4X4 DESTINATION
Just like Van Zyl’s Pass in Namibia, the Dalton Highway in Alaska and the Yungas “Road of Death” in Bolivia, the Doodsakker in Angola is on every adventurer’s bucket list. This is how you drive it.
Let’s get one thing straight: the Doodsakker in Angola is a dangerous destination. Even experienced adventurers, like Johan Badenhorst’s Voetspore team, got into trouble when they got caught out by a high tide. So we strongly advise against taking on the Doodsakker by yourself, but we do encourage you to one day go up to Angola with friends and tackle this bull by the horns. Here’s what we experienced on the Doodsakker.
“DOODSAKKER” is an Afrikaans military term for a type of ambush in which an enemy is allowed to advance right up to concealed troops before being fired on from all sides – also known as a kill zone.
The first thing you need to ask yourself is whether you voluntarily want to enter this ambush, and then whether you want to drive it from top to bottom or the other way around. If you look at a roadmap, the route seems obvious: turn left toward the coast at the Ruacana border post in northern Namibia, follow a couple of turns until you reach the Kunene River mouth, and from here you simply shoot up to the Doodsakker.
This is, however, far easier said than done, as this route involves driving 420 km along a horrible rocky road – and there are no fuel stations or workshops along the way. In addition, you have to cross many rivers – which can be risky in the rare event of rain. Also, Angola is literally covered in landmines. There are more than
half a million mines, in 1 200 minefields over an area of 100 million square meters that have yet to be disarmed – and many of these mines lie somewhere next to the road from Ruacana and Foz du Conene, waiting for someone to leave their vehicle for a quick wee in the bush. In 2014 nearly 88 000 Angolan civilians were registered as having been maimed by land mines. So, this is no joke.
An easier and safer way to get to the Doodsakker is to take the tarred road from the Oshikango/Santa Clara border post to the city of Lubango.
Lubango’s business centre is a hive of activity best avoided unless you’d like to visit the Monumento ao Cristo Rei (Christ the king) statue on a hill above the city or drive past the modern airport where a Cuban MiG-21 attack aircraft is displayed on a pole. The local economy seems to be faring well here. In streets reminiscent of Hillbrow after New Year’s Eve, you’ll spot a Porsche Cayenne here and a Range Rover Sport over there. Someone is clearly making money, and judging by the new office blocks and shops popping up, the money does appear to filter down to the regular person on the street.
The road from Lubango to Namibe is in good shape with only a few shallow potholes that are continually filled with soil – by women and children. About
30 km outside of Lubango, you descend the famous Serra da Leba Pass with its dramatic rock formations and a series of hairpin bends down to the coastal plateau.
Namibe is recovering well after decades of strife. There is a large shopping mall with franchises like Shoprite, Debonairs
and a Hungry Lion, and the Welwitschia Mirabilis Airport just outside of town is brand new and of international quality. It appears that War’s grim companions – Pestilence, Famine and Death – are leaving to make way for a brighter future.
From Namibe you drive 47 km south on an excellent regional road that was recently tarred by a Chinese company. Turn off at a road sign directing you to the Flamingo Lodge. Then drive 25 km in the dry course of the Rio dos Flamingo (the Flamingo River) to the lodge on the coast. In the river bed you will see hundreds of welwitschias. This plant is usually associated with Namibia, but here in southern Angola it grows in even greater numbers.
Stay at the Flamingo Lodge for a night or two and ask the manager about activities near the lodge. The resort’s owner, Rico Sakko, is a legend in this area, but these days you’re more likely to find him somewhere along Angola’s 1 600 km long coastline than at the lodge itself. Rico says his days of playing host are over and he’s returning to the original reason he came to Angola in 1990: to fish.
Here you can find the latest info on the Doodsakker or pay your host at the lodge to guide you through the Doodsakker if you’re not part of a larger group – the cost will depend on various factors.
When should you tackle the Doodsakker? The short answer is at low tide. The moon orbits the earth with clockwork precision and astronomers know enough about its orbit so as to predict the tides years in advance. There are many websites you can consult when planning your visit to the Doodsakker. Go to tide-forecast.com or tides4fishing. com and print a week or month-long tide chart at home to take with you. Your safest bet is to plan your visit to the Doodsakker around spring tide, when the low tide is a little lower than average.
THE TRAIL STARTS in the town of Tombua, 46 km south of the Flamingo lodge’s road sign. Fill up at the Girassol petrol station on the edge of town and make sure you’re carrying enough fuel to last at least 250 km in four-wheel drive, with low-range and diff locks engaged. Also lower your tyre pressure here for sand driving.
The turn-off to the Doodsakker isn’t clearly marked, but it is a few metres after the garage and before you reach the town’s
Stay at the Flamingo Lodge for a night or two and ask the manager about activities near the lodge
cemetery at S15.79831 E11.87806.
Pass behind the cemetery, past a windswept rubbish dump, and follow a sandy twin-track for
14 km south to the main gate of the Parque do Iona National (Iona National Park). Officials will jot down your vehicle’s registration number and make a note of how many passengers are in each vehicle. You then get an entry permit and pay the equivalent of R40 in local kwanza per vehicle. This tariff can vary greatly, though, and unless you’re conversant in Angolan Portuguese, you won’t know what you’re paying for – always carry a wad of kwanzas, just in case.
