Choosing a bicycle as vehicle for your overlanding trip is already adventurous. Bikepacking Angola is even bolder. Doing so as an amputee cyclist further amps up the challenge, but Stephen Drew wouldn’t have it any other way.

Having one leg amputated in 2016 hasn’t curtailed Stephen Drew’s spirit for adventure one bit. Once fitted with a prosthetic leg, he quickly got back to mountain biking. In 2023, he rode from Windhoek to Knysna with good friend Willy Alcock, following remote gravel roads. Last year they cycled around Lake Kariba, through parts of Zimbabwe and Zambia where few people venture. For 2025, Stephen set his sights on a country that not many overlanders explore. But bikepacking Angola, again accompanied by Willy, convinced him that more people should see this country. Tracks4Africa asked Stephen about his trip in July and August 2025. 

How did your route come together?

I found very little information about Angola online. Tourism offerings are practically non-existent, so that made it more appealing. I love doing research ahead of a trip and that’s why I love the Tracks4Africa Trip Planner and Guide App. Because you can play around and find different routes. I also spoke to a few people who have experience of the country. In Knysna, where I live, there is a company that has built timber homes in Angola and I have a school friend who lived in Luanda. We got a whole lot of advice but, ultimately, Willy and I made our own decision.

Our plan was to ride from Angola’s capital, Luanda, down to Swakopmund, crossing into Namibia at the Ruacana Border Post. Whereas in Namibia there are a lot of roads, including a big network of good gravel roads, in Angola there are really two major routes. On tar you can go along the coast or down the centre. There are also gravel roads, but not many of them connect to one another.

 For the first leg, we followed the coastal route, passing through Benguela and heading towards Namibe. I wanted to do the Serra da Leba Pass and there was a good approach from the coast, so that decided it. From Namibe, our route headed inland towards Lubango, over the Serra da Leba Pass and then south through Cahama. Then, from Xangongo, we followed the Cunene River to the Namibian border. Our whole trip took 24 days and covered over 2,200km, of which 1,400km in Angola. The greatest distance in a single day was 135km; we averaged 100km a day.

What were the roads like?

Angola consists of a large central plateau that drops down to a coastal plain. A multitude of rivers feed towards the coastline, so the plateau is carved up by hundreds of valleys. Although we were on the coastal road, we were riding at about 500m above sea level. Every time we came to a valley, we’d have to ride down one side, over the river and up the other side. And the roads were steep, probably a 16% gradient – we did an incredible amount of climbing.

Along the coast, the roads were better than I expected. There are a lot of good tar roads in Angola; the Chinese have been busy. Elsewhere, there are potholes in places but, as a cyclist, I didn’t mind. Trucks and cars go slower along potholed roads, so I actually felt safer.

There are thousands of motorbike taxis in Angola and where a road has become impassable, they’ve created singletrack around the obstacle. They simply go across the sand or into the bush and make their own way. So there’s an impressive web of motorbike tracks away from the tar.

What were your impressions of Angola?

Along the coast, it was always misty in the morning, so we’d get going without seeing the sun. Yet, by 11:00 the mist would burn off and then in the afternoon the wind would pick up. In the interior, we had beautiful African sunrises and clear blue sky. It was drier and the temperatures were more extreme. One morning we recorded -5°C at sunrise (it was midwinter, after all), but later it was up to 30°C. The highlands of the interior and the coastal plain are really two different worlds. Inland, we had beautiful blue sky over baobabs; along the coast, it was misty and overcast. The coastal region itself also had different environments. The north was quite tropical whereas south of Benguela it was more desert-like.

How did you handle resupply on your trip?

Our main concern was water. The water infrastructure in Angola isn’t well developed and many places don’t have running water. In fact, water-borne diseases are a major problem, so we took water filters along. But we discovered that there’s bottled water available everywhere. Even a tiny shack-type store will sell bottled water and, thanks to solar power, it’s perfectly chilled. At once stage we carried a lot of water on the bike, expecting not to get it, but we had no problem. I’d say within a 60km radius we always found water.

