Day 3 - Part 1
After our experiences with the dodgy cop the night before, we were both eager to put Iona behind us, we wanted to be gone before we could give another cop an opportunity to harass us. We got up just before 5, broke camp, had our customary coffee and were out of there at first light, just after 6. The track out of Iona was a very nice two-track, a nice break from the rocks yesterday and an absolute blast to ride in the cool morning air. It's amazing the exhiliration and sense of it release it gives you when you're able to crack open the throttle after a day or two's slow, technical riding. You could also feel that the bikes wanted to fly, the only thing holding us back on this stretch was the need to conserve fuel, as then next fuel stop lay at Tombua, on the other side of the Doodsakker.
The first hint that we were entering the Namib desert again was that we started seeing Welwitchias, which of course reminded me of my beloved Damaraland.
We also saw our first signs of wildlife in the park, two cheetahs and a couple of springbok. I heard that most wildlife was killed during the war so it's good to see that slowly it is being replenished and even guarded. Springboks in the desert, just breathtakingly beautiful to me:
We got to our very first Angolan Road Sign:
The first stop again was Espenhierra. Nowadays it is where the Iona park entrance is, and where you have to pay an entrance fee. We didn't know that, thought it was just a ghost town. Our plan was to just cruise past because we didn't want to talk to police again, ecause of that one asshole in Iona. The road kind of forces you to drive past the station, which is actually more park control than police, also it wasn't painted in the customary blue that all police stations are in Angola. Interestingly, all police stations are blue, whilst municipal buildings are pink. Wonder why they do that? Perhaps to help people that cannot read?
Anyways, we stopped there, the park officials were very friendly. They took down our details and we had to pay 1000 Kwanzas (about 50 Rand). Everything above-board, they also gave us receipts and all that. Unbeknownst to us the also radio'd the station at Foz do Cunene and told them that we are on our way. We also picked up a slight coolant sweat on Heiko's bike earlier that morning, where the hose-clamp was sweating a little bit. It proved tough to get in there with the stock toolkit so we just left it, seeing as coolant loss was minimal. Anyhow, there was a guy sitting there, he had a mine somewhere around there and he was waiting for some spares. He had a pretty extensive toolkit so he borrowed us some tools and we could sort Heiko's bike out.
Just for reference, Espenhierra is about 30 km's out from Iona, and about 100 km's away from the sea. So the riding and scenery was really awesome:
The further out west we got, the sandier it got. Really gorgeous riding over the seemingly endless plains.
Being born and bred in Swakop, on Namibia's west coast, seeing the dune belt and mist bank over the sea come into view was something that really took me back to when I started out riding on the dunes there. There is also something really special about getting that first whiff of sea air in your helmet, it really energized me.
On the Namibian side - big house and mining operation:
The last stretch to Foz through the dunebelt was a blast. I can see how one can get a bit of sinking feeling if you're on a big adventure bike, but on the 500's it was an absolute blast, I felt like Marc Coma, Toby Price and Cyril Despres all rolled up into one. Judging by how I was losing Heiko in the dunes I think he felt the same way. It's at this point on a trip where you really become one with the bike, you know instinctively how it's going to react in a given scenario and it truly becomes effortless. Everything just distilled into you, your bike, the terrain and that single point in time. This is why I ride.
Then we hit the beach and instead of the desolation I was expecting, it looked a bit like Henties Bay in December. Cars and fisherman everywhere. This made me happy, because people + beach + fishing = beers. Or it does in my world at least
There was a large contingent of South Africans there, about 8 people and two bakkies. There was also a group of Angolans there. I was a bit dissapointed in the South Africans, they weren't interested in talking to us, they were also very closed off, sticking to themselves, sitting around their own fire. If it was me and I'm out in a place like that and I see two people on bikes, talking my language nogal, I would be all over them to hear their story, offer them beer etc. The one exception to that was an older man that later brought me some lure to use while I was fishing.
Contrast that with the Angolans: we walked up to them, introduced ourselves and they couldn't hear enough about our story, despite the fact that there was only one person among them that spoke English. His name was Nuno, he immediately offered us beer (only later we realized that he gave the groups last beer to us). He also invited us to have lunch and dinner with them. Later on I asked him about the hospitality. I think he was a bit surprised that it was not the norm, his words to me was: "If you in my area, you my family, we take care".
Well, if we were gonna be invited for lunch we wanted to contribute. Heiko is an avid fisherman, and he carted his gear all the way from Namibia. I almost broke my back carrying his lure box in my backpack! We set off fishing and it wasn't long before Heiko caught a nice one:
I also tried, got a lot of bites and lost one in the breakers in front of me. The guys around us were hammering the fish though, I can see why the South Africans pay to have guided trips here. We gave the fish to Nuno (kind of superfluous with the amount that they have caught already, but it was important to us to give something). Nuno's guys set about frying the fish on the coals:
This was without a doubt the best fish I've ever head. They put garlic, chilli and olive oil on the fish continuisly, using a bird feather as a brush. Then there was this spicy Chakalaka sauce they serve with it, along with Portuguese buns. It was such a heavenly meal after all the tinfood and biltong we've over the last couple of days. And boy, the beer went down like a fat kid on a slide.