Day 85 – 89… Monday 26th June to Friday 30th June
Awaiting car parts and cost involved. The repairs took longer then expected so we spent a few days relaxing in Lubango. The house battery is now fully restored so able to have hot drinks and dinner on the induction hob. Durran owns a couple of restaurants in town and we had lunch and/or dinner there. Duran and Hermond have 4 friendly dogs (an Azawakh Greyhound, a Labrador, American Boxer puppy and a rescued street dog called ‘Shoprite’) who were lively campsite companions. Took a walk to a viewing point on the hills looking out across the city. Also visited ‘Le Chalet’ for breakfast with Duran which was a lovely spot out of town with a view of the mountains.
Allen’s perspective…
Staying in Lubango worked out perfectly since we managed to have our host’s mechanic work on Greta to get her issue’s fixed, and as Toyota fans with several works vehicles we felt reassured that the work would be done properly. The mechanic arranged for expensive but genuine Toyota parts for the clutch and rear suspension, but it was a little painful waiting for him and his team to appear everyday to get things done. African time is a bit of a chore after a while.
After several days we managed to get the clutch properly fixed, with shards of metal (clutch pressure plate) removed which were the offending articles making the horrendous noise. And we got new rear leaf springs, with the old ones at the point of breaking. They did however point out holes in our chassis which are not good, but given they will have been with us all the way from England I thought it best to get that fixed in Cape Town. Plus, it’ll be easier discussing car issues in English than Portuguese.
