lubango this morning in brilliant sunshine. It would be good to stay here longer as it is so beautiful and the climate suits us better, but we have more countries to visit before our return home. Today we travel towards the Namibian border but possibly via a small road through interesting tribal areas. 

After leaving our lovely hosts at Carpe Diem we had rain, sometimes very heavy, all the way to Lobito. Werner's email warning about lack of diesel proved correct. We passed and visited many filling stations en route. Fortunately filled our tank at Porto Amboim but they would not allow our spare plastic cans to be filled. We had intended spending Thursday night near the beach in Lobito, but after spending nearly 12 hours at a filling station on the outskirts (the second one we had queued at) with Chris sitting next to the pump with 3 cans on the promise of fuel coming, an English speaking Catholic priest took pity on him. He told us to follow him in the dark and heavy rain to Benguela, 30 mins away. He took us to a back street filling station with fuel where his acolytes were waiting and got Chris to the head of the queue. Chris had to wade through a river to reach the forecourt. After getting his own cans filled we followed Joseph, the priest, to the Catholic Mission in Benguela and informed matins was at 6am. We told him we would be leaving then so would be unable to attend. 

The clanging bell at 5.30 gave us time to pack up and be on our way. The rain had stopped and the scenery on the road inland to Lubango was stunning in the morning sunshine. However by the time we reached Lubango the rain had started again. At one point we had to stop because we couldn't see the road. We met Oasis again and later followed them up the mountain beyond Lubango to Tundavala, a spectacular viewpoint at 2,500 metres of a gorge and valley bottom 1000 metres below. In spite of the light rain and chilly wind, visibility was good and we were lucky to see the view. All the Brits with Oasis were saying the weather was just like home and we were feeling the cold (shivering at 15C)! Oasis were bush camping at the top of the mountain but we stayed at the Wild Campsite half way down where Werner and Gabu had been for 3 days already. We have had 2 social evenings with them, drinking red wine and hearing of each other's experiences and plans. It is their idea to go the back route to the border.  

The whole landscape was totally different to the rest of Africa through which we have travelled: the roadsides were lined with banks of pink and white daisies (just like we have in our gardens at home) and bright orange marigolds. The wild flowers on the mountain top were varied and many but there was also bracken growing amongst the rocks and the tors were very like those on Dartmoor. Some roads were lined with eucalyptus trees and there were poinsettia bushes in flower. A real mixture. The roadside stalls were selling apples, oranges and big mushrooms similar to those we bought in Russia and also some like shitake.  There were donkeys used as pack animals and the cows among the mountainside trees were wearing bells around their necks.

Yesterday we went to look at the wonderfully engineered road winding down the Serra da Leba Pass and visited Cristo Rei, the tall white statue of Christ overlooking the city, complete with bullet holes in the face. The main square and some of the town buildings were Soviet in appearance. The tribe of the area traditionally has women who have bare breasts and hair dressed with red mud, wearing short skirts and strings of beads. There were a few around town who were offering themselves for taking photos for money. At Cristo Rei we were the only people there on a Saturday afternoon apart from 4 of these young girls. They were not earning much.

We have now booked flights to come home from Windhoek on the 25th of April arriving back into Manchester via Frankfurt on the 26th. Hope to visit Botswana first among other things.