15 DAYS ANGOLA ADVENTURE.
Angola is one of Africa’s last great untouched safari spots. It’s home to large areas of wilderness that border on Namibia and Zambia, as well as Botswana. Access to these areas has been hard due to conflict in the past, but they’re now open to the rest of the world. This means you’ll have the opportunity to explore the incredible Luengue – Luiana NP, which is now managed by Africa’s parks. This is a trip like no other.
Day 1
On arrival at Luanda airport, you’ll be greeted by your local tour guide and taken to your cozy local hotel. The rest of your day will be spent at home. You’ll have a pre tour briefing in your hotel this afternoon, followed by dinner.
If you arrive at Luanda airport early enough, you can book a city tour for an additional fee.
Day 2
After breakfast this morning, you will be transferred to Luanda airport, where you will take a ninety-minute scenic flight south to the town of Lubango. Once you arrive at Lubango, you will transfer to our cozy resort hotel, where you will spend the rest of the day relaxing and resting up for the next few days ahead. You will be staying at our resort hotel for the night.
Day 3
This morning we start our long trek to the far southeast of Angola. We meet our 4×4 group after dawn, heading east from Angola’s capital, Lubango, on roads of different quality, admiring the beautiful and diverse scenery that Angola has to offer. The journey is long, taking up to 8 hours and covering more than 500 km before reaching Menongue in the late afternoon. Along the way, we will stop for bird watching and photo opportunities. We will have dinner at Menongue at the end of the day. We stay at basic accommodation here for the night.
Day 4
Today we arrive at Cuatir after 6 hours of driving on very poor roads. We will arrive at the Cubango river, where we will cross by barge with our vehicles and continue through the savannah to the beautiful town of Cuatir.This has been the location of an amazing conservation project led by Stefano van Wyk. We will be welcomed at the hotel where we will have a late lunch.
After a short break, we’ll head out in the afternoon to explore this beautiful area. The reintroduction of giraffes and elephants has started to bring this wilderness back to life, but there’s still plenty of wildlife such as roan, Sable, Sitatunga, cheetah, wild dog, and more. After dinner, we’re heading out on a late-night drive, where we’ll be looking for rare night animals such as leopards and caracals.
Day 5
Today we will spend the whole day in Cuatir on morning game drives, afternoon game drives and evening game drives with local teams. Our main objective will be simply to enjoy being in this under-explored wilderness, but mammal watching and bird watching can also be very rewarding.
During the day we will concentrate on the amazing ungulate population here, with marshy areas supporting species such as sitatungas and savannas ideal for bird watching. During the night, the leopards and lion linger here in low numbers and we will do our best to find these iconic predators throughout our stay here.
When you’re not on the road for game drives, our stunning camp is the perfect place to unwind and enjoy the ambiance of Angola.
Day 6
After a day of sightseeing in Cuatir we start our journey in an area that’s now even more isolated and unique: Luengue liana. Today we head south to Angola’s frontier with Namibia, passing through Calai, a small town on the way. We drive at a slow speed, mainly due to the condition of the roads but this gives us plenty of birding and photo opportunities along the way.
Our goal is to reach our campsite by late afternoon near Calai and spend the night there before resuming our journey tomorrow.
Day 7
We leave camp early in the morning and make our way east along the border with Namibia and then north towards Luengue – Luiana National Park. There will be plenty of birding and photo opportunities along the way.
By late afternoon, we’ll reach the remote settlement of Licua where camp will be waiting for us. This will be our last stop before reaching Luengue- Luiana proper and there’s a lot to look forward to as we spend the night here.
Day 8
Today we are leaving Licua at 7:00 a.m. with the goal of getting into the Luengue Luiana National Park in the early morning. Our objective is to make it to the area of bambangando which is one of the most fertile and varied parts of the park. We will then have a late afternoon game drive before heading to our nearby campsite.
Luengue Luiana has recently been included in African Parks’ portfolio and is a true wilderness. There’s no tourist infrastructure, there’s only a small network of trails, and there’s very little wildlife in the park. The few species that do survive are remarkable because the park is situated in the middle of a shared savannah with three other national parks: Zambia (Zambia), Namibia (Namibia) and Botswana (Botswana). Our drives here in the morning and in the afternoon will be on the lookout for charismatic and iconic wildlife that we may be fortunate enough to see, including the fast-flying cheetah as well as wild dogs and leopards. We’ll be spending the night at our nearest campsite.
Day 9
Today we will be spending the whole day in Bambangando on morning game drives and afternoons game drives. The exact focus of our day will be determined by the group’s interests. Game densities are expected to be low here compared to other top wildlife destinations in East and Southern Africa. However, it is possible that we may see a rich diversity of game today. Predators in this area include cheetah and wild dog as well as leopard.
Even though the predators are absent today, the area is home to a variety of unusual species such as roan and sable as well as tsessebe and red lechwe as well as puku and world class birdlife. With the help of local ecooguards we might be able to go on a night drive from camp and, with luck, spot elusive and varied species like caracal or serval or, if we’re lucky, Aardvark. We’ll sleep at our camp site that night.
Day 10
We leave Bambangando in the early hours of the morning and enjoy a game drive along the way as we make our way to Angola’s southern-easternmost point, which we will be calling Bico today. Bico is probably one of the least visited places in the whole of southern Africa because of its remoteness, and we will be arriving here just in time for lunch.
Then it’s time for a game drive, a great way to get to know this wild area. Bico is right on the border of both Namibia and Zambia, and a stone’s throw from both Botswana and Zimbabwe. It’s used as a passageway for some of the world’s most iconic animals including elephants, buffalo, giraffes, lions, leopards, cheetahs and wild dogs. While sightings of all these animals may be rare, we’ll be spending a good chunk of this afternoon and evening traversing the area hoping to see some of them. We’ll be overnighting again at a campsite tonight.
Day 11
Today we have a full day of game drives in Bico. The morning game drive, afternoon game drive and evening game drive will be dedicated to finding species that have escaped us so far. We will be putting all our bushcrafting skills to the test in order to understand, from the tracks and other evidence, which species might be using this area and how to locate them. In fact, any and all game sightings should be welcomed here, in a region that has historically been very inaccessible and has been a hotbed of poaching and conflict.
Day 12
After a final morning in Bico, where we’ll again concentrate on predators and rare antelope and do a bit of birding, we’ll start the long drive back to Menongue. We’ll make it to Mucusso by late afternoon, where we will spend the night at our camp.
Day 13
We spend most of the day on the road again, taking in the natural beauty and ambience of the southern part of Angola. We pass by the town of Dirico and aim to reach Calai by the late afternoon where camp will be waiting for us again. We will spend the night here after another long day in Angola.
Day 14
Today we spend our last full day on the trail, continuing north and following the Cubango river until we arrive at Menongue town, where we’ll be staying for the night. We’ll be welcomed back to something close to civilization this evening, with an opportunity to unwind after a long day.
Day 15
Guests will be transported to the Menongue airport for their return flight to Luanda today. The tour ends when you arrive in Luanda.