We passed a lot of little co-ops where people are growing food and I was impressed with the bounty of fresh produce. In the tropical parts, there were pawpaws, bananas and really brilliant avocados. Every little village also seems to have a bakery. Because of the Portuguese heritage, you will find fresh white rolls rather than loaves of bread. So we ate a lot of avo on rolls. 

Something other travellers should know is that fresh produce is sold in bulk. You can’t just buy one or two bananas. Because the price is low, we’d buy a whole head of bananas, then take just a few. But the people are so honourable, they wouldn’t want us to leave the rest behind since we’d paid for it. We solved it by giving the fruit to kids hanging around. We always attracted a lot of kids because they were fascinated by my artificial leg.

What were the people like?

We found the culture extremely diverse, ranging from the Himba in traditional wear to people in Western clothes. Every province has its own administration and they’re all different. Every couple of days we’d go through a different administrative region and the whole feel would be different.

On the whole, people were quite reserved, especially in the north. Although they didn’t smile, they were incredibly genuine and hospitable. Several times we’d want to buy water and they wouldn’t let us pay. Or we’d ask someone if we could camp in their yard and they’d find us a building to sleep in. In Benguela province, the assistant administrator of the province spotted us outside Lobito and insisted on a police escort. So we had an escort with sirens and all guiding us the 40km to Benguela. The people of Angola really went out of their way for us. 

One of the things I enjoyed about the country is that I don’t speak Portuguese. As a result, I had wonderful engagements with people while trying to make myself understood. I also used the Google Translate app, downloading the Portuguese-English version for offline use, so I could record someone to find out what they were saying. Some of the translations were interesting! One dish was translated as ‘reindeer potato stew’ – I don’t know what the ‘reindeer’ was, but the stew was tasty.

What moments stand out from your trip?

We expected the Serra da Leba Pass to be a highlight, but on the day, neither of us was feeling well. It was 37°C and the pass climbs 1,500m over 24km. It’s tough! We didn’t stop much, because the viewpoints were overrun by kids demanding sweets. So we ended up riding just to get to the top, which was a bit of a disappointment. But the next day we had one of the best days in Angola.

We decided to bypass Lubango and take gravel roads to Chibia. I had taken a look at the Tracks4Africa Guide App and found a gravel track that we could take. But we turned off too soon and ended up on a road that reached a dead end. We realised we weren’t where we were meant to be. Through the translation app, we asked a man on a motorbike for directions and he told us to follow him. For an hour and a half we followed him through the bush. We were riding on roads that were non-existent, just motorbike tracks really. Eventually our paths separated and he pointed us in the right direction.

There was a network of singletrack going left and right all over the place. We’d follow a motorbike track down a rocky downhill, thinking it couldn’t possibly be a road, and then suddenly it would open up. We felt like proper explorers. We were completely off the beaten path and it was fun to make our own way. Every now and then we’d look on the Tracks4Africa Guide App to see where we were and then follow any track leading in the right direction. That’s what’s nice about the app: it shows you where you are and it’s very accurate. What I also enjoy is that you don’t have to be online to use it.

 

Why would you recommend bikepacking Angola?

Angola is not yet a tourist destination. There aren’t many formal campgrounds, so you end up wild camping. You’re out in nature all day and in Angola the birdlife is incredible. In the north, especially, it was like riding in an aviary. And everywhere we went, we saw hundreds and hundreds of little white butterflies. And finally, it’s like going on a retreat, no news or TV for a month. You feel so healthy when you finish – you’ve cleansed your system and your mind. 

Need maps for an Angolan adventure? Our Angola GPS mapset offers detailed coverage and is a routable map. Buy it individually as a downloadable map or as part of the Complete Garmin GPS Mapset, also available on SD Card. The Traveller’s Atlas Southern Africa includes 1:1m maps for Angola, along with country-specific information on legal requirements for your vehicle.