Ireland

14/6/2013

Tin Can’s on the water again! After a bit of interest from the coppers and Customs at the Scottish port (more about our trip than anything  as a quick glance in the back of the Land Rover satisfied them that we weren’t shipping any arms to the IRA), we crossed in 3 hours from Troon just South of Glasgow  to Larne near Belfast in Northern Ireland on a high speed car ferry (which Marianne loved as it did not give her time to get seasick! Besides the weather was calm and the sea was flat.)

First thing to said about the Irish to be sure is that they are a friendly and talkative lot. In our two weeks in Ireland, we must have spent at least half a day explaining where we had been and were going to dozens of people who came up for a chat. We have had a fair bit of the same in England and Scotland, but nothing like the Irish. Tin Can sticks out with her orange Maxitracks, stickers and strange number plate and attracts a lot of attention wherever we stop. From truck drivers, other campers and general passers-by. We loved talking to them all – especially when we had mastered understanding their Irish brogue!)

The second thing is that their country is exceptionally beautiful. Also the volume of people and traffic is far less than England or even Scotland. We were often in lovely remote spots on our own and were able to  “wild camp” for the first time again in ages. We were blessed with a week of the first really good  weather we have seen in the UK. Sunny, calm and 18*C every day – which made a huge difference to the sightseeing, camping out and to life in general. We were told we had gained a completely false impression of Irish weather! (This proved true towards the end of our second week- when it rained more than a bit!)

We chose to follow the coast north from Larne through Country Antrim and then down the West Coast through Donegal, the Connemara, Galway and County Kerry. Basically missing out on the east coast cities of Belfast and Dublin. This proved an excellent choice as the West Coast is exceptional, although seeing Dublin would probably have been good?

Northern Island is obviously much poorer than the Republic of Ireland (Eire). The recession has hit hard in places. It was interesting to see vinyl stickers on the windows of closed down shops in some villages depicting produce and gay activity to give a (false) impression of prosperity. Sad really. The city of Londonderry (Derry) was an interesting few hours stop – with a walk around the old city walls with a view of the poor catholic Bogside down below with “Free Derry” and  the IRA murals painted on the walls of buildings which we have all seen on TV.

By contrast, Eire seemed quite prosperous although it also is in severe recession the last 5 years after the “Celtic Tiger” economy collapsed in debt in the GFC. Plenty of (borrowed?) money has been spent though on impressive houses which are rapidly replacing the old stone whitewashed cottages everywhere and new cars. Everyone seems to be doing OK and let’s hope Ireland recovers?

Highlights of the West Coast for us were probably some quiet Atlantic bays north of Letterkenny in Donegal and Achill Island just a short hop over a bridge from County Mayo. Quite a few “happy campers” arrived on Achill on the sunny weekend to go surfing and swimming on the beach, but the rest of the time it was lovely and quite – and very beautiful.

We had been told the Connemara area of Co. Galway was “better than the Dingle Peninsula because fewer foreign tourists”. And so it was – with wide open mountains and deserted screes with the occasional Connemara pony to be seen. (Although it must be said that the Dingle Peninsula in Co Kerry was breathtaking too. The whole south western coastline of Ireland is a mass of bays and fiords – sticking out like five fingers of the hand into the Atlantic.)

We were told about a “secret” island off the Connemara coast called Omey Island that you could drive to across a sand bar at low tide only and where we could wild camp.

(That’s the advantage of having so many locals come up and chat to you- you get lots of information!) Omey Island gave us a chance to wild camp in a stupendous spot in the last of the good weather, enjoy a great sunset over the Atlantic headlands, light our first campfire since Africa and for the first time christen a new billy purchased  over 9 months ago in Switzerland!)

But during that night the weather changed, a gale blew in rocking our rooftop tent wildly and rain fell. We had to wait two hours in the morning in a freezing wind for the tide to fall low enough for us to drive over the beach sand causeway back to the mainland. At least four lovely Connemara ponies kept us company while we waited for the tide!

On to Galway Bay  (after finding a “jetwash” to wash off the beach sand and salt water underneath Tin can) and then Kerry and the Dingle Peninsula with its typical Irish villages and impressive coastal scenery. Two days around the Dingle and then off to the City of Cork. We camped just outside Cork and caught the bus into the city. Cork was OK but a little disappointing – perhaps not helped by the fact it rained solidly throughout?

The last day in Ireland was spent driving from Cork to Rosslare on the south east tip of Ireland to catch the luxurious Irish Ferries “Oscar Wilde” to Roscoff in France. On the way we dropped off in New Ross to see the “Dunsmore” – an 1848 immigrant ship that took Irish immigrants fleeing the great “Potato Famine” to North America. (President JFK Kennedy hails from New Ross and once gave a speech at the exhibition. An interesting exhibition and tour.)

The “Oscar Wilde” is very luxurious and the overnight trip to France was good. Far better than the Russian ferry “Nikolai Konsarev” from Egypt to Turkey anyway! We managed to afford a comfortable cabin and had a good nights sleep on the way to France despite it blowing a Force 8 gale in the Celtic Sea, the ship pitching and shuddering violently and a lot of passengers (including Stan some are no doubt happy to say?!), chucking up their dinners. Marianne didn’t have any dinner, had “anti seasickness” bands and patches everywhere and managed to retain her dignity. By far the wiser choice to be sure? Tin Can in the hold seemed to survive the night without mishap despite rocking on the springs no doubt?

Ireland has been very rewarding, some great camping spots and a pleasure to drive around despite its narrow roads. There is nothing like chatting to the Irish and hearing a story or two…….

More photos in the Gallery at https://picasaweb.google.com/110392977689469430264/NorthernIrelandEire

SCOTLAND

2/6/2013 Ayr

Who can complain about Scottish weather? Everything else about the place is stunning! Besides we are getting used to the cold and occasional wet –and during the odd sunny breaks the scenery was magnifiscent.

After great hospitality extended by Ed and Edna, we headed for Edinburgh. Which was well, Edinburgh? A lovely old city and t

he seat of the Scottish Parliament,  but a few too many tourists perhaps – and it was cold. (10*C). Our campsite at Morton Hall was a handy 15 minute bus ride from the centre of Edinburgh and we had a great day walking around the old city and castle and had an excellent dinner at a lovely Italian restaurant that night. Probably the highlight was the next day heading North across the Firth of Forth road bridge next to the older railway bridge built in 1880. Impressive bridges indeed.

The Highlands with their brooding Lochs and desolate, snow capped mountains outstrip anything we have seen in England, it’s fair to say? In fact at a risk of  offending the English, we think it’s fair to say that Scotland is the cream of the UK in terms of stunning scenery? In our by now quite extensive experience, only South island New Zealand comes close in terms of “wow’ factor. The Scots are a friendly lot  in general also and we had many come up and talk about our Land Rover and our rooftop tent and gear (which is very unusual for this part of the world). It has been fantastic the way both in England and Scotland how people have come up for a chat when they see our number plate and Tin Can. Not many Aussie vehicles get this far! We always love a chat.

A road trip through the Highlands past places like Pitlochry with its quaint High Street, hydro electric dam with fish ladders for the salmon and the 150 year old  Edradour Whiskey distillery to warm us up is not to be forgotten. On past the mighty snow capped Ben Nevis with the impressive memorial to the Commandos of WW11 who trained there

and then on to Fort Augustus and Loch Ness ( where we failed to get a photo of the Loch Ness Monster unfortunately)!

Through the Cairngorms to the Isle of Skye is unforgettable – with its rugged scenery, picturesque white crofts ( farm houses)  and  evident hardships suffered by its peoples over the centuries living in a harsh environment. Originally the island was settled by Norse settlers over 1000 years ago. The Isle of Skye is the home of the Clan MacLeod – with the nearby Island of Uist the MacDonalds. The two Calns were forever warring against each other. Interesting now to know where all the MacLeods and MacDonalds  in Australia ( and half the rest of the world) originally came from.

Our original plan was to catch a ferry from the Isle of Skye further out to the Outer Hebrides islands of Uist and Harris/Lewis. However the weather forecast for the week ahead was dismal and we decided to scrap the idea as the days spent on Skye were themselves hard to beat. There seemed little point in braving wind and sleet in the dunes of Lewis in challenging weather?  (We are fair weather campers)! A little disappointing perhaps – and with better weather we would have gone. As it was the decision was made

to wend slowly southwards again through the stunning mountain pass at Glencoe and then on to catch the ferry to Ireland at Troon in Ayreshire. Hopefully warmer climes as we head south down the west coast of Ireland and on to Normandy in France over the coming weeks will greet us?

Scotland will be missed. A great country (and can sort of understand why the mad Scots want to succeed from England and the United Kingdom? Wish we could have explored more than two weeks allowed? But time is moving on. To Ireland…

More photos in the gallery at

https://picasaweb.google.com/110392977689469430264/Scotland

 

22nd May 2013 Lake District Cumbria

There is a reason England is green. It rains a little from time to time. Particularly in the coldest, wettest Spring since 1979- just to welcome us. Even floods encountered across the roads in Cumbria a few days ago which even Tin Can was not eager to cross as the

water was over a metre deep.

Nevertheless we have enjoyed ourselves in some terrific campsites and beautiful countryside. The Queen’ s country estate at Sandringham in Norfolk (which sports a very nice Caravan & Camping Club campsite courtesy of HM) and the Yorkshire Dales NP stand out as  exceptional places. The City of York with it’s Middle Ages minster (cathedral) and Tudor buildings was very interesting as were visits to the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight at RAF Coningsby – where flight-worthy Spitfires, Hurricanes and a Lancaster bomber are maintained in pristine condition by RAF apprentices.

But, as always on a road trip, the most interesting thing has been the people we meet. We have to say that we have been moved by how many “Poms” have come up for a chat when they see our vehicle or when we camp. The interest displayed has been phenomenal. Its one of the advantages of camping in caravan park as opposed to being in an hotel or B&B room – you meet and talk to so many people. We only wish we could charge 50p for every time we have had  to relate our story – it would pay for the trip!

The most interesting conversations so far:

1.     An old 85 year old bloke feeding swans in a freezing wind by a small lake in Norfolk:

“You’se come a long way? Me, I’se also from across the water. I’se from Belfast,Northern Ireland”

“Oh? No wonder you sound different to most of the locals here. Been here long?”

“Aye. 70 years. I wus a Bevan Boy. I also wus IRA during the Troubles. Bleddy local cops used to pick me up all the time and lock me away for days on end for questioning. But I never told them nuttin’ – never would give me mates away. What did they think? Be dead now if I had”

“ What’s a Bevan Boy?”

“Don’ ye know? During the War some of us conscripted lads who looked stronger than most were conscripted to work the coal mines north of here when we thought we wus going into the bleddy British Army. Dug bleddy coal to keep the bleddy English war industry going. Bevan was the Minister for Supply. Called us Bevan Boys.”

