zambia to angola - where to cross
 

expecting to have the coveted angola visa (15 day) on thursday in lusaka.

where should i enter angola?

i applied for the visa here in an effort to avoid the lubumbashi - kinshasa route so i'd rather avoid excessively long mud tracks through the jungle where possible.

1. 1600km down the caprivi to cross at oshikango-namacunde with good roads from there. i'm leaning towards this but it isn't ideal (long way, route i've travelled before, another page wasted in the carnet etc.).

2. 960km up to ndola and on to jimbe, at the junction of drc/angola/zambia. however michelin map shows pretty ordinary 'tracks' on the other side, and T4A gives the vague description "road"...

3. 830km to caripande / kalasa (due west of lusaka). T4A describes the road on the angolan side as "2 spoor, gravel".

anyone have thoughts / suggestions / experience??

info on fuel situation would also be great...

I have some info on your second suggestion:

"2. 960km up to ndola and on to jimbe, at the junction of drc/angola/zambia. however michelin map shows pretty ordinary 'tracks' on the other side, and T4A gives the vague description "road"…"

I planned on doing this in reverse (drive out of Angola into Zambia) a few years ago when updating the Bradt Guidebook. Apparently on the Angolan side the road following the border from Jimbe to Luau is typically impassable in rainy season (and takes 9 hours to do the 300kms in the dry!).

Did you have any luck with the other options?

Anything east side of the country is poor, as local Angolans say who ride offroad. Theorethically doable as Angolan oil economy blooms and Chinese build (but as locals say: paint-) roads there very fast (and those poor quality tar road degrade as fast as well). But as said before, be very wary in the wet-season - might be impassable.

15 days is a decent Angolan visa - other than suffereing on harsh trail conditions why not take the Namibia route, some bad paches of roads there as well, but you get to see many highlights of the country. This gives you time to see this very interesting country that most people just rush trough transiting with the 5-day visa. I really liked Angola despite I had problems (DRC visa issues), but found many good people there and lots of great time in Lubango, Luanda and Soyo with friends bier

Safe roads,
Margus