Kalandula Waterfalls & Pedras Negras

During a school break, we venture to the Kalandula waterfalls which are supposed to be Africa's second or third largest waterfalls, with Victoria falls in Zimbabwe being the largest. There are some beautiful rock formations nearby as well, so we plan an overnight trip.

We head east out of town, and as in any outing, getting out of town is the worst part of the trip, unless you get stuck behind a convoy of dump trucks on the curvy, two-lane highway as we did. Thankfully, the convoy leaves us as they enter this huge construction complex with Chinese writing. The Chinese are very present in Angola constructing highways, roads, buildings and are involved in just about any project imaginable.

At this point, we have been driving about 1 1/2 hours and the landscape has already changed from arid to more verdant, and as we proceed, it becomes lush and green. We decide to stay in the actual little town of Kalandula where there is only one hotel to be found. This hotel is a combination of an older building, which has an old world feel to it with a huge swimming pool and small bunker-like trailers that were probably left behind by some organization that worked in Angola possibly during the civil war or soon after its end. These trailers have been added on to the side of the hotel as additional rooms.

The bunker rooms are clean and not so bad, but they do have the hardest beds ever. Again, don't even get me started on what we paid which was absolutely ridiculous, and for that, we will not be back.

After check in, we head to Pedras Negras (Black Rocks) at Pungo Adongo. These are majestic rock formations that seem to magically appear on the relatively flat horizon. We drive up to the entrance of the path that leads to their tops.

Steps leading to path

It is an easy climb and the views are beautiful, so different from any of the landscape we have experienced in Angola so far. We can see the village school and we are joined on our walk by three kids. The oldest one tells us a bit about the village, the school and how they love to play basketball. Angola won the African basketball championships in 2013 against Egypt, something they are very proud about.

The school in the center

After taking in the sights, we head down and decide that it is early enough to go to the waterfalls. The drive is pleasant and takes us through small villages which are filled with goats. On the weekends, we always smell barbecues and now I know where some of the meat comes from!

The mango trees are just full of fruit and the fields are lush and green as we make our way to the falls.

When we arrive, the parking area around the falls is relatively full of cars and people are grilling on the side of the road. Ice cold beers are sold at stands everywhere in Angola, one of the cheapest commodities here at $1.00 per can for the national brands. Families are enjoying the day and as we get closer to the falls, people are dipping in the pool formations of the river. 

The falls are beautiful!

On the other side of the river, a ways off, you can see an abandoned hotel and we decide to take a ride there to have another view of the falls.

Can you see the abandoned hotel at the top right?

We ride through more villages and at one, it looks like the inhabitants have managed to get solar paneled light posts. If indeed, they are solar paneled, it is an innovative idea that would allow people in remote areas without electricity to perhaps feel safer and provide a way for socializing after the sun goes down.

The tiny orange structure at top left of the falls is where I took pictures from the other side, just to give you and idea of the size!

A really enjoyable outing. Angola is enormous and we still have much to see, but we do need several days to get to some of the places we would like to visit.