“ And you’ve stayed in England ever since?”

“Aye. For the work. But look what it’s done to me? Hated the boggers though. Can’t never trust them. Where’s you headed?’

“Sandringham Estate tonight and later onto Scotland and also Ireland.”

“Ye don’t want to go to Sandringham. Bleddy Queen’s place. Bleddy English aristocracy. Ye don’t know what they done. Ye know that years ago they used to have human foetuses collected from here to be sliced for the white meat on their bread?”

“Yeah!? Really? Seems unlikely?”

“Aye. They did. And more besides. Don’t give yer money to the Queen or her Estate. Go to Ireland. You will love Ireland. More beautiful than ‘ere”

“Thanks for the advice Paddy! We will.”

1. 2.    Some local Yorkshire lads camping next to us at Bolton Abbey

“You going to Scotland? Luvly scenery, but the only problem there is the Scots themselves.”

“ Yes. I agree that them wanting to secede from the United Kingdom seems a bit crazy? How they going to run their own Economy or manage Defence? Seem to know how to play football though?’

“Don’tcha mention Scottish football! They not going have no trouble managing defence. Miserable Scots love fighting anytime you look at them. All they good at.”

(And we haven’t even met the Welsh yet…..)

      3 In the Orthopeadic Outpatients department of an un-named Yorkshire NHS hospital where Stan was trying to get his previously broken collar bone checked out.

(Firstly I must say that I was attended courteously and quickly in ½ hour- none of the 10 hour wait one reads about in the media).

‘We don’t do 2nd re- x rays 6 weeks after the event of broken clavicles here in the UK? It’s either fixed by now or it isn’t. We would have offered you physiotherapy. X Rays cost money and we try to minimise in the NHS”

“ Yes, but I was travelling here and didn’t have time for physio. Besides, what if it’s not fixed? It still hurts”

“It looks fixed- besides the bone sticking out off course? Can you move your arm OK? Yes- it looks OK? If you want an X Ray you would have to go to a clinic. But that would take 2 weeks before you could get an appointment.”

“Seems like I just don’t worry, go away and forget about it? Take a Panadol and go home?”

“Best thing. Do some exercises to build up your arm muscles. Don’t worry, it seems OK? Just ride your bike more carefully next time. ”

 

Lake District

The past week has been spent in a lovely cosy cottage near Keswick in the beautiful Lake District (to escape the rigors of camping) and  we have been doing some great walks through the Cumbrian mountains – building up the leg muscles rather than the shoulder….

A train ride on the Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway with walks in the surrounding countryside with snow on the ranges was well worth a day.  Men used to mine iron ore in the hills 120 years ago when the railway was built. Their cottages still remain together with the oldest working waterwheel mill in England at Eskdale. 800 years old! Beautiful scenery all around.The oldest working waterwheel mill in England at the end

of the line at Boot was fascinating. 700 years old and mentioned in the Doomsday Book.

 

 

By now we have figured out that the English are a hardy lot who seem to like nothing better than walking their dogs through fells and up and down mountains in generally freezing and wet conditions? (While they are not eating fish and chips and drinking Fosters in front of the telly of course). We saw hundreds of walkers in the Lake District (and other areas of course). Many camping out on lonely trails.The number of hiking and outdoor clothing shops in Keswick is phenomenal!

 

A tour of the old Cumberland Pencil factory at  Keswick was nostalgic and interesting. It has been in operation since the late 19^th century. I think all of us in who grew up in British Commonwealth countries used coloured  Derwent pencils manufactured by the company at school at some time or other?

Anyway, we headed North after a lovely week in Cumbria towards Bonnie Scotland – where the first port of call was to Thornhill to visit a fellow Rotarian Ed  and his wife Edna – who visits family near where we love in Australia once a year and whom we have met before. They extended true Scottish hospitality….!

 More photos in the gallery at

https://picasaweb.google.com/110392977689469430264/England

 

 

Norfolk England 10^th May 2013  Windspeed 35mph Temp: 6*C

Hello all our loyal followers! We are back again in sunny England after 6 months back in OZ whilst Tin Can froze through the English winter in a hay shed somewhere in Bedfordshire.

The plan is to do some touring around the UK and Ireland (including the Outer Hebrides that so many people have told us about) and then head back into Europe to have a bit of a look at Sweden and then the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and then back through Poland to eventually ship Tin Can home from the UK in September.

We don’t promise to blog as much a last year during the African trip (after all EVERYBODY tours around the UK and Europe and it is hardly interesting news), but so many of our friends and readers have pestered us about what is going to happen next and where we are that we felt we should write a little? Some photos will also be attached at:

 https://picasaweb.google.com/110392977689469430264/England

Two weeks have already quickly gone by since we arrived in the UK at the end of April  and events have broadly been:

• Arrival delayed by 3 weeks due to the fact that Stan stupidly fell off his push bike in OZ and broke his collar bone. Still slowly recovering and it has both demanded the 1^st week in England to be spent in a cottage to recover some more and has made putting up the rooftop tent a little difficult! But we are getting there…
• Day of arrival – brass balls fell off the monkey due to temperature variation after leaving Australia (But, to be fair, it has warmed up since then from 4*C on arrival with a couple of nice 22*C days just as we started camping at Cambridge this week).
• Picked up Tin Can from her wintering place in a hay shed. The farmer, Terry, had done a wonderful job of looking after her, keeping the batteries charged and she started first kick! Kissed her again..
• Trip up to Nene Overland near Peterborough to have a new cover put on our Hannibal rooftop tent. (The zips had fallen apart after being used 400 times)! The guys at Nene were great.
  

  Fixing a new tent cover at Nene Overland

• Visit to 1000 year old Warwick Castle in Warwickshire – where the most interesting thing was a trebuchet (catapult) which flings rocks 300 metres. Met our old friends Laurie & Bronwyn who are also on a UK tour there as well.
• After two days camping at the good Caravan and Camping Club site in Cambridge, drove to Great Yarmouth and the Norfolk Broads where we came across a lovely campsite at a place called Clippenby Hall. Lovely walk today through the surrounding Norfolk Broads countryside until this afternoon when the wind suddenly built to 35mph plus and the temperature dropped 15 degrees.  Sitting in the rooftop tent writing this, Tin Can is swaying from side to side alarmingly. We may soon be seasick? (They tell us that a huge weather front is drifting in from the Atlantic? Rain is next…..).

Oh where is Africa?

 

 

19th October Bedfordshire UK

Kms Travelled : 36,503

Well, due to popular demand from many readers who have contacted us to enquire what happened after we left Turkey and where we are, here is a final brief summary of the 5,745kms and 5 weeks spent travelling through the Balkans, Germany, Switzerland and France to our final destination here in Bedfordshire where we arrived today with the intention of storing Tin Can on a friend’s farm and returning to Australia for a while before returning in April 2013 when we will continue on with plans to tour the UK and perhaps beyond? Of course, nothing in Europe carries the same challenge as African travel (except maybe European motorways when you have taken a wrong turn and have to do 10kms before you can turn around? And European prices and weather can be more challenging than Egypt at times)?

Impressions of Europe:
• Great scenery, markets and food.
• Some lovely campsites, but many closed after September 30th and can be expensive.
• Fantastic old medieval buildings, towns and villages
• Too many tourists (and people in general). Give us the wide open, sparsely populated spaces!
• Expensive- especially Switzerland. Where are those Egyptian fuel costs of 20c/l gone?
• Weather a challenge for campers other than for those in the huge German Camper vans. (and there are too many of those )?
• Other travellers and folk seem less interested and friendly in general than in Africa and some other countries? Everyone for himself, particularly the further north you seem to go?

Greece
Only a few days were spent in Greece where we camped at two different , nearly empty camp grounds on either side of Thessalonika and spent a day looking around Thessalonika (which is a pleasant city ) before heading north to Macedonia. So we cannot really voice any reliable opinions, but to us it seemed as though the wear and tear of “austerity” and the Euro crisis is showing in Greece – with general air of deterioration of civic responsibilities such as mowing park lawns and cleaning public places etc?
A few Greeks also told us not to go to Macedonia when they heard we were headed that way – they have a huge antagonism towards Macedonia all based on a name? Macedonia calls itself the same name as a Greek province the Greeks also like to call Macedonia?

Macedonia
Only a few days in the country with one spent looking around the capital Skopje and camping at a rather expensive Great Western Hotel campsite on the Belgrave road near Skopje. A pleasant, mountainous country, we thought –and the weather was better than Greece where it rained a bit. Camping grounds are few and far between though and the country is poor.
Macedonian motorways are a pain though- with tollgates every 10 kms demanding small change in local currency (which we didn’t yet have). They took Euros, but gave no change so we paid too much. Other than the motorways which are quite good, secondary roads are almost non existent?

Kosovo

Was interesting –as it has only been a year or two since fighting with the Serbians and the NATO bombing stopped there and elements of KFOR NATO military units are still a common sight. Crossing the border into Kosovo was easy enough and although we had to answer questions as to why we were there and where we were going, the border police were friendly enough. Had to purchase separate Kosovo 3rd Party Insurance though for Euro 30 as our “Green Card” European insurance specifically excludes Kosovo.

The road into the Capital –Pristinje surprised us by sporting many new small businesses and modern shops on the entrance to Pristinje and the city itself is bustling, quite modern and appears to be developing fast. Plenty of war damage is still to be seen but modernisation and repair is proceeding rapidly. Much of it with foreign aid?
Kosovo is small and we crossed the country in 2 days, heading to the busy provincial University town of Pec and then a steep mountain pass climb to the border with Montenegro.

Montenegro

Is a truly beautiful, mountainous country with fantastic mountain scenery as well as lovely coastal villages along the Adriatic. We felt it was one of the more beautiful countries in Europe and (almost) rivalled Switzerland for mountain scenery. Montenegro was relatively cheap for food, fuel and camping sites and this is one country we would happily go back to any day! It was getting colder in the mountains though and it rained a bit.

Interestingly, we camped at a family campsite in the Tara valley near Durjevica where the very friendly owners told us that an Aussie motorcycle rider had met with a serious accident where he fell off a cliff just down the road a few years ago and they had helped get him to hospital in the capital Podgorica 80 kms away. He didn’t walk for 3 years but now tries to come back to visit them every year or so if he can? They were thrilled to see more Aussies!

A highlight in Montenegro was camping in a small private front yard site at a place called Prcanje on Kotor Bay near the historic town of Kotor (which attracts tourist cruise liners which anchor there for a day). We spent two days there in lovely weather swimming and walking for lunch to a great little restaurant a few Kms down the road which skirts the bay.
Tourism is rapidly expanding in Montenegro – which while good for the country means see it now before it gets too crowded like Dubrovnik in nearby Croatia.

