The Final Chapter - England, our home from home

The South
We spent nearly a week with our friends, Des & Terry, at Berry House sorting out stuff, contacting people we needed to see and generally planning our trip around southern England. With their help we lined up the shippers for Tom Cruiser and organised the local garage who sorted out the oil leak. Problem turned out to be a faulty oil filter even though it was a genuine Toyota part fitted in Libya!!

We spent our time dealing with emails, having our first pub lunch in a very long time, doing washing and walking the dogs. BW spent her waking moments talking to Blossom the budgie, playing with Steph’s Barbies and the 2 dogs, Sooty and Lizzie. One morning we went to see Canterbury Tales which was really interesting, did some shopping and then walked up to the King’s School playing fields to watch Steph play hockey.

We dragged ourselves away from Berry House and headed to Bognor Regis to visit Rich’s aunt Lein (dad’s sister) who is 92. She is in good shape and still lives on her own. She took us to the Walnut Tree in nearby Runtcorn for lunch. It was nice to catch up with her and for her to meet Rebecca, her great-niece.

It was late afternoon before we got away and then made our way to our friend Alex and her son Dominic who live in Farnham Royal to the west of London.
Rebecca and Dominic got on really well, even though Dom is 2 years her senior. They shared a room and, according to them, stayed awake all night “reading and chattering” only keeping quiet when they heard an adult. Yeah, right!!

With Alex we took a walk around Burnham Beeches, a mediaeval forest, which is home to the Druid’s Oak, an 800 year old pollard oak. Nice to get outdoors and do some tramping even though very chilly and muddy underfoot.

London – The Capital
The next day we left Tom Cruiser with Alex and took the train to London where we spent the next 3 nights with Reynold in his apartment right on the banks of the Thames. Wow! A million pound location, literally!

En route we took in Portobello Road Market and Books for Cooks where we had lunch. Not really BW’s cup of tea but we enjoyed it nonetheless. We then went across to Harrods for some window shopping and finally caught a bus to Wapping Wall.

Reynold came home and cooked us a great pasta meal. He had been well briefed by the girls in SA on Rebecca’s favourite food!

We had a nice evening catching up and even got to speak to Lisa on the phone. The next morning we were up early for another big day in the Big Smoke. Reyn was up even earlier than us as he caught a plane to Moscow for 3 days leaving us in charge of his house.

We walked from the apartment to Tower Hill tube station via St. Katherine’s Dock and Tower Bridge. It was a very pleasant walk taking in the sights. We had decided not to overdo the sightseeing as BW can do it herself when she is older. We wanted to take in a show in the West End and settled on “The Gruffalo”, a show based on a book Rebecca loves, which was playing at the Duchess Theatre. It was very entertaining and the audience made up predominantly of school kids loved it.

We crossed to the south bank of the river where we ate lunch in freezing cold weather before walking down, past the London Eye, towards the Houses of Parliament. The barricades were still up and some roads closed as the Queen had made her speech in Parliament that morning. We walked past Horseguards Parade to St. James’s Park where Rebecca got to feed the squirrels – a definite highlight. We saw the afternoon changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace before heading back to Reynold’s place.

The Sphinx
While we were in Egypt we had read in the Lonely Planet guide that the Sphinx’s nose which had been shot off by Napoleon’s troops was in the British Museum. This fact was the deciding factor as to which museum to visit. One is spoilt for choice in London and they are all free: So…should we do the Natural History, Science or British? We left the decision to Becca Weasel so the British Museum it was and off we went in search of the Sphinx’s nose.
Once again Lonely Planet had got it completely wrong! Part of the Sphinx’s beard, not the nose, is in the museum. Undeterred we tracked that down instead. The museum was fantastic and we spent our time looking at the suggested highlights like the Elgin Marbles, now more correctly referred to as the Parthenon Sculptures, and the Rosetta Stone.

We dragged ourselves away as we needed to meet our nephew, Stuart, outside the Covent Garden tube station. When he finally arrived we had some lunch and then walked to Regent and Oxford Streets to see the Christmas lights, shop windows and do some shopping. Regent Street is done up with blue lights in the shape of spider’s webs. Very beautiful indeed. Somehow a worldwide email must have been sent saying that blue is the colour for lights this year. It has been a feature from the first ones we saw in Florence, Italy to the ones we’ve seen here.

Choosing a university for Rebecca
Not wanting to pre-empt anything, we had planned to visit Des & Terry’s daughter Caroline who is reading English at Merton College, Oxford and our friend Charlotte (last seen researching chimps in Uganda) who is monkey-ing around (not really, she is a very bright and dedicated student) at King’s College, Cambridge.

They both took us for lunch in their respective colleges and then a wander around. With Caroline we saw the Bodleian Library, her college and chapel and Christ Church College where some of Harry Potter was filmed and the Cathedral. Charlotte was pressed for time so we looked at the new Corpus Christi College clock (how’s that for alliteration?) and walked with her to the Biology Department Lab where she is doing her chimp DNA research.

In between our university visits we got to meet up with more of our friends.
We spent 2 nights with Liz (our friend Anne’s sister) and her husband Ian. We got to meet the rest of the family and had a great walk around the Savill Gardens, an area of the Queen’s estate around Windsor, now part of something called the Royal Landscape. They also took us to the Rose and Crown in Thorpe Green for lunch.

Our next stop was Tring in Hertfordshire where we met our friends, Nick and Lindsay, and their 2 children, Laura and Alistair, for lunch. We were at university with Nick and I served articles with both of them! We worked out that we hadn’t seen each other for 18 years. This is quite incredible as I am only 35 now! Laura took Rebecca under her wing and they played really nicely together. We had a wonderful time reminiscing and discussing SA.
Becca weasel was very sad to leave but leave we did and off we sped to our friends, Chas & Heather, who live only 45 minutes away in Wheathampstead.
Their 2 girls were so excited that Rebecca was coming to stay that to keep the peace she had to sleep in Lauren’s room on the first night and in Shannon’s on the second. Heather had also organised for Rebecca to go to school with Lauren on Monday. She was so excited and didn’t hesitate to accept.

Chas cracked open a bottle of Veuve Cliquot when we arrived to celebrate our not-so inconsiderable achievement, even if we say so ourselves!! That was a really nice thought and it was consumed with relish.

Rebecca’s Back-to-School Day
Kaz and Heather dropped the girls off at school and when they came back we (including Chas who had taken the day off) walked to the Devil’s Dyke, part of ancient Roman fortifications, and then back home through the little village.
At lunch time we went to collect the 2 younger girls and took them home to change for their school Christmas party. Our timing couldn’t have been better! Rebecca had a great time at school and even had some work to show for it. After dropping them at the party we headed off to The Fox, a gastropub in Kinsbourne Green, for lunch. It was really busy, probably because it’s so “cheap”, Chas! Obviously the credit crunch hasn’t had a major effect on this neck of the woods yet.
Heather and Kaz then took the girls swimming as Shannon had swimming practice while Chas and I put the world to rights at home.

1st Floor – Cambridge
2nd floor – Manchester
(If you got “Painting Sudan Red” you may get this one too - Answers on the blog only please!!)
We left Chas, Heather and the girls and set off to meet Charlotte for lunch in Cambridge as already discussed above. It was then all systems go for Manchester, our final destination!
Well, not really all systems as our GPS, due to memory constraints, was missing some of the required maps. This meant that I ended up navigating using the same software on the laptop instead which did make things a bit more interesting. Luckily after driving through Africa there is not a lot that we can’t deal with.
We hit some traffic en route so it was only after 7pm on 9 December, 184 days after leaving Johannesburg that we rolled up the driveway at Kaz’s uncle Greg’s home in Sale. The whole family were there to meet us. They organised a chippy dinner with steak and kidney puddings as per Kaz’s request, Rebecca was in her element playing with her little cousins, Tom Cruiser was quietly cooling down in the driveway and me…I was quietly chuffed!

