Hi friends!
incredible back in civilization! Internet, electricity, water, mini-market ... but who is?
arrival or travel time from the most extreme ever! an expedition to the extent possible! travel (round trip, thankfully) in the Hereafter!
shipping for Kuito Kuanavale (and beyond):
Kuito:
is the border town of Kuito, Angola in the city that is considered the end of the world.
Kuito was under siege for 30 years and in fact getting closer to the city is a feast of all carcasses of tanks, armored vehicles, amphibious vehicles ... ruins, shipwrecks, rusted skeletons of war ...
Once in Kuito, the reception is excellent, Mark had worked here 10 years ago and everybody knows it. Now the city has changed and the asphalt road, telephone network and electricity generator with gasoline in many houses the main road. There are guest houses and restaurants and also some movement at night.
Kuito Kuanavale I really liked it, is a town of a few colonial houses destroyed, as always, but located on top of a hill and you always see a distant horizon and the river Kuito flowing majestic (and full of crocodiles) to bottom of the valley.
remnants of war, broken-down tank, mig and Russian guns are everywhere in disuse.
in the river where he always went for a swim (eye on the crocodile!) To combat the stifling heat, was full of sunken boats and armored vehicles abandoned on South African shores.
oxen to graze everywhere, women with baskets on his head as usual and fishermen in a canoe, a canyon that is devouring the city center (already has sucked the colonial church) and also a beautiful park of dead trees, as if they were sculptures.
atmosphere relaxed and friendly and make everything more beautiful African sunset.
done the work to Kuito and attacking neighboring cities (over 100km) has quickly became clear that a trip to the next town hall (Mavinga) would have been impossible for two of the three machines we had available: a single land cruiser can navigate your way Kuito-Mavinga and no other car. two teams then return Menongue in the two Nissan provided and a "super team" Impact: Marco, Assis, Fernando and I, with the land cruiser head towards Mavinga!
THE FRONT:
The road between Kuito and Mavinga was the scene of war for 30 years and is undoubtedly one of the worst roads in the world to join two capital cities.
it is a subspecies of the path of more than 200km impossible to cover in less than a dozen hours. a path to conquer cm per cm!
Across the street is a stretch of sand (furniture?) Holes and unlikely routes up and down totally prohibitive ... the desolation of the route is then made even more extreme by the fact that the 220km between Kuito and Mavinga are completely deserted, empty, deserted, uninhabited. there is nobody. no one to help you in case of failure, for example.
who undertakes this journey it has been said that arrivals ...
here we can only pass a land cruiser (or, optionally, a tank) and the way we say it is not among the most popular: there is both yes and no a couple of cars per month.
or to Kuito, nor Mavinga (or more) you can find fuel, so you need to cram the machine tanks and barrels of gasoline.
and in fact, just entered this extreme adventure, the holes in the dreadful path, tossing and squotendo all (of course we also passenger beaten up by all the parties), split the cap of a can of gas put on the roof, generating a shower of gasoline on us and inside the car.
do is slow down to stop the fuel Piggie (valuable), but stop the car in the sand is the end: the car is stranded.
push, dig, pull ... you again! very dirty (the sand here is mixed with ashes of frequent fires with gasoline, do not tell you)
and here they are in fact fire (all intentional) of the forest!
and away, soaked and covered in petrol, everywhere, inside and outside the cabin, with 100l of petrol over the machine and others in 200l, in the flames of the fire at full speed! (No from, was not something so suicidal! If not go back! Heheh)
and anyway if this makes you think a Molotov cocktail on wheels, know that here the real bombs to fear are mine! This land is minatissimo! mine for 30 years! anti-personnel mines, anti-tank mine ... the path is mine clearance, but you can not leave even a cm away from the grooves on the facts of the wheels of cars that have made it.
you can not put a foot outside, nor to push the car, nor to piss. nothing. if you own and forgot about this advice, quiet, the whole street is lined with gutted carcasses of tanks, armored cars, civilian cars, trucks to always remember. There are also unexploded aerial bombs and helicopters crashed. so much to like.
temperatures in these parts among other things are hellish and air conditioning can not be put to save fuel, and then open the windows (so as not to die poisoned by gas forming puddles in the car) , but this move makes room for the shrubs and vines thorns of the bush to whip their arms and faces of passengers.
short, a heroic feat!
and eventually, after a whole day in these conditions, filthy as ever and with his back and arms bruised, here we are in Mavinga!
Mavinga:
Mavinga, as the bitter enemy of Kuito during 30 years of war and on, I imagined somehow bad, aggressive; Mavinga instead presents itself as a quiet, relaxed, with rolling hills all around, pleasant little rivers that surround it, wide streets, a few brick houses, unpretentious, a huge police station and quarters for countless thatched huts spread spaciously on territory.
here there is so much space that the prisons are the villages of huts, such as other, normal, open. who put us there remains the immensity that surrounds him does not give him no hope of escape .
Mavinga is very isolated, no electricity, no telephone, no running water, but the people here is very organized. has nothing but organized.
Also the territories near Mavinga amazing, other than those seen so far: large landscapes, cattle, fields of manioc. there is a something more authentic, more traditional here.
the night darkness.
stars
fresh.
silence.
beautiful Mavinga.
BACK TO Kuito:
Due to lack of fuel, which unfortunately was not infinite, after visiting some places there Mavinga We could delve further (to Rivungo) Kuito and we went through the same terrible way of going (the only!)
departure at 2:30 at night (not to avoid problems down the road)
the road is the same, only this time the fires that we almost blew up the first leg in the air, they return fire and shot down dozens of trees who are still steaming along.
you can not get around (there are mine!) Then we go by force of arms, push and burning large logs on the roadside (just as insecure: there are mine!) And go forward.
usual graveyard of cars and means of war and after 12 grueling hours of travel back to Kuito Kuanavale the immediate dip in the river (full of crocodiles, as always).
that Goduria
NANCOVA TO:
A Kuito recover and maybe reload fuel that led us to Menongue and shoot us in another way just as exhausting: the way of Baixo Longa Nancova.
is a way of kind of Mavinga, a little 'less difficult, but undermined, and holes filled with sand and slopes unacceptable. there are rivers to be crossed by car with water that reaches the window and infiltration of the gates, but everything is under control.
the bush is even more dense and takes away pieces of the car, whip arms and face, he entered splinters, pieces of wood and insects of all kinds: for all travel in the face of locusts and cockroaches climbing the tropical legs.
first stop in Baixo Longa night. obviously there is no light and only water to drink is that of the river and the bottles of bottled water purchased in Kuito starting to run low ...
the morning en route to the river and Nancova after several hours.
Nancova stands on a promontory checking a giant endless plains crossed by rivers. Monastier di Treviso is much larger Nancova here is that of the provincial capital.
Here there is nothing: just a few huts, a stream (as always full of crocodiles) and many cattle. people spend time at the river (and us) and this community of people splashing naked and has a strong classic because of (greek-classic).
here there is no water to buy and we have to drink river water.
the reception is excellent and the people is absurd. a little 'depressed, but very nice. seems a little 'na madhouse. the hospital (too big for this place) is empty: this medicine did not arrive so the sick do not go there.
accomplished our mission, ready to return at last (after becoming men of the jungle), and then awake again at 2:30 and go!
hours or hours away.
swimming in rivers.
no lunch (a classic)
and finally here we are!
safe and sound and happy to be able to tell even this adventure!
Kuando Kubango me is just like a lot! hehehe
chauuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
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