Camel Riders

Preparing for the Big Trip

2007-05-09T13:59:00.000+01:00

Since we returned to the UK in March we have been busy preparing the Landrover, ourselves and our paperwork, as well as trundling around the country staying with friends and family.

We are on schedule for leaving these shores around June the 26th. The current route planned involves driving through Europe to Poland and on to Baltic states and exiting Europe via Turkey. Through Syria and Jordan to the Arabian Peninsula. From Yemen we will ship to somewhere in Eastern Africa and then journey down to South Africa. After shipping to Perth we will spend a couple of months driving accross Australia before ending up back in Kiwi land.

Before we sail away we are planning to hang around a pub one Sunday afternoon, in London somewhere. We will let people know sooner to the date when we have sorted something out and we hope to see lots of friends and family there.

Radio with Pictures

2007-06-24T00:34:00.000+01:00

It feels a bit more like we are on our way now, or nearly anyway. The Land Rover is packed with pretty much everything we are taking, with a place for everything and everything in its place (much to Catkin's horror!). We are now in London with Rob, Ruth and Jasper, looking forward to our afternoon at the pub tomorrow. Hopefully some of our friends turn up to wish us well! Before leaving Catkin's home county of Buckinghamshire, we went to the orchard in Little Horwood, where we celebrated our wedding nearly three years ago, and took a few photos (see above).

We now have our visas for Syria, and all the others we can either get at the border or will get at embassies enroute. Our crate of spare parts is bulging at the seams, even more so after a visit to Frog's Island 4x4 on Thursday afternoon. Recovery gear is stowed in the hardest to get spot - hopefully we don't need to get to it very often. The toolbox is fully kitted out (or at least as fully kitted out as I can currently justify). We have whittled down our personal effects to just one crate and one small bag each (for a year!). The massive first aid kit is stocked to the satisfaction of a District Nurse with a healthy interest in Expedition Medicine. The kitchen and food crates look full already, but we still need to swing past Sainsbury's on Monday to do a proper shop and redeem our Nectar points. The fridge is up and running off it's own dedicated switch on the dashboard, and chills beer perfectly as we drive along, (as well as keeping the milk fresh for the weetbix in the morning). The custom-built water tank behind the rear wheel is full of 40L of fresh cool water ready to drink, thanks to our on-board pump and ceramic filter. We have so much fuel capacity (210L) that we can no longer afford to fill it up in the UK and are waiting until we get to France were we hope it is still a bit cheaper. And best of all we have nice loud airhorns to frighten the locals (although not as cool as the "Dukes of Hazzard" horns we had on the Mongol Rally last year!).

So as you can see, everything is well packed in the back. The Camel itself has benefitted from a change of all lubricants and filters - this was the last job done before departing from Kerswell Green on Wednesday - the official end of preparation, and beginning of the journey I suppose.

So, tomorrow at the pub to see friends and family, Monday to Kent, then across to France on Tuesday.

Leaving Britain

2007-06-26T10:26:00.000+01:00

Great day on Sunday. Camel clamped in Brixton on Monday! With Newmans last night. Now in Dover for ferry. Will try and post proper entry soon. Bye bye England!

Raining in Antwerp

2007-06-29T14:33:00.000+01:00

We both had a fantastic time on Sunday afternoon, catching up with lots of friends and family before our departure. Last to leave was Ben Griffiths at 10.30pm, showing that the Welsh really can foot it with the best. Unfortunately we didn´t win the pub quiz.

Little Jasper, our nephew and my Godson, was all dressed up in his best safari suit for the day.

As you saw from the text entry, we were clamped in Brixton on Monday! Expensive to release, so will have to shorten our trip by a month.

So far we´ve tootled around Belgium, drinking beer and admiring racing pigeons. Today we are in Antwerp, and yes, it is raining... Tomorrow we head to Delft to see Richard and Caroline, formerly of Queenstown.

No probs so far with the Land Rover, however had to go to the petrol station last night halfway through cooking risotto to get more petrol for the stove!

Sunshine in Luxembourg

2007-07-04T16:48:00.000+01:00

At last the sun has come out from behind the clouds this afternoon! Luxembourg is quite a dramatic city. Time running out on the internet so short and sweet! Heading further south tomorrow.

View from Bock Casemates, Luxembourg

We had a great time in and around Delft with Richard, Caroline, Christine and Francesca at the weekend, going for a cycle ride on Saturday and then to Zeelend on Sunday. In Zeeland there is a profusion of well preserved Dutch towns and villages which were quite impressive.

36 hours with no rain

2007-07-09T10:19:00.000+01:00

Yes we did have 36 hours with no rain but it is raining again in the French Alps. However, it is warmer- so warm that the car has been trying to overheat going up some of the Cols- such as Col du Menee.

La Chapelle Notre Dame du Haut

Our visit to La Chapelle Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp, designed by Le Corbusier in the 1950's, was inspired by Gavin's sister's namesake, Claire (from Auckland). The Chapel is quite unlike any church I have visited before and found it to be exceedingly peaceful.

Le Puy en Velay

The Ballon des Vosges I understand affords wonderful views across to the Alps- alas we barely saw the other side of the valley. Yesterday we visited a quirky town in the middle of the Massif Centrale, Le Puy en Velay. The town is surrounded by the remains of 60 extinct volcanoes and has churches and statues on all different high rocky outcrops.

Table for two in Massif Central

Now we head on to L' Alpe d'Huez and Gavin's nemesis (although he did actually conquer it on a mountain bike) the Col du Galibier. Sadly we are too early for the Tour de France this year. From there on to Italy.

Watermelons in Venice

2007-07-14T09:38:00.000+01:00

After making it across the French Alps in blizzard conditions we have popped out the other side into a very hot and dry Italy.

The trusty car tootled up the Alpine Cols at a speed that would almost put a”G-Whizz” car to shame. We even had to come down les Alps d’Huez in first gear. Unfortunately the view of Mont Blanc and the whole the Alps, from the top of Col d’Iseran, was obliterated by cloud. At the Col du Petit Sant Bernard we visited a delightful Botanical Alpine garden, although most of it was covered in snow I had lots of fun finding the flowers that were in bloom and Gavin just got cold.

Nearly blowing away at the top of the Col de L'Iseran

The difference once we started to descend into Italy was marked. Suddenly all the snow was gone and my toes began to warm up. Before long we had to stop to change out of our winter thermals. From the Italian Alps it was long way down to the Po valley, passing vineyards, rice fields, maize crops, ancient castles and being passed by crazy drivers.

In Piacenza we met up with friends of Granny Annie, Isabella and Fulvio. They took us to their summer house in the hills south of Magnano feeding us with fruit and Fulvio’s refreshingly sweet sparkling white wine. He is particularly proud that he produces wine that is 15% alcohol rather than the more traditional 12.5%. After showing us their archaeological remains, Fulvio excavated, underneath the house we were taken to lunch at a local Bar. Imagine Gavin’s surprise when after a big plate of pasta with bolognese sauce he was asked what sort of meat he would like for his main course. We surely ate well.

View from the terrasse in Magnano

After a beautiful night camping in the Magnano hills- we even used the solar shower for the first time, it was delicious, we made an early start for Venice.

Venetian canal

What a magnificent city. I do not really think that I should try to describe it. Yes there were hoards of tourist and we did do our usual thing of eating and drinking our way round the city, but there was so much to explore and turn a corner and all the other tourists have disappeared. Also, in my heart of heart I did in truth want to dress up in a stupendous 18th Century gown, don a terribly ornate mask and make my way in a Gondola to a masked ball. I think Gavin thought it was all a bit too hot for such a carry on.

Gavin has just made friends with the Australian owner of the campsite and the All Blacks vs South Africa are playing. So once we have finished watching the All Blacks win we will be off, back to the Alps direction Austria.

Admin in Munich

2007-07-19T11:31:00.000+01:00

Since our last post we have travelled from Italy, through the Dolomites and Alps (again), into Austria and then to Munich in Germany. The mountains have been amazing, and since the weather has been absolutely great, the views have been spectacular. On Sunday we travelled over the Grossglockner High Alpine Road, which is surrounded by a National Park. It is a popular weekend destination for the locals. We went for a bit of a walk up to the end of a glacier, and ended up helping carry a man on a stretcher to a place where a helicopter could land to pick him up. He had dislocated his ankle, but the doctor on the helicopter managed to put it back in, so he’ll be fine. Pretty painful though. We ended the day at Zell am See.

Grossglockner

We next passed through Berchtesgaden and nearby Obersalzburg where Hitler and the Nazi Party members had homes (and a full compliment of SS troops for protection). At the top of the mountain is Kehlsteinhaus, dubbed the Eagle’s Nest by the Americans, which was a house gifted to Hitler for his 50th birthday. Nice present.

View from the top

From there we have spent a morning walking around Salzburg, and have since made our way to Munich for a bit of admin. We now have our Carnet de Passages for the Land Rover, from the ADAC (German AA), and have picked up a spare oil filter from a LR dealer. Today we are having a wheel alignment and balance done at a very efficient tyre shop just to make sure all is A-OK before heading to more remote parts. Luckily for me, Catkin speaks German, although she has picked up a few new technical terms.

After Munich we head north-east towards Poland. Standby for further reports.

Back to the Wenzlick’s homeland

2007-07-26T16:46:00.000+01:00

The Czech Republic has to be amongst our favourite haunts so far. We stayed at a delightful campsite by a lake, in Bohemia. We spent the evening swimming and drinking beer. We also visited a really cool castle, in the village where the composer Janacek was born and then and got a bit lost on a walk. Cycling seems to be taking off in The Czech Republic. On Saturday almost every other car had bikes on the roof. There are also loads of cycle routes marked on the roads. As our first foray out of Western Europe during this trip, the sudden drop in prices for everything came as a very welcome surprise.

Lakeside campsite in Bohemia

Gavin and I decided a while ago that we wanted to visit Auschwitz in Poland, so hence a bit of a detour from our “east bound and down” direction of travel. We spent ages looking for a campsite, driving all around the area. Then just opposite Auschwitz we saw a sign “Auto camp” so we approached to investigate. Immediately a young chap jumped into the middle of the road motioning us towards the gate of what looked to be a car park- not an “Autocamp”. Given that it was almost 7pm it was quite clear that we were looking for somewhere to camp. He said “yes, yes camping” and I made the sign of a tent, again “yes, yes”, also there was a sign saying showers. So we drove in and he gave us a ticket. We then found out that the toilets and showers were locked anyway. So off we went to explore on foot and found the “Centre of Dialogue and Prayer”. They had a lovely campsite. Back we went to our car park and after some discussion with the cashier, who I suspect now regrets admitting to speaking English, we left.

