Some 21 years ago – not too long after a civil war of nearly thirty years came to an end, I as a filmmaker and a production team visited this devastated country in search of some colonial roots. For many years oil-rich Angola was not only a jewel in the crown of Portugal but also one of Africa's wealthiest and productive colonies.
For such a vast and varied country with its many routes and tracks - and with wealth accumulated by the Portuguese-speaking world by staying neutral during the war - what other vehicle was more suitable to conquer the rugged coastline and interior than the British Land Rover.
Following a group of Dorsland descendants - Afrikaner farmers of which the last left Angola during the regime change of 1974, this was not only a pilgrimage to the world that was but also a safari to explore future leisure and adventure destinations.
During my working life – often exploring destinations less easy to reach, a line of Land Rover Defenders was always my choice of vehicle. To this day it is also my choice of everyday transport in town and also cruising along the highways and byways of the Eastern escarpment and Lowveld where I lately reside.
These were two new 2003 model Td5 Land Rover Defenders demonstration vehicles which on this journey stretching from Johannesburg to Windhoek to Ruacana and into Angola at Calueque border gate past Xangongo and Cahama, the old battlefields of Operation Protea to Lubangu and Hupata where the most of die Afrikaner Angola – settlers used to farm.
Down the amazing Serra da Leba pass to the old resort town of Mocamedes and up along the rough and tumble coastal road past Santa Maria to Baia Farta in the outskirts of Benguela and on to the coastal city of Lobito. From here we turned inland to Balombo and from here northwards into the wild interior to Monbola where we still found the ruins and graves of the old Boer settlements as well as some still locals able to speak Afrikaans. From here we finally turned back to reach the Namibian border via the shattered city of Nova Lisboa, travelling through the town of Xangongo, once under heavy South African armed forces fire during the notorious Border War.
Except many interesting discoveries in this war-torn country during a journey made twenty-one years ago - and after a civil war of nearly thirty years, there were the signs and wrecks of old Land Rovers from the prosperous colonial times we often came across that I find worth mentioning here.
