Cabo Ledo, Angola

2019-11-24/26: Miradouro da Lua and Cabo Ledo. Surfer Beach and Carpe Diem.

 

Saturday, November 23 2019

 

We leave Luanda at 10:10 am. Our goal: Cabo Ledo
Despite the traffic we leave Luanda quite quickly to head south along the coastal road that we are starting to get to know well.
Our first objective is Miradouro da Lua, about sixty kilometers away, with a fantastic viewpoint over cliffs ravaged by rain erosion. By flowing from the high cliffs in loose earth, the rainwater dug deep ravines there, presenting us with a phantasmagorical decoration of lace in a learned gradient of colors ranging from ocher to white passing through all the shades of Grey. 

Miradouro da Lua.

 

 

The spectacle is so overwhelming that I cannot resist the temptation to fly our drone there.

 

A few kilometers after the village of Cabo Ledo we take the track which in two kilometers will lead us to the famous surfers beach (Praia dos Surfistas). We get there at 4:00 p.m.

Descent to the "Praia dos Surfistas"

I go on foot to reconnoitre the bar. I come across Paolo who welcomes me. Paolo is the owner of the tourist resort "Carpe Diem". The main facilities are across the bay about two kilometers as the crow flies. Paolo is building a new complex at this beach, an ecolodge with ten terraced bungalows over the bay. He saw us coming down the trail to the beach.
I find Christine at the camper van to leave without waiting with her towards the point and the beach
We will then take a long walk along the beach to the east. It is a beach where sea turtles come to nest. We can distinguish several nests protected by a small fence. At two of them, the traces left by the turtles crawling in the sand are still very visible. It reminds us of Ras al Juneiz in Oman. 

Walks towards the rocks.

… then on the beach.

 

Turtle traces on the beach.

Sunday, November 24 2019

The program for the day is quite simple: beach! We go there a little after 10:00 a.m. Kinds of small huts have been installed on the beach to provide a little shade for swimmers. We take our places under one of them. We haven't finished spreading our blanket when a woman comes to offer us fish and lobsters. We choose two beautiful soles for 5,000 Kwanzas (€ 11.11). At 2,500 Kwanzas per kilo. They are, it seems, a kilo each. In hindsight, I feel like I've been a little screwed up. A young man offers to prepare them and grilled them for 2,000 Kwanzas (€ 4.44). Okay, but maybe we should have negotiated a bit, because it seems to us (a posteriori) a bit expensive for the country too!
We spend the day sunbathing. I put my T-Shirt back on after two hours, hoping it's not too late for the sunburns! 

Praia dos Surfistas in Cabo Ledo.

It doesn't look like it this season, but this beach is a global surfing hotspot. During the southern winter the waves, not very high, can reach up to a kilometer in length, giving surfers some of the longest rides across the bay in the world.
Around 4:00 p.m. a young man appears who is gossiping something to us in Portuguese. As we don't understand a thing, he disappears only to return a quarter of an hour later with another man who speaks no more foreign languages ​​than he does. A bather passing by will serve as an interpreter. In fact the huts are chargeable and we are asked for 2,000 Kwanzas for the day. Our interpreter happens to speak German very well. He studied law in Germany and practiced there for 30 years as a lawyer. He takes our side when we protest the procedure. There is no indication that the service is chargeable and it is not correct to wait until the end of the day to notify us. The lawyer, Victor, confirms to us that he does not like these two very much who are not very honest. Others are much nicer and more correct. We have nothing against paying for the service, it's the method that annoys us. So we negotiate the price downwards, to 1000 Kwanzas.
 

Aerial view of the beach looking north.

Aerial view of the beach looking south.

 

 

Gandalf in the parking lot.

We intend to spend the evening and night at the "Carpe Diem" lodge to take advantage of the showers and facilities.
The guard directs us to the parking lot at the entrance to the complex. There are only two or three cars left but it was obviously a lot of people here today, we passed half a dozen SUVs hitting the track when we got there.
The reception is empty but we find, without looking for them, the toilets and the showers and this is where we start, first we have to get rid of the salt and the sweat.
In the evening Christine goes for a walk on the beach with the flashlight and inspects the site. On her return we decide to go have a beer at the restaurant bar.
We find Paolo there who welcomes us with open arms. He introduces us to Daniel, his project manager, a Portuguese man who should be in his fifties.
Paolo tells us that it is in the tradition of the house to offer soup and beer to overlanders. We are on one of those somewhat mythical sites which are almost obligatory drop points for overlanders and where the welcome is more than warm.

At the Carpe Diem bar: Daniel, Thierry, Christine and Paolo.

 

Paolo takes leave, we stay with Daniel and a new arrival, Dio. Dio is a Portuguese-Angolan who has lived for many years in Windhoek, Namibia. He is a jovial and very likeable character.

Dio and Christine.

 

Monday, November 25, 2019

 

Gandalf in the Carpe Diem parking lot in Cabo Ledo.

Thierry at Carpe Diem.

Daniel had asked us to come at 9:00 am for breakfast before going to visit the ecolodge. He doesn't appear until 11:00 a.m. We join the ecolodge aboard his Mitsubishi 4x4. Dio accompanies us. We go up first to the crest of the point that separates the two bays. From up there the panorama is breathtaking on both sides. There is at the end of the second bay a very pretty little beach where turtles come, it seems, regularly to nest. We can indeed distinguish one or two swimming offshore in the bay.

From the ridge between the two bays.

A small, idyllic beach.

 We go back down to the restaurant under construction and the bungalows which are ready. The lodge will open as soon as the restaurant is finished in a few months.

The boat on display at the site has a story, it is the boat that John F. Kennedy used to go fishing during his visits to the country. 

Thierry and J.F. Kennedy's boat.

The bungalows are superbly located on the terrace above the Surfers Beach and in a particularly majestic green setting in this season when the flamboyant trees are in bloom. 

The bungalows of the ecolodge

 

 We return to Carpe Diem around 1:00 p.m. We say goodbye to our friends, because we plan to hit the road again this afternoon. At least that's Christine's wish. For my part I would prefer to stay one more night because I do not feel in very good shape, headache, need for sleep, sore throat and stomach a little smeared. I suspect sunstroke! Christine lets herself be convinced, so we will stay and take a nap in the motorhome to regain our strength.
We will then take a seat at the restaurant where we will order a beautiful platter of fish and seafood (lobsters, shrimp, squid) for two accompanied by a Cuca (a light local beer). It’s excellent and filling.
 

 

We then join Dio and Daniel on the terrace at the bar. We are barely installed that two beers arrive, offered by Daniel once again.
We are going to get to know our two friends a little better. Dio does not have a biological child but several children of two successive companions whom they consider to be his own. It is a bird that loves its freedom. This is the reason why his hostel in Windhoek remains modest in size. He just wants to have enough to live on and has no ambition to expand. He organizes one or two safaris per month at the most. He wants to do them himself to be with his clients. That is more than enough for him. Dio is clearly a bon vivant.
Daniel is a "Projects Manager" That is to say that he earns his living by leading projects, mainly in Angola but also in Portugal in the past. Its current project is the “Carpe Diem” and its Ecolodge. He explains to us that he has also managed several career projects in the south of the country as well as that of a famous restaurant in Ilha de Luanda among others.

Daniel visits our motorhome.