The Mery Family Adventures: Eco Tur Angolan Adventure!

Last weekend Janet, Nathan, Owen, Riley and me (all 7 months pregnant me) adventured east into Angola with Eco Tur and 2 other families from our compound. It was quite an adventure!!!

1st Day: Luanda - N’dalatando – Kalandula

We left Luanda at 6AM following the main road east in the direction of N’dalatando (a new road from Zenza). We stopped for a coffee some 100kms in. The local kids came from the school to check us out. They were pretty interested by all of us. Then we continued on to N'dalatando, the capital of Kwanza Norte province where we visit the Botanical Gardens, and old agricultural college at Kilombo, refuel and had lunch. The Botanical Gardens were amazing! All the plants were so lush and huge! I wish we could go back in time to see the gardens and college at its prime. At the hotel for lunch, we saw about 10 beautiful, tall women competing in the Miss Kwanza Norte doing interviews and taking pictures. The winner will go on to Miss Angola and then to Miss Universe. Very cool! After lunch we loaded back in the Land Cruiser and traveled through Lucala, Cacuso and Lombe. We took a photo opportunity at the bridge over the Lucala River. We searched hard to see some crocodiles, but weren't successful. We loaded back in the cruiser to find that the gear box went out! The other cruiser towed us to the hotel where all 13 of us climbed aboard to make it the last little bit to our main objective - the majestic Kalandula Falls on the Lucala River, (a rival to Victoria Falls in height, the second largest in Africa, locally known as Quedas de Calandula). The falls were amazing! Janet and I were quite worried we were going to lose a kid over the falls, but we successful in keeping them out of the river and safe from the edge. Nathan and Owen did adventure around on all the rocks. Climbing on the rocks was Owen's favorite thing we did all weekend. Can't say I blame him. After visiting the falls we headed to our small basic hotel in Kalandula. Very basic indeed and it felt a lot like camping. Owen really dug the bunk beds!

2nd Day: Kalandula – Pedras Negras - Luanda

After breakfast we said fairwell to our tour guide Carlos and climbed aboard a minivan Eco Tur hired for us to complete our adventure. We visited a rather surprising church in Kalandula village where Owen got to try goat wrangling with one of the local goats. He was uninterested in being near Owen thankfully since he had some nice little horns on him. Then we set off for Pedras Negras, day 2's main objective. At Cacuso we turned south where we reached the fascinating rock formation known as Pungo Andongo (Pedras Negras). We picnicked and climbed one of the main rocks for a spectacular view of the surrounding country side including Capanda Dam and saw the famous “rock footprint” of Rainha Ginga, the African Queen. Our picnic included an audience of the local kids. Our tour guide gave them a bunch of food afterwards. Then we headed for back for Luanda with one stop for a photo at the Kwanza River. Almost all the roads were paved on the main part of the trip except for a very difficult 20 km of very rough road. Concerns for our minivan skyrocketed as we were rocked all over the van and the windows and doors shook a bit more than we liked. The minivan was not designed for off-roading! Or a pregnant woman onboard during the off-roading! The minute we hit the rough road, Riley completely turned off and passed out on Nathan. It was hilarious. Here we are trying not to get whiplash and praying the van doesn't break down and Riley is drooling in the backseat sound asleep. We finally made it back to Talatona. We were all exhausted. After showers and dinner, we all went straight to bed.

Our adventure into Angola showed us more than just the beauty of the Angola nature. We traveled through many villages where we saw small mud huts and thatched roofs, children running around barely dressed, villagers selling homemade charcoal or whatever animal they caught (saw a few monkeys this way), and the farming they do to live. It is very humbling and made our "basic" accommodations in Kalandula look 5-star as the rain storm pounding our tin roof keeping us dry. Being an American experiencing Africa has brought a new perspective of thankfulness, humbleness, and appreciation for how I was raised and all the blessings in my life.

Now for the pictures!!