The next day dawned clear and bright and into Auschwitz we went. Despite the glorious weather and the hoards of people it is still quite a remarkable place. Quite bizarre trying to imagine that it was a death factory and the immense pain, desolation and suffering that must have been experienced by millions. Parts of the camp have been reconstructed from original materials, such as the gas chamber. This was the prototype gas chamber and once the system and technique for mass murder had been “perfected” it appears that this gas chamber was destroyed and larger and more numerous chambers were built at the huge camp, Auschwitz –Birkanau 3 kilometres away. The immense displays of personal possessions stolen from the victims were also very sobering. There was also a very good exhibition on Poland during the war. I certainly had no idea of the extremes the Nazis had gone to, to dehumanise the Polish people as well as so many other groups of populations. The exhibition was almost quite brutal to the visitor in being quite unrestrainedly frank.

Auschwitz

Birkenau

Heading south into Slovakia we realised that it is exactly a year since we were in Slovakia for the Mongol Rally, and yesterday we even saw one of the teams driving in the other direction. We did stop for a bit, when we turned off that road, hoping to see a few more go past, but we were disappointed. Now in Vienna, having travelled via Bratislava.

Happy Birthday Kathryn!

2007-07-30T09:38:00.000+01:00

Catkin’s last post saw us back in Austria. Our main reason for going to Vienna was to collect our all important Insurance Green Card for Romania, which luckily had duly arrived via Post Restante (thanks to Bob and Sue). We also used the opportunity to stock up on guidebooks for Eastern Europe and the Middle East, and buy a map of Northern Africa, so hopefully we are now fully prepared for the months ahead. We spent a great evening in the city eating and drinking (as you do in European cities), ending up on the Danube in a cheap student bar where you had to pay a deposit for a glass (I felt old, especially when I noticed everyone there was just drinking straight from the bottle…why didn't I think of that?). We even managed to find our way back to the campsite on the U-Bahn.

Catkin with a precious glass

The following day we headed south-west for Slovenia, crossing the border via the Seeberg Sattel pass on Friday evening. Descending into the Slovenian countryside, our main aim was to find a campsite, and after at one point mistakenly ending up in a farmer’s driveway, we finally found ourselves in the largest camping ground in the country, near Bled. Bled is situated on a lake and the scenery is amazing. We hired a row-boat for an hour and went over to the church on the small island in the lake, as well as going for a quick swim , as it was HOT! The lake was just like a huge swimming pool. Later in the day we spent a couple of hours in Ljubljiana, and were treated to an impromptu performance by a German/Scottish pipes and drums band in the main square.

Bled Castle in the background

Further south-west we visited Skocjan Caves, a UNESCO World Heritage Site (thanks for the tip Marcus). This is a massive series of underground caverns formed by the river Reka, and the network of stairs and bridges made it feel like being in the Mines of Moria in a scene from The Lord of the Rings. The caves and the town museums were excellent.

Entrance to Skocjan Caves

Slovenia has been a big surprise for us. It’s small, but is clean, friendly and absolutely stunning.

Now we’re in Croatia, and I’m sitting in a pleasant campsite looking out at the full moon shining over the warm and salty Adriatic Sea. We have just finished a delicious dinner of corn-on-the-cob followed by stuffed peppers, lovingly prepared in Catkin’s camp kitchen, and polished off a very nice bottle of white wine from Austria. It’s just gone 11pm and it’s still 26ºC up in the tent!

And finally, Big Happy Birthday wishes from both of us today to Kathryn (my sister)!

Croatia, Hungary and Romania

2007-08-05T12:32:00.000+01:00

Roof tents are great – when it’s not too windy! After our last post we headed south-east to the northern Dalmatian coast (and we even saw a Dalmatian dog!). Quite early on in the day, however, the winds picked up to gale force, whipping up a frenzy on the sea. People were sent scattering from the beaches, trying to maintain control of their inflatable dinghies, and the road was closed to motorbikes and caravans. Not Land Rovers though, so we carried on past the barrier arms. Man, was it windy. It looks like it might be like that quite often, too, as there was hardly any vegetation above four feet tall. As the day wore on our thoughts turned to our camping situation. At an altitude of six feet above ground level, the roof tent tends to cop the wind a bit. "Maybe we should use the dome tent on the ground?" Catkin suggested. "Just wait until the sun goes down, and I’m sure the wind will drop," I tell her. "We’ll be fine." When the wind actually picked up after sunset, the dome tent was looking promising, although I’m not sure if that would have withstood the gusts either. Finally at around midnight the wind did drop to satisfactory roof tent levels, albeit with the fly tied down, and even then it was still a pretty noisy night. On top of all that, I don’t think we really ventured far enough south to get the best of the coast.

We had a more important mission. With our newly acquired insurance green card, mentioned in a previous post, we had a small window to get through Romania, so back north and further east for us. Stopping at the Plitvice Lakes (on another tip from Marcus), we spent an afternoon wandering around the boardwalks marvelling at the turquoise water. Took heaps of photos, but so far the memory card has refused to release them for public exhibition… Instead you get to see a picture of a stork nest on top of a power pole. The nests are massive, and are quite a common sight.

Crossing into Hungary we made for Pecs for a few essential purchases and a night in a great little family-run campground, and then onto Szeged. Over the last few days our focus has changed slightly, in that we have been covering a lot more ground and seeing a lot less touristy sights. Consequently we’re taking fewer photos, but have included a night shot of the Camel in front of the Tisza river in Szeged, Hungary.

Since then we have made it into Romania and the roads have got worse (and the driving). We spent the first night at another family-run campsite, Route Roemanie, were the owner was very helpful in giving us advice on routes and things to see in Romania. I think he was a little disappointed that we were driving through so quickly, but understood when we explained that we had to get to New Zealand.

Last night we chanced our arm on the shore of a fishing lake in Transylvania. We got a few odd looks from the locals, and I think we may be camping at one of their best fishing spots.

We've currently in Sighisoara, where Dracula was allegedly born, and have just had a delicious lunch at a small cafe, although what was delivered to the table bore no resemblance to what was ordered!

Recovered Photos...

2007-08-10T20:04:00.000+01:00

Have finally managed to recover photos of Croatia from the memory card, and have added a few here. A bit more interesting than photos of stork nests and Land Rovers... The first photo shows the wind on the water north of the Dalmatian Coast. The last three were taken at Plitvice Lakes.

Goodbye EU...

2007-08-11T08:40:00.001+01:00

I think that we managed to soak up some of the Transylvanian atmosphere in Romania. It rained most of the time so the hills were very misty and eerie. We visited the alleged birth place of Dracula, Sigisoara, and the beautiful city of Sibiu. Sibiu is sharing the role of European City of Culture with Luxembourg this year and the Romanians have gone to great lengths to present it in its full glory- it is spotless, unlike the rest of Romania. On our way to the Bulgarian border we drove over a mountain road through the Fagaras Mountains and for once we were treated to a view from the top. However the rubbish was disgusting. I understand the area to be a National Park, it was so disappointing. On our way down we did see some workers clearing some of the rubbish but they were just making little bonfires out of it- there was too much to transport away.

Band on the street in Sibiu, Romania

Romania is a beautiful colourful country with something to interest everybody in every corner; however, I did become weary of having to clean up the area every time we stopped.

Mountain pass, looking down the hanging valley

The final stretch to the border was via a rather rickety and isolated road made much worse by the rain. It followed a railway line and we passed numerous what looked to be derelict large Collective Farms.

Again in Bulgaria the roads were washed out but the police were very efficient in diverting everyone. We headed for the Black Sea Resort of Varna and then a little further south to camp is a Special Reserve area of forest right on the beach. Again we are not sure what the Special Reserve was for. Not wanting to moan but again the litter was pretty foul. Luckily the part we chose to camp on had just been the subject of some flash flooding so I think all the litter had been washed into someone else’s patch. After it started to rain again, our neighbours, Dianne and Mark, played host to us in their “White Box” until the wee hours of the morning with the help of some fine Bulgarian wine.

Breafast stop, first morning in Bulgaria

We found a better beach further down the road at Sozopol. The town, despite being extremely touristy was delightful and after regular dips in the Black Sea to cool down we made a move to find a secluded shady spot where Gavin could do some maintenance on the car. I will let him explain about this in more detail, but needless to say it did not go to plan and those pesky flies were attracted to every orifice on ones head. Finally, with Gavin’s patience holding out the task was a “good ‘un” and we were on our way again.

The road to Turkey was through a hilly green and lush Natural Park, home to many types of oak and periwinkle and fly- tipping.

Now we are finally out of the European Union and I had to pay for my first visa, Gavin’s was for free. So far Turkey has been delightful and the Turkish people have been so courteous. Initially the road down through the hills from the border to the first big town, Kirkareli, was full of villages and babbling streams. Kirkareli was stuffed full of different grocery shops and little eateries. The whole place was simply bursting with life.

We are now cooling off at a beach campsite right on the Sea of Marmara before heading into Istanbul.

Turkey Part 1

2007-08-17T14:24:00.000+01:00

Turkey has been outstanding. The Turkish people are very welcoming and generous, and we have been given all sorts of food and drink to share with people that we have met. It seems to be the way. Istanbul was well worth a visit, with huge mosques and other amazing buildings. We even managed to find a shop in a back street that specialised in Land Rover parts, so stocked up on a few bits and pieces. We had looked, unsuccessfully, for a couple of campsites, but ended up staying in a guarded carpark, although we didn’t get much sleep because it was a hive of activity all night long. It seemed to be the meeting place for everybody who was anybody, including the local Police.

From Istanbul we headed back west to get to the Gallipoli peninsula. This was somewhere I had long wanted to visit, as any New Zealander or Australian would understand, so was always going to be on our agenda. We arrived just in time for sunset over the Aegean Sea. It’s an absolutely beautiful spot, despite the history. We spent two nights in total at Anzac Cove, with a full day walking around the War Grave cemeteries, up a steep track to the top of Chunuk Bair, down the road past the Turkish cemetery to Lone Pine, and back down to the beach. Much to my surprise, we only saw about two or three antipodeans (but busloads of Turks). During the time we spent there I managed to get a much better appreciation for the situation the Anzacs found themselves in back in April 1915.