From the main gate you can follow a twin track 8 km southwest directly to the sea and the wreck of the Vanessa Seafood that ran aground on its maiden voyage, and then follow the coast south.
We, however, suggest you immediately turn south at the gate and drive across a huge pan. On this pan are large cormorant colonies where thousands of birds brood. Resist the temptation to chase up the swarms of black birds with your vehicle, as it will give cunning gulls the opportunity to snatch the cormorant eggs from the unattended nests.
The sand dunes lie low along the beach and you’re still close to Tombua. This is a good time to see how your vehicle performs on the loose sand of the beach. If you struggle, you need to lower your
tyre pressure even more. Discover which gear works best for this kind of terrain and build up enough confidence that you will be able to handle the Doodsakker. Your convoy will have about 40 km to practise on the beach before you hit the real deal. By this time, everyone in your group must know what they’re doing, because you’re about to enter the kill zone!
THE DOODSAKKER STARTS for real when the dunes along the sea grow too tall to drive up them and the width of the beach shrinks to only a couple of metres. There is no skull-and-crossbones sign with a stern warning to mark the beginning; rather it gradually dawns on you that there’s no turning back. Your vehicle feels like it’s about to get stuck, the sea often reaches your wheels, and although the Doodsakker is only 60 km long, you instinctively feel a need to get it done quickly.
Our best advice is that you reach the start of the Doodsakker (more or less at S16.28427 E11.81087) about an hour before absolute low tide and proceed at a calm pace – just fast enough that you don’t get stuck, but not so fast that you miss the whole experience.
Your vehicle’s left-hand wheels, on the side of the dry dunes, constantly feel as though they’re about to get stuck, while those on the right on the firmer wet sand receive the best traction. The steering wheel therefore drags toward the softer, drier sand while you actually want to drive on the firm, wet sand.
But if you drive too close to the water, you’ll immediately feel it when a wave hits you – the water breaks your momentum and it’s clear the ocean could swallow you whole. Yes, even at low tide you’ll have to drive through the corrosive seawater – it’s inevitable. There is a fine line between getting stuck and being swept away, and your convoy’s lead vehicle needs to find the best surface for others to follow on. The rest of the convoy must then stay in its tracks. And remember: don’t stop unnecessarily since you might not be able to get going again.
It may be hard to believe, but there is bedrock below this beach, and if the sea was turbulent the night before, boulders
The convoy’s lead vehicle needs to find the best surface for the others to follow on.
will unexpectedly block your way. Then you’ll have to drive around them, through the sea. It’s here where people have surrendered their vehicles to the ocean in the past, and where someone will undoubtedly lose a vehicle in the future.
Rico from Flamingo Lodge says that the waves only have to touch your vehicle three times: the first wave drags you down, the second wave splashes against your windshield and you know you’re in trouble, and the third wave takes you out to sea… There are stories of people who didn’t even have enough time to grab their wallets and passports before their vehicle was swept away.
It is, therefore, of the utmost importance to first talk to the guys at Flamingo Lodge and find out if the bedrock is exposed before you tackle the Doodsakker.
At the halfway point, after 33 km and about an hour into the journey, the beach becomes wide and you can safely pull over. You now have a choice: push on and finish it, or leave your vehicle here where it is safe and enjoy rare experiences in the middle of the Doodsakker.
If you want to push on, expect another 27 km of the same challenging sand before the desert opens up and you are no longer at the mercy of the tides. You’re not out of the woods yet, because the sand is still loose, but if you made it to here, the battle is more than halfway won.
Now you can head farther south to Foz do Cunene (55 km from here) where police officers check the paperwork you received this morning at the Iona National Park’s main gate. Afterward, you can travel back inland and northward to Namibe or head
east to the Ruacana border post on that bad road we mentioned earlier.
Or you can do what we did: get on a boat and sail 12 km across the horizon to Ilha dos Tigres (Tiger Island). We headed there in the Flamingo lodge’s rubber duck, but you can, of course, bring your own.
A 20 HP electric motor plus the extra battery from your dual battery system, will get you across the calm sea in half an hour or use a sea kayak if you’re a strong rower. But first, check with the weather bureau to make there’s no storm forecast.
On Ilha dos Tigres is the Portuguese colonial ghost town of São Martinho dos Tigres, which was abandoned in 1975 when Angola attained independence. No one lives here, but the old Portuguese dwellings are strikingly photogenic and definitely worth a visit.
After your visit to the island you can return to the Doodsakker on the incoming tide. There won’t be enough time to continue along the coast and you will have to pitch your tent in a campsite (S16.57494 E11.82197) that was laid out by Flamingo Lodge on a sheltered pan among the dunes.
Go play in the dunes, but take care because some of them are up to 200 m tall! Or break out the tackle and fish into the night at nearby Fred’s Bay. The following morning – an hour before absolute low tide – return to Tombua and report at the main gate that you survived the Doodsakker, or head south to Foz do Cunene where your paperwork will be checked.
If this article makes it all sound easy, don’t believe it! You have to be brave to tackle this route, you must be an experienced driver and it requires highergrade logistics.
If none of these attributes apply to you, then like us, rather rely on a guide to get you through the Doodsakker.
Either way, it is guaranteed to be an unforgettable experience!