OverlandSphere
Overland Travel, Expedition & Adventure Information for 4x4, motorcycle and truck overlanders
HI Guys, No route today unless you want a map from the bar to my room to the pool. I managed the monumental task of getting my bike around a country. Yes it is a cause for celebration tonight, where ever you are have a beer on the success. Today at 1:30pm the airline loaded my steed and shipped it…
Hi Guys, My route for the last couple of days. Today one month ago I left JHB. When I left Yaounde I realised that my job on the valve clearances wasn’t quite up to BMW spec. The engine was so noisy that over all the traffic and hooting I could hear the engine cluncking away! I pulled up to a…
HI Guys, My route over the last couple of days. I am settled in nicely in Yaounde while sorting out some visas and getting some washing done. I found a nice routine to keep myself busy. Coffee in the morning, some errands during the day, lunch at a small restaurant, hotel room to miss the midday heat, dinner at small…
Day 23 My Route over the last 2 days since leaving Mouila… Well after my 1 week stop over at Mouila, I am back on the road. After today I am feeling 100% again. I am sipping on my first beer in a long while and savouring the splendid taste of the bubbles… Its so good once it touches your…
Bonjour, I have been out of it the last 2 days. I have been on the road little over 2 weeks and I have allready contracted Malaria. I am healing slowly. My route I left Dolisie rather casually, first stopping at the internet café and then the garage. Please understand I am no slacker I was up at 6am, against…
Bonjour from the Congo, Here is how my last 2 days played out. Red is when I was on the boat. So yesterday morning I got a call from Basilio that one of his guys managed to organise me a boat going to Cabinda. The main ferry that goes to Cabinda is broken. So I hung around the whole day…
Bom Dia, My route for the last 2 days! Day 10 I left Ferdie and Luanda early this morning. I was onto the ring road just before 8am and headed North towards Nzeto. The ride out wasn’t to bad, the traffic was bearable and the road was good tarmac. Ferdie, my host in Luanda! Dankie Ferdie was awesome gewees! I…
Ola, My route over the last 2 days. I’ve had 2 very relaxing days in Luanda with my host Ferdie Nell. We were putt in contact through Deidre’s dad. They knew each other from a long time ago back in Namibia. Day 7, I got up early saturday morning, packed up my gear and headed for the petrol station just…
We quickly made our way north in Cameroon to Yaoundé, perhaps one of the most chaotic cities in Africa. The traffic is absolutely crazy and the people very loud. Cameroon is also the most corrupt country we visited, meaning that we often got stopped by the police asking for bribes, although we usually just waved them away and drove through…
Ola, The route the last 2 days. Where do I start… Lets start with a goodbye. Nellie and I left Etosha at 7am. He was heading back to SA via his uncle’s farm in Aranos, Namibia and I was heading for the unknown. The day started out really good. There was a nice cool breeze keeping the pants and jackets…
Howzit! (Hello in South African slang) We had a long and hot day in the saddle. We did just over 600km from Divundu to Etosha. The roads are in extremely good condition with almost zero potholes. The local road guys really do a good job looking after Namibia’s roads. Map of today This is how our day started. We headed…
The road to Gabon from Congo is very rough. A road is being contructed to connect the two countries, and the huge trucks used in the work are leaving deep trenches in the sand. These trenches were deep enough to mean that the Land Rover’s differential was digging a middle-lane between the tracks, regularly causing us to get stuck…
Brazzaville, Brazzaville, Congo. Life in Brazzaville moves at a slow pace. Everyone just goes about their business during the day, but at night things comes alive in a mix of eating, talking, singing, dancing and drinking. We were staying with Chantal and Florence, two teachers at the Lycée Français (French school), who we found through CouchSurfing. During the day, we…
Luozi, Bas Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo. We found an alternative to the expensive ferry from Kinshasa to Brazzaville: about 150 kilometres before Kinshasa, and about ten kilometres before Kimpese, there is a road that turns north towards the town of Luozi. The road starts as a gravel track that leads to the ferry across the legendary Congo River.…
Kinshasa, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. We were advised to cross the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (or: DRC, Congo-Kinshasa or Congo Democratique) at the small Luvo border crossing, rather than Matadi, because it is friendlier and less corrupt. And, indeed, the border crossing was very easy. The Angolan side took a while with quite a…