Mission Accomplished

PS
Thank you for reading this blog, I hope you found it interesting. I have definitely enjoyed compiling it as much I enjoyed the myriad of experiences we encountered on the way.

Obviously this is not the end…Tom Cruiser gets shipped home later this month, the bushcats fly home on 29 December, Rebecca starts school next year, Kaz gets stuck into tax and me…well that’s another story I suppose.

To my 2 angels who have travelled this long road with me, you have been the best travelling companions anyone could ever wish for. Thank you!

PPS Happy Christmas everyone!!

Catching up with family and friends

With Stuart outside Selfridge's Christmas windows


With Auntie Lien (92) in her Bognor Regis home

Our first UK stop with Des, Terry, Stephanie and Lizzie

The 3 school girls off to St Hilda's School (Rebecca, Shannon & Lauren)

Too busy to update right now but some photos to keep you going!!

Harrods, Knightsbridge




Rebecca outside the Duchess Theatre about to see "The Gruffalo"






Keeping an eye on the "Eye"






Horseguards Cavalry



Changing the guard at Buckingham Palace

Pics - From Pompeii to Pisa

Drinks with Georgie on Piazza Santo Spirito in Florence

The Glove Girls in Pompeii

BW holding things together at Pisa

Where is that snowball going, Becca Weasel?

Tom with a snowy moustache

Europe - The Middle and the End (from shorts to trousers)

Mainland Europe
We had been given a return ferry ticket by some friendly campers at Raisgerbi which we flashed as we arrived at the ferry terminal in Messina. We were waved through and before we knew it – ferry crossing really quick – we were driving off the ferry at Villa san Giovanni en route for Pompei, almost 460km away to north. We had moved off the football of Sicily onto the boot of mainland Italy.

To our Italian friends in Bari and Rome, apologies for not getting in touch but the weather has caused us to up a gear and hence we weren’t able to visit!!

Pompei
Long drive along the autostrada through at least 70 tunnels and a good number of toll booths. We stopped at the services for food and drink for us and Tom (back to serious diesel prices - EUR 1.2/litre) and just kept on going until we finally found our way to the cluster of campsites called Zeus, Spartacus and Pompei. We chose Zeus. Had rain during the night and after breakfast, under a cloudy sky, walked to the entrance of the ruined city. The shorts had been packed away and the trouser brigade took over.
What a fantastic place. It made the ruins of Leptis Magna and the other North African sites come alive by showing the full extent of a Roman city. We spent 4 hours just wandering up and down the streets, looking into houses with beautiful courtyards and exquisite mosaics, gazing at the basilica, temples and theatres (one large, one small), the adjacent gyms where the gladiators trained and a huge amphitheatre. I was particularly taken with the roads where the wheels of the carriages and chariots had worn the rock down to form deep grooves. Incredible! The sky brightened and we had a good view of Mt. Vesuvius, the volcano that led to the destruction of the city in the first place.

We then walked into the new town of Pompei, which is fairly upmarket, for lunch and popped into the new basilica which was amazing. We spent the evening in the tent catching up on journals and trying to plan the rest of our trip. Our campsite was full of fruit trees so we picked some naartjies before leaving. Most campsites close from the end of October so finding accommodation is not going to be fun.

Florence
Our preferred route took us past Florence and we contacted our friend Georgie Murray, who is working there and we met her for a drink. I had forgotten how beautiful Florence is and the walk from the campsite into town was great. We again harvested some of the fruit in the campsite, this time olives off the laden olive trees.

We now began our relentless march northwards. We stopped briefly in Pisa to show Rebecca the Leaning Tower and it was nice to see it again ourselves. It seemed to be a lot lighter in colour, but it’s probably been cleaned in the last 18 years!
We started counting tunnels when we hit the mainland and went through a total of 160 by the time we got to Turin in the late afternoon! Luckily Villa Rey campsite was open and we opened our tent in freezing cold weather. Turin looked like a very beautiful city.

Poor Tom Cruiser
During the drive towards Turin, I’d noticed at one of our coffee stops some spots on the spare tyres and the back of the truck. Looking underneath the car the back axle and left shock absorber were dripping with oil. I then looked under the engine and the same thing there, oil dripping off the engine all over the place. The oil level on the dipstick was way down. It being a Saturday there were no available mechanics so we decided to press on. We topped up the oil and off we went. Of course we were now totally focussed on this new unfortunate turn of events.
We stopped every couple of hours and the leaking had got worse so we kept topping up the oil, eventually going through at least 15 litres of the stuff!
In the freezing cold Turin morning, I checked that the oil filter was screwed on tightly (thinking maybe that the cold weather had contracted the metal and the filter had loosened) and again we took the decision to press on instead of waiting for Monday and possibly finding a Toyota mechanic in Turin. We met an Aussie couple “campervanning” around Europe and he (Bruce – no joke) also agreed that it wasn’t a life threatening illness that Tom had contracted. Turin was ringed with snow capped mountains and really beautiful but unfortunately we were distracted by the oily situation we found ourselves in. We had porridge for breakfast, surprise, surprise!

Full speed ahead
The cold weather and Tom’s oil slick prompted us to speed up. Unfortunately it meant that again the James’ would not do justice to France so we definitely have unfinished business in that country. We crossed into France through the Frejus Tunnel having decided not to do the Mont Blanc Tunnel because of the cost of the toll. We needn’t have bothered, the Frejus Tunnel took its toll on us too! We stopped along the road to let BW play in the snow while I took Tom’s temperature for the umpteenth time. The French Alps were beautiful, snow capped and majestic.

We bypassed Lyon and stopped for our first French meal at one of the services. BW wolfed down steak and chips. We then headed towards the home of mustard, Dijon when it started to snow. Before long we’d put Tom into 4-wheel drive and were creeping our way through driving snow. We saw the snow ploughs clearing the other lane of the motorway and luckily only one accident. We eventually stopped at a truck stop between Dijon and Troyes around 10:30 pm and parked between 2 trucks in 2 inches of snow. Got the tent up pronto and fell asleep. It rained during the night which unfortunately got rid of the snow before Rebecca could play in it the next morning.

The next day we left early and drove all day stopping only to fill up with food, diesel and oil. Our oil consumption probably surpassing our diesel consumption especially in monetary terms.
At 4pm on the 24 November we arrived in Calais and considered our options. The Eurotunnel was our preference but not having booked online it was both fully booked and expensive so we headed for the ferry. We topped up with diesel before booking ourselves on the P&O Ferry leaving at 18:50.

The ferry was delayed due to bad weather so it was after 7pm when we drove leaky Tom
onto the ferry. The ferry was really nice but most ferries are if compared to the Wadi Halfa rust bucket!

UK
We drank coffee and played Uno on the ferry and checked out the duty free shops. Before we knew it we were ushered back to our vehicles and at 8pm UK time the bushcats drove off the ferry with the white cliffs of Dover in full view! Unfortunately BW was fast asleep by this stage.
We cruised slowly along the A2 to our friends Des & Terry who live in Chilham near Canterbury.
They welcomed us in and cracked a bottle of French champagne which was a real treat.
How nice to be in a real home again!
Our first priority was to see what Tom's problem was.
We took him to Terry's local garage where Dave diagnosed the problem as a faulty oil filter and in no time at all he was better.
Considering the terrain and trip we've done, for this to be Tom's only ailment is nothing short of a miracle.
Viva, Toyota, viva!!