Croatia

Was where we entered the EU just south of Dubrovnik – and the young border official did not know what to make of our car papers , carnet, drivers licence etc but was impressed enough to show his colleague all the countries we had traversed and we were waved in.
A day in Dubrovnik was good and the local campsite was excellent (but expensive at Euro 30). Dubrovnik was the beautiful Dubrovnik of the travel brochures, but we had been here before 7 years ago just after the war and it seemed better and less crowded then? Now too many tourists shuffling around in the “old town” and prices are up– and perhaps it’s true one shouldn’t go to a place you loved twice, just retain the memories?

Driving through Croatia along the coastal road to Split with views to exceed the Great Ocean Road of our home Victoria was as remembered. We camped one night at a beautiful site near Drvenik overlooking the island of Korcula across a shimmering Mediterannean and the next day travelled 250 odd kms through Split, Sibenik and Zadar to camp at Podarje .The next day we climbed the pass up the Krbavsko Poli mountains towards our past favourite spot – Plitvicka National Park.

Plitvicka was as remembered – despite it being a rather rainy,misty day. A Unesco World Heritage site and one which we would put up there in our top 5 places in the world right up with Victoria Falls and the Barrier Reef? The way the crystal clear water flows out of the Karst Travertine in myriad large and tiny waterfalls and pools is a sight one does not forget. Once again, more tourists than 7 years ago, but you can still find solitude. The camping ground at Prijeboj nearby was excellent also.

On to Zagreb the next day – where camping in the rain at a huge, nearly empty old Communist era hotel/campground 15kms from the city was a little spooky at night (at least the police came round every hour)! The Communists in Yugoslavia seemed to love building massive, ugly concrete block hotels which now are mostly derelict?The next morning, Saturday dawned fine and we drove into Zagreb and found parking within walking distance of the city centre. (We couldn’t read or work the parking instructions or how to pay and returned 5 hours later to a ticket on the windscreen for Kuna 100 – which we have framed on the assumption that Zagreb City Council is unlikely to track down an Australian registered vehicle and collect anytime soon)?

Zagreb was alive with a market day and a pageant of young people dressed in olden day clothes and folk singers singing local peasant ballads. We spent a glorious morning and have to say Zagreb was a pleasant surprise? There are many interesting old buildings from the Austro- Hungarian Empire days. Definitely worth a day.

Slovenia

We drove the 150 odd kms from Zagreb to the very nice Ljubljana Resort Camp on the outskirts of Ljubljana in no time along the motorway the next day. The Slovenian scenery was increasingly green and beautiful the further West we went and has to rate up there with Montenegro and Switzerland? The Slovenian churches (of which there is one on every hill), are exquisite.

We were met in Ljubljana, one of our favourite cities with it’s quiet, cultured streets and alleys, by Slovenians Juri and Mateja Modic whom we had long ago met in Mana Pools NP in Zimbabwe. They were fantastic hosts and treated us to a lovely walk around Llubljana city centre despite some heavy rain and a trip to Postojne Caves nearby. The caves are truly huge- stretching 20kms or more and very beautiful . You travel on a train much of the way into the cave. Mateja also cooked us a very tasty lunch and dinner. One day we hope to return the hospitality?

Austria

Was really a flying visit – with one night spent outside Salzburg at a nearly deserted campsite where we amazingly met up with a German guy whom we had never met before but whom we had heard about at Shankara in Namibia as having had had his Deutz truck flooded by rising floodwaters a few years back. We told him the story we had heard and he confirmed it – and showed us pictures! It’s a small world?!
Salzburg was interesting to visit for a few hours that afternoon and night – with its quaint and ancient buildings. A storybook town.

Germany

Was also a rather brief visit – where despite us knowing Oktoberfest was on, we headed to Munich to spend lots of money on new outdoor clothing and gear at the huge German outdoor gear store Globetrotters.de. You name it, they’ve got it! The Germans do camping, hiking and overland travel very well.

The campground we stayed in just out of Munich and caught the train in from was of course crowded with 10,000 semi drunk Australian, German, British etc “twentysomethings”. Fortunately the management kept us “oldies” as far away as possible and we had a generally quiet night despite a bit of vomit being noticeable around the next morning. Prices for food and drink were high in Munich also due to the “Fest” and the numbers of tourists in the city. But Munich is a very nice city all the same , with plenty of interesting high class shops. Personally, Oktoberfest is something we can live without? It’s an age thing, I suppose?

On the next day to Lindau on Lake Constance (Bodensee) and a lovely campsite on the lake. The owner was a Land Rover owner and lover and had a special site set out only or Land Rovers right on the lake shore and in front of all the German campervan owners. Great spot!

Switzerland

We were lucky and had 3 days of cloudless skies and crisp lovely weather as we skirted Zurich and headed to Lucern where we camped at the Lido International Campground and walked into Lucern the next day. We spent the day exploring the medieval city and bridge at Lucern at took a trip on the cog railway up the 2,750m Mount Pilatus to incredible views across the Alps and Lake Lucern.

A few hours in Interlaken the next day followed (where we had glimpses of the Jungfrau mountain clad in snow) and enjoyed watching a classic car rally through the medieval town.

The following day we drove through impressive scenery past Aigle and into France where we camped at an officially “closed” campsite near Evian of the famous Mineral Water fame. Too short a time in Switzerland really-as it does rate as one of the world’s most beautiful countries, but the weather was changing, it was getting cold to camp and Switzerland is hugely expensive for anything you buy (not helped by the very strong Swiss Franc exchange rate). The Swiss are incredible though how everything in the country runs like clockwork, not a speck of litter or grafitti anywhere, the trains all look brand new as they are washed everyday it seems and the public toilets (which you pay for) flush silently and automatically! Africa take note..!!

France

Vive La France! We love it. The roads are easy to drive and seem more relaxed and quiet, especially when you get off the motorways – and the food (especially the bread,cheese and wine ) is unmatched?

At Bourg en Bresse we met up with friends Martine and Jacques from Bordeaux with whom we had previously walked the Camino de Santiago. Martine cooked us a fantastic meal and we spent a good time catching up on old times and spending the night with them. Jacques gave us some tips where to travel through Alsace -Lorraine and north eastern France which proved invaluable- we spent the next week keeping away from motorways and slowly travelled through gorgeous town and villages with names like Lons se Saunier and the Baume Abbeye with its medieval village, Besancon, Colmar and the Route de Vins to Strasbourg. Very beautiful, green scenery and ancient villages and buildings, but the weather was steadily getting colder and wetter. Our Hannibal rooftop tent, while good (and excellent in Africa) ain’t made for Northern European weather! Neither are we.

By Metz and Verdun we were staying in hotels. Verdun is another sobering experience to rival Gallipoli with the 400,000 French and German lads who died there in 1916 and the Douamont Ossuary memorial and huge graveyards are very depressing.

We travelled on to Reims with its impressive cathedral, and then Villers Bretonneaux near Amiens (twinned with Robinvale in Victoria),which is another WW1 Australian shrine never to be forgotten – where the schoolkids are reminded (in the school built by Australian returned servicemen in 1922) never to forget the 1,200 Australians who died retaking Villers Bretonneax in 1918 or the 60,000 who died in France. As at Gallipoli, Tin Can with Australian registration plates being parked in front of the school and museum at Villers Bretonneax amazed the few other Australians who were around making the visit to pay respects!

By now the weather was truly “crook” and we meandered on to Calais whilst staying at a fascinating old Chateau de Montigny L’Hallue near Amiens on a wintery day and at some lovely little village hotels with home cooked meals at places like Aubreville and Cap de Blanch. Too wet and cold by far for even hardened Africa campers!

England

On 17th October we caught the 10.00am ferry from Calais to Dover after being thoroughly (but nicely) questioned for 10 minutes by the UK Immigration lady at Calais as to our trip and what we would be doing in the UK and for how long? She was a bit amazed, but stamped us in to go to good old Blighty – where after a rough 2 hour Channel trip, after starting first turn of the key for a year, Tin Can coughed and spluttered twice at reaching the land of her birth (and we struggled to get used to driving on the “proper side “ of the road in Dover after the nearly 5 months since Ethiopia on the right hand side.

We spent a night in Canterbury with friends from Cape Town Willi & Sylvia who once again treated us to great hospitality. A visit to Canterbury cathedral and its history (which is like reading the story of England, not just Canterbury), a great meal at the local Pub that night made us feel at home. Then on the next day through typical English drizzle to Dunstable in Bedfordshire –nearv where Tin Can is to be stored after being serviced at Foley’s Land Rover in nearby Essex before being cleaned out and “winterised” until we return in April next year to hopefully continue our travels…

Adieu – it’s been fun!

More pictures in the Photo Gallery

Gallipoli 13/9/2012
Kilometres travelled: 30,639

Well the good ship Nikolay Konarev finally loaded our vehicles amongst 65 huge Turkish trucks and set sail for Mersin Turkey at 3.00am in the morning of Friday 1st September- 5 days after we first arrived in Port Said and 3 days past scheduled departure. Probably not too bad a delay for Egypt all things considered? And we must say that the guys at Naggar Shipping (Mohammed) tried very hard to speed things up and were quite professional and also Mr Said and Asheed the customs fixers were reasonably efficient and very friendly at the end of the day. Despite some of our frustration at the long delay, they restored some our faith in Egyptian business practices a little. Just a pity that as usual “baksheesh” had to fly everywhere and even the Russian Captain of the Nikolay was a bit shocked when he saw how much we had paid for our tickets. Seems like not all the price paid actually gets to the Russian shipping company?

The QE11 the Nikolay Konarev was not! (We can vouch for that because we actually saw the QE11 a few weeks later in Kusudani Turkey) No air-conditioning inn the cabins -which were so hot at 35*C + that sleep was near impossible, and the food was the worst one can remember since army days? Russian borsht and Turkish yogurt and beans shared with 65 Turkish truck drivers in a small saloon.

Still, the ship stayed afloat for the 36-hour trip (which was important as we had no marine insurance) and when the shores of Turkey and the Port of Mersin hove into sight on the Sunday morning, it was joy to the heart! Not quite Europe yet (only Asia Minor), but getting close! Offloading at Mersin took 4 hours (to slowly back out enough trucks so that we could get our vehicles out of the ship), only to find that late on a Sunday, Turkish Customs and Immigration had shut down for the day (if they had been open at all)? We were told to camp in our vehicles in the Customs yard in the Port for the night.