Luanda, Luanda, Angola.We left Benguela and headed for Luanda with a stop in Porto Amboim on a beautiful beach. Luanda, however, was a nightmare. The city is a mix of corrupt officials, constantly traffic jams and offroad driving that could rival … Continue reading → Luanda, Luanda, Angola. We left Benguela and headed for Luanda with a stop in Porto…
Benguela, Benguela, Angola. In the early afternoon, we arrived in Benguela. We tried phoning our friend from the border, Carlos, a few times, but it went straight to voicemail. We drove through the city, bought some groceries and tried calling him a few more times. The city was lovely, but there was no campsite and a cheap hotel in Angola…
Huila, Angola. The first night we camped in the bush. Sometimes, a cow would walk into the camp, but we made a small fire, had a good dinner and both sets of parents called to ask us how it had gone. The next morning we drove away heading for Lubango, one of the larger cities in Angola. When we drove…
→ Oshikango, Cunene, Angola. We entered Angola through the Santa Clara border post, the main border crossing from Namibia. The Namibian side of the border was chaotic. Several people warned us to keep a close eye on the car and watch out for young border residents desperately trying to make a bit of money. I filled out the documents on…
Friday 28th to Saturday 30th June 2012. Lobito, Binga Bay, Luango. The next morning was overcast, the grey sky just a few shades paler than the motley skin of the baobab which towered behind Bluebelle. We had a peaceful, and thankfully undisturbed, night. We all had a bit of housekeeping on the agenda today. We fuelled up on more cheap…
Wednesday 27th to Thursday 28th June 2012. Dondo, Cangulo, Quibala, Wama, Balombo. Just before 7am the next morning we heard a bike approaching our camp. It turned out to be Bruce, owner of the land we were camping on. He explained that he doesn’t allow public access as the land is home to a turtle conservation project. This time of…
Tuesday 26th June 2012. Bay of Wrecks, Luanda, Miradouro de Lua The following morning we were on the road by 8am and made our way straight to the Bay of Wrecks. The road was smooth tar and an easy drive. Just before the dusty beach road leading out to the bay we found ourselves a fuel station selling diesel for…
Sunday 24th to Monday 25th June 2012. Nzeto. Musserra, Barra do Dande. The next morning we were woken early by a loud religious service on a fuzzy Portuguese radio. A man who worked at the tower had come at 5.30am to start his day. We had seen some signs of life when we set up camp, but didn’t expect him…
Saturday 23rd June 2012. Mbanza-Congo. It was a short distance to the Angolan border post and the difference in infrastructure from the DRC was stark. Immigration was a freshly painted imposing cement rendered building surrounded by high fences and wide roads. It also seemed a lot more organised here, with less people milling around and less general chaos. Still,…
Friday 22nd to Saturday 23rd June 2012. Luozi, Songololo. Up with the sun, we packed away our tents and drove the short distance to the ferry. Already piles of people, luggage, and several vehicles had gathered. We arranged our three cars so no one could push past and settled in to wait. We were quite an object of curiosity…
Thursday 21st June 2012. Boko, Ndedanga, Luozi. The next morning we were up early to make the border crossing. A little way along the road, just past the police checkpoint at Voka, a man jumped on Mike and Emma’s car and showed us the way to the non-descript immigration office. Here police painstakingly wrote our details and stamped us…
Wednesday 7th June to Thursday 21st June 2012. Brazzaville. We were so grateful to have the Hippocampe as a base over the next two weeks. We recuperated, gradually gave Bluebelle a well-deserved clean out, and slowly got to know Brazzaville. We had much more time than we needed here and didn’t expect our Angolan visas to take so long after…
Tuesday 6th June 2012. Brazzaville. Up early we met Dad and Dan at their hostel, loaded all their bits into Bluebelle for one final ride and took them to the Maya-Maya airport to catch their plane to Uganda. We had an interesting and fun time with them and Bluebelle felt very empty on the return journey. It will be a…
Saturday 2nd June to Monday 4th June 2012. Brazzaville, Chutes de Loufoulakari. I had a fitful sleep last night, woken by painful muscle aches and feverish dreams. We wondered if it was flu or, worse, Malaria and decided if I’m not any better tomorrow we’d find a clinic to get a test. I slept the day away whilst Luke…
Thursday 31st May to Friday 1st June 2012. Lefini Reserve, Lessio-Louna Gorilla Reserve. It didn’t take us long to reach Ngo the next morning, which from our map we could gather had a route leading to Mpouya on the Congo River and hopefully boats. Here we happened upon the Congolese mud track of our imaginations. We were so glad the…