Day 195 - Tues 13th April, 16105km, Lubango, Angola

Keen to check out some of the local sights and offered help by the brewery to try one last time to sort out my visa I ended up spending a fun day chilling in Lubango. Starting early this morning I went on a spectacular 20k run up to the Tunda-Vala gorge cut into the Chela escarpment which plunges 1000m to the green valleys below. At 2100m it was some cracking training and well worth it for the breath taking views. Picked up by Fred and Carla’s son Corey, who generously offered to be my guide for the day I was later taken to the equally stunning Serra da Leba pass, a 1000m descent of hairpin bends which I would have loved to have let bertha loose on!

Having failed once again on the visa front the irony is that, in giving me only a five day transit visa, I have been forced to stay far longer in Angola than planned thanks to the delays caused by visa extension bureaucracy. In hindsight the mystery document, circulated to check-points, that provided us with a free night sleeping at the police station in Sumbe and which I hoped would guarantee my passage to the border, was almost certainly referring to Australian cyclist Kate and her support crew (www.btcycle.com) who have some very high profile government contacts. Still I’ll continue to ride my luck and find out my fate at the border in a few days.