Old Legs Tour Angola 2024 – Night of 22 and Day 23

After the news of  Laurie’s fracture, we needed to take a breather, get a medivac into Angola, do some repairs which included the broken Toyota spring on the water trailer, and regroup. It’s become a familiar pattern: challenge thrown, review, change plans, and execute with a smile. We’re ridiculously lucky to have this team! At the beginning of the tour, Ali raved about the team spirit, and it’s never been more apparent than now.  We’ve had to chop and change plans, uplift more than we wanted, bounce around like Jack-in-the-boxes, and endure the toughest environments. But we’ve also experienced unforgettable privileges.

So back to yesterday (Day 22), we’ve mentioned it already, but whilst most of Angola has celebrated our visit, it’s likely the hotel was less impressed. We are a filthy, bedraggled, and rowdy bunch traveling in 3 equally dusty and dirty vehicles. One of the first priorities was to clean up and for most of us, it took two long hot showers armed with scrubbing brushes before the rinse water finally ran clear. The laundromat worked well past midnight to clean our clothes and the security guard looking after our cars spent equally long hours returning the Isuzus to their former glory – sponsor logos once again shouting loud and proud after having been almost totally obscured by all the dust and grime.

Last night, feeling down about Laurie’s back, we watched Troy’s video of the journey so far; Zimbabwe to Zambia. It was spectacular! If you haven’t watched it yet, do yourself a favour and take a look. Laughter and smiles filled the room as we relived memories.  We celebrated with lots of beer, Amarula and a supper of roadrunner with chips, watching the closing ceremony of the Olympics. After hard days in the bush it doesn’t take many beers to make a party buzz! As was evident by the “children” Gus, Gary, Keegan, Jess, and Naison, who went looking for an after-party and ended up gate-crashing a wedding. Gus didn’t even realise it was a wedding, Keegan said he knew and that the lady in white was his clue! They didn’t stay long, but there’s allegedly great photographic evidence that we are all trying to get them to show us.

Day 23 started a little later than usual, last night’s festivities the possible cause.  Kuíto is a large city in the central highlands of Angola with a complicated history that dates back to the 18th Century when it was a centre for the slave trade and later a hub for Portuguese colonial administration.  It was once targeted to become the country’s capital, but never did and today it is a bustling commercial hub, with a mix of modern and traditional architecture. It is a poor city though, still recovering from the devastating effects of the Angolan Civil War.

Mark was saddened by the stark poverty he witnessed in the city. The sight of children fighting over empty plastic bottles and a yogurt tub was particularly heartbreaking. While rural poverty is evident, it seems even more acute in the urban environment. Having said that Kuíto is also a city with heart and resilience, the people are friendly and welcoming, and the city boasts a vibrant cultural scene centered around bustling markets.

Kuito is much bigger than Caveman’s nest and it’s unsurprising that on his first foray into town he got lost!  He claimed, “Caveman follow stars, none in daytime!”  but we’ve seen him get lost between the camp table and his tent at bedtime. The story goes like this: having gone shopping for springs for the trailer  Ali, Mark and Caveman decided it would be easier to split up.  Some time later Gus got a call from Caveman asking for a pickup. Being knee-deep in chores Gus told him it would be quicker for him to walk home from the traffic lights.  Ten, twenty, thirty minutes passed and no Caveman, no phone call, no pickup… oh dear.  An hour later, a call came through…

“Gus, I’ve taken a shortcut!” Oh boy, has he learned nothing from a Selby Shortcut?

Gus asked him where he was, and that’s when the game of “Find the Caveman” began.  At first, he said he was at “a bank”, which wasn’t too enlightening so he added, helpfully, “It’s close to the UNITA building”, where he most definitely was not. Then he said he was next to the UNICEF building…. Google said there was no UNICEF building.  In a moment of inspiration, Gus said, “Ok, send a photo and a pin”…. One minute passed, five minutes… ten minutes.

“Caveman, what’s happening?” Gus asked in alarm.

 “Caveman confused, what’s pin?” came the bewildered reply.

So, armed with only an obscure picture of “a bank”, Jono and Gus scoured the streets of Kuito to retrieve him, which they eventually did, and we haven’t let him out of our sight since!

We weren’t successful with the spring. This trailer is made from an old Landy chassis. It has already done several tours and performed well but because one of the old Landy springs is weaker than the other it always listed slightly to one side. To fix this, it was retro-fitted before this tour with two Toyota springs which fitted snugly inside the Landy springs. Clearly this incompatible marriage of brands led to some friction and eventually, after days on the tough roads the Landy spat out the Toyota, disgusted by its poor performance in what, for a Landrover, is all in a day’s work.  So we will continue on, trailer listing but still perfectly usable, and the suspension system now restored to its original best 4×4 by far.

Keegan and Naison worked magic on Christopher with Keegan setting new rules for locations of water packs, shoes, gloves, and helmets, and wrote instructions for what’s allowed in which fridge. Meanwhile, Adam, Nick, Linda, and Laurie Selby worked on getting Laurie W back to Harare, phoning medivac companies and private plane owners.

Alliance has been amazing as usual, supporting every extraction option, providing advice on how to care for Laurie in the meantime, and starting research on what treatments may be needed next.  We can’t thank them enough – literally having our backs when things go wrong like this is priceless.

Eventually, we think we have found a solution for Laurie’s uplift, with  Tony Forbes of Cirrus Aviation making a plan with a Vision Jet, he believes he can get here on Tuesday morning. A big thank you to Tony for responding to our call for help, he has been amazing.  The Angolan Embassy has been superb, offering help with documentation and clearances. We are, as always, so impressed with the reception and kindness in Angola.

At lunchtime, we headed to the Hungry Lion, an Old Legs Tour favourite, but Google lied – there isn’t one in Kuito! Instead, we filled our baskets with treats at ShopRite (like lots of ice cream) and that evening, Laurie and Ali called us to the car park for a pageant they’d prepared. The 3 act skit left us with bellies aching with laughter as Anthony played a leopard that became the fancy of a baboon played by Alastair. Even at 72 and 74, the Watermeyer brothers bring childlike joy to our group.

All’s well that ends well, and as the day ended, a mix of emotions filled the air. Sadness over Laurie’s situation was tempered by relief that he’d soon be home. Nostalgia for this incredible adventure already beginning to creep in, along with immense gratitude for our amazing team of 10 intrepid Old Legs, 4 dedicated support crew, and 3 talented media members.

Thank you for continuing to follow our journey to Christo Rei in Angola, as we pedal for pensioners back home in Zimbabwe.   If you’d like to donate, even the smallest pledge makes a huge difference!  Here’s the link:   https://oldlegstour-gdg-j1141n.raisely.com/donate

Until next time,

Have Fun.  Do Good.  Do Epic.

#OldLegsTour #Angola2024 #EvenMoreEpic #PedallingForPensioners