At least the police guards were friendly and kind and brought us coffee. The next morning we thought we would be quickly out and on the roads of Turkey, but no! They first wanted USD$60 each for a 90 day multiple entry visa (which we argued about and said all we wanted was a 30 day single entry visa, but eventually ended up paying the price after being told Australia charged Turks $120 for a visa – they were being generous to us)? Then they demanded a look at our “Green Card” 3rd Party insurance for Tin Can. Ours was OK but Chris & Mia’s had expired. Could we go through alone and leave the Swedes to email their insurance company on their own as we were splitting up anyway? No! Officialdom saw us as two identical Land rovers and a joint problem, not one? An hour later the fax from Sweden came through and that hurdle was crossed. Then they decided they liked the look of us and Tin Can but wanted to X Ray Chris and Mia’s Land rover for contraband. This would take time.
In the hold of the Nikolay Konarev
A rather heated argument all the way to the Customs and Police Chief ensued to explain that we were not “together” with the Swedes and if they were OK with us as stated, then we wanted to go, not wait for them to get irradiated, get out of jail or whatever? Eventually they saw the light and said we could go through the gate. We bade fond and sad farewells to Chris & Mia that we had been with so long since Kenya and headed out into the streets of Mersin at 1.00pm (after starting with Customs at 8.00am). We turned west along the coast towards Antalya and Izmir. (Chris and Mia’s intention was to head due north to Ankara, Istanbul on the motorways and then Bulgaria and the Ukraine as fast as possible to head back to Sweden and back to work after 12 months away. We later heard they got out of Turkish Customs some 30 minutes after us anyway, but got themselves arrested for 2 days in the Ukraine a week later for carrying an ex Austrian army knife in their car)!
Heading into Turkey..
Being in Turkey is being back in the 1st World – even if Mersin was only Asia Minor and not quite Europe yet! Things work, shops and supermarkets are modern, cars drive in the lane and side of the road they are supposed to and the toilets flush! Girls wear bikinis not burkas. And the sea, mountains and countryside of Turkey are truly beautiful and quite heavily forested with native pine trees compared to the deserts of the past two months. Ahh! Civilisation again!

Still, we are already starting to have withdrawal symptoms for the hustle, bustle and challenge of Africa – and it is with some mixed feelings that we viewed Western civilisation, the huge tourist hotels developments at Antalya with its madding crowds of mainly Russian tourists sprinkled with a few Poms. The multiple cruise liners plying the Mediterranean and the myriads of tourists we trudged with around the ruined Roman city of Ephesus and Hieropolis/Pamukkale soon brought us back to the reality of the West. Africa has too many people, Europe has too much money and too many tourists!
Civilization and supermarkets again!
The mood was not at all helped by paying Turkish prices for camping, food (almost the same as Australia at about $25/camp/night and $4 for a beer). and especially diesel fuel at $2.20/litre – the most expensive in Europe! This made the eyes water after the fond memory of the 20c/litre paid in Egypt and 35c Sudan! Africa was not always all that cheap, but certainly cheaper than Europe! The blue Agean!
We spent a week relaxing and swimming in glorious weather on the Aegean coast in crystal clear water. After the challenges of Egypt and the dust and heat of the past two to three months, this was welcome. Some campsites in Turkey were rather average (especially in Antalya which we didn’t like much at all as the place is just a mega tourist development site), but some were really nice. It is also possible to wild camp across much of Anatolia. Camping grounds that carry our seal of approval are:
Andriake harbour
Andriake Camping at Demre run by a young local family in a quiet setting amongst eucalyptus trees
GPS N36*13″453′ E @9*56″768′
Tepe Camp and Restaurant on top of the mountain at Pamukkale with a great view and nice lawns and pool.
GPS N37*56”280’ E29*08”300’

It was with a mixture of joy and anticlimax when we finally got to Canakkale and crossed the Dardanelles straight on a ferry to the Gallipoli Peninsula and into Europe proper. Now Africa is truly far behind and the challenges are less (and different)!
We forget we were defeated?!
Gallipoli, of course, holds a special place in the hearts of Australians as the birthplace of the Anzac legend when 25,000 Australian and New Zealand troops landed in Turkey at Anzac Cove at dawn on April 25th 1915. 11,400 never left and lie there today. We spent an afternoon watching quite a good sound and light presentation of the history at a museum there and the next morning, a beautiful sunny morning, traipsing around the cemeteries and battlefields – where names like “Lone Pine” (where over 2,277 Anzacs died in an area the size of a football pitch), “Plugge’s Plateau” and “Shrapnel Gully” rang a chord for anyone who has read the history. The Turks lost over 80,000 men in the Gallipoli campaign and they regard it as a defining moment in their history also. A very sobering area indeed!
8,700 Australians and 2,721 New Zealanders died at Gallipoli out of 44,000 Allied casualties and 80,000 Turkish deaths…
We will not bore you with an account of a “European Holiday” around Turkey, its impressive coastline and mountains and the awesome Roman ruins at Ephesus and Hierapolis etc as all this has been done many times before and is not what this blog is about – an African adventure from Cape to Cairo. You can see the photos for an idea of the European section of the trip.

So this blog is coming to an end soon– other than perhaps a brief account of intended travels through the Balkan states of Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Bosnia Herzegovina and Serbia where Stan hopes to camp in the forests with wolves and bears to make a change from lions and elephants! Our ultimate intended destination is England- where we hope to store Tin Can on the farm property of a friend north of London for a few months over winter -whilst we take a break back in Australia and then plan the next trip to roads less travelled around Europe?

We hope all of our readers have enjoyed some of this narrative and some of the information is of use to some prospective overlanders? The trip has indeed been a challenge and a blast! This was a “road trip” extraordinaire to beat any road trip we have ever done! Would we do it again? Probably not, at least not Africa although we love it? Africa is incredibly interesting and varied, but can be very, very hard work, dangerous at times, hot, very hard on vehicle and body and not always for the feint hearted. We have travelled over 30,000 kms (half of it on dirt roads), thousands through searing deserts with temperatures over 40*C for days on end in Sudan and Egypt, 17 border crossings with varying degrees of officialdom, 79 police roadblocks and God knows how many goats, cattle, dogs and people dodged on the roads? 2 Traffic fines. 1 puncture.

Would we have missed the adventure? Never! Already a sense of loss and withdrawal and some feeling of depression is setting in now that the trip is nearly over and Africa is behind us. Being back in “civilised Europe” with all the Western trappings wears thin very quickly. The days are growing shorter with a chill in the air already in northern Turkey. We will soon miss the sun and warmth of Sudan, Egypt and Turkey even if some of it was a bit too hot….

On Friday 14th September we crossed into Greece in half an hour at our easiest border crossing yet!

Here are some facts and lessons learned of the trip from Cape Agulhas South Africa to Port Said Egypt, which may interest some? :-

Vehicle

• Total kilometres travelled: 30,639
• Total fuel used (litres): 3,304
• Average fuel consumption: 10.8l/100kms
• Average fuel cost: $1.36/litre

You come to depend on your vehicle like nothing else as a “home from home” and as a means of moving onward. Major vehicle problems (or heaven forbid a serious accident) would be more than inconvenience. It could be disastrous. We were fortunate – and Tin Can never let us down.
People said that a Puma engine Land rover Defender with it’s electronics and sophisticated injection system was too complex a vehicle for the poor fuels and poorer mechanics of Africa? (Not to mention why take a Land rover at all, they are unreliable– take a Toyota they said)!
Well, Tin Can took a hammering on roads that we can attest from experience were far, far worse than the likes of the Birdsville and Oodnadatta tracks and Cape York Road in Australia. Bulldust was as thick as you get it in northern Kenya and Uganda and the corrugations went on for miles on the Serengeti, Marsabit and other roads and shook the fillings from our teeth. There are “chatter marks” on the side windows from constant vibration with bulldust between the rubber seals and the glass. Rocky “gibber” roads were reminiscent of Sturt’s Stony Desert and went on for hundreds of kilometres.

Actual “4 wheel driving” as such with diff lock and 4 x4 engaged was limited to steep mountain tracks in Lesotho and Malawi and miles of very soft sand in Kaudum NP Namibia and the White Desert in Egypt (other than getting out of the occasional campsite), but the road conditions nevertheless were often as demanding as you get and seemed to go on and on forever. Often 100 kms could take 5 hours or more as washaways, potholes and corrugations were traversed.
Fuel was of uncertain quality (especially in Sudan and Egypt) as the state of the fuel filter attested from time to time? We generally tried to fill up at major stations, but this was often not possible.
We had the following mechanical problems:
• Engine problems: Zero. (Never missed a beat or failed to start once. (Temperature never rose above “normal” once despite 50*C+ road temperatures at times).
• Chassis problems: Zero
• Drive train problems, UV joints etc: Zero
• Wheel bearing failures: Zero
• Shock absorber failures: Zero
• Oil seals blown: Zero
• Bushes failing: Zero
• Rear wheel brake disc protector plates shattering around bolt holes due to constant vibration. 2 (Welded up in Rwanda. Cost $30 (Could have been more serious if had taken out the ABS sensors, but luckily didn’t).
• Air-conditioning failure: 1
(Still doesn’t work. Attempted repair in Nairobi Kenya unsuccessful – lasted 1 day! Cost $130. A real pain especially in Sudan and Egypt, but probably helped us acclimatise to the heat)?
• Electrical problems: Zero (Although we suspect the air-conditioning issue is electrical as it blows fuses)?
• Mirrors shaking loose on mountings: 2
• Doorhandles shaking loose: 2
• Windscreen breakages: 1 (Due to a little s**t in Namibia with a stone in his hand).
• Punctures: 1
The following servicing took place:
• Full 10,000km services & oil change: 2
(Maun Botswana and Nairobi Kenya. Another service now due in UK)
* Oil change (Greece) 1
• Fuel filters: 2
• Air filters: 2
• Differential oil changed at 50,000km in Nairobi (found to look black)? 1

Prop shaft UV’s were greased, air filters blown out and fuel filter drained regularly together with general chassis inspections and bolt torques checked etc. Rear prop shaft bolts were found to be loose at the hand brake drum once – and made a rattling sound on deceleration.
We are happy with Tin Can. She seems to be a “good un”? – and we kiss her every night! There were only a few “non standard” alterations to the vehicle made before the trip (we believe in keeping things as standard as possible as in our experience it is always the “after market” accessories, wide wheels and raised suspensions etc that give most of the trouble). Most worked extremely well:
• Long Ranger auxiliary fuel tanks. (150+ litres of diesel carrying capacity and 1000 kms + range was an absolute essential in several countries, particularly Malawi and Egypt where fuel availability was scarce and far between).
• Front Runner 45 l water tank and 40 l collapsible water bladder giving 85 litres capacity another essential.
• Land Rover heavy duty spring sets front and rear plus Defender 130 “helper” springs in the rear carried 900+kgs fully laden load without fault or sagging.
• Top Dog Ralph Big Bore shock absorbers kept on going when others failed.
• Bas Remaps www.bellautoservices.co.uk  engine ECU remapping “chip” provided considerably more power and better fuel economy than standard Land Rover program -and gave no trouble despite poor fuels and high temperatures. (We were a little worried about “chipping” before the trip, but seemingly needlessly)?
There are only two extra things we would do if we did the trip again:
• Put in an additional fuel “pre filter/water separator ” of good quality like a Racor. (Although the Land Rover fuel filter worked OK, you can’t see into it to check for contaminants and you worry)?
• An air pre filter like a Donaldson on top of the snorkel. (The oil soaked foam Unifilter “sock” pre-filter that we used became clogged, restricted air intake and caused engine overheating and excessive fuel consumption).
Land Rover fans will be happy to hear that the Toyota Landcruiser of Fabio and Aneke that we travelled with over much of the same distance experienced:
• A complete failure of the intermediate shaft and oil seals between gearbox and transfer case requiring repairs at Toyota in Khartoum.
• Leaking oil seals on transfer case.
• Sheared off rear wheel studs.
• Fuel filter sucking in air causing engine to die intermittently.
• Front shock absorber leakage and failure (Australian Old Man Emu’s they were, which caused some embarrassment)!
• Auxiliary Battery failure.
(But then it must be said that their Toyota had 120,000kms on the clock, our Defender only 50,000).