The last leg of the Bushcats’ adventure to Manchester awaits!

Europe - The beginning

Sicily – S for “Still in Shorts”
Well, we did manage to see the boat leave Africa and we watched the lights of Tunisia grow fainter as our ferry powered its way towards Europe. Finally got to bed around 1:15am!
The ferry managed to make up some time and we docked in Palermo around 10:30am. We had been on deck watching Sicily get closer and closer until we were able to make out fairly large towns hugging the coastline. Immigration was done on board and was a breeze as we flashed our EU passports. We then hopped into Tom and waited for our turn to drive onto European soil. We trundled down the ramp, cleared customs with no problems at all and then drove smack-bang into a Catch-22 situation of note.

It went like this…to drive in Europe, one needs to have a Green Card for third party insurance, we could not find an Italian insurance company in Palermo to sell us one. They all told us that we should organise through our own insurers back in SA (Message from AA in SA; “We don’t have a clue.” Message from Outsurance in SA…still waiting for one!). We were advised that we would be able to purchase said Green Card at the port in Trapani, so off we drove – much to the disgust of said advisers who expected us to catch a bus or taxi as it is verboten to drive without insurance. Very law abiding sentiment from people living in Mafia country but there you are!
Needless to say the drive to Trapani was very scenic but fruitless except for a delicious meal in Angelina Restaurant (we attacked our plates as if we hadn’t seen food before!). We headed back towards Palermo and found our way to Sferacavallo where we camped for the night and considered our plight.
“If in doubt, surf the internet”; the saying goes, so we did. The Aussies had managed to buy their Green Card in Sicily, but where they don’t say. They did however refer to a Dutch company (Alessie) for all European insurance requirements. We contacted Maria Alessie and all our problems were solved. She was great. It did mean that we were driving uninsured for a couple of days, but are legit again now. Hooray!

We plotted a course for a campsite near a town called Finale about 100km east of Palermo. We drove through loads of tunnels to get there. We hadn’t factored in how hilly Sicily is. We arrived at RaisGerbi and found that the camp had 4 major attractions, the location – on a cliff above the sea, a washing machine (Kaz hadn’t used one of these for months), a pizzeria (we are making the most of vino della casa too) and a very friendly ginger cat (Becca Weasel was in cat heaven).
We spent a day getting sorted and of course what Tom had spirited away in Egypt, he now spat out in Sicily – yep you got it – the credit cards!! Well at least we know they haven’t been used or cloned.

We visited a nearby town called Cefalu which is built around a massive rock. The streets in these villages are so tiny and parking is restricted so we parked at the port and walked up. We found a nice little restaurant and luckily opted to sit inside as the heavens opened and it poured. After a delicious meal of bruschetta and pasta we visited the cathedral which was magnificent. The wall behind the altar was mosaic’ed, not painted and very beautiful.

We headed towards the east coast of the island where we got to see Mt. Etna with its peaks already dusted with snow and the cold air revealing the steam escaping out the top just to let us know it’s still alive. We have had our fair share of rain but the shorts brigade soldiered on. We drove through the mountain top town of Taorminia which was really stunning. We camped just outside Catania at camping Junio but stayed only one night as the road north beckons and we would have to brave mainland Italy before long. Our campsite was right on the sea and the noise of the sea crashing on the rocks was deafening.

We loved Sicily, the people are friendly, food fantastic and the scenery stunning. It is also quite refreshing to hear the sound of church bells again, instead of the chanting muezzins!

Stop Press - Rule Britannia!!

The bushcats rolled off the P&O ferry at 8pm UK time on Monday 23rd November. The end of our trip in Manchester firmly in our grasp. Our whirlwind dash through Europe yielded some fantastic mments as well as some heartstopping ones. More about this later.

Lying in bed at Des & Terry's near Canterbury as I write this, it seems unreal that after 28 200 odd kilometres and after 6 months our trip is nearly at an end.   

Photo time!!

The Theatre at Sabratha


Becca Weasel and a fish at Sabratha


Muslim graves at Mahdia in Tunisia


The Leader!!


Is it Blog Man or Camel Man??

Tunisia – T for the Top

It’s official. We’ve run out of continent! On the 9th November we stood north of Bizerte at pretty much the most northerly point of Africa. How do we feel? Well, pretty damn good actually!!
The last couple of countries have been quite a stretch for us and it was difficult to pinpoint why this should be. My latest theory is that this is not Africa. I think that the last real African country we passed through was Kenya, with Ethiopia being on the cusp. The Nubians of Sudan and Egypt were an anomaly and not really liked by the Egyptians. There was one area in Libya with really dark people; some say they are descendents of the indigenous inhabitants in Libya, others say they are the descendents of freed slaves. Libyans by the way are really arrogant and feel they are a cut above their neighbours in Egypt and Tunisia. The Egyptians because they provide a lot of casual labour in Libya and Tunisians, well… just ‘cause (maybe because the Tunisians actually pick up litter along their main highways). So really what we’ve been travelling through has been more “Arabia” than “Africa”.

Anyway, back to Tunisia. It is very cosmopolitan and more French/Mediterranean than African or Arabian for that matter. There is neither the plethora of headscarves nor the undercurrent of control. We have not been stopped once by the many traffic police we’ve seen all over the place. Tunisia is a long and skinny country and we’ve tried to hug the coast as far as possible to get some beach time in before winter hits us. Our first stop was the Isle of Jerba where we camped in Aghir. Unfortunately we drove over the 2km long causeway built by the Romans at night so didn’t get a good sense of moving onto an island. We camped right on the beach and didn’t move for a day, making up for the relentless pace we’d set through Libya. The sea was a bit chilly but that didn’t stop Becca Weasel. Out came the bucket and spade and she was on cloud nine!
We caught a ferry off the island and, after an hour’s wait and a short ferry ride, we drove up the coast and camped the night in a hotel car park in Mahares. Not the best place right on the busy main road but we were one step closer to Tunis where we needed to book our ferry for Sicily. We took a toll road into Tunis and got diddled by the toll cashier when he short changed us. We drove straight to port to check out ferry tickets and sort out our vehicle customs document which expires before we are expecting to leave the country. Both were closed so we set off to look for somewhere to sleep the night. There is no camping to be had in the capital but we drove through a really nice looking upmarket suburb called Sidi bou Said (the presidential palace is nearby). The houses are nicely kept, there are good looking pavement cafes and an abundance of colourful bougainvillea. We could live here.

Coffee is good but pricy. French bread is available everywhere but also not as cheap as Libya. Diesel is trending towards SA prices, preparing us for Europe no doubt. We parked just outside a hotel that was closed for renovations and paid the security guys to let us sleep there. It seemed peaceful enough except for the cars that whizzed down the cul-de-sac and out again and a drunken brawl/shouting match that took place at 3 o’clock in the morning. It seems the hotel was closed but not the bar. Luckily Rebecca slept through all of the goings-on.

The ruins of Carthage were dotted around the suburb but we only found one part and it was enough for us, having already seen the best the region has to offer ruins-wise. We took a toll road again and made sure we checked our change this time! In Bizerte, which is a really nice clean looking town, we had lunch overlooking the sea and then drove up the coast to Cap Blanc where we walked with our GPS to the most northerly point we could find. We saw loads of little pink jellyfish washed up into the rock pools and hoped that they would be swept out to sea when the tide came in. We then read that the Aussies had found a more northerly point so we set off to find that but without a detailed map we got horribly lost and ended up in a pine forest where we spent a quiet afternoon and a peaceful night. Luckily we are happy with our northerly point and are not going to lose any sleep over a difference of 42 seconds of latitude. The next morning we woke to rain on the tent which got progressively harder and harder. We packed up a wet tent and headed back to Bizerte via the lake which makes up most of the Ichkeul National Park. We chased a bread van and decided not to buy his bread as it was a bit pricy but luckily found another one on the outskirts of the town which had loaves that were more attractively priced. We stopped on the rocks again for breakfast, went to check on the jellyfish and unfortunately they were still in the rock pools. I don’t think they’re going to make it!

