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| Bliss |
Luango lodge was everything I expected and so much more. Pure luxury. Clean white sheets. Proper working shower. Fantastic three course meals. Game drives with tons of animals. Gorgeous scenery. Even some fishing. And all the time Wynand was making sure I got spoilt as much as possible. My planned short two day rest, turned into a full fledged five day holiday. Half because I couldn’t get out, and half because I just couldn’t get myself to leave.
I even met up with another biker. Luis. He is a Spanish guy doing the same trip as I am. He also started in London, and has been on the road for two months. Amazing how different our adventures are. He has been on the road for two months and has covered about 12000km, while I have been on the road for four months and managed to cover 20000km. We have been doing it very different, but we both are having a ball of a time. Was great to sit and exchange stories, I think in the process we even managed to convince Wynand to try and do something similar.
My definite highlight at Luango was our fishing expedition. I am not really into fishing. I have never managed to catch anything of substantial size, so the bug just never bit me. Wynand was full of stories of cooler boxes of big fish caught in an afternoon, and he quickly convinced me to give it a try. We went out to a nearby lagoon, but in typical fashion I only managed a few small fish. After we decided to give the nearby river mouth a try. Where the river runs out into the sea there is a huge sandbank running about 50m into the sea. The tide was low and the whole bank exposed so we decided to give the spot a try. Just as we where about to cast, Wynand saw a biggish shark in the shallow waves. Here we are knee deep in murky water and a shark is swimming a couple meters away. Scary stuff, but we thought that if the shark was hunting there we should find fish.
Wynand was the first one to hook something, and it must have been big. His reel was singing as the fish took off with his line. After about a five minute struggle his line snapped. We never saw what it was. Wynand had the second big bite as well. Again the fish took off with the line, the reel singing as the line was running out. This time he managed a longer fight. Whatever he caught was big, too big. It snapped his line again. While Wynand went back to shore to put on a new hook I saw another shark, and it was big. It was about twenty meters behind me, in the shallows of the sandbank. It must have tried to chase a fish onto the shallows of the sandbank. The water it was in didn’t even cover half of it’s body, and with a big splash it worked itself into the deeper water. Again I was knee deep in the water, but I quickly dashed out for the safety of our sandbank. In the meantime the tide has slowly started to come in. Our sandbank was gradually disappearing.
Not long after I had my big bite. Same as Wynand, the fish made a mad dash for freedom and took off with my line. My reel singing a high pitched whine. I managed a big tiring fight, but as soon as a got the fish into the shallows it took off again. Time after time. After a bout half an hour we saw it for the first time, a big shark. Wynand went into the shallows to try and catch it’s tail and drag it to shore, but it was way too big. Wynand is nearly two meters tall, and the shark was bigger than him. We think it must have been about two meters in length. WOW!!
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| Ready for our shark fishing expedition |
While trying to get the shark ashore our island was slowly being covered by the incoming tide, and we where now standing in the shallows more than on dry land. I also saw another big shark, just a couple meters away to my left side. Just lazily swimming around, but so close it was scary.
I came very close to pulling the big one ashore, but in the end it snapped my fishing rod, and then just after my line. Nearly 45 minutes of struggling and all I had to show was a snapped rod and burning, aching arms. Gutted, but loads of fun.
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| No fish... but a good story |
It wasn’t until the excitement off the shark on my line died down, that we saw the position we where in. The tide has come in a lot, and our sandbank was now completely under water. Not deep, ankle to knee deep depending on the waves. The amazing thing was the sharks, we could see at least five sitting in the shallows of the sand bank. None more than 20 meters away, the closest just a couple of meters, and all along our route back. They all looked big!! It was hard to see exactly how big though, because of the murky river water we couldn’t see their bodies. Only the pectoral fins and tail sticking out in the current. I chased one of the closer ones, and it wasn’t until I got very close and it started to swim away that I saw how big it was. I got the fright of my live. It was big! Much bigger than expected. I would guess close to 2 meters again, and the body was huge. Needless to say I didn’t chase any of the other ones.
Luckily the sharks where just as scared as we where and we made it to shore without any incidents, but what an amazing sight. Neither off us has ever seen so many big sharks from so close. Absolutely mind blowing. And I finally have a fishing tale of my own, about the big one that got away and the big one that nearly got me. Loved every minute of it!!
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| The only way out |
Getting out of Luango was nearly as hard as getting in. There is only one road out, and for a twenty kilometre stretch there is a Shell gas pipeline running next to the road. Because of safety issues they don’t allow petrol vehicles on that stretch. Diesel vehicles can do the stretch, so I had to organise a pickup truck to load the bike on and take me past the pipeline (you also had to give the gate guards 24 hours notice before you could cross). In Luango there was only one guy with a big enough pick up, but he wasn’t really keen to do it. It took a lot of convincing, and he asked a phenomenal fee. What could I do, I had no choice but to pay up. The first day the guy was supposed to take me he didn’t show up, and the next day we had to go get him at his house. The piece of road going to the pipeline was unbelievably bad. My bike rocking all over the place on the back of the truck. I used everything I had to secure the bike but it wasn’t quite enough. The journey there cost me a broken side stand, it snapped, and another broken mirror. To make things worse the guy tried to drop me off before the pipeline, he didn’t want to take me across and so didn’t give 24 hours notice and used it as an excuse for not taking me across. I have no idea how he thought I was going to do the road with my petrol bike. I think he wanted me to hang around until someone else came by who could load my bike and take it to the other side of the pipeline. Luckily I haven’t paid him yet, so with me threatening non payment he reluctantly organised for my bike to cross with some logging company’s trucks. That nearly turned into a sticky situation, but the guys at the logging company where very helpful and quickly had my bike on another truck. Phew.