We also towed a Toyota Hilux for 30 kms in soft sand in Chobe NP Botswana after it died due to injector pump problems and that we assisted another Toyota Landcruiser that also sheared off its rear wheel studs in Chobe. Go Land Rover!
However, it must be said that there are far more Toyotas in Africa than Land rovers these days and there is really nothing to choose between the two vehicles? They all have their problems. Land rover is somewhat let down these days by poor service/parts representation compared to Toyota in most countries.

Dangers and annoyances

We can honestly say we did not feel unduly threatened or in excessive danger at any time during the entire trip in any country in Africa. (Perhaps we were blind)? Africans in the main were nothing but friendly and keen to assist. People often ask about wild animals? They are not much of a risk if common sense is applied – even if we did have elephants rubbing themselves against the car at night and hippos and hyenas scrapping at the back of the tent. People and road related issues are your biggest risk.

Kenya is perhaps the most risky country at present that we travelled in? There are bad things happening due to Al Shebaab terrorist retaliatory activity after Kenya’s invasion of Somalia. Tourists have been kidnapped and bombs have gone off, including in Nairobi. We felt slightly uncomfortable on the road from Isiola to Marsabit and Moyale and travelled cautiously and in company, but encountered no issues. However we were told by some security people and US military guys we met in Ethiopia that “ there are bad dudes where you have come from. Be thankful you are here”!

Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania has a problem with petty thieves and muggers. We could not walk on the beach alone without a security guard and general caution was the rule wherever we went. Zanzibar was OK.

Egypt has a sense of bigger political problems to come and that the “Arab Spring” has not been a solution? Not everyone appeared happy with new President Morsi or the Muslim Brotherhood and felt things worked better two years ago? Law and order and public amenities are breaking down and nothing works efficiently it seems? Rubbish is piled everywhere. Tourism is down 50% and businesses are struggling. The Sinai is closed due to terrorist activity. One hopes that an otherwise fascinating country will improve under the new Government?

Other observations/experiences:

• South Africa probably had the highest risk of crime related dangers other than Nairobi, but we encountered no issues?
• Zimbabwe police can be a pain, but are generally harmless.
• Driving in Tanzania is a nightmare due to speeding buses on suicide missions and many trucks together with constant speed limit changes and road humps (Africa’s “sleeping policeman”)! Police have radar in every village and like to fine “muzungus”.
• Driving in Kampala Uganda traffic is an even bigger nightmare – closely matched by Cairo. No such thing as road lanes or proper side to overtake a slower vehicle.
• Ethiopia’s children all have ADHD hyperactivity syndrome and like to throw stones at your car even while running and shouting “Birr! Birr, gimme money! (Tin can has a nice dent on the back door to attest to their skills). Some put this trait down to the old days when UN Aid agency personnel used to throw out goodies and food as they went along? Funnily enough, when you are out of your vehicle and walking around none of this happens? Only when they see a foreign vehicle? The adults are fine.
• Cattle, pigs, goats, dogs, chickens, donkeys, children and adults on the roads in their thousands in Ethiopia make driving very slow indeed. Twice we came close to hitting something – including a woman in a burka who couldn’t see us properly?
• A friend of the Swedes riding a motorcycle in Ethiopia met in Addis Ababa had just spent a week in jail after hitting and killing and old woman who walked across the road without looking. (Not his fault at all). He was released on bail and immediately flew out of the country together with his motorbike on the same plane at huge expense before they could put him back. So be warned!
• Sudanese people are nice and friendly and Khartoum quite modern and pleasant despite Western governments “do not travel” warning on the country? One of the better, safer countries we thought? But their police and government officialdom with “alien registration” requirements etc are a pain! (And the place is hot)!
• Egypt’s system of “baksheesh” and no fixed prices on anything together with and incredibly complex and slow moving beaurocracy make it far and away the most challenging and frustrating country to travel in with a vehicle. (Probably OK if you fly in, fly out, but anything else is a nightmare)? Petty crime on the streets is also rising due to police inactivity. “Hassling” in tourist areas (Aswan) is a pain.

• No. of personal or vehicle related items lost or stolen during the trip: Nil
• No. of attempted pick pocketing attacks: 1 (In Aswan, Egypt -where physical violence had to be applied to the pick-pocket)!
• No.of stones thrown at the vehicle: 5 (1 Namibia, 4 Ethiopia)

We registered with DFAT Smart Traveller throughout the trip and received several cautionary and advisory emails from them -in for instance, Kenya.

Now in Europe we feel more at risk from car theft and general thievery – and watch our belongings even more closely and ensure everything is locked down?!

Health issues

Generally we stayed very fit and healthy:
• 1 case of gastro enteritis (Marianne- Ethiopia)
• 1 severe eye infection (Stan – Egypt)
• 1 case heat stroke (Marianne – Sudan)
• 2 minor skin infections ( 1 Stan, 1 Marianne)
• Zero malaria, bilharzia, sleeping sickness, Ebola or Marburg’s virus!
• Mosquito and Tsetse Fly bites – zillions despite regular DEET applications. (They get you before you remember the DEET)!

We ate well throughout, washed bodies and clothes daily and took Larium and Doxycycline anti- malarials religiously (alternate months) – and experienced no real health issues at all. Swimming in water likely to harbour Bilharzia was generally avoided, but we will still probably be tested on return to Australia before taking prazequental?

One comment to make though, is that we have lost a lot of fitness and muscles feel atrophied after 9 months behind the wheel driving most days and very little of the usual amount of walking, cycling and gym work that we normally do at home. There is little opportunity for exercise on a road trip like this – with restrictions either due to wild animals stopping one walking too far, heat and security risks in some places. Others made the same comment that they have “truck driver syndrome” and getting a fat arse!

Things that worked well/did not

Worked well
• Hannibal roof top tent, roof racks and awnings. Went up quickly, held together brilliantly and we stayed dry even in mega wind and rain storms in Uganda & Sudan. Only fault is the zipper on the cover wore out on the corners. (Don’t zips always fail)?

• Tracks for Africa and Garmin GPS. Wouldn’t do without T4A –although north of Kenya its mapping & information gets worse and worse.

• Our 40 l Engel fridge. Kept the beers at 2*C without fail until the outside temperature rose above 40*C, then started to struggle a bit, but still managed 6 – 7*C . 10 years old and never failed. Swear by Engel!

• Red Arc battery isolator and Piranha battery monitor together with the Odyssey deep cycle battery and occasional use of the Power Film solar portable 60w solar panel kept power to the Engel without any trouble.

• Front Runner side table easy to set up and handy. Also the Front Runner “Gull Wing Doors” made life easy to get into the rear.

• The “Cobb” Cooker working on briquettes made some brilliant roasts!

• Buying an “unlocked” portable modem and Sim cards in every country rather than looking for WiFi for Internet access. Usually the cost was less than $20 per country for at least 500MB data download – and quicker than most WiFi and accessible wherever one has mobile phone connection. Sim Cards also doubled in mobile phone for local calls/SMS. Africa is well served with mobile net. When we hit Turkey/Europe, suddenly the cost of a Sim Card/data went up to $50 + – so we didn’t get it!

• The general set up if our drawer and storage systems. (It is essential to have everything in exactly the same place day in and day out so that everyone knows exactly where to lay their hands on it without asking).

Not so well

• The three12/220v inverters we went through. One failed due to “pilot error” pouring coffee into it but the next one just blew up for no good reason. The 3rd edition (Victron 800w designed in Holland) seems robust and works well for charging phones etc, but none of the inverters, even the 2500w one, would reliably run the 650w electric kettle for making coffee etc without blowing fuses and overheating.

• The “Betta Filter” water filter couldn’t clean the mud/silt out of Sudan and Egyptian water and clarify properly it so we wonder about the truth of it’s stated ability to clean out microbes like kleptosporidium and E Coli? However we never got sick, but started drinking a lot more bottled water from Ethiopia one and generally boiled filtered water as well as a precaution. Other “ceramic” water filters we saw in use of our friends seemed to work a lot better whilst perhaps being a bit more expensive?

• The fact that tools and spares etc were stored underneath other storage boxes and involved painful unpacking/repacking to get to them.

• Tin Can’s air-conditioning system!

Budget

The page “Budget” can be viewed which shows a graph of expenditure summaries for various categories and an attached Excel spreadsheet with detailed day-by-day costs

It is fair to say that whilst we seldom “lashed out” on luxury items or expensive meals etc, we did not skimp too much and ate well, often buying foodstuffs at “European style” supermarkets where we could find them – which is obviously more expensive than local markets. Mostly we did our own cooking – Marianne did an excellent job!

In summary we spent on all items including shipping, airfares, insurance etc:
US Dollars
TOTAL DAYS ON ROAD 233
TOTAL EXPENDITURE $39,299.49
AVERAGE $/DAY TOTAL $168.67
NON ON ROAD COSTS EXCLUDED $22,387.31
AVERAGE $/DAY ON ROAD COSTS ONLY $96.08

Tin Can at Lone Pine Gallipoli

More pictures in the Gallery at : https://picasaweb.google.com/110392977689469430264/Turkey

13/8/12
Aswan Egypt
Temperature in shade: 48*C

Total KMS travelled so far: 26,328 (No change from the last post as Tin Can remains stuck on a barge in Wadi Halfa Sudan the last 5 days).

Allah u Akbar! We have arrived in the land of the Pharoes! Allah is indeed merciful! (We think, but time will tell)?

There was more than a little relief and celebration when Aswan dockside finally hove into sight on Thursday 9th August through the filthy glass of the porthole of the Nile Valley Company ferry cabin where we were again sheltering from the 45*C heat at 10.00am in the morning. A long night trying to sleep on the steel roof of the ship pushing away the arms and legs of 100 snoring Sudanese who seemed to have no trouble encroaching on one’s space was over! Fortunately our long established practice of not getting too excited about anything or letting one’s expectations rise too high paid off handsomely. (That way you don’t get too disappointed about anything).

