"Cabana Boy's Cabinda Page " a Provincia de Cabinda Travel Page by Cabana_Boy

Surrounded by the Democratic Republic of Congo and the smaller country of Congo, Cabinda is a small Angolan province entirely cutoff from the rest of its country. For me, this trip was to be just another stop along the "patch" in West Africa.

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People frantically loading their luggage...

Load your own freakin' bag...

After working my way through the domestic airport down in Luanda (which was an adventure in and of itself) and a surprisingly short wait in the airport lounge, we were brought out on the tarmac to point out and load our own luggage onto the plane for the roughly 70 minute flight up to Cabinda... I settled back into my seat aboard the old Boeing 727 airplane operated by Sonair, Angola's version of a government owned-operated airline.

Now, by this time in my life I have far gotten over any worries about flying; however, stepping aboard that Sonair jet brought some of those concerns back. After all, this was my first flight on true locally owned and operated (read maintained) African jet.

All of my questions (and worries) were about to be answered in the next 70 or so odd minutes!!! There's nothing quite like a little adrenaline to hone the senses, eh!!!

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Waves crashing onto the beaches of Malongo...

My first helicopter ride...

The flight was a bit shaky, but not entirely bad and just when I thought all would be alright, we started our descent into Cabinda; however, the pilot did not seem to be slowing the airplane down much at all... After compensating for a bit of cross air wind, the plane slams down on the runway with a loud bang, which left many of us wandering whether the landing gear would hold out!!! And then there was the seemingly lack of braking action that left many of us wandering how long the runway was!!! But alas, I am still here and survived to write this...

Upon de-planing, I noticed a few airline personnel inspecting the landing gear as I collected my baggage from the cargo hold to prepare for my next mode of transportation: a helicopter to the military style oil base of Malongo...