Enter the Kill Zone

Let’s get one thing straight: the Doodsakker in Angola is a dangerous destination. Even experienced adventurers, like Johan Badenhorst’s Voetspore team, got into trouble when they got caught out by a high tide. So we strongly advise against taking on the Doodsakker by yourself, but we do encourage you to one day go up to Angola with friends and tackle this bull by the horns. Here’s what we experienced on the Doodsakker.

“DOODSAKKER” is an Afrikaans military term for a type of ambush in which an enemy is allowed to advance right up to concealed troops before being fired on from all sides – also known as a kill zone.

The first thing you need to ask yourself is whether you voluntarily want to enter this ambush, and then whether you want to drive it from top to bottom or the other way around. If you look at a roadmap, the route seems obvious: turn left toward the coast at the Ruacana border post in northern Namibia, follow a couple of turns until you reach the Kunene River mouth, and from here you simply shoot up to the Doodsakker.

This is, however, far easier said than done, as this route involves driving 420 km along a horrible rocky road – and there are no fuel stations or workshops along the way. In addition, you have to cross many rivers – which can be risky in the rare event of rain. Also, Angola is literally covered in landmines. There are more than half a million mines, in 1 200 minefields over an area of 100 million square meters that have yet to be disarmed – and many of these mines lie somewhere