Since then we have crossed the Dardanelles into Asia, and our first stop was the ruins of Troy (and a quick climb into the wooden horse). We stayed that night at a tiny beachside campsite near Assos. The narrow cobbled streets were only just wide enough for the Land Rover in places.

We have also visited the ruins at Ephesus. Parts of Ephesus are still very much intact, including the massive theatre in the photo. You can almost see the Ephesians going about their daily business, reading their letters from St Paul. It is a major tourist location though, and busload after busload are shepherded through by their guides.

From here we head east toward Cappodocia.

Turkey part 2: Turkısh hospitality

2007-08-22T09:34:00.000+01:00

After the heat of the coast Cappadocia is very refreshing. Despite temperatures reaching beyond 30 degrees during the day, night time temperatures are nearly 15 degrees lower than at lower altitude, but I think it can be fairly bleak up here in the winter. It has been a long hot drive across Western Turkey but it certainly worth it. We have spent three nights at a delightful camping spot by a lake with belly flopping frogs, jumping fish and have enjoyed many days exploring the underground cities, bizarre rock formations, 4X4 tracks, churches and monasteries hewn out of rock and deliberating over the purchase of a Turkish carpet.

Scattered around the area are ancient underground cities, dating from 4000 years ago, to which the townsfolk would retreat to in time of invasion or threat. They are complete with schools, wine cellars, kitchens, huge food storage areas and more recently churches have been added. However, these are not for the claustrophobic, as we descended eight levels through narrow, low and twisting tunnels and staircases.

Some of the rock formations could be condsidered to be decidedly phallic in appearance which I think has led to some interesting graffiti and models for tourists to buy.

Many towns and villages have developed in the valleys and the houses built into and out of the hillside.

However the rock is so soft and the harsh environment up here has made some of the dwellings quite fragile that they are now derelict and the main inhabitants are pigeons and bats. Only this winter part of the church we visited collapsed. Although the rock, or more accurately Tufa, is quite fragile amazingly this 4th Century Church and Monastery has survived in quite a good condition- despite people having barbecues in it 20 years ago, forever blackening the walls. We were led up flights of stairs with only 3 feet of headroom and down chutes 20 feet long in pitch black.

Many of the frescoes have survived as has other evidence of how the monks lived, such as the use of carrier pigeons to communicate with the outside world. After such a fascinating tour our guide then played host as we drank tea and I was force fed biscuits. Turkish hospitality really perseveres throughout.

When we first entered Turkey it looked for a while that we were barely going to have to prepare food for ourselves. Everywhere we went we would be invited to join a family for lunch, or as we were leaving a beach a gentleman would rush over to give us some peaches. One delightful lunchtime stop, at a pebbly beach on a deserted and barren coastline, the local middle aged beach bum emerged out of nowhere. He was quite enthralled by Gavin’s skill in repairing the kettle which had somehow been dropped (!).

He proceeded to serve up chilled wine, went picking blackberries for me and on discovering that Gavin is an Engineer, he rummaged around finding a hard hat he had obviously been saving for such an occasion.

Now we head a little further and east and south to the Syrian border.

On The Road To Damascus.....

2007-08-29T12:46:00.001+01:00

Finally we bought a carpet in Cappadocia. After crash course in Turkish carpet production and its history, we settled on one just the right size to fit under the mattress in our roof tent. After waving goodbye to Cappadocia - our longest home yet - we headed across what we think were the Taurus Mountains. This road was fantastic. The highest point was at 2000 metres and it felt as if we were in the middle of a quarry. There were lots and lots of trucks travelling up the road empty and down the hill very full of terracotta coloured soil and travelling very slowly. We barely saw any other private vehicles and at the top great swathes of the mountain side had been taken away; even one mountain top was completely gone. It was slow road down the other side as we remained high in the mountains for a long time.

After coming out of the mountains we sought out a tyre repair establishment. We had been looking for a few days but all we could find in Cappadocia were grotty sheds which seemed to specialise in bicycle tyre repairs so we were resigned to pumping up the tyre every morning- it was a very slow puncture and Gavin did enjoy having to use his compact compressor. However, Lassa was a much more sophisticated set up; they even had a portable wheel balancing machine. After playing with Google Earth, drinking tea and enjoying the comforts of the proprietor’s air-conditioned office we paid the hefty charge of £2.50 and headed to Anavarza.
We understand Anavarza to be of Roman, English and Spanish origin. Spectacular as it was it was difficult to find out any further information, but we had a lot of fun climbing all over the ruins.

We decided to stay in Turkey for one more day. It was not going to be much fun queuing at the border for Gavin on his birthday. So we headed for the beach and found a beautiful and deserted part of the Mediterranean coastline. While we were parked up - for two hours or so - only one other vehicle drove by. The water was decidedly warm and crystal clear.

The next day we spent three and a half hours at the Turkish/Syrian border. First impressions of Syria are of a somewhat chaotic place. Firstly we were obliged to queue at a counter for an hour only to be told that we needed a visa, "no" we say and point to the visas in our passport. "No, no" we must go through the unmarked door, through a corridor and find another unmarked office. We duly follow orders. Here our passports were closely scrutinised and still the official had difficulty recognising the visa his embassy in London had issued. Eventually they agree that it is OK and our passports are processed. Then we have more fun and games with customs with the first customs official declining to sign us off despite being satisfied that there was nothing amiss. Eventually after a customs officials conference another customs cfficial agrees to sign us off based on the original customs official’s inspection. Then we were off to get the all important Carnet de Passage processed. So all our fees are paid, tax for this and for that . Then we realise that we paid some extra money to one rather dour chap behind a glass screen and we have no idea what it was for and we have no receipt. Finally after some discussion with him, neither party understanding much of what the other was saying, we did get a receipt for a fraction of what we had paid. So I continued to stand there interrupting his business and persisting in showing him how much he still owed us I finally got back the rest of the money. I suspect he was going to pocket for himself.. Throughout all of this just about everyone was as courteous and polite as they could be.

Syria has some amazing sights. The Souks in Aleppo are like nothing I have seen before and I even enjoyed a visit to a rather grotty Hamam. What a wonderful experience. I felt as if I had entered into a secret world. It was a little odd to be scrubbed, and I mean scoured (I still have the grazes) by a woman in her bra and knickers, smoking cigarettes, who 10 minutes later was indistinguishable from most other women after she put on her Abeyya and veil.

On Monday (I think) we visited the Krak de Chevalliers, a Crusader’s Castle that has been described as a Castle to fulfil every child’s fantasy. It is such good condition we spent hours exploring all the nooks and crannies. We camped in the shadow of the castle.

Thanks Mohammed for the tip to visit Palmyra which is one of the most impressive places I have visited. We camped a very short stones throw from the ruins. We first visted the ruins in the evening sun and the following day surveyed them before breakfast in the crisp morning sun.

Unfortunately we are unable to spend as much time in Syria as we would like to, but the $100 weekly fuel tax and the need to sort out a few repairs on the car make it necessary for us to hot tail it to Jordan- the spare parts have been sent out to Amman.

Before I go however, I am very much aware that we have visited some places of which we really have very poor background knowledge. If anyone reading does have any interesting information to share about any of these places please feel free to enlighten us by leaving a "comment".

I looked over Jordan and what did I see?

2007-09-05T09:54:00.000+01:00

What Catkin didn’t mention in her last entry was the delicious birthday dinner that she prepared for me on our last night in Turkey. We had steak and chips (yum), followed by - wait for it – Banoffee Pie. How many people have had banoffee pie made in a kitchen in the back of a Land Rover for their birthday? It was delicious, and I ate too much.

Catkin did mention that we were in Damascus. Damascus was mad, but fun all the same. It was the only place since leaving Turkey that we stayed in a proper campsite, and for two nights we were the only people there. We can only assume that the overland trucks stop there and keep it in business. We spent a day wandering around the city, and most of that was spent trying to find the centre from where the minivan driver told us was our stop (not where we thought he was taking us).

Main Souk in Damascus

Before leaving Syria we wanted to fill up with diesel to take advantage of the cheap price per litre of US$0.14 and get maximum benefit of the US$100 diesel tax we had to pay when entering the country. This proved a difficult task, however, as every station we pulled into had run out. From the sign language it seemed the tanker had crashed or something. Anyway, they were certain there would be diesel in the afternoon… We were ready to leave Syria, so decided to head toward the border, detour to Bosra (another Roman ruin with an outstanding fortified amphitheatre) and see if we could fill up later in the day near the border. Eventually we did find a station and took on 140 litres in the two tanks to keep us going.

Exiting Syria was much easier than entering, and entering Jordan was also relatively hassle-free. This was a very busy border, so it still took a few hours to get all the appropriate paperwork stamped and distributed to various departments.

Our main priority now was to get to Amman in order to look at getting Saudi transit visas and carry out a few repairs/checks on the Land Rover. Since it was Friday the following day (the weekend) we decided to do a short loop through Umm Qais and Jerash (more Roman ruins). We made it to Umm Qais just after dark, and as we had seen no suitable campsites enroute, decided to ask the tourist police at the site if it would be okay for us to stay in the carpark overnight and visit the site in the morning. This was not permitted, and we were told we would have to stay in the hotel. I explained that we would prefer to camp, but it seemed there was no camping permitted in the whole area. Just as we were preparing to leave to go and look at the hotel, the policeman approached us and said that actually we might be able to stay inside the ruins, next to the Police Office. He made a few calls and it was all arranged. The night shift officers were a bit noisy when they had a break in the wee small hours, and I was afraid Catkin was going to get up and tell them to be quiet, like she did to the people camping next to us in Vienna and the nightclub owner in Hungary. She hasn’t told anyone off for a while now…

Hard to see, but the Sea of Galilee is in the distance

We had a good look around the ruins in the morning after pancakes for breakfast, getting a good view over the Jordan Valley and the Sea of Galilee. Our route south took us down into the valley and right alongside the Palestinian border, where we were stopped every few kilometres at military checkpoints to check our passports. Turning east we headed over some very steep hills towards Jerash and found the Olive Branch Resort, a hotel with camping facilities. The best thing was that they had a swimming pool, and we spent the whole afternoon sitting by the pool and swimming. A family who was having a picnic in the hotel grounds even gave us a fantastic lunch, which was much appreciated.