We then started our short trip back to Tunis and the toll chappy tried to short change us again! Once bitten twice shy so we stayed put while we counted the change and waited until he came up with the right money. Dipstick!
We ventured back to the port and got the customs docs sorted out (well, I suppose we’ll find out when we try to leave anyway). The ferry tickets were a bit trickier over the counter so I tried to book on line and, unable to use my Mastercard, went delving into the car safe for my Diner’s Card. I pulled out the wallet where my cards were kept and it was bare! The only time we’d taken it out was when we left Tom in the Sudan so they must have been nicked from our hotel room in Egypt…or I’ve hidden them in a really good place never to be found again! Grrr.
Not to be deterred and, as there was nothing more to be done until we got access to the Internet, we left Tunis headed for Nabeul, south of the capital and on the sea. We’d had many people recommend Hotel les Jasmins and that’s where we headed for. We are camped in an olive and orange orchard. We love it. The beach is a short walk away as is the centre ville, where we eventually tracked down an Internet Café to deal with the lost cards. Thanks Andor!!
We are not moving until we head back to Tunis to buy the ferry tickets and set sail for Sicily.
We left Nabeul after our lazy days there and headed back to Tunis via Hammamet, to check out the next door town that caters more for package tourists and were glad we hadn’t stayed there- a bit too glitzy for our liking.

Tunis – revisited
We found our way to the ferry tickets and after a detour to the bank we managed to buy the tickets for our ferry, the Eurostar Salerno. We are hoping like mad that this ferry is an improvement on the Sina that carried us into Egypt. We had the rest of the day to kill as the ferry was only due to leave at 9pm and embarkation only at 6:30. We drove into the city centre and liked what we saw. The main avenue was lined with pavement cafes and crowded as it was lunch time. Oh yes; the working hours here seem to be from 8am till 12 and then 3pm to 6pm. Not too bad really! Eventually found some parking for Tom on the outskirts and walked back to get a new book to read from the 2nd hand bookstore and to spend our last Dinars at the Monoprix supermarket. This accomplished, we drove to the beach at La Goulette and had a French bread and roast chicken lunch overlooking the sea and from there watched our ferry arrive!
We joined the queue of cars at Porte 13 and resigned ourselves to the customs and immigration onslaught. Luckily, although slow and disorganised, we got through OK and drove Tom off African soil and onto the top deck of the ferry.
We picked up our bags and checked in. Well…it is impossible to compare this to our Sudan to Egypt ferry, it’s like comparing 5-star to disaster! The cabin is clean, has an en-suite bathroom and 4 large bunks. What a pleasure. We are still moored in the harbour as I write this, nearly 4 hours after our scheduled departure time and we had so wanted to watch Africa slip away behind us as we sail to Europe, but at this rate we may not – we need to sleep!!

Pics from Egypt & Libya

With our guide Massoud at Wadi el Kol


Appollonia or was it the Church of Latrun or was it...?



Stroking a tank for granddad - the day after his 70th birthday!!



El Alamein War Cemetery: 66 years and one day after the anniversary of the battle

Becca and the "Skinks"

L for Libya

Egypt – The bitter end
Our last but one encounter with Egyptian officialdom went like this: "You
owe me EP80 (or 18, we're not sure) so we can post your temporary number
plates (that we didn't want in the first place) back to Aswan." I mean – do
me a favour!! Anyway, after Kaz and I both got on our high horses and after
dropping all my small notes on the counter, we were escorted out of the
traffic police office by a friendly customs guy.
The first time we've been asked to pay our way OUT of a country!

L for Libya; L for the Leader; L for Litter
Sitting in the Mediterranean sun on Isla de Djerba in Tunisia seems the
best place to gather my thoughts on our 10 day trip through Libya.
The Libyan leg included a couple of firsts for us on this trip. We had to
be invited into the country in order to get a visa; we had to be
accompanied by a guide in our vehicle (for which we had to pay a fortune);
we had to follow a structured day-by-day itinerary; and we were no longer
in control. So for Kaz and I it was really tough to adjust to all these
things.
We met our guide Massoud from Arkno at the Libyan side of the border and he
smoothed our way through immigration and customs. He and I still had to
catch a taxi to Amsaad, the closest town, to collect our temporary number
plates and pay for them. This was in 2 separate places miles apart of
course. But still what took 2 days to accomplish in Egypt we managed to do
in a couple of hours.

We were finally on our way and drove through loads of police checkpoints
and at each one Massoud handed out copies of our visa and our itinerary.
Talk about control.
We asked Massoud if we could do a detour to Sidi Rezegh, (pronounced
"Rezag") the site of a battle which led to the demise of 3 Bn. Transvaal
Scottish during WWII. Needless to say this was easier said than done. It
wasn't on the GPS nor on any of our maps so we had to rely on local
knowledge and loads of it, thank goodness for Massoud – we wouldn't have
found it on our own. We eventually tracked it down quite far off the beaten
track, all that marks the site is a tomb, some Muslim graves and a watering
spot for camels (we got photos for you Victor so hope it's what you
wanted!). This did mean that we had a late afternoon whistle stop drive
through Tobruk, its Commonwealth War Cemetery and the harbour. Also we had
deviated from our itinerary so at one checkpoint en route to Tobruk,
Massoud had to do some slick talking. We camped that night next to a
roadside coffee shop not as far west of Tobruk as we'd hoped.

These Libyans get around: the next morning a guy pulls up and offers us
some hot French bread. He had a broad Sheffield, UK accent having studied
in the UK and is now busy working on the new coast road. This typifies the
Libyans, like the Sudanese they are friendly and welcoming. We are in bread
heaven again. They bake stunning French loaves which cost about R4 for 5!!
Diesel heaven too, a litre only costs R1.60. Oh yes, coffee heaven too.
Espressos ("express") are the name of the game here, just pricier than
Ethiopia.

Ancient Libya
We are now immersed in ancient Greek and Roman history. We visited
Appollonia and Cyrene. They are fascinating and as one walks through these
ruined cities one tries to imagine what it would have been like to live way
back then – to see gladiators in the theatres; Romans in the baths; and
triremes in the sea. Unfortunately modern Libya jars its way into these
musings with views of litter like we've not seen before, not even in Egypt
which is itself a massive rubbish tip. Both Egypt and Libya have got
custodianship of some of the most beautiful coastline which is busy being
buried in plastic bottles and bags and no-one seems to care. In fact, there
is nothing green about Libya except its flag!

We found more ancient wonders in the form of beautiful mosaics at Qasr
Libya and the old Greek city of Ptolemais, not as amazing as Cyrene but
nice nonetheless. At this stage we are starting to have "ruined city and
temple" fatigue.

We were able to camp most of the time, generally in car parks of hotels,
which was nice for us and especially for the budget. We ate out a lot
though: either buying a roast chicken which came with bread, rice and soup
or beef shwarmas.

Then we headed to Benghazi which was to be our first night in a hotel as
camping was out of the question. Well… the hotel we were due to stay in was
full and didn't have any record of our reservation, so we then drove around
for an hour to find somewhere to doss down. We eventually tracked down a
hotel which wasn't great but had to do. How we hate being tied to a
schedule, we feel quite claustrophobic!!

