Cabo Ledo

Cabo Ledo is on the Angolan coast about two hours south of Luanda, a bay under low red cliffs with a point at its northern end that produces a long left-hand wave.

The wave is the record. It is a sand-bottom point break that on a good swell runs for several hundred metres, and by the standards of anywhere else in the world it would be crowded. Angola was closed to independent tourism for decades — the civil war ended in 2002 and visas remained difficult until a reform in 2018 — so it has been surfed by a small number of people and remains close to empty. The country has hosted a professional longboard event here.

The water is warm at this latitude, warmer than the Benguela-cooled coast further south, and the bay is sheltered enough for straightforward swimming when the swell is small. The cliffs behind are red laterite and the beach is broad and pale. There is a fishing community at the southern end. The bay faces north-west, which is why it holds swell that the rest of this coast lets past.

Development is a handful of lodges and a campsite, and Angolan visitors from Luanda at weekends. Infrastructure across the country is limited and expensive, and Luanda is regularly ranked among the most expensive cities in the world for expatriates — which is a fact about the oil economy rather than about the beach. Sangano and Palmeirinhas closer to Luanda are where the city goes at weekends, and the Miradouro da Lua, a badlands viewpoint on the road down, is the standard stop.

A left point that runs for hundreds of metres and would be crowded anywhere else. Angola was closed to independent travel until a visa reform in 2018, which is the whole reason it is not. Two hours from Luanda, warm water, a fishing village at the southern end, and entry rules that have changed several times and should be checked.