6 Weeks in West Africa

Forty days from Cape Town to Lisbon — South Africa, Namibia, Angola, Congo, Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau, and Cape Verde, along the west-African coast by ship. A coastline most travelers never touch, and our most unusual month of travel so far.

Day 1 — Cape Town. We got in a night early and stayed at the Belmond Mount Nelson. The breakfast buffet is what dreams are made of. Hailey ran around the V&A Waterfront picking up months’ worth of supplies — vitamins, On Cloud shoes, hair products, pajamas. Boarded the ship. Unpacking into a real closet for the first time in three years was its own event.

Langebaan, South Africa. Biked ~13 miles around the West Coast Peninsula — Geelbek to Stofbergsfontein, Farm 375, Lot OPGR. We started as a group of sixty; fewer than ten made it to the finish. Quiet luxury-escape town. Sore the next day.

Luderitz, Namibia. Walked around the ghost town of Kolmanskop looking for diamonds. Parts of Fallout were filmed here.

Walvis Bay, Namibia. Prop plane out of Swakopmund over the sand dunes and along the coast — seals, shipwrecks, flamingos. Max was wedged in the back with his phone dropped between the seats before takeoff, so no photos. Desert tent dinner that night with a dance performance. Next day: Dune 7 for the Walvis Bay overlook (Dune was filmed around here) and two jackals. Rode with Melanie and Kerry from Texas.

Namibe, Angola. City tour to the naval building, then out into the desert to see the endemic Welwitchsia plant (male and female), then to Tombua for rock arches and formations. Local women greeted us on the beach, some topless in traditional dress, singing and dancing.

Luanda, Angola. Old military fort, then the Slavery Museum at Benfica. Bought a wooden mask at the local market; Max made friends with a few locals walking around drinking beers asking for dollars. Security flooded the area as we left — the president was passing through. Viana for the tricolor karst at Miradouro da Lua, lunch at Kwanza Lounge on the lake. Portuguese alongside the local language.

Pointe-Noire, Congo. Realizing you’re in Congo is an event in itself. Two-hour drive to the Kouilou River, another two hours by boat into the bush — refueling with a spare tank midway — and then thirty minutes with chimpanzees on an island as local caretakers fed them fruit. One backflip, one clap for more food, a few spats. Streets felt rougher here; our police escort may or may not have been the best way to move around.

Lomé, Togo. Armed with turkey sandwiches and peanut butter English muffins, we toured four villages practicing Vodun. Dancing with the local kids was the highlight — one five-year-old guided us through his village wearing only white underpants. Then the fetish market — owl carcasses, warthog heads, anything a Vodun ritual might need. Mostly children running the stalls in the morning. Hailey played foosball in the street with Gracia and Augustine.

Takoradi and Accra, Ghana. Arrived over Easter weekend; locals gathered under tents in white marching to worship. Canopy walk at Kakum National Park. The highlight was Elmina Castle — surreal to stand in the place slaves were held and shipped to the Americas. Max made a friend with a Rastafarian local who carved a seashell with his name on it; we bought it for five dollars. In Accra: a morning hike, a visit to a glass-bead bracelet maker (Hailey bought one in every color), and lunch at the Royal Senchi — the nicest thing we’d seen in any African country on this trip.

Abidjan, Ivory Coast. National park hike. The roads were bad after rain so the buses couldn’t get close to the trailheads; we walked in. Short stop. Hailey sang Patsy Cline’s “Crazy” at karaoke that night.

Tokeh and Freetown, Sierra Leone. Dropped off the zodiac into what turned out to be a very busy local beach. Local life on full display — two men playing a chess/checkers variant, others weaving fishing nets, kids playing soccer on the sand, more men building boats. It was Sierra Leone’s Independence Day. A three-year-old shrieked in terror seeing an older white man for the first time. The blue Baptist church was packed, music pouring through the windows. That afternoon, a soccer match organized for us by The Flying Stars — amputee survivors of the civil war. Freetown the next day: a chimpanzee sanctuary, and fresh banana bread that almost stole the show.

Bijagós, Guinea-Bissau. The best time we had with locals on the trip. Kids followed us through the village the entire walk. Kids were touching Hailey’s legs as if they’d never felt fat before. On the way back, fifteen kids ran up to our zodiac with pure excitement. The next stop was another village with a beach resort — lunch, a swim, kids doing backflips on the beach. Portuguese and some French.

Praia and Porto Novo, Cape Verde. Grogue distillery visit, bought a few bottles. Hailey learned Mahjong with Carie, Brie, and Melanie on sea days. Dolphin and flying-fish sightings off the boat always caused a stir. Karaoke, 4pm trivia, evening music trivia. Chess with Max after trivia was the routine.