The country with incredible natural wonders that almost no one has seen

CNN

3 days ago

After decades largely cut off from the world, Angola's natural wonders are again ready for discovery. The southern African country is twice the size of Texas, and the roads and accommodation that will allow more tourists to explore the interior are just getting into place.
But even a short drive from the capital city Luanda takes you to beaches, cliffs and national parks where you'll often feel like the only visitor there.
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Much of Luanda's growth has pushed to the south. The posh, Brazilian-style suburb of Talatona sprawls with designer shops and spas. Chinese companies built geometrically planned neighborhoods in nearby Kilamba, with identical apartment blocks evenly spaced apart.
But down the coast, the urban landscape suddenly ends and, about an hour later, opens up to a lunar landscape on the beach. Miradoura da Lua, or the Viewpoint of the Moon, is a region where oceanside cliffs have over eons worn away to reveal wavy rock formations underneath. It's like a landscape of stalagmites, but on a tropical beach instead of in a cave. The highest points nearest the cliffs are tinted with red earth, shifting through shades of white and gray to the blue waters of the Atlantic.
There's a small fee to enter the best viewing area, which has a raised viewing deck over a cafe and a small craft market. The cafe has a Biblioteca Fresca, or a Cool Library. Like a Free Little Library, it houses books, but is set inside a rebranded, busted refrigerator. If you donate a book, the cafe will give you a free drink.
Just 15 kilometers (nine miles) down the coast is a gate to Quiçama National Park. Five decades of war, from a 1950s rebellion against colonial rule to the 1990s civil conflict, decimated the wildlife. Thanks to steady efforts to repopulate the park, giraffes, elephants and other large animals once again roam — but don't expect the massive herds famous in better-known safari destinations.
'The combination of untouched nature, easy access and an authentic wildlife experience makes Quiçama an appealing destination,' said Lourena Lourenço Panzo, a guide from Lelutour, one of the new companies that has sprung up to cater to overseas travelers.
The park covers three million acres, and the interior is far less accessible. Animals and people live in a different balance than in Africa's better-known parks. During the war years, people hunted the animals because they needed the meat to survive. In some cases, people moved onto park lands, because the boundaries weren't marked, or because landmines covered so much of the country. It's only in recent years that efforts have really taken off to explain to communities how they can benefit from tourism and conservation efforts.
That also means that when you do spot animals, you'll probably get to experience the sighting alone, without the hordes of safari trucks that can fill the famous parks in East and Southern Africa.
A short drive farther south, the long, golden beaches at Cabo Ledo are the new secret surf spot. They were never secret to Feliesiano Dinis Muteca, who's been surfing there since he was 10. Now 22, he's a certified instructor at the beach now known simply as Praia dos Surfistas.
'Many foreigners come here to learn from us. We give lessons to everyone,' he said. 'We have other colleagues who also make cabanas and help customers take things from the park to the beach.'
Angola now has an accreditation body for instructors like Muteca. And now that the country has removed visa requirements for dozens of countries, more surfers are discovering these beaches, where Muteca and his friends have set up simple cabanas on the water. The nearby Carpe Diem Resort offers accommodation with a bar and restaurant. It also operates a larger resort on a nearby beach with cabins and sweeping ocean views from their bar and daybeds.
More land is already being cleared to expand the tourism options around Cabo Ledo, so the relative isolation may not last.
Deeper in the interior, in Malanje province, towering stone monoliths jut out of the highlands at Pungo Andongo. The Pedras Negras, or Black Rocks, are famed for their natural beauty, but also as one of the last holdouts against Portuguese colonizers in the 1600s. Queen Nzinga ruled this area, and led fierce resistance against the Europeans as the slave trade was expanding. Interest in her story has grown in recent years, with a monument in a Luanda plaza and a Netflix documentary about her life.
The rocks formed a natural protection for the population, though ultimately that wasn't enough to keep the Portuguese out. Footprints in the rocks are said to belong to the queen, a dramatic testament to her power.
From there it's a short journey to Kalandula Falls, one of the biggest in Africa. The falls also have a spiritual significance, made more powerful by their remoteness. During the wet season, the mist billows from the basin, though the flow is strong most of the year.
It's hard to say 'intrepid traveler' without irony, but that's literally what you need to be to explore Angola's interior. Without many services or infrastructure, traveling to Angola's provinces means seeing places that few people alive have explored. That's changing, with tour companies starting to offer a variety of overland packages. Luxury travel companies like Roads & Kingdoms are offering gourmet food tours of the interior, accompanied by a top Angolan chef.
'When people envision tourism in Africa, thoughts tend to go towards safaris and game hunting and animals in plains,' said writer Claudio Silva, who led R&K's first Angolan tour. 'Very little thought is given to the deep cultural heritage of our countries, or the food we eat, or our dreams and aspirations.'
Once abandoned farmlands are being revived, including new winemakers and restored coffee plantations. These organized trips also include stops in villages for goat roasted the traditional way over an open fire, and fresh produce that was almost impossible to grow even a decade ago.
Vintage train operator Rovos Rail offers trips through the interior (think Orient Express stylings in the bush) that can run from the Tanzanian capital Dar es Salaam to Lobito, Angola. It also offers a shorter outing from Zambia to Lobito.
Iona National Park is part of a vast transfrontier park that connects Angola and Namibia, with landscapes from the Namib Desert to the Kunene River Delta. The first tented camp is expected to open to tourists later in 2025, said Pedro Monterroso, a park manager with African Parks, the nonprofit that Angola has contracted to manage Iona. Visitors can still travel there, but they have to be completely self-sufficient.
'It's just that sense of vastness, the exclusivity, the impactful landscapes, because it has so many different landscapes that change every time you go over a ridge,' he said. 'That's the feeling that you have in Iona, that you have the park to yourself. It's a different kind of experience, a different kind of connection with the environment, with the landscape, with nature.'