We didn’t bother going into the Jerash ruins, as we both felt a bit “ruined out”, and satisfied ourselves with looking in through the fence. From there on into Amman, the capital.

We had not been able to find out about any camping grounds in or near Amman, so thought we would go to the tourist information office and see if they could help. Whilst waiting in traffic, the driver next to me called out, asking what we were looking for. When we said the information centre, he said it was closed and enquired what we wanted to ask them. We replied that we wanted to find a camping site, and he said, “There’s no camping in Amman. Follow me!” Eventually he stopped and got out, telling us that we might be able to camp on one of his properties. He was going to be back in one hour, and we could park around the corner and wait for him in “The Duke’s Diwan”, a cultural centre on the next street. Well, it turned out that he was the Duke of the Diwan, and he had a farm that is used for honey production that we could camp on. We have spent four nights there so far and it has been the perfect base for us. We even went on a tour of the surrounding area, which is all the Duke’s land, including the magnificent home that has been in the family since about 1860.

In Amman we have found a Land Rover specialist garage who have welded our cracked front differential, as well as completely servicing the right front wheel bearings and CV joint, and we have the local aircon specialist looking for a replacement switch to get the A/C back up and running. More about all of that and other repairs in the "preparation" blog on the links to the right. We are still waiting for some parts ordered from the UK to arrive at the post office, so keep having to trudge back there to check.

The Saudi transit visa situation has not been so successful. We have been twice and been told that we cannot get a transit visa in Jordan, only from the embassy in our country of residence. This is contrary to what we were told in London, but that is the nature of the game I guess. On top of all this, we have been told of another couple who had the required visa, but were refused entry into Saudi Arabia because their Land Rover was right hand drive (as is ours). Even diplomatic personnel seem to require special permission to drive into Saudi. We are trying a few other options, but at this stage it looks like we will have to miss UAE, Oman and Yemen and ship the vehicle directly from Aqaba to Mombasa while we travel separately via Egypt to meet it. We will keep you posted on that front.

One of Catkin's favourite pastimes throughout Eastern Europe and the Middle East has been buying fresh fruit and veges from the many well stocked roadside stalls.

So far, since leaving London on the 25th of June we have travelled 9389 miles crossing 23 borders and visiting 18 different countries (we entered some countries in Europe more than once). Thanks to all who have commented on the Blog. It’s good to know that you are enjoying reading it as much as we are writing it. Unfortunately we can’t reply to everyone individually. Keep the comments coming though – it gives us something to look forward to!

Escape from Aqaba

2007-09-14T08:16:00.000+01:00

After both a productive (lots of things on the car fixed) and disappointing (Saudi embassy not wanting to issue us transit visas) sojourn in the Capital, we have left Amman, the Duke, the Good Doctor and his honey farm behind. We got to know Amman quite well in the end. We had our favourite juice stall and found a place that made great chocolate milkshakes. It is not the most beautiful city but it had a bit of a buzz and is fairly unusual in that it is built on so many hills. Some of the roads give San Francisco a run for its money in terms of gradient. On one of the off ramps off the expressway we had to go down into 1st gear it was so steep. During our stay, the Good Doctor, a dentist who in his spare time is the apiarist on the farm we camped on, was very busy preparing his honey stall for a big Food Expo in Amman. Luckily for me this opened before we left so we spent a couple of hours eating our way round this Expo sampling all sorts of Jordanian and Arabic delicacies.

From Amman we headed due south to Madabar to view an interesting mosaic map of the Holy Lands in a Greek orthodox church, and from there to Mount Nebo and the Dead Sea. As we were nearing Mount Nebo the sign post told us it was only 5 km or so away, and yet we could see no mountain. Then we were on Mount Nebo and we realised that were still at quite high altitude (700m) and the Dead Sea in the distance was at over 350m below sea level. Israel and the Palestinian Territories sit on the other side of the Dead Sea so we knew that there would be many military check points in the area which makes it very difficult/ impossible to camp. As soon as we saw a sign stating "checkpoint" we turned around to look for somewhere to camp and found a lovely spot nestled in the hills out of sight of the checkpoint.

The Dead Sea - what a dump. The water was really bizarre. We never expected it to feel so oily and even 5-10 minutes after getting out we had not dried off. It was quite windy so the water was a bit choppy and I splashed some in my mouth - it tasted really foul. I could not have stayed in for very long because everything starts to sting. However I think there could be something in the claims of beautifying properties because after a quick rinse off my skin did feel really smooth.

The drive along the Dead Sea coast was fascinating. There were many small gullies emptying into the Dead Sea. In such a barren landscape it was lovely to see wilding date palms clinging to the steep rocky sides. The largest valley was Wadi Mijub where there is a National Park. We spent a wonderfully refreshing few hours gorge walking, getting completely soaked in neck deep water. At the entrance it was not clear that it was a gorge walk so we were slightly unprepared and took our non-waterproof camera. As the water got deeper I acted as pathfinder- usually finding the deepest parts and telling Gavin not to go in those parts. It was rather incredible to think that what looked like a tiny trickle of water emerging from out of the hillside was a raging torrent in places. Our progress ended when we reached a high waterfall so we turned back.

Our next stop was the Jordanian highlight of Petra. After a 1km walk down through a narrow canyon, which was a fissure created by tectonic activity, we emerged in the ancient city and were greeted by the stunning façade of a tomb carved out of the soft sandstone. We spent the whole day climbing hills and steps, peering down into caves and simply marvelling at the splendour.

Much of the central part of Jordan is at quite high altitude and we really relished the cool nights, especially before heading to the desert and the majestic Wadi Rum.

T. E. Lawrence apparently spent much time here. We had a wonderful 3 days playing in the soft sand… I mean learning about how the car manages soft sand and improving our driving techniques. Luckily, in spite of our weight and skinny tyres, we did not get bogged down to the extent that we needed to get the shovel, or the sand ladders, or let out tyre pressure, or find a local to drag us out. Unlike one party of flash 4 wheel drivers who kept us entertained for nearly an hour as one driver managed to lose parts from his car in the sand and another got well and truly stuck.

We could not pass the opportunity by to ride on a camel of the hairy variety in it’s natural environment, either.

After a couple of nights star gazing it was on to Aqaba to find a way to get to Africa. Our problem is that we did not want to drive through Egypt because they request an unfeasibly high deposit as security against us importing the vehicle permanently. So our carnet specifically excluded Egypt. It is apparently possible to levy a bank guarantee for 250% of the value of the vehicle at the border, which is returned to us when we depart Egypt. However, our bank was decidedly clueless about this and suggested that we visit our local HSBC branch in the UK to discuss. Also, we were not certain that such letter of guarantee would really follow us from Nuweiba to Aswan to be returned to us on our departure. Our other option was to ship from Aqaba to somewhere on the East African coast. Will at Hawknet had a fantastic offer from Suez to Port Sudan, however, we had to get to Suez which means driving into Egypt. We also asked a few shipping companies for a quote. The current going price to ship the car in a container to Port Sudan is in excess of US $1600. The cost without a container is around US$150. What a difference. The most important difference to us is that with the latter option our car would be dumped on the dock in Port Sudan and in all likelihood be stripped of everything by the time we would be able to retrieve it. Our final solution is to get a new carnet issued which will cover Egypt. As I write this, the carnet is hopefully being processed and couriered out to us.

Whilst we are waiting in Aqaba, which is on the Red Sea, we have decided to make the most of our slightly extended stay here. Today I start on a PADI open water diving course whilst Gavin refreshes his diving skills.

Red Sea Adventure Divers

2007-09-20T10:35:00.000+01:00

Last recorded coordinates:
29º 25’ 22” N
034º 58’ 42” E

Distance travelled so far (odometer): 10100 miles (approx 16250km)

Diesel used: 1637 Litres

Distance from London (as crow flies): 3800km

Maximum recorded tent temperature so far: 53.3ºC
Minimum recorded tent temperature so far: 4ºC

Having just spent our ninth night camping at the Bedouin Garden Village just south of Aqaba, we feel like we are now part of the furniture there. It is by far the longest we have stayed at one place since our extended sojourns in Kerswell Green prior to our departure from the UK. It has been quite a convenient place to base ourselves while we wait for our new carnet to arrive. It is on the Gulf of Aqaba, and the coastline here is a marine reserve with coral reefs, wrecks and plenty of fish to amuse us.

Catkin mentioned last week that after looking at various options we decided to apply for a new Carnet that would enable us to drive through Egypt. This process has taken time, but we are hoping that our new documentation will arrive at the DHL office today, which will mean we can finally move on.

Catkin also mentioned diving. Since then she has completed the Open Water Diver course, with all the instructors commenting on how good a diver she is. After her first day I was able to get my hands on her manual and refresh myself on everything I had forgotten since I did the same course in 1995. Having not dived in 10 years I’d forgotten just about everything… Luckily it all came flooding back quickly. The next morning I sat in on Catkin’s lesson for a quick skills refresher in the pool before starting an Advanced Open Water course. I completed the course after five adventure dives (peak performance buoyancy, navigation, deep dive, wreck dive and search and recovery), and it has been great to get back into scuba gear. One of the dive centre staff bore a striking resemblance to Manuel from Fawlty Towers, but luckily for us, he was an excellent dive instructor and a great guy also. We are hoping to keep our hand in with dives on the Sinai coast and elsewhere in Africa, as well as Australia later in our trip.

Aqaba is inevitably a bottleneck for overlanders. We had seen no one up until 10 days ago. Then, on our first day in Wadi Rum, we saw a French family in their Land Rover campervan. They were in exactly the same situation as us, having been unable to obtain transit visas for Saudi Arabia. Since then we have spent a lot of time with them, as they are also staying at the Bedouin Garden Village awaiting a new Carnet (it’s been touch and go to see who gets theirs first, but it looks like we might win). Their planned route is very similar to ours, so we might be seeing a lot more of them in the next few months. Their eldest son, Jeremie, has already been around the world with his parents in a Land Rover, and his eye for detail is evident in the excellent picture he has given us of our vehicle, set in Africa.

We have had another couple in a four wheel drive camp here as well, plus another overland truck which came in off the ferry early one morning, woke everyone up, and then left later that day. A German couple in a 4x4 truck stayed the night before last, and they are also travelling a similar route so we hope to see them along the way too.