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| The open road... Just ride |
Luis wasn’t so lucky, he had to camp at the gate while waiting for a truck to take him across. He spent Christmas eve at the gate. Poor guy.
After the pipeline it was a relatively easy road to reach the highway again. The broken side stand did make things a bit tricky. Now every time I wanted to stop I had to lift the bike onto the centre stand. Usually not to hard, but loaded up with all my luggage and in the bush this turned into quite a job. In the end it was so much effort to get the bike on and off the centre stand that I just cut down on my stops. The short stops just weren't worth it any more, and I tried to combine everything into a couple of big stops. The broken side stand just needed to be welded back together, but I was supposed to meet Dominik and Morten in Congo for New Years, and running out of time I decided to just bare the discomfort. I would get it welded while waiting for the Angolan Visa.
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| Breakfast of champions |
Would have been a great plan if it wasn’t for the mud I encountered after crossing into Congo. The border crossing was easy and again no hints at bribes. My luck definitely holding. After the crossing there where a few big muddy trenches, and the normal procedure is to stop and test how deep it actually is. My bike can go up to the bottom of the seat in water, but it’s not the best for the bike. Without my side stand it was such a mission to stop and get off, that I had to just wing it through the muddy trenches. Choose what looks like the best route and hope it’s not to deep. It worked relatively well, and most times the water wasn’t that deep. But (always a but), there was a couple where I nearly got stuck and one very deep trench. The water level came right up to my engine and just under my seat, and the bike nearly stalled. Shit. I came very close to drowning my bike, again. But my luck held and I made it out. The rest of the road to Dolisie was bad but not impossible.
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| Home made toll road on the left. |
In Dolisie I met up with Dominik. Morten was in Europe to try and get his Angola Visa from home. The two off them tried for one in Brazzaville but where declined so Morten decided to apply from home. There was a faint rumour on the internet about the possibility of Angolan Visa being issued in Dolisie, but no confirmation of one actually issued. Before this rumour I wasn’t even aware that Dolisie had an Angolan Embassy, but with all other doors closed Dominik and I decided to give it a try. We where the first customers at the Embassy after new years and everyone seemed very friendly. Usually a good sign. The Consular was still on holiday, but they allowed us to make an application to apply for the visa. Yes, I had to apply for permission to apply for the visa. At the same time Luis tried the embassy in Ponte Noir, and they wouldn’t even let him in the door. This mountain is quickly turning into an Everest.
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| Red dust everywhere |
This was the Tuesday and it is now Thursday, the Consular was supposed to be back from holiday but he isn’t. No one knows when he will be back, so we can only patiently wait…
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| Lunch |
My definite highlight at Luango was our fishing expedition. I am not really into fishing. I have never managed to catch anything of substantial size, so the bug just never bit me. Wynand was full of stories of cooler boxes of big fish caught in an afternoon, and he quickly convinced me to give it a try. We went out to a nearby lagoon, but in typical fashion I only managed a few small fish. After we decided to give the nearby river mouth a try. Where the river runs out into the sea there is a huge sandbank running about 50m into the sea. The tide was low and the whole bank exposed so we decided to give the spot a try. Just as we where about to cast, Wynand saw a biggish shark in the shallow waves. Here we are knee deep in murky water and a shark is swimming a couple meters away. Scary stuff, but we thought that if the shark was hunting there we should find fish.
Wynand was the first one to hook something, and it must have been big. His reel was singing as the fish took off with his line. After about a five minute struggle his line snapped. We never saw what it was. Wynand had the second big bite as well. Again the fish took off with the line, the reel singing as the line was running out. This time he managed a longer fight. Whatever he caught was big, too big. It snapped his line again. While Wynand went back to shore to put on a new hook I saw another shark, and it was big. It was about twenty meters behind me, in the shallows of the sandbank. It must have tried to chase a fish onto the shallows of the sandbank. The water it was in didn’t even cover half of it’s body, and with a big splash it worked itself into the deeper water. Again I was knee deep in the water, but I quickly dashed out for the safety of our sandbank. In the meantime the tide has slowly started to come in. Our sandbank was gradually disappearing.
Not long after I had my big bite. Same as Wynand, the fish made a mad dash for freedom and took off with my line. My reel singing a high pitched whine. I managed a big tiring fight, but as soon as a got the fish into the shallows it took off again. Time after time. After a bout half an hour we saw it for the first time, a big shark. Wynand went into the shallows to try and catch it’s tail and drag it to shore, but it was way too big. Wynand is nearly two meters tall, and the shark was bigger than him. We think it must have been about two meters in length. WOW!!
Hoe gaan dit met die ghoen?
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