Hi Guys & Girls,

Any definite news on the issuing of visa's at Matadi? am heading that way...

Many thanks

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Will

Some day so soon....

Yes! We received five day transit visas for Angola in Matadi a few weeks ago -- late January 2009. They were issued in about one day. No letter of invitation was required ... but we did have to supply the names of aunts and uncles and disclose how much we paid for our respective passports.

Our transit thru Angola took six days. At the Namibian border, two of us were fined $75 USD each for overstaying the visa. For some reason I was let thru with a smile and no fine ...

Good luck.

Mark

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http://ridefar.typepad.com

Hi all

Ok, so we finally got our passports back from the Angolan embassy in Abuja, and although we'd explicitly asked for 2 entries, we were given 1. When I pointed out this would not allow me to pass through both Cabinda and Angola Mainland the embassy guy in Abuja said it's not a problem, we'd be allowed to pass through with this. I have my doubts!

Having heard from Jean Visser the DRC visa is available cheaply and quickly in Brazzaville we decided that we'd go the Brazza - Kinshasa route and laugh off Cabinda, not wanting to risk being turned away at the Angolan Mainland border, and having wasted our month-long Angolan visa on transiting Cabinda.

Angola Embassy Dolisie, Congo Republic
While in Dolisie, Congo, we heard there had been 4 trucks robbed at gunpoint by the Ninjas on the Dolisie - Brazza road, and so decided this route was perhaps not a good idea! We then met with the Angolan ambassador in Dolisie, explained our problem with the single entry Angolan visa, and he said he'd happily change the visa to 2 entries. The only problem is his visa section isn't yet working - he will be able issue Angolan visas in 1 month's time. He said he'd phone the Angolan ambassador in Pointe-Noire for us and get him to arrange the visa change for us.

Angola Embassy Pointe-Noire, Congo Republic
We have now arrived in Pointe-Noire and have been unsuccessful in even getting through the gate of the Angolan embassy! We are busy tracking down the contact details of the Angolan ambassador in Dolisie and will ask him to arrange us entry to speak to the ambassador here in Pointe-Noire. That should happen tomorrow.

If we fail to get a visa here we will probably end up using our month-long visa to get through Cabinda, and apply for a transit visa in Matadi and just laugh off spending any time in Angola. It's a pity but the bureaurocracy is such a nightmare and we have a deadline to be back in South Africa so have to try keep moving.

For those of you wanting to apply for Angolan visas here in Pointe-Noire they accept applications on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, between 9am and 12pm.

DRC Embassy Pointe-Noire, Congo Republic
We went to the DRC embassy here in Pointe-Noire to try arrange visas, and were told that as South Africans we could get visas on the border. We were dubious about this, so have requested a letter from the DRC ambassador here in Pointe-Noire to show to the border officials saying we can get a visa at the border. They are doing this for us and we hope to get it tomorrow. It will cost 45000CFA per person. You should phone ahead to meet someone at the embassy, but we got there and got someone on the street to call, and they were there in 10 minutes.

I'll let you know if any of this is successful as and when it happens... at the moment we're enjoying chilling out at the Yacht Club in Pointe-Noire which is an absolute haven after Congo's awful roads. I'm writing this using their WiFi which is the first Internet we've used since Nigeria!

Adios, wish us luck!
Steve
www.overafrica.org

One month Angolan visa is real luxury, pity if you need to spend it in Cabinda.

There is also immigration office in Cabinda, where it may be possible to arrange something. Location of the office: S 5 ° 33.417', E 12 ° 11.577'

I went to this office to ask about visa for mainland and they also told me I don't need one, because 1 visa is for both Cabinda and mainland (by their words)! I spent a few hours there, guy made copies of my documents and told me he arranged everything. But basically he did nothing useful.

Ok, we went back to the DRC Embassy this morning and they gave us a formal looking letter giving us permission for a transit visa to be issued on the border. We paid 25000CFA each for the letter, and apparently this is for the transit visa so there won't be any fees on the border... we'll see about that!

For the Angolan visa we're still struggling. We've managed to get the South African Ambassador in Brazzaville on the case, and he's at the Angolan Embassy in Brazzaville as I write this trying to swing things for us. Apparently the Angolan Ambassador in Brazzaville is really pissed off with the Angolan Consulate here in Pointe Noire for being such a**holes to us... We've stood 3 days outside the consulate refused entry and unable to speak to anyone.