As well as our diving adventures, we have been able to spend a bit of time doing all sorts of jobs that you don’t get a chance to do when you are travelling every day. Catkin has cleaned out all of the kitchen crates and the fridge and stove, as well as giving the Camel a good clean inside and out. I’ve fixed a few little bit and pieces I’d been putting off, as well as getting our air conditioning going, again, after it stopped working, again. Our stove has been playing up a wee bit, so that’s been stripped down and cleaned, and reassembled (after a trip to find a supplier of rubber O rings in Aqaba). It’s still a bit on the temperamental side, so this may not be the last you hear about the stove… And on top of all of that I’ve had plenty of time to count the grey hairs in my beard.

The Garden Village has a swimming pool too, so it’s been great to be able to cool off in the water and watch the sunset behind the Sinai across the gulf.

So, we still haven’t quite escaped from Aqaba yet, but hopefully by the next time we can update you we will finally have made it to Africa!

"Welcome in Egypt"

2007-10-01T18:19:00.001+01:00

Finally we have made our escape from Aqaba. The Arab Bridge Maritime ferry, which was in a previous incarnation MS Skagen from Kristiansand, left Aqaba an hour late, we have no idea of why, as ours was the last vehicle to embark. She then sailed at about the speed Gavin and I could have pushed the car. We arrived at Nuweiba, Egypt, as the sun set. Just in time for everyone to break their fast (Ramadan began over a week previously). First of all we were told we could disembark in two hours, bearing in mind we were expecting a fairly gruelling border crossing in Nuweiba. “Wow”, we thought, these people will surely be able to eat a lot in two hours, in a slightly disgruntled manner. We had only taken dry bread on to the ferry which we had been covertly nibbling the past five hours. We realised that a few of the other passengers also felt they did not need two hours for breakfast and a fight almost broke out between some passengers and boat crew when the passengers realised that we had actually all been locked in. We do not know of the outcome because someone triggered the emergency doors isolating them from everyone else.

When we were eventually allowed off the boat, Khaled from the Tourist Police assited us with the customs procedures. First he escorted Gavin to the bank to change a not insignificant amount of money. We got a bit of a shock when we were told that in the last 2 months the compulsory 3rd party insurance premium had increased from 80 LE (Egyptian pounds) to 545 LE. A few hours later, after Gavin was issued with (obviously paying for each) an Egyptian drivers licence, Egyptian car registration, number plates, insurance, customs document, 4X4 tax, chassis number writing and copies of files, we were on our way. By now it was 11pm. We had started our journey at the Aqaba passenger terminal at noon. It really was a very slow thirty or so kilometres. All of this to avoid any evidence of travel to Israel in our passports and travel documents.

We tanked with diesel and headed towards Dahab looking for a suitable camp. We immediately started on quite a steep climb and with 200 litres of fuel and 90 litres of water we were a little on the heavy side, so it was not long before we were nearly overheating. We crawled up to 800 metres elevation and found a lovely camping spot in the hill/ sand dunes. There was no wind, so we had our first peaceful night since Wadi Rum (Aqaba was exceedingly windy). In the morning we were awoken by a family of roaming camels.

We spent three relaxing days at Dahab and enjoyed a couple of dives. We saw a fantastic variety of marine animals and plants and although the Egyptian Red Sea is hailed as being far superior for diving to Aqaba, at least Aqaba does not have the same destruction of the coral reef, primarily from over-diving. There were a lot of people diving and this is not even the peak period. The dives sights in Aqaba felt positively pristine in comparison.

Dahab is a very pleasant touristy town and there was a pub was showing the World Cup games (Rugby, that is) so we became regulars for a few days. There were not a huge number of spectators in the pub but the All Blacks-Scotland game seemed to draw the largest crowd. Although not many of them were Kiwis, the All Blacks were held in quite high esteem and each time they scored a polite round of applause would follow. On our last night we maintained our tradition of participating in pub quizzes wherever we go, yet again we did not win.

From Dahab we headed south to the Nabq National Park. After driving around some very exclusive looking hotels a few times, in an area reminiscent of a fairly flash Los Angeles suburb and finding nothing indicating where we might find the Park finally we took an unmarked dirt track and found ourselves in the Park. First we had to drive through a partially cleared mine field (a relic from the Egyptian-Israeli wars) before the desertscape met the Red Sea at a mangrove forest. We spent the evening watching crabs scurry up and down the shore line while the full moon rose in the night sky.

On exploring further up the coast the next day we found the twisted, rusting wreck of the Marie Schroder. In the low tide reef holes we saw hundred of furry long legged star fish and hermit crabs. I even found a fossilised giant clam shell. Unfortunately the tide was far too low to snorkel around the mangroves.

We then skipped through Na’ama Bay and Sharm el Sheikh resorts, which are more sprawling tourists towns hugging the beaches in an otherwise arid, windy landscape, making for Ras Mohammed National Park, right on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula. Here the lunaresque landscape meeting the milky turquoise sea was amazing. On closer inspection it became apparent that much of the park was under the sea at some point in ancient history as the hills and everything were in fact reef and coral with shells and fossils embedded in the hillsides. Also many trenches were still evident in the hills, again more relics from the Egyptian-Israeli wars.

The snorkelling on Ras Mohammed was the best yet and just metres from where we camped Gavin spotted a stingray and we saw cornet fish jumping out of the water, lots of masked puffer fish, crescent wrasse (which look fluorescent underwater) and common jelly fish amongst the hundreds of other species. At the “Shark Observatory” we walked over a shelf of coral with a big hole in it to the entry point to what we thought was just another snorkelling spot. After jumping I got rather a surprise. This was a “Blue Hole” which descended to apparently 800 metres- just a huge hole in the reef, quite amazing. I understand that such sudden descents are very rare, which is one of the reasons why the Sinai Peninsula is such a renowned diving destination. Over the course of the morning many tour buses began to trickle through the park, usually carrying Russian tourists. I admit that to Gavin’s horror I ended up telling someone off, again. This poor Russian tourist’s folly was to feed the fish. Indeed, there were many signs indicating that it is forbidden to feed the fish and it really is not fashionable to feed wild animals anymore. Also I have already had enough fish trying to nibble me underwater I really do not want people training them to see people as a food source, literally.

The west coast of Sinai had a particularly bleak atmosphere. It was very flat, gradually drifting into the Gulf of Suez to the west and high mountains to the east with great howling winds. There were a few towns of little evident interest and numerous resorts in the middle of nowhere, which looked to be derelict- but using previous recent experience, one really cannot always tell. We made our way back inland to visit Mount Sinai and the St Katherine Monastery, a small Greek Orthodox monastery founded in the fourth century, next to where the Burning Bush is purported to stood. There was a car park nearby which we camped in overnight, only to be awoken at 2 am by the arrival of more than twenty tour buses. They disgorged their passengers, most heading straight for the toilets which had been shut when we arrived at 16.30. I think they had travelled quite a long distance. They then started to climb the mountain. After telling another man off who was peeing by the car we went back to sleep. When we woke all the buses were gone and everyone was up on the mountain admiring the sunrise in the cold- it was not so warm where we were. As we started to climb Mount Sinai we met them all coming down again, some on camels, some walking and some looking like it had not been such a good idea. Mount Sinai certainly exceeds Mount Snowdon in the tourism stakes. There were kiosks selling all manner of packaged food and drink all the way up to 2285 metres. Sadly only some of the discarded packaging made it into the numerous rubbish bins, although it did give the goats something to chew on.

The views from the top were certainly impressive, whilst the detritus left by the previous visitors was not. How they all fitted up there earlier in the morning I do not know, but we had the place completely to ourselves, it was very peaceful. Apart from numerous stalls selling souvenirs which were closed (I think all the vendors had gone to bed) there was a small chapel right at the top which unfortunately but understandably was locked. We climbed down the 3000 “Steps of Repentance” to descend again barely seeing a soul until we were back at the Monastery. Although twenty-two monks still reside there, the Monastery opens for few hours each morning. We had heard it was interesting so decided to go inside. However, while we were up the mountain even more tour buses had arrived and how they all squeezed into the Monastery I do not know. We ended up squeezing out again because it was really hard to even look at anything. Such a circus, I am surprised that there are no attempts to limit the numbers.

By midday we were back on the road again, hoping to make it to Cairo before sunset. Not just because we do not like travelling in the dark but also because around sunset lots of people are rushing to get home to break their fast. We did not quite make that deadline we rolled into the “Selma Camp” at 9pm, 3 ½ hours after the sunset having enjoyed the crazy driving in Cairo. At least in daylight you can see the pedestrians with a death wish and other vehicles, be they motor powered, person powered or animal powered.

Having spent so much time looking for the only camp in Cairo we decided to leave it the next morning paying only half the original price after having a bit of a falling out with Selma. We found a hotel barely twice the price of the camp with hot and cold showers, air-conditioning, free WiFi, en-suite, clean, breakfast and right in the middle of town rather than ¾ hour drive away. After 3 months we are finally in a hotel and it is great, but I have to say that we have missed our tent.

Cairo is a frenetic city with numerous touts and taxi drivers who must think that westerners are unable to walk 10 metres. There are also many genuinely friendly people. Every afternoon at around 4pm trestle tables and chairs are unloaded from the pavements and the streets become a big dining room. Gradually the tables fill up with people waiting for the sun to go down and to break their fast. It looks like a street party.

Today we obtained our visas for Sudan. It has taken the best part of two days. Yesterday we visited the British and Kiwi embassies to obtain “letters of introduction” which the Sudanese embassy insists upon. Gavin’s cost less than £ 13 sterling. Mine cost a whacking £ 30 sterling, in reality it is supposed to be £27 but they only accept local currency converted to that amount at a conversion rate set by the embassy. Then to add insult to injury the “letter” was presented to me on a blank piece of paper basically stating that they no longer issue such letters and that the bearer of this is a British citizen as it states on their passport and that the British government does not impose traveling restrictions on it’s citizens. The signatory was, the British Embassy Cairo- not even a name. It appears that I paid £30 for the official stamp. Anyway, it still did the trick. After sitting around for 4 hours in the Sudanese Embassy and another US$100 apiece we have our visas for Sudan.

Tomorrow we are heading out to view the pyramids, go on a few errands for the car, stock up at “Carrefour” and head south west to the Western Oases.

Reading this back it looks like I am a whingeing pom, maybe I am but occasionally I throw a hissy fit about being ripped off and then I get over it…. eventually.