From Benghazi, we had a two day push to Leptis Magna with a stop over just
outside Sirt. The distances we need to cover are quite long so we are
upping our speed and spending quite long days in the car. Sirt is the
birthplace of the Leader (as Gadaffi is known here) and security was
particularly tight. So much so that when we ended up at the hotel car park
instead of the hostel, which was being renovated, questions were asked.

Leptis Magna was amazing! It is definitely on the "must-see in Libya" list.
The Baths and the Basilica are particularly impressive. We gave the
Amphitheatre a miss as it had an additional charge attached and as all
these sights come with a hefty entrance fee, enough was enough.

We rushed into Tripoli the next morning to get Tom Cruiser serviced as he
was way overdue for his 20 000 km service. Unfortunately, not for him the
5-star Toyota treatment this time. Nope, it was the busy garage in the
industrial area!! Apparently the large dealership set-ups we have at home
are unheard of in Libya.

Our Tripoli hotel was also a disappointment as it was quite far out of the
city but was apparently chosen for us as it had secure parking for Tom. I
suppose they get fairly few overlander visitors who need parking so it's
understandable.

Libyans subscribe to the Egyptian School of Motoring with some particular
quirks. My favourite one is when traffic back ups at an intersection. First
move is to turn the 2 lane road into a 4 lane one. Then when that's full,
they cross the island and use the fast lane on the other side of the road
as well, regardless of oncoming traffic!! Hopefully no South African taxi
drivers are following this blog and get any ideas!

From our Tripoli hotel we took a drive back to the city centre to find some
supper. We ended up with a pizza sandwich and a chicken & cheese roll. We
ate this in Green Square overlooking the fountain and being watched by the
ubiquitous Gaddafi Billboards (I'll post one on the blog in due course).
Tripolitans seem to like having their photos taken with gazelles and of
course the sight of these poor little animals tethered to frilly thrones in
the square sent our little SPCA inspector into floods of tears.
We drank espressos overlooking the harbour before heading back to the Blue
Ship Hotel.

Deep in the Desert
We were headed for Ghadames, a 600km slog from Tripoli. We stopped en route
to check out some fortified granaries or Qasrs. They were quite
interesting, all with small rooms where grain and other foodstuffs were
stored. They also acted as fortifications when they were under attack from
unruly tribes. It was nice to head into the desert for a change as we'd
been hugging the coast up to now. Ghadames was well worth the drive. The
old town dates back over 1000 years and it was one of the main termini for
the camel caravans of old. The walls of the city were high and yet the
narrow passageways were well ventilated and lit through cunning little
skylights. We went into one of the houses and what really got Rebecca's
fancy was the upstairs area. It was reserved for the female members of the
household during the day for cooking, sewing, teaching etc.. and (this is
the fun part) on the roof was "women's street" which connected all the
houses so that the ladies could visit their neighbours without having to
venture down to ground level. Of course Becca Weasel's imagination went
into overdrive and she spent the rest of our visit telling us how she would
sneak away to visit her buddies (young and old) – and boy, is she missing
them! Outside the post office hangs the chain that the mail would be placed
on waiting for the caravan to pick it up as they left on their travels all
over the continent. We drove to Ras al Ghoul where, from the remains of a
hilltop fort, you are able to look into both Algeria and Tunisia. This is
as close as we're going to get to Algeria this trip. Funnily enough we were
able to get limited sms messages from the Algerian service providers that
we were blocked from by the Libyan ones.
After 2 nights in Ghadames it was back to the big smoke of Tripoli. We
stayed in the city centre this time which was far better even though Tom
stayed in a nearby street because the building over the road from the dar
Arkno Hotel housed the National Security Office and, as the Leader's son is
in charge, parking is verboten.
We took a walk into the medina before leaving the city and got a good idea
of the positive Italian influence that remains in Tripoli through the
tree-lined streets and Italian architecture. The negative of course was
that they also managed to wipe out a quarter of the population when they
were in charge.

Westwards to the Tunisian border
We set off for the border via Sabratha, another ruined city with an almost
intact theatre which was fascinating and an olive oil press which we hadn't
seen before. Its setting right on the sea making full use of the coastline
was very clever. We headed through pouring rain to the border and again
with Massoud we were able to deal with the Libyan side of the formalities
quite easily. He was a really nice bloke and quite besotted with Rebecca,
but as easy as he made things with his knowledge of the language, both
written and verbal, we were looking forward to being on our own again.
Libya is very overlander-unfriendly with practically no road signs in
anything other than Arabic.

Tunsia – here we come
It took a while to get though the Tunisian side as there were a couple of
4X4 convoys clearing customs at the same time as us. We also had a hiccup
with immigration but with time and patience that was also sorted out.
Our last African country awaits!!

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Stop Press - Libya

We are safe and sound in Tripoli. No access to any of the cell phone networks at all so not receiving or able to send SMSes.
So how is Libya? You'll have to wait for the next installment!!

Egypt - The End!

Cairo, here we come!

We decided to do the trip from Dahab to Cairo in a day so we set off fairly early after 2 disappointments. One: Kaz's laundry hadn't been done and two: Neither had the tailoring she'd handed in. Seems that the local services are very laid back too.

Instead of backtracking, we continued around the peninsular in an anticlockwise manner. Next up was Sharm el Shaik, also a popular diving location but too Hurghada-ish for us. The road hugged the coastline for a lot of the way which was great.

Late afternoon found us through the Suez Tunnel again and en route for Cairo. Our baptism of fire was the traffic on the ring road. We have finally found a city where the driving has intimidated us, other African cities are puppies in comparison. Using headlights is for sissies even well after dark. Staying in one's lane is for sissies too. In fact, why they bother to paint lanes on the road is beyond us - any slight slowing of the traffic is a signal to make at least an extra two lanes of traffic. Overtaking on the right is de riguer and how Tom still has his bull bar intact is a miracle. Luckily after only one wrong turn (onto the ring road going in the wrong direction) we managed to find the Salma Campsite in Giza in one piece. Phew!

How do we feel having reached this milestone – Cape (Ok, Jo'burg) to Cairo?

I suppose our feelings are mixed. In some ways, it would be nice to call it quits and head back home. In others, I (Rich) am especially looking forward to Libya. It was still with a huge sense of achievement that we drove through the manic traffic into Cairo.

Pyramids, Skinks and Tut's Treasure

The next day… we took a taxi!!! We hired a taxi for the day and visited the Pyramids and the Sphinx (BW called it a "skinks" until she got her lips around the "ssssffff" bit) in the morning and then the Cairo Museum in the afternoon. The pyramids are in danger of being swallowed up by the Cairo suburbs but are still a very impressive sight and as for the skinks, it is also amazing, nose or not.

The Cairo Museum was busy and we walked around for ages taking in the ancient statues, burial tombs and artefacts. The Tutankhamen collection was everything we had hoped it to be and having visited the tomb itself just completed the picture for us. The treasures that were found in that small tomb were mind boggling, both in quantity and exceptional workmanship.

Being the city slickers that we are, we left Cairo the following day heading for Alexandria. We stopped at a new shopping centre just outside Alex for lunch and a shop in Carrefours. The shopping centre was non-smoking, but in the inimitable Egyptian fashion, no one paid the slightest bit of notice to this! We then fought our way through the afternoon traffic to the waterfront. Finally we are actually on the Mediterranean!

