Angola is great. And has the potential to become one of the tourist hot spots of the next few years.

We didn't really know what to expect because all the travel guides we could look at were ancient or had left out Angola.

It was not until 2002 that the civil war was declared over after 27 years. It is estimated that around 500,000 people died and 2.5 million were displaced. The war must have had devastating effects on the infrastructure in large parts of the country. There are still areas today where there are warnings about mines, which is primarily a problem for agriculture.

For us, Angola is peaceful and the people are friendly. The relationship with the former colonial power Portugal seems relaxed; we meet many people with dual citizenship.

Angola benefits from its oil reserves and diamond mining. But, like almost everywhere in West Africa, the contrasts are enormous.

Luanda has around 6 million inhabitants and is currently the most expensive city in the world for expats in terms of cost of living, ahead of Hong Kong, Tokyo and Zurich.

We see a modern skyline, palm groves, quasi-colonial magnificent buildings and expensive cars. We see rubbish dumps spilling down hillsides, tin shacks, slum alleys filled with rainwater from the last few days. We see people in fancy suits and people collecting whatever from the ditch.

The north is very poor. Ancient trucks, hardly any private cars, little traffic at all. The familiar meager menu of bananas, roots and potatoes. Sometimes avocados or passion fruit.

The cities of Lobito, Benguela and Namibe in the west as well as Lubango, however, seem to be prospering. The range of goods on offer is clearly western. As in the Cabinda enclave, everything makes a well-organized and tidy impression. And there is such a thing as a service and service idea. Somehow no longer the West Africa of the last few months

Near Luanda we find the first real campsite since Senegal. Everything is intact, everything works, everything has been thought of – an almost paradisiacal place. The electricity in Luanda (and therefore also in the Kakuakos Lodge) is only switched off during thunderstorms so that people in the slums do not die of electric shocks in the puddles. This is the Africa of the last few months again: you find a solution without eliminating the cause of an evil.

But we enjoy fantastic landscapes. We can't travel all the routes because it's still the rainy season, but the rain also causes enormous amounts of water to rush down the Calandula Falls. We cross low mountain landscapes that are presented in every conceivable shade of green. We visit great stone formations with the Black Rocks in the north and the Colinas in the south. The latter, like the Miradouro da Lua near Luanda, look like small versions of the American canyons. We enjoy a few days on a beautiful beach in Lobito and recover from a corona infection; yes, actually, no malaria, no dengue, just the stupid Covid virus. And in the southwest of Angola we find ourselves in a magical desert landscape that is reminiscent of Namibia but is different.

We really liked Angola! Maybe we'll come back here again.