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-   -   Gabon Congo Angola Namibia June 2009 Motorbike (https://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hubb/sub-saharan-africa/gabon-congo-angola-namibia-june-41249)

mikeb 3 Mar 2009 18:31

Gabon Congo Angola Namibia June 2009 Motorbike
 
Hi,
Who is also travelling Gabon, Congo Republic, Congo DRC, Angola
to Namibia in June 2009?
I will be leaving Libreville (Gabon) at June 13th with my Bike to reach
Namibia in 4 weeks time.


I am open ti either go via Cabinda or Franceville/Brazzaville.

If you are on the North South route at that time let me know, so we we
might join.
Mike


mikeb 26 May 2009 16:13

Leaving Libreville via Franceville Brazzaville Angola
 
Hi again,
I will be leaving Libreville (Gabon) at June 13th by motorcycle to reach
Namibia in 4 weeks time.


I am decided to go via Franceville, Brazzaville, Kinshasa and Angola.

Who will be on the same route down south in this time ?

Drop me a note if you are interested to join.

Michael

Endurorally 7 Aug 2009 21:54

biking down the West Side
 
How did you get on - did you come out of Angola ok? Just pondering your choice of route as in January Im doing Gabon to Angola and hope to stay on the coast, and miss out on Brazza, from Point Noire taking the coast to Luanda. ~Any advice would be good, we are checking out a rally for 2011 (see londoncapetownrally.com) Philip Young

Rick Jackson 18 Feb 2011 15:32

DRC, Angola, Namibia
 
We are hoping to drive from Kinshasa in the DRC through Angola into Namibia on the easiest route possible.

We are in a two wheel drive Toyota (not in a convoy) and having tackled
some of the worst west African roads in our trip from London to Cape Town,
we are needing to nurse this vehicle back to South Africa where ever possible. Any tar roads would be a bonus at this stage.

Can you offer any advice on the best route we should take? We are hoping to enter Angola some time next week.

MountainMan 18 Feb 2011 18:14

Hey Rick,

The route is pretty straightforward with not too many options. The biggest choice to make is to cross the border at Songololo as opposed to Matadi. The truckers all use this route and it is much preferable to the road south of Matadi.

Once you hit the coast, the main road heads south with unpaved and rough sections in the far north and intermitent rough sections in the south. Not many options to get off the general main route so you will be stuck going slow.

Safe travels.

Matt Roach 18 Feb 2011 18:16

Kinshasa to either Matadi or Songololo is good tarmac.

Once into Angola a 2WD will be fine on the major routes. If you take Songololo - Mbanza Kongo - Nzeto - Luanda, the road is very rough in parts (particularly the Nzeto to Luanda stretch) but passable in 2WD.

There are a few detailed posts on the Angolan route description in mid 2010 if you search.

eljulian 22 Feb 2011 17:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matt Roach (Post 324748)
There are a few detailed posts on the Angolan route description in mid 2010 if you search.

Duck wrote an excellent report. I found it was dead on (mid 2010):
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...012#post280823

Quote:

Originally Posted by Duck (Post 280823)
DRC Songololo crossing into Angola, south to M’banza-Congo (has a fuel station) is a doable dusty piste with some ruts around. SW to Tomboco has fresh Chinese tar and descent piste, they are preparing the rest of the way to N’zeto for tar. Made Sogololo to N’zeto in one day, filled the bikes with bottled fuel at N’zeto and had no problems with it (the red coloured hotel is on the main street opposite the couple of old disused fuel pumps).

N’zeto – Musserra, is a mix of sandy (follow the tracks which is not as deep but this is not dune fields) and hard packed road.
Musserra south, a little sandy in places (not as much as before) and crappy broken tar that makes it difficult to get a good rhythm going, stick to the sides off the tar where possible, takes a while to get through. The road forks SE to Caxito, back on the dirt after short tarred section, I went SW to Luanda and was tarred all the way.

Luanda - Porto Amboim – Benguela, is good tar.
Benguela – Quilengues, good tar (small section to be done yet).
Quilengues – Cacula, is tarred then has 35-40km of rougher piste.
Cacula – Lubango – Quihita(I think?), good tar.
Quihita – Cahama, slightly corrugated piste beside the roadworks which leads onto long tarred section. Cahama hotel/bar/restaurant/ S16’17112, E014’18.4115, ask for Elvis! 3000Kz/night, place to get your head down with secure parking in Elvis’s place.
Cahama – Humbe, about 90km of a rough and potholed route which makes it a slow going section, off to the sides it’s a bit smother, allow over 2hours for this bone shaker.
Humbe – border, smooOOooth tar.

Regarding fuel, there were queues at the stations in Angola (city queues where longer but the gasolina queue was not as bad as diesel) but if you’re sensible and fuel up outside the cities you’ll save a bit of time. You’ll get fuel in Angola so don’t worry but plan ahead to be sure as you’ll only have 5days to cross. I didn’t top up in Cahama (racking was tied together and didn’t want to load the bike more) and the pumps were dry in Xangongo with people waiting. A top tip if you are running out is look for a mobile phone mast, hopefully you’ll find guys looking after generators that will sell you some. The guys in Mongua sold me some for 100Kz per litre through the fence (still cheap fuel!), usually 40Kz but they would need to replace it, it guaranteed to keep moving across the border and everyone was happy:thumbup1:. The other stations I saw towards the border had no gasolina either but the very last one right at the border had some so I queued for 5-10min and topped up my tank. I could have hit these places at a bad time just before the tanker arrived as people were waiting…?

A word of warning once in Namibia (oh, bikes have to pay 115N$ for road tax at the border, carnet doesn’t cover this), I got caught doing 80kph in a 60 zone. Was up for a 150N$ fine that meant me doubling back to pay it (couldn’t do a runner) so asked if I could pay without getting a receipt. He asked for 100N$ and made sure he didn’t write a ticket (TIA), happy days. Oh apparently bikes should also have there lights on when riding.

Doing Angola in 5days is not as bad as you think, on a bike, and Namibia will have you staring at things you haven’t seen for a long while after the west coast route (hopefully find a washing machine soon!). It’s all lemon squeezy from now on…

Hope this info helps. Have a goodin everyone!!!:mchappy:


IanC 23 Feb 2011 14:16

The Songololo crossing may well be easiest between DRC and Angola, IN THE DRY!

I was there 9 months ago, flying along halfway with ease (coming south) when an almighty thunderstorm started, and had the most horrendous trouble getting to Mbanza Congo. Hardest 10 miles I've ever ridden, my front wheel (1200GS) kept jamming totally solid, taking 20-30 mins to dig out compacted clay every time :stormy:.

BTW Duck's reports were very helpful/accurate with a lot of the "muddy" countries, from Cameroon to here.


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