The SA Ambassador will attempt to get the Angolan Ambassador to arrange to allow us to transit Cabinda and use our 30 day visa for Angola mainland... Insh'Allah!

I'll let you know how we get along.

Cheers
Steve
www.overafrica.org

After a long fight with the Angolan embassy in Pointe Noire about letting us drive through Cabinda it has emerged they have very recently passed a law expressly prohibiting foreign vehicles to enter Cabinda.

It would seem the only west coast route open to overlanders is to drive Brazzaville, Congo - Kinshasa, DRC - Matadi, DRC - Angola.

Be warned that the road from Dolisie to Brazzaville goes through the Poule region which is still subject to rebel activity and recently 4 trucks were hijacked at gun-point on this road. We were in Dolisie when this happened, and why we came to Pointe Noire to try drive through Cabinda instead of to Brazzaville.

We are now trying to get our truck onto a train from Pointe Noire to Brazzaville so as to be able to continue. The train is notorious for theft though, but we're stuck between a rock and a hard place here so will have to chance it...

My advice is to drive to Franceville in Gabon, and from there to Akou or Ndongo and into Congo and take the road south to Brazzaville. Don't take the main north/south road through Lambarene in Gabon to Dolisie in Congo as you may well have issues getting to Brazzaville from there. I can't comment on what the Akou or Ndongo border crossings are like, since I didn't go that way, but if you can get through it could well save you a lot of trouble down the road...

I've posted this on a couple of the forums to try and spread the word... this has become quite an issue for us. In the meantime our Congo visas have expired so we also need to try arrange for those to be extended. At the same time our DRC transit visas expressly name Cabinda as our entry point so now we'll need to change those to Kinshasa. No-one said Africa would be easy!

Hope this helps
Steve
www.overafrica.org

Steve, sorry to read about all your hassles … again! A few comments that may help others:

1) We (three motorcyclists) rode from Lambarene (Gabon) to Dolisie to Brazzaville in January 2009. It took us three days to make the 180 miles from Dolisie to Kinkala, after which the road is paved to Brazzaville.

It had been raining and the road was big-time mud. Some trucks had been waiting for a week to pass thru the worst quagmires. Rebels said to be active and saw lots of gun-toting dudes but no problems. All in all a true adventure...

2) Took the ferry from Brazzaville to Kinshasa, no problem, one-day ride on paved road from Kinshasa to Matadi, DRC.

3) In Matadi January 2009 the Angolan consulate issued five-day transit visas in about 24 hours – easier than expected.

4) If you do get into Angola – the road directly south from Matadi to Noqui to Lufico to Tomboco is quite rugged and remote. Over a two-day ride from Noqui to Tomboco we saw maybe one or two other vehicles on the road...

Doable and fun on bike or 4x4 (not 2WD) but the road from Songololo DRC to M’banza-Congo is said to be better.

5) Motorcyclists from Scotland and Denmark were denied in February 2009 Angola visas for entry for the south, from Namibia (Windhoek and the two main border towns in Namibia (Oshikango and Ruancana). They finally gave up and flew their bikes from Windhoek to Ghana. More info here … http://www.scotlandfromthecape.co.uk/#/namibia3/4532807789

And here www.scotland from the cape.co.uk

6) My Congo visa was about to expire while I was in Brazzaville. It was extended with little hassle.

Good luck all.

Mark

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http://ridefar.typepad.com

It's been a long time since I was on this thread, and I must apologise, I haven't given the results of my fights with beaurocracy!

1. DRC transit visa available in Pointe Noire
This is bullsh*t! I don't know who we saw or where we went (clearly couldn't have been DRC Consulate), but the "visa" we were issued in Pointe-Noire wasn't actually a visa - god knows what it was!? We had a HUGE problem at the DRC border when we presented our visa... apparently whatever it is that we were given is valid for Congolese people to use to enter DRC, but not for tourists.

2. Cabinda closed to vehicles
This is also bullsh*t! I don't know the reason the Angolan Amabassador chose to lie to us about this, but you can definitely still drive through Cabinda! We did, no problems!

If you want to be completely boggled by how we found this out - read here (fighting with the Angolan Consulate in Pointe-Noire) and here (attempting to use fake visa to get into DRC)... I laugh now (sort of), but there was no laughing then, I can assure you!

Hope this helps someone make better use of their time!

Cheers
Steve
OverAfrica - overland, over Africa

It was one of the high lights of our trip!

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Jean Visser

http://ons4.reproroom.com