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“Operation 53” – Day 6 Wild Camp Stuck-in-Mud to Wild

Camp Cahama (Tuesday 10 March 2015)

1 The Planned Route At this point we should have been up along the west side of southern Angola, and the delays were starting to catch up. As per original plan, we were to travel from Tombua to Sekelduin, a distance of 51.3km.

2 The Actual Route This took us from our wild camp along the mud track to a borrow pit between Cahama and Lubango, as distance of 230km, taking a total of 11 hours and nine minutes – a very long day, and relieved to be out of the mud!

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Photo 1: The locals who assisted finding Ratel 72, were recruited to get us out of the sticky situation - R 50.00 each and this was well spent.

Photo 2: Casspir making it out of the black cotton soil.

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Photo 3: Time to clean up.

Photo 4: Unpacking to dry the tents and asses the situation.

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Photo 5: Mud, mud, everywhere...

Photo 6: Jan taking a breather - still exporting the black cotton soil.

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Photo 7: Attie and Andre savouring the moment.

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Photo 10: Jan putting his feet up and having a power nap.

Photo 8: Jan's boots in need of a bit of polish. Photo 9: Best place to transport the boots.

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Photo 11: Assisting a truck which got stuck in the sand, just off the road.

Photo 12: The first relic to be spotted in shona.

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Photo 13: Russian recovery tank in a borrow pit on the outskirts of Xangongo.

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Photo 14: If only I could weld like that!

Photo 15: Many of the baobabs could be seen from the road.

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Photo 16: Buying pau in Xangongo.

Photo 17: The Cahama Mirage monument.

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Photo 18: Our camping site in a borrow pit on the way to Cahama.