Walk like an Egyptian

2007-10-07T12:41:00.000+01:00

Everything seems to happen slowly in Egypt, especially during Ramadan. We have now been in the country for over two weeks but have really only just made it out of Cairo. Admittedly, our first week was spent lounging around the Sinai Peninsula, as Catkin described earlier, but our "quick trip" to Cairo to get visas spare parts and see the pyramids took the best part of the second week. It seems that no matter what you plan, it really is only possible to one thing per day. If you tell anyone what you have got planned for the afternoon they will without fail tell you that it will be too late, and that you must go in the morning instead. Anyway, after extending our stay for another two days we have managed to do all we set out to.

The pyramids were pretty awesome. It’s hard to comprehend their sheer size until you are standing there next to them. The whole day was a bit of an adventure in the end. We decided to go by public transport, and took the Metro to Giza Station. Whilst waiting to cross to road to the bus stop, a local struck up conversation with us, and, as luck would have it he was taking the same bus and would show us the way. Once on the bus, which involved running out to it across two lanes of traffic and jumping on as it slowed down slightly, he confided in us, saying that the tickets at the main entrance to the pyramids were very expensive, but there was an "Egyptian" entrance which was cheaper, easier, included everything, and entailed taking a camel or horse ride into the pyramids area. Catkin laughed her head off when he told us that his name was Omar Sharif, but he didn’t seem to see it as a joke, and I think that might really have been his name after all. After getting off the bus, he insisted on showing us to the entrance, and before we knew it we were sitting astride horses and bargaining on the price and how far we would be taken. Every time a price was offered our friend Omar would be in the background nodding his head vigorously, indicating what a good price we were getting. Obviously he was watching his commission decrease each time the price went down. We still have no idea whether we were ripped off or not, suffice to say that the final agreed price was a quarter of what was initially asked. In a land where a fixed price on anything is the exception rather than the rule and bargaining is a way of life, we have taken the view that there is no such thing as being ripped off - there is either a mutually agreed price or no sale, and if you pay too much it is your own fault!

The traffic in Cairo is something else, and possibly the worst we have driven in. Half the locals seem to be practising for competing in the touring car championship, with bumper to bumper driving and last minute overtaking manoeuvres, while the rest seem to have no concept of road safety, stopping in the middle of three busy lanes to fix a broken light cover or turning left from the far right hand lane across lanes of traffic. Add to this the pedestrians-with-a-death-wish and it makes for happy times. We were even run into, and by a Land Rover Discovery of all vehicles! Luckily it was only a light tap and no damage was done (to us anyway – not sure about the Discovery).

We met up again with our French friends, who spent nearly a week longer in Aqaba after we left, waiting for their new Carnet. They had just arrived in Cairo after a few days in the Sinai, and were about to apply for visas for Sudan. We briefly touched on the subject of the forthcoming quarterfinal between France and the All Blacks. Jean-François delightedly exclaimed that he would be cheering for the All Blacks. I’d like to think that I had converted him, but it turns out he has a strong dislike for the French Coach, who it seems is tipped to be the next sports minister if France win the World Cup. Looks like he might have a chance…

At last, on Thursday, we left Cairo in our dust, after spending the whole day completing our remaining errands. First up we picked up some spare filters and parts from the Land Rover service centre in 10th of Ramadan City (40km east of Cairo). Next we had another puncture repaired, which involved a very animated discussion about the price – I think we are finally getting the hang of Egyptian bargaining now. The remainder of the day was taken up driving all over western Cairo trying to find the Carrefour supermarket so we could re-supply our food crates.

The Western Oases beckoned. Not very well signposted though… Luckily, while were staying at the hotel, I happened to read an article in a magazine about an archaeologist who is director of the Antiquities Department. His ideal long weekend was to be spent visiting the western oases and desert. In it he described the route taken out of Cairo and mentioned driving through 6th of October City (which isn’t on our map). Fortunately we saw a turn-off to this city which we took, and it has since turned out to be the right way. Otherwise we would have ended up a long way from our intended destination although we still would have made it to Luxor eventually.

We have had a night in each of the Black and White Deserts. These make up part of the Western Desert, which extends into Libya and is part of the mighty Sahara. The desert nights have been very peaceful, with clear skies full of stars, no one around for miles and a comfortable temperature. On the first morning in the desert I took the opportunity to do some work on the car, replacing some worn suspension bushes.

On Saturday we stopped early to tune into the BBC World Service Sports World programme which, thanks to the lack of any 8th division football from East Anglia, deigned to play the commentary of the last 12 minutes of the England vs Australia Quarter Final of the World Cup (bad news about the result, Gilly). So there we were, sitting in the Sahara listening to the rugby on a shortwave radio. It could only have been better if we had remembered to put beer in the fridge instead of Miranda Orange. Late last night though the trusty BBC brought me the bad news about the All Blacks exit. In between the static, I thought maybe I had misheard, so had to read for another hour until the next news bulletin. Unfortunately I had heard right the first time…

Finally, some news for tractor buffs. So far, Egypt has been the first country that we have been through on this trip where the noble Massey Ferguson tractor has not been sighted. They have been everywhere else in numbers, most notably in Turkey, but not yet here. We are still looking though.

The BEF

2007-10-12T13:37:00.000+01:00

After four nights in the desert we descended off a very barren limestone plateau towards the Nile Valley. Suddenly I saw tress in the distance through the haze to be followed by the lush cultivated fields flanking the Nile a few kilometres on either bank. The contrast with the desert was quite stark. After spending the afternoon relaxing and attending to “personal administration” (laundry, repairing kit etc) in the shady Rezeiky Campsite in Luxor, we asked about hiring bikes for the following day. An hour later two bikes or, as Gavin would describe them, lumps of junk arrived. We enquired after the price but the man who brought them had to rush off again apparently. I think he was rushing home for breakfast. Later the campsite manager informed us of the price of which I think the majority was his commission.

The price was OK so the next day we were up with the birds to cross the Nile on the ferry to the west bank to explore the ancient tombs. We finally figured out the rather complicated system for tickets and decided to visit one of the Tombs of the Nobles, but first we headed up the hill to the Valley of the Kings. Despite a dog almost taking a chunk out of Gavin’s calf we made it one piece to the gate where the police told we must leave the bikes. When we returned they had, very considerately moved bikes into the shade for us!! They did not look impressed when we rode off without giving bakshish for such a thoughtful act.

Getting back to the Valley of the Kings, the tomb of Tutankamon is the most intact of all the tombs. That means that none of the treasures were taken by the locals to be melted down or burned and there was no roman graffiti and the like. However, not only did we have to pay the entrance fee for the valley but also pay even more again for this one tomb, so we gave it a miss. We were more than happy with the three tombs we visited. Each tomb was very different to the next one. The exquisite carving and painting was the common theme. To enter one tomb we climbed up a ladder and then descended to quite deep through a number of different corridors- it was very hot and humid inside. We did ask ourselves whether the humidity caused by all these bodied huffing and puffing up and down the steps was damaging the paintings and plaster.

Of course we were back in “Tourists Ville” and even when visiting the tombs the whole tour group seems to stick together. In one tomb we were patiently waiting at the entrance to the tomb room for a group to enter so that we could leave via the network of corridors. After we finally made it out we realised that by the time the whole group had entered the tomb the same group was already starting to leave and we had ended up waiting for the whole group to arrive and leave before we made our own escape. Another tomb, higher in the valley had far fewer visitors and we even had it to ourselves for a short spell. There were beautiful carvings flanking the entrance and although it was not a large tomb with many corridors we looked straight down to the large stone tomb of Sethi II. I think King Sethi died quite a bit prematurely because some of the artwork appeared to be completed in quite a hurry and some of the walls just had the outline traced out. The local “hangers on,” who obviously do not have to pay an entrance fee each day, were making a nuisance of themselves in the tombs; ready to point out something of interest with their torch or offering to take a forbidden photograph.

Next we squeaked, rattled and wobbled our way down to the Tombs of the Nobles. The absence of any information telling you where you might find the group of tombs, let alone the specific tomb we had paid to enter turned this part of our excursion into an orienteering trip. One lad offered to how us the way for far too much money which we declined, his final words were “you will never find it” and indicated that we were looking in the wrong direction (which we were not and were actually quite close). We certainly found lots of tombs but they were all blocked off and there was no one around.

Eventually another chap found us and took us the long way round, we had been very close- a matter of metres, and even when we arrived there was nothing to indicate in any language or communication method that this was the tomb. Another chap awoke from his slumber and produced the keys to let us in. As he was hurrying me down the steps, Gavin was left behind with our original helpful local with no money for bakshish, oh dear. Here we viewed two tombs much smaller than the kings tombs but absolutely delightful. Our two guides also helped us solve a conundrum. We had been wondering how the original Egyptian artisans illuminated the tombs because any kind of candle or lamp would have left a sooty residue on their beautiful work. In these tombs the light was not very good so using a couple of pieces of cardboard covered in foil the guides reflected sunlight into the tombs, just as the ancient Egyptians did. Needless to say we did reward for their hard work, and again needless to say they wanted more. Whatever you give it is never enough!

On the way home a tour bus driver had some trouble understanding why I could not see him indicating he was turning left when he then proceeded to overtake and turn left through me. I did try to explain that both my eyes are in the front of my head rather than in the back, but I am not sure if such a detailed anatomical description was too complicated for him.

The next day we visited the extremely impressive Temples of Karnak, less than half a kilometre from our campsite. We left an hour so later than we had intended after chatting to a Dutch couple in a 1986 Series 3 Land rover who had travelled up from the direction we are travelling in. So we got lots of tips and heard about all the things that had gone wrong with their car.

S0, the Temples of Karnak, a huge complex, yet the main entrance seemed to be through a hole in the fence.

Again, quite understandably there were many, many tour groups and the inevitable “hangers on”/ “guides” just waiting in the wings to show you something which, if you are walking around with you eyes open you will see, just so they can demand bakshish. Gavin, such a polite boy, would patiently explain to them that they may as well go away because they will not be getting any bakshish from us. I just ignored them. I have had enough of them interrupting our conversation, standing in the middle of my path so I have to stop etc.I realise that there is the argument that they are only trying to make money. It is however counter-productive as far as we are concerned. For example, the idea of going into a shop selling souvenirs (some of which are quite interesting) is totally abhorrent to me and the hassle technique does not appear to work so well with other people either. Also the touts are SO irritating it just makes you want to leave the area, otherwise we might stop for a drink etc.We have been thinking about setting up the "Bakshish Eradication Front" (BEF), using passive resistance methods to make our stand. Let us know if anyone is interested in joining?

