Day 4 - Part 2
The last post found us at the northern exit of Doodsakker, very chuffed with ourselves for making it through. Everything worked out pretty well thus far, fuel calculations spot-on and both ourselves and the bikes were in very good shape. The plan was to spend today and the next at Flamingos. Now Flamingos is almost legendary in mind, I've heard about it so much so I was really eager to get there.
On the way we stopped at a wreck - this particular one is called the Vanessa Seafood. I'm borrowing a pick from MetalJockey's report to show how much the land has reclaimed in the decade since they went through here:
Before:
After:
Seeing as we've been riding a good 3 or 4 hours straight we had a quick breakfast consisting of biltong and water. Just a quick note on food: One thing that worked very well for us was taking small 200g packs of shrink wrapped biltong. Before we shrink wrapped it we also wrapped it in brown paper. It packs small, you can always keep a pack on your person and it's very nutritious. The fat in it is also a very good slow-release energy source. In a similar vein, you get these flat packs of tuna which also works very well. Protein also has the advantage of satiating one very well. Contrast with the typical fare of energy bars and sweet stuff which tend to make one want to collapse in a glycemic heap shortly after consuming it. In terms of timing we tried to have a nice breakfast at about 10 or 11 in the morning which would easily last us till dinner time.
Back to the ride, we were heading for our first fuel stop after Namibia, which was Tombua. Tombua is about 60 km's from the northern entrance of the Doodsakker. We continued up the beach and took a right turn inland just past the last wreck. We quickly entered what seemed to be a very dusty sort of pan:
Which turned into a dunebelt:
The dunes predictably were a blast on these bikes. In the distance we could now see Tombua, so just followed a general heading towards the town, there wasn't any roads. Now Tombua is one of these places that you smell before you actually hit it, and as we approached from the south I was hit by the smell of raw sewerage. So much so that it took my breath away. As we crested the last dune before Tombua I could see why - the locals used the dunes on the southern side as a giant open air toilet. Landmines everywhere. I thought for a moment of roosting Heiko with a nice turd but decided against it, in the spirit of self-preservation.
We found the Tombua main road just past two blocks of shacks and as we were riding down the street I heard this curios tick tick tick tick sound in my helmet. It took me a little while to realise that it was actually flies hitting my helmet. It might be the comfortable westerner in me, but I had no desire to hang around the place. We found the nearest Sonangol fuel point and filled up.
Angola's finest at R8.86 per liter. Not bad. This also means that we still had about 7 litres fuel spare, after covering almost 600 km's. The fuel economy on these bikes are just awesome.
It was around 12:30 and getting hot, despite Tombua being next to the ocean. Getting hot meant getting thirsty, and I've began having visions of ice cold N'Gola's at Flamingos. We hit the road and immidiately got stuck behind some sort of funeral procession.
When we hit the highway we overtook them and got up to comfortable cruising speed, which on these bikes is between 80 and 100 km/h. I almost started missing my 990
The road seemed to be brand new and in very good nick, probably a Chinese project. We hit a roadblock not far out of Tombua, and to our surprise the officer spoke English very well. You could see he also relished the opportunity to actually speak it, because he asked a lot about us, Namibia, where we've been, where we going, that kind of thing. Something to note with the Angolese roadblocks - the officers were invariably friendly and professional, and not once were we actually asked for any sort of papers or identification.
The turnoff to Flamingo's is about 50km's out of Tombua, and now I could practically taste the beer! And then we were hit by probably the worst riding of the entire trip. The ride down to Flamingo's is about 25 km's down a river, and I must say this is the first time I've ever seen a river that was corrugated! Obviously the combination of no rain and heavy cars just fucked up that route totally. The trick there was to get up to about 80 or 90 km/h and just hold on. It really felt as if both myself and the bike was shaking apart there. Fortunately few things are as tough as an adventure rider in close proximity to beer. I think with Heiko even more so, as he is German and they are born with beer in their veins. He was positively flying and I was trying to keep up.
Eventually we hit the beach just north of Flamingo's and rode south till we hit Flamingo's. I swear at this point I could hear the angel choirs sing, just look at how happy Heiko looks:
We met the owner, Rikko, briefly at Foz (he was looking after a couple of South African groups) and he mentioned that they're quite busy. Anyhow, we spoke to Matt, Riko's son, who runs the place. He told me that all their campsites were full (shit) but that he'll make a plan for us (yay). In the end his plan involved giving us a bungalow at a very reduced rate which included breakfast, lunch, dinner, cooldrinks, water and beers. And oh boy did we take them up on the beers:
So much so that they had to come restock the fridge a couple of times.
About halfway through the festivities we decided that we should go have a swim to sober up somewhat. That plan failed miserably despite us going for a swim. I must admit the rest of the evening is a little bit foggy, but it involved me eating chillies (I would regret my bravery the next day), us polishing a fine South African gentleman named Les's whiskey and having about 30 beers each. The last couple of day's worth of riding was so epic that we just had to celebrate, and celebrate we did.
beer 
. Makes me want to go back right now! Oh, wait, I’ll be there on Sunday night again 
