Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things: air, sleep, dreams, sea, the sky - all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it. - Cesare Pavese

28-29 May 2019, Benguela
VG Residential 6,000Kz (R268)
30 May 2019, Benguela
Pensão Wassa 10,000Kz (R446)

We spent three nights in Benguela, two at VG Residential (well-priced and comfortable), and one at Wassa (quite a lot more expensive and nowhere near as pleasing). VG could accommodate us for two nights only; we selected Wassa as it was sited directly opposite the Ministry of the Interior and was well-located for a quick getaway north after we collected our passports from the Ministry on the day of our departure.
We wanted to do two things in Benguela. The first, to secure a 30-day extension to our allowed stay in Angola. As South Africans, we did not require a visa for the first 30 days; as cyclists, we needed more time to ride the country from south to north. The second, to spoil ourselves in the food department.
Less than a block from our accommodation was a small informal taxi rank for autocycle taxis. I just love these guys. For a small sum of money, they will pop a spare helmet on your head and transport you quickly and cheerfully to anywhere you need to go. Once we got to know the prices, and that they increased slightly in the evening, we left our bikes at the hotel and pottered around the city in “style”.
Local transport to the ministry of the interior netted us the additional 30 days in Angola. The staff were helpful, friendly, polite and efficient. We had to fill in forms, pay money, leave our passports, and return for them a day or two later. Easy peasy.
We ate twice at Ferro Velho, a restaurant across the road from the beach, and twice at KindaFood in a nearby mall. On all occasions, the restaurants were virtually empty and the food decent enough, but nothing to really brag about with the exception perhaps of the fresh cod at the former.
Restful…