African Cup of Nations - blog

Sunny breakfast travel planning

by Paul Myers

Article published on the 2010-01-21 Latest update 2010-01-21 13:21 TU

Children pose for a photo in Lubango
(Photo: Reuters)

Let us bring offerings to the lord of the dance, for we have sunshine! Well, I won’t actually start gyrating or anything like that (besides, the locals would probably put me to shame), but three days into my time in Lubango and there’s a very good chance of using my sunglasses.

The signs were good on Wednesday night. A few colleagues and myself were returning to the hotel from the café-cum-brasserie that has become our canteen when one of them remarked on the stars in the sky.

I looked uip and was just about to burst into the Don McLean song Starry, starry night…. but decided that I might be gunned down as a public nuisance by the hordes of police that circulate of an evening.

Our hotel is far from five-star. But despite the odd electricity cut, water shortage and internet breakdown, it is passable. And having breakfast when the sun is shining is always a jolly way to start the day.

While tucking into his toast, my colleague Eric was chewing over changing his plane ticket. Rather than going to Luanda from Lubango, he thinks it might be better to go to Benguela to cover the semi-final and the third place playoff match.

I told him that he wouldn’t regret heading for a place renowned for its beaches, bananas and babes.

“What are you going to do in Luanda?” he inquired.

“The-semi final and final,” I replied.

For the last Group A match between Angola and Algeria, it took the RFI team just under four hours by car to travel the 18 kilometres from their hotel in Luanda to the national stadium. But at least that’s on terra firma.

The prospect of flying from Lubango to Benguela and then ultimately from Benguela to Luanda makes that journey to the national stadium look like a folk dance.