We have been whiling a way the time a bit in Luxor because the ferry to Wadi Halfa in Sudan does not leave until Monday and the campsite here is good. In that time we have developed another flat tyre- the same tyre that has had punctures on three or four different occasions so far. We do need a new tyre but the tyres available in North Africa are not suitable for the rest of the journey so we are trying to hold out until we are further south. So Gavin has become quite expert now at getting the tyre off and mending the tube. Naturally, I have also become expert in advising and supporting. I just hope I never have to do it on my own.

Why do we enjoy the desert so much? Amongst many reasons is that it is beautiful and peaceful. Given the number of mosques on the towns and cities it is inevitable that when staying in a campsite we are not that far from one. This is fine, some are really quite lovely, until 4am in the morning when the Call of the Faithful to Prayer seems to take longer and longer as the end of Ramadan has approached. Yesterday I am sure it lasted for more than 40 minutes. I just wish that it was not quite so loud. Ramadan is now finished which means that we do not feel quite as bad when we eat or drink in public.

Tomorrow we head south to Aswan in a tourist convoy and prepare to spend an extortionate amount of money to use the ferry to Wadi Halfa. We have learned tat the convoys, mainly tour buses like to travel quite fast at about 120km/hr, we travel at a maximum speed of around 85 km/hr. So I suspect we shall annoy a few more bus drivers. We have already decided that when we get back to New Zealand we will be shouting at each other to communicate normally because we are so used to shouting over the noise of the engine. If we go any faster we might become permanently deaf.

It is quite likely that it will be quite a while before we post any more entries because once in Sudan it can take a while to retake possession of the car (potentially days) and then there is only desert for a few days until Khartoum.

Going nowhere, slowly

2007-10-19T15:34:00.000+01:00

Well, here we are, STILL in Egypt. Our planned voyage along Lake Nasser from Aswan in Egypt to Wadi Halfa in Sudan has been delayed by a week due to circumstances beyond our control.

After spending four days at the Rezeiky Camp in Luxor, relaxing in the shade, swimming in the pool and catching up with maintenance on the Land Rover, we bade our farewells and headed south. Only for a few kilometres though, as we were soon stopped at the police checkpoint. All tourists travelling to Aswan have to travel in one of three daily convoys, with police escorts front and rear. We were travelling with another overlander, Louis the Dutchman, who had also been staying at the camp in Luxor. He is a seasoned expert, as he travels through Egypt every year to spend a few months in Africa. He had hoped that our two vehicles might be able to travel on our own, but the police were having none of it. Louis is quite forthright, and has no hesitation in telling the police what he thinks of their stupid rules, half in Dutch, half in English.

Unfortunately, when pulling to the side of the road at the checkpoint, our left rear tyre had an altercation with the checkpoint’s set of roadspikes that they had conveniently hidden behind a barrier. Luckily none went fully into the tyre, but we still got another puncture from it. Much to my joy I got more practise at removing the tyre and mending the puncture. Luckily the tyre is still useable, because it is one of our best.

We finally did get going in convoy, but that only lasted about five minutes of the 220km journey. The bus and two vans took off at high speed with the lead police vehicle, never to be seen again, while Louis and ourselves trundled along at our usual 80km/h, despite the tail car urging us to step on it. Catkin had been looking forward to the “convoy”, and even had the song of the same name playing on the ipod, but the end result was a bit disappointing.

Louis pointed out all the important places in Aswan on arrival, and we then headed out of town and across the Nile to spend the night in the desert. Next day (Sunday) it was off to the Nile Navigation Co office to book tickets for the ferry. Outside, we met Louis, along with two Dutch motorcyclists Luuk and Guido, who had also been staying at Rezeiky Camp in Luxor while we were there. They had already been into the office, and told us that the company won’t sell the tickets until all traffic police formalities have been finalised. So, off to the first traffic police office we all drive (a better convoy this time), but because of the Eid-El-Fitr holiday for the end of Ramadan it’s closed until Tuesday. We decide to try the second Traffic Police office on the off-chance that it might be open, but it’s not. The news is all bad. The ferry will leave on Monday as scheduled (a miracle in itself), but we won’t be on it (typical). So now we’re spending a week in and around Aswan.

The day before we left Luxor, our new friends from France, JF and family, caught up to us again, so it was good to see them and hear where they had been since our brief reunion in Cairo. Of course, we touched on the subject of the rugby, but only briefly. They also very kindly took us out for dinner in Luxor that night. It looks like they might catch up to us again now!

On Tuesday we managed to satisfy all the necessary traffic police requirements and handed back our temporary number plates and driver’s licence. We have booked 2nd class passage on the ferry for ourselves and a space on the barge for the Camel (cars travel separately and take an extra day). We head back to the Nile Navigation Office tomorrow (Sunday) at 9am to complete ticketing and hand over the cash (about 3000 Egyptian Pounds all up), before driving to the harbour to pass through customs and load the vehicles on the barge. We then have one more night in Aswan before the ferry leaves on Monday. The journey is overnight, passing the great temple of Abu Simbel on the way, and we should arrive in Wadi Halfa on Tuesday morning. The car probably won’t get there until Wednesday, and then might take a day or two to unload and get through Sudanese Customs…

After spending most of the last week camping out of town in the desert, we are again treating ourselves, spending our last three nights on land in Egypt in an hotel. We have a nice little room next to Louis, Luuk and Guido’s rooms, and it’s been good to get properly clean, do some washing etc. The hotel has a restaurant, but they only serve soft drinks and eggs (either boiled or omelette, for breakfast), so last night Catkin cooked a delicious meal of pasta, aubergine and sausage out on our tiny balcony.

We have a pretty good view of the Nile from the balcony, too, where we can watch the feluccas run up and down the river.

By the time we reach Sudan, it will have taken two full months to travel through Syria, Jordan and Egypt, which by my reckoning is about twice as long as it needed. It feels a bit like we have been getting nowhere. Hopefully things will pick up from here. During our ferry trip we will cross the Tropic of Cancer, and from there it’s only another 23½ degrees of latitude until the Equator! As of today, we have been on the road for 118 days.

And no, no Massey Fergusons sighted in Egypt.

Never smile at a crocodile

2007-10-31T15:23:00.000Z

Hoorah, we have left those all so honest traders (!) of stinky and dirty Egypt far behind. I am convinced that there is a national conspiracy in Egypt for overcharging foreigners. For example, ask an Egyptian how much they pay for bread- 5 piastres they reply. However, when I go to buy, the price is suddenly 50 piastres per bread or even one pound. It is impossible for me to buy at the same prices as locals. It appears that many vendors would rather watch their bread grow mould or vegetables compost before selling at a reasonable price. Gavin said it was quite funny to watch me shop for groceries. Inevitably at some point I ended up just dumping the bags of groceries on the counter and leaving after they have quoted ridiculous prices and I had no desire to haggle over the price of every single egg and tomato.

Our final day in Aswan did slightly redeem Egypt. After returning from the port we made our way over to Elephantine Island. Again, needless to say the ferryman attempted to overcharge us by 400%. We just gave him the money we knew to be correct and walked off, with him shouting after us. Elephantine Island as been inhabited by the Nubians for generations and generations and although it was only 100metres or so from Aswan it was completely different. The children left us alone, felucca captains did not follow us down the street. It was a herding village with people getting on with their lives. It was cleaner and more organised than Egyptian towns and the Nubians appeared to have alot of pride. The excursion was very refreshing.

Egypt is an incredible place. It has been receiving tourists for 2000 years so I do not think that the approach to tourism is going to change soon. The country has so much to offer. The amazing diving and snorkelling in the Red Sea, The Pyramids, Tombs, Temples and the Nile, but it exhausted me and it just felt that the people were always grabbing at us and I never knew who to trust. So you may have gathered, I was glad to leave.

On the day of ourLake Nasser cruise we arrived at the port bright and early, as we had been requested. At 11am there was no sign of the vehicles being loaded so I went ahead onto the ferry to secure a shady area for our gang. Lunchtime came and went, on a few occasions my marked territory was invaded and in usual style I made it quite clear that the area was reserved. It was interesting watching all the cargo being loaded in a most inefficient and incompetent way. One fridge was dropped and everyone just shrugged their shoulders, another box fell off the quay, again shrugs all round. At one point a tower with lights on it fell off another barge into the water and was rammed into the quayside- more shrugs and arguments ensued. Sunset approached and finally the vehicles were loaded on the barge which does not even travel with the ferry. The ferry had been waiting for the drivers to load the vehicles so we were off immediately. Eventually Gavin and the rest remainders of the gang managed to climb over everyone else to our area. Finally I felt vindicated for reserving such a large area as we all tried to squash into the area. However I did find the other passengers very respectful. Many of them were young Egyptian men travelling to Khartoum for work. Only men were on the deck and women and children were below deck, in what looked like a cattle transporter. The Frenchies had decided to travel first class. After shooing a few sleeping bodies out of their cabin when they arrived and cleaning up the rat poo they could enjoy the air conditioning. Also, we were permitted to use the first class facilities. While they looked cleanish, the stench put hairs on your chest and one wonders what the second class facilities were like.

We eventually started to settle down for the night to find everything was getting wet. An air conditioning pipe was leaking fairly foul water. Interestingly when we tried to do something about it, such as ask for a bowl to collect the water we were told “the water is not a problem”. So, in true annoying British tourist style I asked to be shown the kitchen where I would locate for myself a suitable vessel to collect the water. Finally a bowl was found. Interestingly the next morning some of our Egytpian neighbours also helped with emptying the water and when we erected a sunshade, again our neighbours followed suit. I like to think that we managed to create a little community spirit which seemed to be so lacking in Egypt.

Early in the morning close to the Sudanese border we passed Abu Simbel, a wonderful view from the lake. Within a few hours we arrived at Wadi Halfa, after a rather strange immigration procedure we made our way off the boat. At one point it was so crowded and everyone was so much taller than me I felt myself being picked up by someone around the waist and physically pushed through the crowd it was so tight, thank you that man.

Wadi Halfa used to be an old Nubian city which now lies beneath the water. Now it is a collection of fairly tatty buildings and feels like the end of the world. We stayed in the best hotel in town! Apart from the odd person asking us if we wanted to change money there was no one hassling us for a felucca ride, for a taxi, for this for that, ahhhh we could relax a bit. There is still quite a bit of tension between the Egyptians and the Sudanese and by the next day many of the Egyptians still had not received their passports back, and when they did they had to pay a small fee. There are a few occasions that as foreigners or westerners we do seem to receive different treatment to locals- but it is not always clear that we do have it easier in some ways.