We drove to Fort Qaitbey which was built with the stones from the Pharos Lighthouse (a wonder of the ancient world that was destroyed by an earthquake). Camping options were non-existent and nothing grabbed us hotel-wise (that we could afford!) so we continued down the coast road towards El Alamein. The road out of Alexandria was an eye-opener. We drove through alleyways that were overflowing with junk for sale - anything from old fridges to new toilets ("sitters" not "squatters" as BW would say!). We also dodged large trucks carrying containers going to and from the port and trams scuttling in and out of the city.

El Alamein

We arrived at the El Alamein War Cemetery at 20h22 on 23 October, the 66^th anniversary of the battle. It was also Kaz's dad's 70^th birthday and we had strict instructions to stroke a tank for him!

We camped in the grounds of a small scruffy hotel which was located between the cemetery and the war museum. We had hoped to park in the car park of the cemetery but it wasn't suitable for wild camping. In the morning we walked around the cemetery. It was incredibly well kept and a beautifully serene place. There are separate Australian and South African memorials in the grounds too. We tried to imagine what it must have been like 66 years before, the noise, the smell, the bravery and the fear. We walked down the rows and rows of tombstones of the Commonwealth soldiers. In front of some, wreaths of poppies or small poppy crosses had been laid by family members. We presumed at the ceremony held the day before. BW found the whole "poppy thing" very emotional and spent the whole cemetery visit in floods of tears! It seems that Britain, Italy and Germany rotate the annual hosting of the remembrance ceremony – this year was Italy's turn. The German and Italian War Cemeteries are nearby.

We visited the museum and weren't terribly impressed by it – especially when they want to charge a fee for using a camera! We did stroke a tank though!!

Westward towards Libya.

We have a date with our Libyan guide, Ala Omar, on Monday 27^th. Our next stop was Mersa Matruh where we are staying for 2 days before heading for Sollum and the border. The road from El Alamein was also lined by resort after resort. All of whom cater for the local tourists. Not many foreign tourists venture west of El Alamein.

Unfortunately camping is not an option in Matruh, so we are staying at a beachfront hotel (read term "hotel" loosely!) with a brilliant view of the Med. The sea today has as many blues in it as a lilac breasted roller. The weather has turned cooler and Matruh is busy closing down for their off-season. Even the McDonald's where we'd hoped to get in some free wi-fi time has closed! Rebecca managed her first swim in the Med while we sat on a litter-strewn beach. They employ street sweepers and the streets are clean but they obviously have strict instructions not to venture anywhere near the beaches.

Sollum, El Salum, El Salloum

Take your pick, they all seem to be OK!

We left the pleasures of the Reem Hotel and headed towards the border. The road went through the desert and we gobbled up the kilometres quite happily. We stopped in a spot just off the road for coffee and pastries that we'd picked up in Matruh. They were baklava-ish and very delicious.

We arrived in Sollum and had lunch overlooking the sea and harbour. The military presence is very apparent from Matruh all the way to the border. We are now only 12kms from Libya.

After lunch we backtracked to the Halfaya – Sollum War Cemetery just east of the town centre. The Transvaal Scottish has battle honours for Sollum and sadly is well represented in the cemetery too.

Once again we are so impressed by the care with which these cemeteries are tended and looked after. Kaz met the caretaker and consequently we are camped at his house overlooking the cemetery: what a stroke of luck! Mohammed is the 3^rd member of his family to look after the cemetery. His father from 1946 for 31 years, his brother for 27 years and now it's his turn.

We leave Egypt with memories, both good and bad. Luckily the good outweigh the bad - but only just.

Shokran Egypt!

Photos from Egypt

Becca Weasel and "Tom of Arabia" (licence number 2)

McOffice in Aswan - our second home for two weeks

James family at Edfu Temple with statue of Horus

Yes, I have been on a camel

Tough time in Dahab - Bedouin Corner

On the road again!!

Two weeks in Aswan, Aish!
It is long enough to realise that Egypt is not the Sudan! Dealing with the gippos is very trying. You need to haggle for the price of everything from a Coke to a cucumber. The moment you enquire about a price you can see the split second hesitation while they decide how far they can inflate the price.
Our haven was the rooftop pool deck at the Hathor Hotel, our oasis in a desert of thieves! From there we had a bird’s eye view of other tourists running the gauntlet of the “Hello… felucca?” in a pseudo American accent, followed by “Taxi, Carriage, Boat to Kitchener Island?” and we could also watch the passing Nile Cruise ships. You know you’ve been in Aswan too long when the same boats you saw leaving for Luxor are now coming back!
Not to say that the only thieves were the traders and touts, the government is in on the act too. This was blatantly apparent when Tom Cruiser finally arrived and we started the 2 day run-around to get him back. Customs was easy, the carnet was signed and we were off to the traffic police for step 2. This meant visiting each window in a smoky hall and handing over some money at each, even for a folder to store the million pieces of paper we were accumulating in. We then took one of the policemen back to the port where they take a rubbing of the engine and chassis numbers from the vehicle. Luckily our taxi driver had done this before and he was brilliant at keeping everything on track. It is impossible to manage this process without an Arabic speaker. Of course our traffic cop and his sidekick wanted baksheesh because they were working after 12 o clock on a Saturday! I told them, via the taxi driver, that we had travelled for 5 months without paying a bribe and weren’t about to start now.
Day 2 in the process found us at the offices of the government-owned insurance company and here comes an example of legislated extortion. The cost of the insurance is fixed as an annual premium, regardless of whether you need cover for one day, one month or one year. Talk about a rip-off. From there, back to the traffic police to pick up our number plates after watching our file going through about 10 steps before being signed off and sent to data capture – a process just crying out to be computerised. So after at least 10 hours continuous run-around over the 2 days we were nearly ready to get Tom back, nearly that is before paying the traffic police to release the car from the port!! The final nail – aaargh!

So…what have we been eating in Aswan? What a good question Linda! No, it hasn’t been all McDonald’s, although they do make a tasty McArabia, which is chicken or kofta in pita.
We have bought loads of the Arabian bread which is flat pita bread baked in massive street ovens, found at strategic points in the souk. The real price for them is EP1 for 20 loaves! It took us a couple of tries before we got this right. We were charged EP1 for 4, then for 10 and finally for 20. Hard bargaining required here!! The Egyptian meals generally consist of a soup, tahina and pita bread, salad, followed by grilled chicken, kofta (spicy mince meat rolls) or kebabs (usually lamb) served with rice (studded with bits of pasta), vegetables (aubergine and others in a tomato-ey sauce) and a pudding of fruit or a blancmange-like thing.
Street food was mainly chicken or beef schwarmas in pita or koushary which is a tub of rice and pasta with a tomato sauce, bits of onions and a sprinkling of chick peas – both very yummy.

Convoy-time
Kaz and Rebecca had packed up and checked out in time for the 2pm convoy northwards. Rebecca had been given handfuls of stuff when we said goodbye to the McDonald’s staff – McOffice will really miss us!!
We were hoping to stop at the temples of Kom Ombo and Edfu en route to Luxor. It turns out that only the 8 am convoy actually stops there so we opted to accompany the afternoon convoy as far as Kom Ombo, stay overnight, and then catch the next morning convoy to Luxor via Edfu.
What a good move! We arrived at Kom Ombo, ditched the convoy, and had the whole place to ourselves until some of the cruise ships docked and their passengers came ashore. The temple is situated on the Nile river and is very impressive. Our first Egyptian temple! We camped in the car park under the watchful eye of the guards. The Egyptians seem to have ordinary police, traffic police, Tourism and Antiquities police, and then there’s the military as well. A selection of all of them seems to be crawling all over the tourist sites.