1-½ hours later at 11.30 we finally disembarked the ferry after Egyptian police had checked to see whether Osama Bin Laden’s brother or 7th wife was with us or the other 500 travellers on the ship? Our passports were taken away by a guy in a grubby T-shirt and jeans whom we hoped was a policeman or Immigration officer? (At least he also had everybody else’s passports)? Then as we traipsed to an immigration hall, an argument ensued between a “fixer” named Kamahl who had got our name and description from somewhere and wanted our business and a fixer Mohammed Abouda whom Oasis suggested we deal with as they had found him reliable over 10 years.Mob: 01225111968. We would have to say that dealing with any of the fixers and officialdom in Egypt did not impress much.It would be hard to say whether Mohammed or Kamahl would be the better choice? (Not that we cared much- the price is much the same and none of these guys not the officials are your friends although they smile at you as they help you open your wallet).

Turned out after an hour in the immigration hall that there weren’t enough Visa stickers for the unprecedented and unexpected number of “farange” wanting to enter Egypt? (About 12 of us)! So the 8 visa stickers available were issued whilst someone had to be sent to the airport to collect more stickers. We all waited around in the heat of the hall (which should have had slowly circulating ceiling fans, but they were broken like just about everything else). We all waited for the next hour or so (as a had been arranged for all 12 to go the 20kms from the port to Aswan city). The 8 who already had their visas were getting more and more impatient. Mohammed Abouda explained to us the cost (EL 1,200 USD$200) of getting our vehicles off the barge when it hopefully arrived next week and through Egyptian Customs together with Egyptian number plates, Egyptian drivers licences, Egyptian insurance, Egyptian fire extinguishers and Egyptian hot air compulsorily issued. (Although, off course, we all already had all these items of a standard and quality seemingly adequate for every other country in Africa, but not Egypt)?

Naturally nothing could be clearly itemized nor receipts issued, as this could change daily according to the USD/EGP/SDG and Bolivian Peso exchange rate fluctuations, the effects of Ramadan, the day of the week the ferry might arrive and the weather. (Incidentally, we are in fact in the month of Ramadan until 18th – and the impact this seems to have on anything working between 6.00 am in the morning when the faithful begin fasting and 6.30 in the evening when they are allowed to smoke and drink again is not to be underestimated. People are hungry, stressed, thirsty, nicotine deficient and unable to provide much, answer difficult questions or make decisions until at least the early evening).

Finally the visa stickers arrived and we all paid our $16 each for the $15 visas. (Don’t ask about the $1). With the boat docking at 10.00am we finally cleared Immigration and walked into the free and Islamic Republic of Egypt at 2.30pm.Off to Mohammed’s friend’s hotel, the Orchida St George, which looked OK for $27 and some found acceptable and stayed. However, we, Chris & Mia and some really nice Indian South African guys, Nebel & Raj who are traveling in a Toyota from Cape Town to Cairo, opted to go up market for more luxury and a big swimming pool and Nile view at The Isis Corniche Pyramisa for $60 pn. (Good value)! Ahh, the joys of a pool, air-conditioning and a toilet that actually flushes and a shower that works after 2 weeks of heat, gritty sand and nothing as you know it functioning in Sudan outside of Khartoum! A quick clean up and into the pool and some cold beers for the first time in 10 days! Bliss at first, we’re surely going to like this place, but……

It soon became evident that evening that sunny Aswan is a “Touristy” place with many foreign visitors, particularly in the winter, ever since Agatha Christie wrote “Death on the Nile” at the Old Cataract Hotel here in the 1930’s. (Possibly even ever since Napoleon’s troops were here in the 18th Century shooting off the Sphinx’s nose)? The local traders and hustlers have had at least 100 years or more to develop their skills in how to help you spend your money! Every price is quoted at 3 to 15 times what it should be and until you know some of the real prices you will end up paying LE10 for a bottle of water which is worth LE3 and at least 3 times as much as you should for anything. No different really to most countries in your first two or three days, I suppose?

That being said, of course not all Egyptians are like that. We met a very honest and hospitable felluca ferry captain who took us for a lovely fellucca sail on the Nile one day and to a great swimming spot the next. No hassle and agreed prices and a good guy to talk to if you are looking for a felluca trip:
Captain Habibi
Mob: +201001194356
Nile-Beauty@ hotmail.com

Stan being a bit hot and irritable the first night did not help the situation with a local 16 year old pickpocket who raced up just as I left an ATM machine, pushed some papyrus hieroglyphic paintings in my chest and had his hand on my wallet (fortunately chained to my belt) at the same time below the paper. Turned round and punched him as hard as I could in his stomach and he staggered off doubled over gasping something about “no good farange” whilst I looked to see if he was going to pull a knife and to check my escape routes?. (It should be noted this is not something I would normally do, but he was smaller than me and I was in a bad mood)!

The next 3 days were very hot but pleasant enough at the pool and taking a felucca ride in the evening along the Nile and eating at the very reasonable local restaurants. However, things got little more tense every day when the reply to the question of “when is that barge from Wadi Halfa with our vehicles going to arrive?” was met each day with “soon” or “tomorrow”. A phone call to the “fixer” in Sudan Mazar to question where it was met with “it’s gone, err going, will be going soon, it’s engine is broken, but do not worry”.

Today, Monday and 5 days after we left Wadi Halfa on the ferry, and after some detective work, it turns out that they loaded the 7 vehicles onto a barge with the full knowledge of a non operational engine just to stop us complaining and to get rid of us on the ferry. Now another barge is to tow our one to Aswan and is supposed to have left early Monday with the expectation of arriving Aswan late Tuesday. Naturally too late to possibly clear the vehicles through Customs on Tuesday, but “do not worry, Wednesday afternoon you will have them, Inshalla”. In the meanwhile we wait. By the time we get our vehicles (if we do) on Wednesday, it will be two weeks after first rolling into Wadi Halfa to get them from Sudan to Egypt!

A link below to a blog of some friendly Roumanian motorcyclists whom we met long ago further south and who have now arrived back in Bucharest after an equally torrid time trying to ship from Port Said Egypt to Turkey on a RoRo ferry is illuminating. We have yet to experience this exit route from Egypt and look forward to it (not)! Amongst other things, that ferry apparently costs $500 from Turkey to Egypt, but we have been quoted $2,000 from Egypt to Turkey. Why? Other routes to Europe through Lebanon and Israel have unfortunately closed down two days ago with the trouble in Sinai and the Egyptian military sealing off the Sinai Peninsula. We continue to explore the possibility of driving through Libya and Tunisia to Italy- and this is looking promising, but the Libyan Embassy will not consider visas until Ramadan is over.

http://www.intotheworld.eu/blog/2012/08/10/the-thousand-and-one-egyptian-sins/

The Egyptians have had 3,000 years to perfect beauracracy, the system of baksheesh and the art of “why do today what can be put off until tomorrow”? They have about got it right….

Cairo
25/8/12
Kms travelled so far: 28,738
We have made it! From Cape Town to Cairo at last! Nothing if not a challenge. Especially the last 3 or 4 thousand kms. But not yet the end of the trip. Libya (hopefully), Tunisia and then Europe awaits before we finally reach the UK.

Well, things have improved somewhat as eventually the barge finally rolled in to Aswan on the Thursday morning – just before the end of Ramadan on the Friday when everything stops for 3 days! Some effort was made to get the Customs paperwork done and Egyptian number plates issued before the Ramadan weekend. Tin Can and the other vehicles finally drove out of the port mid afternoon after we waited around for 5 hours all morning. At least we were on the road again – a mere 2 weeks after first rolling into Wadi Halfa only 250kms south!

We and our Swedish friends immediately hit the road north up the Nile as we had all had enough of Aswan and spent the night at Idfu 112kms north and the site of a large ancient Phaoronic temple. Probably not such a good move late in the day as we struggled to find an hotel to stay in (only two hotels to choose from in town and no camping nor secure parking) and ended up paying LE200($33) for a rather basic room in the Hotel Aswan – and little sleep worrying about Tin Can sitting outside in a very wild and noisy street approaching the end of Ramadan celebrations! The thought of bullet holes in the Landie never mind stuff nicked off the roof made for a fitful night.

Next day on to Luxor where we met up with the Oasis truck and Romanians Martin & Camille as well as Aneke & Fabio again staying at the very nice Rezeiki Camp GPS N25*42”686’ E 32*38”928’ which has a pool, plenty of cold Stella beers at LE10 ($2.50), some shade and water to wash cars etc as well as being very close to Karnak temple. We also had an excellent Egyptian meal of Kofta, kebabs and salads prepared there for LE60 ($10). Stocking up with supplies at the very good and reasonably priced (for imported goods) Rajab Sons Supermarket GPS N25*41.623 E 32*38.408 added to our joys of again being in some form of virtual civilization. Two nights were spent at Rezeiki Camp and tours were made to the Valley of The Kings and the nearby Luxor Temple. (Which were very interesting and amazing how the 4,000 year old heiroglyphics and paintings can still look so fresh? Were it not for the touts and hasslers who can become tiresome together with the continued heat, our mood and views of Egypt were improving again after getting our vehicles back. As someone said: “I will be glad when I am again in a country were prices and services are set and I don’t have to argue and bargain for everything from a bottle of water to a guide”!

We decided to leave the Nile at Luxor and take the Western Desert route via the oases of El Kharga, Dakhla, Farafara and the White Desert to Cairo. Good choice as although this is a longer route of 1500 kms through very arid and remote desert regions, the Western Desert is a far better Egypt (in our view), the people welcoming and non intrusive and more than a few fascinating sights. The White Desert in particular is a spectacular area and wild camping near the chalk outcrops and formations in near total solitude (other than the desert foxes) has to rate in the top 5 of our African experiences. The oases named above are also remarkable “oases of green” in an otherwise arid landscape and are very lush and fertile with plenty of agriculture going on under irrigation from the underground springs. There are many springs,most rather hot and mineral rich water, but some cool and clear and a delight to swim in. (Which we did often).

Egypt also has something of a fuel crises going on in some areas at present (with long queues at service stations) and we ended up having to buy extra jerry cans of diesel of uncertain quality on the black market to be sure we had the range to make the Western Desert route of 1500kms. (Turned out unnecessary as we did get diesel along the way anyway, but you never know)? The good part of it all is that while Sudan’s fuel might have been cheap at 50c/litre, Egypt is even better at about 20c/litre! We almost went driving round the town a few times so we could enjoy the pleasure of filling up again!

We unfortunately took a wrong turn just after Luxor (due to the fact that Tracks for Africa GPS is pretty hopeless in Egypt – with many roads not shown- and Egyptian road sings are either non-existent or written in Arabic. We ended up in Ayut, still on the Nile and doing a 300km detour before heading South again and getting to El Kharga oasis late in the day – where the police insisted on escorting us the last 50kms or so and guiding us to the rather run down 1970’s era Oasis Hotel GPS N25*27.641 E30*32.934 where they insisted we stay (LE200/$33), rather than wildcamp in the dunes? This may possibly have been due to the fact that today was the day after Ramadan’s end and some happy locals were occasionally joyfully discharging their Kalashnikovs into the air in celebration? Didn’t seem any good reason to us?

