Cabo Ledo Beach - Updated with Pictures!

As you may have noticed, trash is a considerable problem in Luanda. There is garbage everywhere. When it rains, it floats down from the hills into the ocean, which bolsters the already-litter-laden coastline. When the tide is high, garbage floats in the tiny bay near our office, having picked it up from the edges of the shore on which it rests while the tide is low.

There are some campaigns stating Lixo no Chao, Nao! Which translates to trash on the ground, no! But daily, we witness the average Luandan, tossing whatever is in their hand on the ground beside them. Even though receptacles are near by, they aren't what I would call diligently used.

So this doesn't really make swimming all that appealing, let alone a day at the beach. This, along with the fact that the only thing close to a beach, the Ilha, has become a bit of a poaching ground for ex-pats by armed thieves, so we aren't going there.

Enter Cabo Ledo.... Down the coast, south about 120 kms, lays a pristine beach, with a few miles of sandy beach, no rocks in the ocean, clear water, and little shaded areas that are manned by a local gang of guys making a buck on parking and shade.

We left our home at 7:30, as a caravan of six cars, and we arrived around 10:00. We drove down to the Cuanza River, past the golf course, Mangais, and then paid the toll to cross the bridge to the next province.

The Imbondeiro or Baobob Tree - these trees have huge trunks, and I think they are the national tree of Angola. Certainly famous in Malongo at Trig's Place.

The sun was coming up over the water when Paul caught this picture as we drove down the coast.

I talked about the road down the Cuanza before - it is a fantastic road with curves and hills, and I wish I had a road bike with no traffic - what a great ride.

More road - we all have little SUVs - ours is brown, but looks just like this one in front of us - we were quite the little caravan with six vehicles going down the road.

This is a typical store front where someone sells a few cans of pop, etc. by the afternoon when we returned, that place was bumpin'

Here are a few rapazes just hanging out with their motos right before the toll bridge to the other side of the Cuanza. the Sonangol logo is right above the Castrol sign. Note the size of the Imbondeiro!

 Right before the bridge is one of the lasting signs that there was a war here just a few years ago. A rusted out tank, no larger than a mid-sized SUV was stuck in the mud at the bank of the river, by the bridge deck. That is the closest the war came to Luanda. But its effects are notable across the country, I hear.

So onward to Cabo Ledo. The ocean is walled by sea cliffs in most cases, but about 45 minutes after the Cuanza, we turn off to see a low plane with a beautiful beach. We drive down, the dirt road, and suddenly the drivers start to almost rally, very subtly getting in front of each other, choosing different paths on the dirt road to navigate, and as I make the comment aloud to note the scenario, Emiquilson responds, sort of chuckling - "sim, rrrally." The international word for off road racing is confirmed.

Paul is bummed that he had the wrong lens on the camera, but you still get to see the idea. This thing was fixed on the north side of the river facing south. Just in case someone crossed the Cuanza, I guess.

The river itself is quite wide and has about 100 meters of  jungle that runs right up to it - I'm sure it's thicker than this in less populated areas - Emiquilson said"there are beijos in there" he  then referenced cobras, macacas (monkeys), crocodiles, mambas, etc. That qualifies as "beasts in the forest" to me.

Right after the jungle, there was a mile or two of open plane - and a sandy marsh area where we saw a few flamingoes - but they weren't pink - I guess they hadn't included camaraons (shrimp) in their daily regimen. From here we are about 40 minutes to the beach.

Rrrrrrrallly. 

This is a good view of our caravan and the first view we have of the beach - the drivers like going to Cabo Ledo because close by there is a restaurant that serves really good "funge" which is like gelatinous grits - made with either corn or cassava, which is powdered up and then cooked into the funge.

We set up under one of the little shaded areas - made of sticks and sea grass, and go to explore the ocean, which apparently is cold right now, but feels great. Some people are surfing on some beginner waves, some others went around the corner of the coast line to seek bigger surfs.

I notice that there are mussel shells on the beach, and start to wonder where I might be able to find some. Look no further, there is a guy sitting with a bucket between his legs, cleaning mussels. How much? $20 for the full 5-gallon bucket. That is a lot of mussels - so we split the purchase among three families and bring them home. They were quite good - had a little bit more beard that I would like, but good, none the less.

Paul and I walked down the coastline for some time, And on some of the cliff rocks, where the tide must have risen to, were thousands of mussels, not all ready, by any means, but it was clear that there was a readily available stash nice and close, which reinforced my confidence that the mussels we purchased were good.

The clouds burned off within 10 to 20 minutes of us arriving

A little marsh before the beach - reminded me of Crescent - obviously, when the tides are high this gets some water in it.

The beach stretches around the rock for another mile or so - apparently there are some restaurants down there, but they aren't winning awards for food quality. I'll stick to my mussels.

We set up a chair and snagged a bit of shade - you can see how rustic the cover is, but it's well-maintained by the parking lot/shade gang.

These are the rocks in the other direction - we walked around to find all sorts of surfers catching larger waves and I saw where my mussels came from.

Full view.... we are set up behind the rocks on the right about 200 meters farther

All mussels on that rock - with a bit of seaweed, which also looked appetizing. I'm weird.

Paul had to pretend he was taking pictures of all sorts of things to make it look like he wasn't the creepy guy taking pictures of little kids.  Thiis super cute kiddo was running all over the place. 

Later in the day when I went in the water, I noticed it wasn't very smooth... the reason being that a school of fish was just hanging out in waist deep water, about five to ten meters from shore, relatively unafraid of the humans hanging around with them. They would jump up, sometimes float an eye to the surface to see what was going on. Large waves would come in, but they never crashed into me with them, so they obviously had some method for staying just out of reach.

At least out of our reach... within 20 minutes of seeing the fish, on the horizon, about 200 meters out, we saw a pack of dolphins swimming, jumping, and bobbing through the bay, making a splash, and probably finding a fish or two to munch on along the way. Not a bad way to end the day.

As we left, the gang of boys hit everyone up for the shade and the parking. The shade, for over a dozen people, was about $3 a head, and the parking was $3 per car. Some people are more receptive than others to pay. Oddly, when one of the boys asked if I already bought the mussels, and I said yes, he let me go, and wasn't bothering us at all for parking. Maybe mussels include free parking.

We drove back, we continued to notice the amount of trash around the inhabited areas. Cabo Ledo is far enough that most Luandans, and Angolans, don't have an interest in going, and it is pristine. We speculated whether it would remain that way if more local people populated it. We would hope so... just as we said that, the car in front of us tossed a couple cans out on the road... that might be a long journey.

I came home, heated up some garlic, tomatoes, red pepper flakes and parsley in butter and olive oil, added some white wine, and steamed up some mussels for an early dinner.... Delicious.