Just to finish the story of that trip.....about 100 miles west of Loudima, we came to an uphill in the road....scrub countryside....light failing. Following the dust track up the hill the Land Cruiser came to a sudden halt. Turned out timber trucks had cut foot deep ruts in the surface of the road...dust filled the tracks..the LC was sitting with both transfer cases on clay hardened to virtual cement while all four wheel spun in free space....occupied only by powder dust. It was impossible to get off. I had a winch...no tree was nearer that 400 yards away. Dusk was coming on...somewhere drums were beating. The NYC guy said, "We've made it! We are right in the middle of no-where!")
In the gloaming though I thought I saw a white something about 400 yards up the hill. I walked the hill and there was a White 1960 DeSoto Convertible...all 18' of it, with two White guys in it. Turns out they were Angolans from Cabinda. We pushed the DeSoto down to the LC thinking I could use its 4500 lbs of weight to get purchase for the winch. Nothing doing. So they piled (stinking) into the LC and promptly began drinking the cold beer from the ice chest.
About 2300 hrs a timber truck came by and pulled us out. I towed the DeSoto about 10 miles to the railhead where the Angolans left us. A memory of Africa.
Oh wait, on a subsequent trip I was arrested by the Communist boss of Pointe Noire and held for 6 hours.... And then there were the road blocks with the AK's shoved in your face...oh well (I always carried packs of cigarettes for such contingenices).