Edfu was a real eye opener for us. The concentration of tourists was incredible - it gave us instant claustrophobia - so much so we first decided not to visit the temple and instead sat in the car park and had our coffee. As the hordes had then thinned out a bit, we changed our minds and went in…what a good move. It is the best preserved temple in Egypt and the statues and the hieroglyphics are amazing. Even BW, who we thought would suffer from temple-fatigue, was happy to wander around until it was time to take our place in the convoy to Luxor.

In Luxor, we made our way to Rezeiky Camp where we set up camp under the shady trees. What a relief to be away from the hustle and bustle of the city. I know I’m going on a bit about the tourists, but we can’t remember when we’ve been around so many people since visiting DisneyWorld nearly 20 years ago!!
The rest of Africa just doesn’t do tourists like Egypt does tourists, that’s for sure!
We made an early start to the Valley of the Kings which is on the west bank of the Nile river. This stretch of the river is quite amazing: it is home to the valleys of the kings and queens, various temples and loads of tombs. We watched the hot air balloons floating above the Colossus of Memmon which are…. well… quite colossal! They are two 18 metre high seated granite statues. We set off for the Valley of the Kings and visited the tombs of Tuthmosis IV, Ramses IV and IX. We tried to visit one from each of the XVIII, XIX and XX Dynasties. Three tombs (there are more than 10 to choose from) are included in the price of the entrance ticket. We then paid over a small prince’s ransom to visit the smallest tomb of them all, that of Tutankhamen. This to put into context the treasures retrieved from the tomb if we visit the Cairo Museum. What were the tombs like? Well, they were all very impressive in their own right.
The colourful walls are generally painted with pictures showing the pharaohs with the various gods, mainly Horus, Isis and Anubis, others covered in hieroglyphics and the quarried tunnels (painted or not) through to the tomb chamber are quite incredible especially if you keep in mind that they are 3500 years old. Rebecca was particularly intrigued by the goddess Nut who swallowed the sun each night at sunset and then gave birth to it again at sunrise the next morning. There were graphic paintings, generally on the ceiling, showing this goddess with the sun travelling through her body.

We drove back to Luxor, after our obligatory coffee stop, with a quick detour into the parking of the temple of Hatshepsut to take a photo.
The next morning found us at the Temple of Karnak at 7am. It was an easy walk from the campsite. The impressive feature of the temple was the 134-column Great Hippostyle Hall, which is the same size as Notre Dame. The temple itself is huge, spread over a large area and even boasts a Sacred Lake.
We caught up on some washing (sorry, no time to check out the wi-fi at the Luxor McOffice) and caught the afternoon convoy to Safarga on the Red Sea. The president was also in Luxor but obviously didn’t know we were there so he didn’t pop in. We did wonder about the window dressing going on, painting kerb stones and planting trees, from Aswan all the way through to Luxor, while one street back from the main roads the streets were still full of rubble and litter and generally an eyesore.
The road from Safarga along the Red Sea to Hurghada was dual carriageway and in good repair so we trundled along quite happily. We drove into Hurghada looking for a campsite and unfortunately the one marked on the GPS had been a campsite once upon a time but not anymore. Hurghada is worse than we imagined! It is wall to wall resort, bright lights, souvenir shops, package tourists and restaurants. Yep, the James’s idea of hell on earth! We had a quick bite to eat and decided to head on to the first police checkpoint and camp wild. Well, we ended up driving until just before midnight when we drove into a parking spot near the coast and slept in the car. It was too windy to put up the tent. Rebecca was happy on the back seat and we put in some practice for flying cockroach class back to SA wedged as we were in the front seats.
At least we had put some kays behind us and Sinai was not too far away. To be honest we hadn’t missed any spectacular scenery as this stretch of the coast is either littered with oil and gas fields or ugly tasteless resorts.

Suez to Sinai
We drove into the fairly large town of Suez where diesel is dearer than Aswan which I found strange given all the oil refineries around. We found our way to the tunnel, which goes under the Suez canal, and before we knew it we were in Sinai. We drove around looking for the best spot for our coffee stop but the place is wall to wall security. There are even manned machine gun posts every 20m as one enters the tunnel. We finally “coffee’d” on the site of a Croatian refugee camp during WWII which is now a memorial and cemetery. Watching the super tankers gliding through the desert up the Suez Canal is a really strange but compelling sight; we could have stayed there watching for ages.
The road to Nuweiba on the eastern shore of Sinai in the gulf of Aqaba was our next stop. The drive through the Sinai Desert was bleak as the road wound through towering granite mountains and inhospitable desert. . If it wasn’t for access to the Suez Canal I can’t see why anyone would want to go to war for this piece of real estate!
There were a couple of police checkpoints who were interested in our nationality and wanted to check passports.
We found Nuweiba and checked into the El Waha campsite for two nights. After our long couple of days in the saddle, we felt we deserved a rest day. The campsite was deserted and we were camped right on the beach. That night we watched the moon rising over Saudi Arabia (18kms across the water!) and the gulf. It was our first beach camp since Mombasa over 3 months earlier! Wow, how time flies! We had a nice, lazy day swimming and snorkelling with BW. That evening we feasted in the restaurant on fresh fish caught that afternoon (we watched the fisherman deliver his catch to the kitchen!)

Dahab – dis is de place, mon!
So many people had told us to go to Dahab, just a short hop southwards from Nuweiba, that we decided to see what all the fuss is about. Our drive through the town didn’t highlight anything special except for the plethora of dive schools and divey hotels. We drove along the coast until we couldn’t go any further and then decided to check out the accommodation options. Camping doesn’t seem to be one of them. Our two nights in Nuweiba had been complimentary (don’t ask – it’s a long story) so we didn’t mind splashing out a little on a decent place to stay.
We chanced upon a place called Mirage Village which was right on the beach, looked very well kept, had parking for Tom and a vacant room so we took it. We walked along the esplanade (what a posh word) and found out why this place attracts so many people. The beach front is lined with Bedouin style restaurants with cushions and loungers just spilling out onto the beach. There are dive classes and snorkellers doing their thing just off the beach as well. No wonder that everyone we spoke to ended up staying here longer than they first planned. This place isn’t laid back, it’s positively supine!
Our first snorkel decided us on staying an extra night. Not even 10 metres from the beach there is a reef wall which is fantastic, especially for Rebecca who is keen on seeing the fish but still not mad keen on the “deep end”. At the Lighthouse site where we snorkelled, the deep end does drop off the wall down to 10 metres and I’m sure in the bay, deeper still. Great for clown fish, scorpion fish and the other typical reef inhabitants too. If the wind drops a bit (windy in the morning, but dies off in the afternoon) there is an eel garden dive site which is also supposed to be good for snorkelling. Hopefully we’ll check it out later today and let you know!

Updated photos

Sunset in our campsite near Meroe Pyramids

A coffee stop in the desert?

My first Pepsi on the ferry to Egypt!!

Slow boat to Egypt

Well, here we are on the ferry Sina en route for Aswan on Lake Nasser and the QE II it most definitely is not. It is a dump.
We have had a fun few days in Wadi Halfa (WH). After arriving on the Thursday we were dreading spending the next 72 hours here as most guide books just refer to it as a “hole”.
Well it certainly wasn’t that bad thanks to the typical generosity and hospitality of the Sudanese. After meeting Mazar, we went to recce a camp site just out of town where the Aussies (our route advisors from their website) had stayed a year previously. It seemed fine. It was on the banks of the lake a couple of kays southwest of WH between 2 fishing shacks. There was no shade but a cooling breeze and a great vista. We made shade with Tom Cruiser and wiled the afternoon away reading and doing Soduko. That evening as it got dark we had visitors, hundreds upon thousands of midges or miggies or as Rebecca calls them “midgets” descended on us as we were the only light source around. We lit a candle and their sheer weight of numbers soon extinguished the flame, talk about kamikaze bugs! Cooking was a challenge and we were soon driven into the tent. No escaping them there either so no Uno game or journalling that night The next day being Friday, we relaxed around our camp and in the afternoon we drove to Mazar’s house to upload our blog and check for emails regarding our Libya crossing. The morning sandstorm that had engulfed the town but not our camping spot had deposited buckets of dust on their shade cloth above the computers. As I was typing the keyboard periodically got clogged with fine sand. Aish!
While we were there, Andy and Edie arrived (first met in Marsabit, Kenya, last seen in Addis fighting the good visa fight). They had also been given the not-so-good news about the ferry and had got moving to make it.

