A CRUISER CELEBRATION

TO CELEBRATE BOTH THE CUMULATIVE GLOBAL SALES OF 10 MILLION LAND CRUISERS AND ITS NEW, LOCALLY PRODUCED NAMIB SPECIAL EDITION, CARMAKER TOYOTA RECENTLY EMBARKED ON A CRUISER ADVENTURE TO THE NORTHERN-MOST POINT OF THE NAMIB DESERT – TO A TOWN APTLY NAMED NAMIBE IN SOUTHERN ANGOLA.

Baia dos Tigres (Bay of the Tigers) was a peninsula off the southern Angolan coast – until March 1962 when it was severed from the mainland by a violent storm, rendering the remote ’Tigres isthmus an island.

The storm also sheared the then recently constructed water pipeline from the Cunene river mouth (it was officially opened the previous year) to the long sandbank of nearly 35 km long and 11 km wide. The catastrophe left the unfortunate people working and living on Baia dos Tigres even more isolated, as their freshwater supply was now again completely cut off.

Still, the thousand or so souls working in the fish factories on the island remained, and ’Tigres depended on regular visits by boat to replenish its water supply. (The name ’Tigres apparently originated from the stripes formed by sediment on the dune massif on the desolate Namib coastline, although some maintain it was due to brown hyenas scavenging the coast being mistaken for tigers.)

A couple of Land Rovers used by managers of the different factories also remained on the island, and were used until 1975 when, on the eve of Angolan independence from Portugal, the population of Saint Mar tinho dos Tigres was evacuated from the island.The fish factories were abandoned but some equipment, including most of the vehicles, were salvaged.

THE LAST AND THE FIRST

The remnants of a Landie – the last vehicle to leave a tyre mark on the island – is still on the island, but it is clear the abandoned vehicle could not withstand the gradual degradation over time and the onslaught of the elements.

Much like the Namibian ghost town of Kolmanskop Saint Martinho dos Tigres forms a surreal, post-apocalyptic picture. Its empty colonial-style buildings – including a school, radio-telegraph station, hospital, maritime building and the imposing Saint Martin chapel standing forlorn and forgotten along a single, cemented street (it also served as a runway) – bears silent witness that the island was once inhabited.

While fishermen and some brave tourists have visited the deserted island after the last Land Rover roamed there over four decades ago, no vehicle has set a wheel on the island since. Until now.

To celebrate global sales of 10 million Land Cruisers and to introduce its latest Cruiser derivative,Toyota commissioned a specially constructed raft to transport an ivory white Land Cruiser 79 Namib onto the island – making it the first vehicle to leave track marks here since 1975.

This highlight was part of Toyota’s tour to southern Angola. The country was chosen specifically for the introduction of the Namib Special Edition, based on the Land Cruiser 79 double-cab