A short 197km drive the next day to Dakhla Oasis (once again with the police on our tail the last 20kms) was easy and followed by a swim in Well No 6 N25*30.944 E28*57.935 whose warm, brown and ferrous waters are supposed to be good for the arthritis? Close by was a new lodge and camp site called Elias Camp GPS N25*31.034 E 28*57.417 run by a rather fascinating, but strict and eccentric Muslim named Nasser. Elias Camp’s big advantage is that it has a nice pool and rooftop terrace. Nasser showed us a very scenic 25km drive around Dakhla Oasis which passed a man made lake, interesting farms of date palms, olives and wheat and some old tombs of the long departed.

We enjoyed Dakhla perhaps best of the oases. It is quite a large cultivated area. El Farafra Oasis 304km on had little of interest other than a spring to swim in, but it’s “claim to fame” is being near the White Desert National Park which is truly spectacular! These chalk formations made up of tiny sea shells and carboniferous matter laid down when the area was warm and shallow sea about 1 million years ago are best described by the pictures. Our wild campsite next to an outcrop has to rate as one of the best campsite views ever (if a bit hot until the sun went down)? GPS N27*15.938 E28*11.731 The White Desert in our view beats all the Pyramids, temples and tourist hassle in Egypt and makes the whole effort of Egypt worthwhile.

After another swim the next day in a lovely cool spring GPS N28*22.315 E28*54.405 at Bahariya Oasis 183km further on, a call to the Libyan embassy sounded promising as though visas were hopeful, provided we got letters off our own Australian and Swedish missions in Cairo to say they were OK with us going to Libya? So the decision was made to push on closer to Cairo in order to get to our embassies before weekend closing at 1.30pm Thursday. We spent the night camping out in a featureless desert landscape other than the fact that there were a lot of ancient petrified logs and pieces of wood around. Must have been a huge forest a million years ago? Some lights of oil rigs and wells were to be seen in the distance. The “woodpecker” like up and down rocking motion of the pumps providing the “good oil” for our cars is quite fascinating to watch.

We rolled into Cairo at 9.30am (a good time to avoid the crazy traffic which is scary to behold never mind try and drive in) and found Salma Motel Camp N29*58.185 E31*10.464 with only nominal difficulty as it’s in T4A. (Rather run down and little shade but OK). A quick scrub up and into a taxi to the Australian and Swedish embassies to get the required letters for Libya followed. (We had to sign a statutory declaration saying it’s all on our head and pay LE300 ($50) each but got our letter straight away. The Swedes paid Krona 50 ($10) but have to come back on Sunday). We spent the next 3 days viewing the Pyramids at night, the huge and fascinating Egyptian Museum with all its treasures from Tutenkhamen’s tomb etc and walking around Tahrir Square and downtown Cairo (which is reminiscent of some European cities, but still very Arab in its nature – and with far too much rubbish lying around)?

Tahrir Square was supposed to be a scene of more protests and demonstrations yesterday 24th August, but by all accounts was quiet and nothing happened? Certainly tourism is 50% of what it once was here before the revolution and all Egyptians we have met are desperate to tell us how safe and welcoming Egypt is. Which by and large, it seems to be – if only they would make things work a little quicker and with less “baksheesh” and hassle required? An interesting country, but far and away the most challenging of our trip so far.
Sunday 26th and the next embassy visits will see whether we go to Libya or not? If so it will be on to Alexandria, El Alamein and Mersa Matruh of WW11 fame and the coast road to Tunisia. If not, plan B or C ?….

31/8/12
Port Said

Well, here we are in Port Said trying to catch a Russian ferry (the Nikolay Konsarev of Anrusstrans.com lines) to Mersin in Turkey rather than heading to Libya! As per usual, the ferry was supposed to leave last Saturday, but here, Thursday we are still waiting in a run down hotel for a call to say it’s going. At least we can see the ship here in port now, but it is apparently waiting for more cargo?
This has worked out by far a more expensive option than going through Libya/Tunisia regretfully. For those overlanders interested and following the details the costs of the Port Said /Mersin ferry (excluding of course accommodation costs and meals) have been:

USD$500 for the vehicle
USD$600 for 2 pax ($300 per passenger)
USD$125 agent fees (LE 750)To Naggar Shipping Agents
USD$333 (LE2,000) To fixer and customs arranger Mr Said. We have no idea
of the actual breakup re customs/traffic police/baksheesh
USD$ 50 (LE300) 3 days port storage costs for the vehicle at LE100/day
$1,608

The offices of Naggar Shipping Agency are in the rear (5th floor) of the Redmar Shipping Co building GPS N31*15.642 E32*18.692 and the contact is Nabil Mob: 01001237988 or Mohammed Mob:01091665695.
Mr Said’s office are 500m down the street and his Mobile is 01008323655.
The guys at Naggar were polite and efficient enough, but overlanders trying to catch ferries are but a small annoyance in their overall business and the trouble is that while they say they will contact you to let you know what is going on, the don’t – and you constantly need to chase things up yourself.

Mr Said and his assistant Aseed were OK, friendly guys who managed customs affairs as quickly and efficiently as they could – and even gave us coffee and helped us purchase mangoes!

Things at the Libyan embassy did not work out as hoped. (Probably more as expected?). After getting up early at 5.30am and leaving our desert campsite to reach Cairo on the Thursday before 10.00am in order to go to the Australian Embassy before it closed for the weekend in order to get the letter of introduction. (This cost LE600 (USD$100) for 2 letters plus the 2 statutory declarations we had to sign that going to Libya was on our head). At least our embassy issued the letters in an hour, not like the Swedes who had to come back Sunday to pick up theirs?
Too late before the weekend to go to the Libyan embassy until it reopened Sunday so we sat around in Salma Motel Camping in Giza GPS N28*58.130 E31*10.370 (which is OK but little shade) and amused ourselves with the usual Cairo things of seeing the Pyramids and Sphinx at Giza and walking around downtown Cairo and the Egyptian Museum with all Tutenkhamen’s treasures etc. (Worth a visit). Downtown Cairo is reminiscent of faded European cities and quite pleasant. Tahrir Square was quiet despite rumours of imminent protests.

Back on the Sunday to the Libyan embassy in Zamelek (behind the German embassy) and to wait in a noisy queue of hopefuls. A noisy protest of some sort with plenty of shouting and chanting and edgy police standing around was building outside, so when we finally got to the window about midday, we were told: ”too many problems today, come back tomorrow”. Also that we might have to get Tunisian entry visas before Libya would issue one to transit Libya? We made the immediate decision that this was all going to drag on too long and to head to Port Said and the Turkey ferry first thing the next morning? The money spent on the Australian letter of introduction would be blown, but so what?
Christer and Mia though went back the next day as Swedish nationals don’t need a Tunisian visa – only to be told again that : “Things are still uncertain in Libya? Come back next week”. They also spat the dummy and decided to head for Turkey instead!

Our summation is that Libya will probably soon issue transit visas in a week or two, but not just yet? Opinion from the several Libyans we spoke to in the queues is that Libya is welcoming and safe enough and they want tourists to return?

Traversing central Cairo in Tin Can early the following morning in building peak hour traffic without a properly functioning GPS (T4A mapping is hopeless here!), and more or less guessing our route north, was possibly enough to take another year off our lives, but we got to Port Said by 11.00am. and the offices of Naggar Shipping. We later checked into the Hotel De La Poste GPS N31*15.790 E32*18.613, which is not too bad if you need to spend several days (or weeks!) at LE110 ($19) per day- with large, airy rooms but old and run down.

Port Said at the entrance of the Suez Canal is not too bad a place. No tourists (and accompanying hassle), the people are welcoming and there are a few things to see. The Pizza Pino restaurant was a favorite! The town though has obviously seen better glory days when all the large ocean liners going up the Suez Canal used to stop here- and it would be nice if (like Cairo) so much rubbish and litter was not left lying around? Egypt could do with a lot more effort by the street cleaners!

Hopefully the good Russian ship will sail one day before Xmas (we keep getting told “tomorrow”?) and the next post will be from Turkey and after we have probably kissed good European soil at last? (When we one day get back to Australia, we are indeed going to hug the ground, not just kiss it)!

Egypt has been a fascinating country to visit, but far and away the most challenging and frustrating. There also seems to be a strong feeling amongst most of the local people we spoke to that things are getting worse despite the exit of Mubarak from the scene and that more change and unrest is surely on the way? Everyone hopes for better days (and the return of tourists) under new President Mursi and the Muslim Brotherhood, but no-one seems too confident?

The fact from our point of view is that whilst we have spent nearly 30 days in the country, only about10 days has been actually on the road. The rest has been sitting around waiting for things to happen like ferries to arrive or custom clearances to take place. The other fact is that the cost of getting a vehicle in and out of Egypt with various charges, officialdom and “baksheesh” has been more than 3 times all the 16 other African countries put together! No wonder many overlanders from Europe try and avoid the place and try through Saudi Arabia (now closed) or ship to Sudan or Mombassa? The one good point is that driving is a pleasure with diesel at only 20c/litre!

In the meantime we continue to wait for Russian ships and get to know Port Said very well indeed….

More photos in the Gallery at: https://picasaweb.google.com/110392977689469430264/Egypt

8/8/12
Wadi Halfa Sudan
Temperature in shade: 49*C
Total KMS travelled so far: 26,328

Wherethefukawe?

Well, at last we were about to test all the views from just about anybody with an opinion and who has listened to the Media, that travelling to Sudan was “on the edge”! Also the fact that the Australian Govt. DFAT has a “do not travel” warning on the country and our travel insurance is void in Sudan did nothing to boost confidence levels.
We set out early with Germans Aneke & Fabio from Gondar 29th July and the drive down the Ethiopian escarpment towards Gallabat and the Sudanese border post was quite breathtakingly beautiful. We kept on reminding ourselves to enjoy the green and cool Ethiopian surroundings, as Sudan was unlikely to be the same! We also hoped to be across the border and well into Sudan by the end of the day – but had forgotten to add the “ flexible/unknown Africa premium”!

On arriving at Ethiopian customs and immigration at 12.01, we were told that “the man has gone to lunch and will not be back until 3.00pm”.
“3 hour lunch? Nobody else can stamp our passports? Heard about lunch rosters?”

“Ramadan. Ramadan – everybody must rest, as we are weak from fasting. Come back at 9.00am”

“9.00 am? Oh, Ok, forgot Ethiopian time. 9.00am is 3.00pm”

Back at 3.00pm after sitting out in a dry field and having a long lunch of dry Ryvita biscuits and water for 3 hours, we checked out of Ethiopia pretty quickly, but things got slower after crossing the bridge to Sudan. First to immigration to present our visas and fill in entry cards, all pretty quick. But where next is Customs to stamp the Carnet? Over there – big shed.