We declined Mazar’s kind offer of dinner and, with Andy & Edie in tow, we headed off to reclaim our spot, pitch tents and eat quickly before the midget onslaught which luckily never materialised.
Saturday, hooray, only one more sleep and we’re off to Egypt. We were to meet Mazar at 9 o clock to go to the local garage for Tom’s oil change. I had dug out my South African 5 l oil bottle to use and would only do the filters in Cairo so it was an easy job really. We needed another 5l can of oil. Of course they only sell 4l canisters here so we needed a further 1 litre. (Things are just never simple) The oil was a good price but the labour was an exhorbitant R40! For all our questioning and probing, we were no closer knowing how or when Tom Cruiser would leave Wadi Halfa and when we would be able to collect him from Customs at Aswan. In fact, as I type this on the high seas, (it’s a lake, dad, not a sea!) we still don’t have a clue. There is a barge having cement offloaded (holidays permitting), which may or may not be the one our vehicles will be loaded onto (also holidays permitting). That’s another thing…no-one can actually tell us when the holidays are. They may start on the Monday or Tuesday and they may continue for 3 or 4 days. Of course then it’s weekend (Friday and Saturday) so it appears, as far as we can deduce, that the earliest Tom will leave Wadi Halfa is next Sunday or is that arrive in Aswan? What we do know is that we are on the ferry while our trusty steed is still in Wadi Halfa.


Filthy Ferry across Lake Nasser
The road into Egypt is heavily mined so the only alternative is the ferry. We bought First Class (term used extremely loosely) tickets which meant we had a private cabin with 2 bunks, air conditioner and a porthole. The beautiful burgundy sheets hadn’t been changed for a while so your skin crawled every time you came into contact with the bunk. We shook the top one out as well as we could and tried not to think about what was underneath. We had access to the top deck which was nice for some fresh air.
The immigration and customs formalities were dealt with by Mazar and went fairly smoothly except for the hanging around all day. We said goodbye to Tom Cruiser and were aboard just after 4pm, and after helping the boys with their bike stuff, we were amazed that the ferry cast off a couple of minutes before 5pm. The quay at Wadi Halfa was interesting as there are roads, complete with street lights, that just disappear into the water. We presume as a result of them raising the dam wall at some stage.
Wadi Halfa faded into the distance and we settled down on board. The toilets were a dreadful mess and only used in an emergency! This boat has not seen any Handy Andy since it was launched, that’s for sure.
At 7pm we went to check out the dinner story as we had meal vouchers. We got roast chicken, macaroni, salad, bread, cheese and jam on a metal tray. Best thing on board so far and Rebecca devoured the chicken. They actually brought free cokes around later, which was nice of them and resonant of the hospitality we received all through Sudan.
We passed the Abu Simbel Temple around 8:30pm and it looked very impressive which huge carved figures on the outside.
Back in the cabin we lay towels on the bunks and covered BW with a kikoi on the top bunk and she was soon asleep. She had played with 3 kittens at Mazar’s house and was heartbroken to leave them. We think we’ll have to get her one when we get home. (She’s expecting a cat & a kitten & already has names for them!!)
The ferry trip was about 300kms and we arrived outside Aswan around 9:30am. With our last meal voucher, we had managed to rustle up an omelette and some bread, tomato and jam for breakfast which was quite tasty. The boat then stopped while a tender came alongside and some people transferred to it. After a longish wait we got moving again and got moored about 12:30. The mighty Egyptian bureaucracy kicked in and after getting our passports stamped on board, we waited an age before we were allowed off the boat, having had to show our passports yet again. Through customs and then into a holding area and then finally, after another show of a passport, we were allowed to walk along the train platform to the outside world. We caught a taxi with Andy & Edie to the Hathor Hotel. The boys stayed with their bikes hoping to clear them through customs same day. Unfortunately it was not to be and they are also playing the waiting game.

Twiddling our thumbs in Aswan
Aswan is a real eye opener. It is the first time this trip we are in such a touristy place. There are souvenir shops galore and all sorts of touts, offering felucca trips on the river, carriage rides, taxis, tours, you name it. But then when you see how many of these massive Nile Cruise ships (we counted around 40 on one of our walks) there are, it is no surprise at all. We are just so not used to it and find it horrendous having to share space with package tourists!
Our hotel, the Hathor, is a winner, Thanks Gideon and Jorien for the advice. We have a river facing room with three beds and air con. The swimming pool is one floor up on the roof with a magical view over the river and the west bank.
The market is one street away and there are loads of restaurants around. The McDonald’s is a short walk up the river. Yes, confession time I’m afraid. Not only have we been into McDonald’s, generally a James’s no-go zone, we’ve even had a meal there and loads of ice cream and coffee!! The reason - free wi-fi network access. It is a pleasure. We are able to keep in touch, sort emails, upload blogs and generally get our lives in order. We believe this access also exists in the Luxor and Cairo branches so, as much as we are not fans, we’ll be there!
The Ramadan holidays have really messed up our timing. Tom Cruiser is still in Sudan. Ramadan ended on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were holidays, today (Friday) and tomorrow (Saturday) is weekend so the earliest things start happening is Sunday, and we are still none the wiser as to an arrival time for Tom. Frustrating to say the least.
We have visited Elephantine Island and walked all around the East Bank and will probably go to the Botanic Gardens on Kitchener Island when everyone is back at work after the holidays and the weekend. Together with Andy & Edie, and a German couple and their 2 kids, we took a felucca (like a dhow) cruise around the islands for a couple of hours. Once we got past the haggling over the price and the state of the first boat they wanted us to go on, we had a really nice time seeing the sights from the river.

Our routine at the moment is as follows: Early morning swim before breakfast, breakfast, a walk around or a trip to the office (McD), some lunch, a siesta, a swim and sundowners on the pool deck, find street food (schwarmas are yummy) or a restaurant, back to the hotel and bed. Nice for a while but now we need to move on.
Having said that, we are very lucky to be in a place where the ATMs work, accommodation is good and food is accessible and tasty. The thought of having to stay in Wadi Halfa without a car is not so appealing, so we do sympathise with travellers going south who get caught there without their vehicle.
Now that Ramadan is over, all the shops are open and food is available during the day.

Pics of a Super Sixer

Tinbar Waterfall in Simien Mountains - Too close to edge for comfort!

The "Super Sixer" - Simien Mountains Campsite

Church in Lalibela

Birthday lunch at Simien Lodge

The paddlers

Pics from Uganda to Ethiopia

Rose amongst the flowers

Suncats

Chapatti maker- note the rolling pin!

Tom - the stick-in-the-mud

A Simien wolf in the Bale Mountains

Photos from way back - Uganda

Photos of:
The spotty animals go game viewing at Murchison Falls.
Coffee stop - Our standards are still very high!
The 3 of us at the Hot Springs at Lake Bogoria
Kaz and Rebecca at the Murchison Falls