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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