Luanda, Angola

2019-10-17/27: Luanda, the Angolan capital with Portugues charm.

 

Today our friends from Iveco put their driver, Teles, and a vehicle at our disposal to visit Luanda. Teles only speaks Portuguese. As we do not speak it communication is not easy. We make him understand that we want to start with a visit to the Fortaleza de São Miguel and its military museum. It takes us there through Luanda's still very heavy traffic, but we are outside rush hour and things are not going too badly. We arrive at the parking lot of the fortress at 11:20 a.m.
The fort was built in 1576 by the Portuguese a year after Paolo Dias de Novais landed on the Ilha (the peninsula of Luanda). Its role was mainly to protect the port of Luanda from French, Spanish and Dutch expeditions, which did not prevent the same Dutch from taking possession of it in 1641 before being recaptured by the Portuguese a few years later.
It was completely renovated after the Civil War and now houses a fairly interesting military museum on the armed forces, the struggle for independence and the fratricidal wars that followed.

Thierry in front of the Fortaleza.

In the Fortaleza in front of the statues of some Portuguese heroes.

Entrance costs 300 Kwanzas (0.67 €) per person, including photographic rights. We can go around the ramparts, which allows us to discover a 360 ° panoramic view of Luanda.

Luanda and its bay from La Fortaleza.

Renault 6 utilizado pelo camarada presidente Antonio Agostinho neto no Congo Brazzaville

In addition to the museum, it is possible to admire magnificent 18th century azulejos assembled and displayed in a separate building. They represent multiple scenes from Portuguese colonial history on the one hand and specimens of Angolan flora and fauna on the other.

A flamboyant and a turret of the Fortaleza.

 After the visit we find Teles in the parking lot. We want to go for a walk in the old town and on the corniche. We agreed that he would come and pick us up around 3 p.m. at the Largo do Ambiente at the other end of the ledge.

Our first intention was precisely to follow the seafront by the "Marginal", the most prestigious avenue in the city, magnificently restored after the war. But Christine prefers to stay in the upper town to stroll through its alleys and in the hope of finding a small restaurant for lunch.

There are half a dozen geocaches in the old town, we will log two of them by making a small detour to the picturesque church of Notre-Dame Des Remèdes built in 1665 by Portuguese merchants and renovated in 1995 by the oil company Elf .

Church of Our Lady of Remedes.

The center of Luanda looks more like a Portuguese city than an African city, less chaotic, cleaner and more polished.
 

Street Art in Luanda

We soon arrive at Largo do Ambiente, a gigantic oval square with at its lower end the charming little church of Our Lady of Nazareth which we will take a little look at. 

This is where Teles is going to get us back with the Toyota. It's 4 p.m. and it's time to get home if we want to avoid rush hour traffic. Teles drops us off three quarters of an hour later at our apartment at Iveco.

Quiçama National Park, Angola

2019-10-19: Quiçama National Park, where the elephants are back.

 

Our Portuguese friends prepared a trip to the Quicama National Park for the week-end.
Once ready we joined Ricardo in his office. We take the road at 10 am. Our dedicated driver is Teles.
We reach the coast south of Luanda by the ring road. We follow it enjoying the view of the long Mussulo peninsula about 5 km offshore. As soon as you leave Luanda the coast becomes much nicer with its beautiful beaches.
The entrance to Quiçama National Park is 5 km after crossing the Kwanza, the great national river that gave its name to the local currency.
 

Crossing the Kwanza.

In Quiçama Park on the track towards the Visitor's Center.

The visitors center is located a very long way from the entrance at 36 km. We reach it in half an hour by a beautiful track. But before entering it we first make a small detour to climb a small hill from the top of which the panorama over the Kwanza valley is quite impressive. Ricardo, who has been there several times, is a little disappointed because at the end of the dry season the vegetation is still very brown. He had always been there in the rainy season and of course, with very green vegetation, the view was much more picturesque.
 

Nice panorama on the Kwanza and its plain from a hill in the park.

The Kwanza

We reach the nearby visitor center. It is past noon and we start with lunch at the restaurant in the center. We order grilled chicken with rice and fries and a little salad, except Teles who prefers to have fish with foufou.

The Visitors Center.

 

Chrisstine, ricardo and Teles

Christine embarks on the Unimog.

After the meal we will wait half an hour for the Unimog of the safari to return from its tour to be able to embark and leave in our turn. It is 3:10 p.m.

The driver and guide set out in search of the animals, first following the main track, then making numerous detours and detours through the wooded savannah and weaving between the countless baobabs and euphorbias.
Angolan wildlife was virtually wiped out during the civil war that lasted nearly 30 years until 2002. Quiçama Park was home to some 4,000 elephants, 450 lions, countless rhinos, buffalos and leopards. The war got the better of this fauna when the soldiers killed the animals for pleasure, to eat or for sale in Luanda. In addition to the war, poaching and the destruction of natural habitat. But in the early 2000s a reintroduction program was launched, "Operation Noah's Ark" brought back elephants, giraffes, zebras, ostriches and other wildebeest from South Africa and Botswana using the Ilyushins of the Angolan army. The reintroduction is a success. Many of these animals thrive and the population is continually growing.
We will take a long time to find the first animals, but then the harvest will be good. We start by discovering a solitary giraffe and, shortly after, two small herds of Hartmann's zebras in quick succession.
 

Giraffe in Quiçama Park.

Euphorbias and giraffe.

 

Hartmann's Zebras

 

All that remains is to descend into the valley to reach the banks of the Kwanza in the hope of finding some elephants. Along the way, we will have the opportunity to observe various antelopes and other equines such as the Blue Wildebeest, the Greater Kudu or the Bushbuck.

Blue wildebeests

 

Greater Kudu

Bushbocks

 

Ricardo envious of my telephoto lens.

 

We will only see one large elephant from afar. The Unimog try to approach but stay a good distance because of the ground which could become a little too muddy.

 

Mission accomplished. We return at high speed. Too bad the guide's explanations were very limited and the driver felt obliged to drive like in a rally, completely mocking his “merchandise”.
We meet the car at 5:00 p.m. and we don't linger before getting back on the road. Teles brings us back to the exit of the park, driving a little too fast on the track for our feeling.