The next day the barge arrived and after a few hours of sitting around the vehicles were released and we all planned to make an early departure the next morning.

Up with the sun we made an interesting convoy, four motorbikes, one Toyota and two Landrovers (one with a campervan body). All of us were travelling at slightly different speeds. The bikes can speed off into the distance but have to stop more frequently for breaks and had to wait for us eventually because we were carrying the bags of three bikes and some of their fuel. We are not a "support vehicle for nothing". That day we travelled mainly though hilly desert with some short sections of tarmac, a new road is being constructed. We passed through one town of about 5 houses but there was not really anything there to sustain a living and after driving about 150km for the day we made camp.

The following day we hit the Nile passing through many Nubian villages with beautifully decorated homes. I sometimes caught a glimpse inside a compound gate to very neat yards with flowers growing and beds in the shade. People were busy working in their cultivated plots. We saw very few other vehicles and the locals always seemed happy to see us. That night we camped right by the Nile and amazingly the mosquitoes were not horrendous. One of the Dutch Boys was brave enough to risk Bilharzia and the crocodiles, taking a quick dip. They do get pretty grimy and dusty on the bikes so I can understand wanting to have a quick wash. Being in our luxurious car we can spare a litre or so of water in the evening for washing.

Our saga of punctures continues and yet again Gavin had to fix a tyre. One of the Dutch boys has been really amazed by Gavin's "manliness, he is always doing such manly things" (said with a deep dutch accent). Although we are making quite slow progress, being so many vehicles, it has been fun travelling with everyone. We are all travelling for different reasons which is interesting because we all see and observe different things, also we are not in a hurry. Louis has made the journey many times before and knows some good spots. The bikes are limited by what they can carry, there has not been much opportunity to buy fuel and all the water comes from the Nile which takes forever to filter because it is so brown.

Evidence of the recent flooding in central Africa was apparent but this was not a problem for us. The bird life is becoming quite interesting, hoopoes, rollers and larks to name a few. One crocodile was spotted by the group and quite a few Nubian homes proudly displayed crocodile skulls on their gate posts.

The following day our merry bunch started to divide. Two of the bikes decided to push on after we decided to stop by the 2nd Cataract, where there are some more ancient Egyptian heiroglyphic rock carvings. There were still a few hours of light left but it was a good place to stop and the going had been quite heavy. So off went the English and South African bikers. We hoped that they would be OK because only the previous day one of them had been suffering with dehydration and was falling off ever such a lot. Also we had been carrying one of their very heavy bags which they would have to carry now making the riding on rough terrain more difficult.

We had a lovely evening. There was a wedding in the local village. I was not sure what all the singing and drum beating was for do I went over and soon I was enveloped by a group of women in their brightly coloured wraps, beating their drums and dancing. Then the men appeared and one even had a video camera. I eventually extricated myself. Later a local lad appeared with what we think was some sort of perch, we agreed a price. It was very fresh and big. I took the tail half, attempted to fillet and fried in flour flavoured with cumin, JF took the head half and steamed it with coriander and cloves. I provided noodles with courgette and JF provided rice with mayonnaise. There was plenty for everyone and we had a feast.

In the morning we were up again with the sun and in the next town we found a fuel station, better than the fuel out of drumspreviously available. There was also clean looking water from a tap. So while the Dutch Boys re-fuelled (we still had plenty of diesel), we filtered more drinking water, this time not having to clean the filter every 5 litres. We then made our way to the ferry to cross to the West bank.

On the other side the road was much improved, not nearly as many corrugations and flatter. I think the bikers were much relieved by such improvements however I admit a sense of disappointment. In a few years there will be a tar seal road all the way to Wadi Halfa. I enjoy the slow roads, the driving is more fun and you see so much more. Also life along the Nile will change very quickly. Yes, infrastructure is progress but people living in these villages seem to have an organised way of life already.

By lunchtime we reached Dongola, a bustling city. That means it had shops, pharmacies, an hotel and a hospital. We shopped for some groceries while the Frenchies took their son to the hospital. When we caught up with them they were deliberating what to do. The doctor wanted to keep him in for 24 hours for observation but had barely done any tests, when JF asked about the tests I had suggested the Doctor had apparently said they would not really show anything- I think it is because they did not have any of those facilities. They decided to carry on to Khartoum to see a doctor there. A good thing they did because the following day he had his appendix removed.

We also headed south to Khartoum, but more slowly camping behind a sand dune. Khartoum is awash with white shiny 4x4 United Nations and NGO vehicles- UNICEF, Save the Children, MSF, World Food Programme to name but a few. The driving is far more civilised than anything we experienced in Egypt and the people are very friendly. More time for personal administration and yesterday we applied for Ethiopian Visas. We had been informed of the hoops to jump through, such a letter of recommendation from own embassy (I was not going to do that again) proof of onward travel etc. The Ethiopian Embassy is the friendliest I have been to. They were apologetic at having to look into my bag, apologised for keeping us waiting etc. At 3pm we returned to collect our passports with visas. All we had to provide was two passport photos, they even photocopied our carnet for us. Also it cost less than we had expected.

We are camped in the National Camping Residence of Sudan which also seems to provide accomodation for groups of Ethiopian refugees in transit. In the evenings hundreds of frogs, some the size of a halfpenny entertain us by jumping in the artificial light. Tomorrow it looks like our gang, which intially formed way back in Luxor, will be disbanding. The Dutch boys and Louis head towards Ethiopia and we head back north for a bit to the Meroe pyramids, before heading towards Ethiopia ourselves. The Frenchies are staying Khartoum for a while. Their eldest son needs to recuperate and has correspondance school work to catch up on.

Going Solo

2007-11-04T11:07:00.000Z

With the Dutch contingent safely on their way to Ethiopia, and the French back at the campsite after a few days at the hospital, Catkin and I headed north to see the narrow pyramids of the Royal Necropolis of Meroe. It was quite strange at first to be back on our own again, having to find our own way after spending most of the last few weeks following the Land Cruiser of Louis the Dutchman.

We had first heard about the Meroe pyramids on BBC radio programme ‘Excess Baggage’, and seeing as we were passing through Sudan, thought it would be rude not to visit. Although much smaller than the more famous pyramids at Giza, the setting is far more atmospheric. These really are out in the desert, windswept with drifting sand, and not a tour bus or Russian tourist in sight. We camped that night in the area behind the pyramids, and by the morning we were also slightly windswept and covered in a light coating of drifting sand.

While we were there, a man on a heavily laden little donkey came over to see us. He told us he had a ‘supermarket’ and started listing what he had for sale. In reality he had more of a ‘little souvenir shop’ so we politely explained that we were not interested in buying anything. He continued his sales pitch, and despite her new found hard-nosed resolve to refuse to purchase anything when hassled, I could sense Catkin beginning to weaken toward this chap, who, she thought, was obviously just working hard to make a living. He completely blew it, however, when he whipped his mobile phone out of his pocket and asked if he could plug it in to our car to charge it. We waved him away, and he trundled off into the sunset.

Coming back from Meroe we took an excursion to have a look at two temples, Musawwarat and Nagaa. We didn’t know anything about them, but they were marked on our map and we felt like some more desert track driving. Permission is required to visit the sites, and this can be arranged at the entrance, but the US$10 per person price tag to see a pile of stones with little or no explanation was a little steep for us. We did have a good drive though, and even managed to get stuck in the sand briefly, so the big shovel got its first use (we have another small folding shovel for other more delicate “desert operations”, if you know what I mean). We did manage to drive out, and eventually made it back to Khartoum.

In Khartoum we have visited a big supermarket, but it turned out to be a big disappointment. We had been anticipating stocking up on a few of the harder to get items on our shopping list, but although there was lots of shelf space there wasn’t actually much there, and what there was is very expensive. A 1kg box of Kellog’s cornflakes was US$12.50! On our first visit, the Dutch Boys noticed how Catkin’s face lit up when she saw the shelves of cornflakes, and how disappointed she was that they were too expensive for us to justify buying. They decided to buy a box for us all to share for the few days that we were together, which was very kind of them. The carpark is always full of big white four wheel drives with various UN and aid agency logos on the doors, so I guess that explains the high price tags. Back to the local markets for us…

We are staying at the Khartoum National Camping Residence, which is a big complex with lots of dormitory rooms, bathroom facilities and an athletics track. At the moment there is a large group of students and teachers from all over Sudan staying for a two week English camp, so we have had lots of people coming to practise their English with us.

Yesterday, Bernard and Maria, a German couple who we first met in Aqaba, also arrived at the campsite. It has been interesting to catch up with them, compare experiences and find out how their journey has gone since we last saw them about six weeks ago.

The National Camping Residence is at 15º 31’ 13” N, 032º 34’ 22” E. Sunrise for us at present is at about 0645hrs, and sunset at about 1820hrs. The temperature during the day is typically around 35ºC-40ºC, and it hasn’t been dropping much below 30ºC overnight, although last night was much cooler. When we are on the road, we tend to get up early enough so that we can be on the road at sunrise, when it is still relatively cool. We try to stop at least an hour or two before sunset to allow some time to do our daily chores, relax with a cold drink etc. Of course, we stop during the day for breaks as well.
We have travelled 21870km since leaving London. Yesterday we carried out our third oil and filter change of the trip. We are changing the oil every 5000 kilometres at present, to combat the effects of the poor quality diesel available. Also yesterday, we had another puncture, bringing our total for the trip to 11 so far. The Hi-Lift jack is now mounted on the roof rack so that we don’t have to unpack the car every time we need to change a tyre. We are still searching for a new tyre to match our barely used spare, but still no joy. We are hoping for luck in Addis Ababa, where perhaps mud tyres might be more common. I have even asked Michelin to tell me where I can buy their tyres on our route, but so far they have not responded!

We plan to depart Khartoum tomorrow, spending another night in Sudan before crossing to Ethiopia. Although we’ve been told that Islam is gaining popularity, the main religion in Ethiopia is Christianity. We will be looking for a Bible so we can read up on the events associated with the places we have been to in the last few months, and we are looking forward to being able to buy beer again!

Once again, we’re not sure if we will be able to make contact until we reach Addis Ababa, so if you don’t hear from us for a while, don’t panic!