It was a big shed with lots of empty partitioned offices. No-one here it seemed? After checking all the offices, we eventually found two bored guys in one of them who cheerfully checked our Carnets, but then said: “ pay entry tax outside before we can stamp”. Fabio and I scuttled off to find someone to pay in another small office some 500 metres away. He had to count a pile of notes which looked like 1 million Sudanese Pounds in his cash box first before he could serve us and take our SDG 13.75 each (USD$2.50) and supply change. After half an hour sitting around, the girls had come looking for us. This seemed to speed things up? Having paid the entry fee, we raced back to the Customs guys as it was now getting close to 5.00pm closing time.

Stamp, stamp in the Carnets and off to “Security” – about 800metres away up the hill for a final check of documents. Asked if we could also complete “Alien Registration” here at the border to save time in Khartoum as other travellers had apparently done, but were told “No! No”- Khartoum, Khartoum”! Probably because it was close to 5.00pm as 3 days later our friends Christer & Mia managed to register at the border.

This Alien Registration has to be completed within 3 days of entering Sudan or one risks arrest. Wish we had been able to do it at the border as it was another 3 hour nightmare finding the correct office in Khartoum GPS N15*33”550’ E32*32”231’ and paying SDG 198 ($35) each, having forms filled in in triplicate in Arabic and presenting heaps of documents. (Copy of your passport. Copy of your Sudanese Visa with the entry stamp {we had a copy made before entry and had to go and have another one done showing the stamp}, passport photo, letter of sponsorship from a local Sudanese and proof of address in Sudan {we had this completed by the Khartoum Youth Hostel manager Mohammed Bagi where we camped, but for SDG50 ($10), you can find someone to sponsor you hanging around the alien offices) Still, 2 hours later, we got the required green sticker in our passports and all was well.

The first surprise in Sudan on the road from the Ethiopia to Khartoum was all the floods, water and mud to be seen everywhere in a country that was supposed to be drier than a desiccated 5 year old date? Seemed like the heavens waited for our arrival to have the biggest floods in Sudan in apparently 10 years. Our first bush camp 50kms from the border and about 3kms north of the road turned out to be one of the wettest, wildest nights we have ever experienced- with a long crawl through black cotton mud to get back to the road in the morning! It rained some 50mm in the night and winds were up to 70 k/mh.

The second delight was to experience how polite and reserved the Sudanese people were compared at least to the “in your face” Ethiopians. Sudanese will come up and say “salaam” and have a chat and then leave you alone. The kids take a back seat (as do the women, off course) and wherever we camped, we had nothing but warm welcomes. For our entire time in Sudan we “bush camped” in the desert or on the banks of the Nile for zero cost and it was great (if bloody hot)! The exception was Khartoum where we camped in the compound of the Khartoum Youth Hostel GPS N15*35”434’ E 32*32”375’ and met a retired KLM Pilot Atte and Marijke who has a rather fantastic Bremach 4WD truck/camper which we all drooled over!

Swedes Christer and Mia also caught up with us in Khartoum after driving almost non stop for 4 days from Addis Ababa, where repairs to their Landrover’s injectors took 5 days longer than promised. The Khartoum Youth Hostel was a pretty comfortable and central spot to stay and we think slightly better than the Blue Nile Sailing Club, which is the only other camping option. (Stan and Christer visited the BNSC a day later to catch up with the Oasis Overland Tour guys to discuss Wadi Halfa arrangements -and although it has a Nile River frontage, deemed it grubbier and inferior).

Khartoum itself was surprisingly quite modern in some of its appearance and buildings (certainly more appealing than Addis Ababa) and had some good eating places like the Ozone Cafe near our residence. But it was hot! And one night there was a massive dust storm followed by a 6-hour power failure and sufficient rain to create a huge flood in the streets and plenty of mud the next day. Generally speaking, we quite liked Khartoum and found people friendly and helpful.

Germans Aneke and Fabio had to have their Toyota Landcruiser’s badly leaking and grumbling transfer case repaired at Khartoum Toyota where a new gearbox/transfer connecting shaft, bearings and seals had to be fitted – which spares fortunately they had with them as apparently this is a renown Toyota weak spot? And off course Khartoum Toyota had no spares- but they were very helpful and efficient (run by an English bloke and with a Japanese chief mechanic) and did their best to get things fixed as quickly as possible.
(We can only keep kissing Tin Can every night for her generally flawless performance so far in some horrendous conditions. Only the air-conditioning fails to work – in 45*C Sudan of all places. Every Landrover has to have some small quirk)!

We and the Swedes left them in Khartoum waiting for their Toyota and headed north to the Meroe Pyramids where we enjoyed a lovely camp in the dunes GPS N16*55”917’ E 33* 45”081’ at sunset and an enthralling tour in solitude around the 3,000 year old pyramids at dawn the next morning.

Then the drive towards Merowe and Dongala on Sudan’s excellent new (Chinese built) bitumen roads following the Nile turned hotter and hotter (48*C recorded), dust storms blinded us and when we trundled into Karima at 4.00pm and searched for a camping spot (found one with difficulty along the Nile at GPS N 18*32”112’ E 31*50”791’), we were tired. But not as tired as Aneke & Fabio who, Toyota fixed, had driven 600kms non-stop from Khartoum in 45*C heat to catch up with us some two hours later!

We continued on next day to Dongala (nothing much there!) and eventually ended camping 70kms north of Dongala at the 3rd Cataract on the Nile at GPS N 19*58”086’ E 30*33”976’ in a palm grove. (The difficulty we found in camping along the Nile is getting down to the palm groves over generally 2m high irrigation ditches)? But not a bad spot despite the continued 45*C heat day and night – and some local farmers who came to chat were very welcoming. They don’t see many “farange”.

A day and a half later traversing 350kms of very good roads but through very dry desert conditions once one gets more than 2kms from the Nile, saw us arrive in the famed ferry port of Wadi Halfa on the banks of Lake Nasser. (Don’t expect any port as you know it nor any pleasant lakeside view – there is not even a bush higher than 1m in Wadi Halfa never mind a tree)! We’ve seen a few possible qualifiers over the decades, but if ever there was a spot that would have to receive serious consideration for the title of “a**rshole of the world” this must be it? Temperature at night was a cool 38*C to relieve the day’s balmy 45 -50*C to add to the joys of sitting around under Tin Can’s fold out Hannibal awning (which we were very glad we had) waiting for “fixer” Mazar to arrange ferry tickets for us and barge space for the vehicles.

Despite the fact that extracting from Mazar the final cost of exiting Sudan customs, getting the vehicle on the barge and us on the ferry was virtually impossible until the time the ferry finally started it’s motors (4 days later), he well known to overlanders over several years and is generally considered honest and reliable? (Far, far worse was to come in Egypt)! 3 days were spent in Wadi Halfa trying to find some shade and drinking endless bottles of water whilst waiting for the ferry to arrive and things to happen. We were so, so lucky that Oasis Overland Tour Group had booked a private barge for their trucks and which had additional space for our vehicles – and that they kindly allowed us to share the barge. Those Oasis guys, Steve, Neville and Kate were fantastic! All Aussies of course! Without their barge, we might have waited 2 weeks for another one to arrive.

The final cost of one Landrover and 2 people 2nd class was SDG1980 (USD$330). Sadly, for $50 more, we could not obtain a 1st class cabin (er 3x2m dog-box in the lower decks in which you would surely drown, unable to get out if the ship sank, but at least with air-conditioning), as they were fully booked. At least Christer and Mia managed to get one and we took turns sheltering in the aircon and could leave some luggage in the cabin.

The rest of us peasants found space on the roof and upper deck amongst 500 local Sudanese and Egyptians, slung a tarpaulin and spread out mats to spend a fitful night and 18 hours on the slow boat to Aswan in 45*C heat. We have had worse boat trips, I think, but I can’t remember when? Maybe years ago on the roof of a Mekong River boat in Cambodia for 10 hours in the sun perhaps?
It’s amazing to note how one can drink upwards of 7 litres of water per day (no beers of course in Sudan under fear of 40 lashes if caught with alcohol) and only maybe once in 12 hours pee perhaps 250 milliliters max. of what looks like orange juice?

We were glad when Aswan, Egypt hove into sight with the prospect of luxury hotels and swimming pools, but not for long……..

More photos in the Gallery “Sudan” at: https://picasaweb.google.com/110392977689469430264/Sudan

27/7/12

Gondar Ethiopia
KMS travelled 24,156

With Marianne recovering in bed at Paradise Lodge, with little to do the second day I teamed up with a retired Swedish diplomat, Carl Jungen, who was in Arba Minch in an unofficial capacity trying to achieve the release of two Swedish journalists who have been in an Ethiopian jail there for a year or so after illegally crossing the Somali/Ethiopian border. We decided to go in Tin Can to the nearby Nechisar NP which surrounds Lake Abaya and Lake Chamo – which reputedly have the biggest crocs in Africa! Little did I realize that the afternoon expedition was going to involve nearly 5 hours of rugged 4W Driving to cover some 50 kms with low range 4WD in constant use through mud, large stones and some very steep gradients!

We didn’t see much game other than some Zebra, warthog and several hippos in the lake, but it was an interesting trip through thick forest and rocky hills. But it tested poor Tin Can sorely again! Sadly, the last lion in the Nechisar NP was apparently shot 3 years ago by locals after eating cattle and there did not seem to be much other game to see despite all the assurances of local guides looking for a Birr or two to guide us? Plenty of cattle grazing on the Nechisar plain though –something that seems all to common in so called National Parks throughout sub Saharan Africa? !

Marianne fit again, we headed north through the sizeable town of Shasheme and on towards Addis Ababa through interesting countryside. We broke the 550km trip at a lovely campsite at Karkaro Beach Cottages and Top Camp GPS N 07*35”862’ E 38*41”659’ right on the shores of soda Lake Langano (in which you can swim as the soda ash content kills bilharzia – and crocs)! A quiet night on our own with a nice campfire with wood supplied by the friendly guard and some very tame little weaver birds and finches eating out of one’s hand the next morning.

Addis didn’t do much for us- mud everywhere from the recent heavy rains and diesel smoke pollution like you wouldn’t believe from the trucks and buses gridlocked on the streets. Still we caught up at the rather weird Wim’s Holland House GPS N 09*00”614’ E 38* 45”320’ with Christer and Mia and Fabio and Anne and the iconic (and slightly deaf) Dutch proprietor Wim (who has just got married again at 64 to an Ethiopian lady, Rachel!), and who kindly let us a room in his own house as it was raining steadily.

Wim’s Holland House has unfortunately lost it’s adjoining camping yard to a property developer and is not quite the same as Jungle Junction in Nairobi as far as heaps of overlanders and facilities is concerned, but has a nice bar and good food. A bit of a disappointment really, still we were surprised to meet a pair of Romanians, Martin and Carmelia driving a Hyundai Terracan from Durban to Roumania and who greeted us like long lost friends! They had apparently been following our blog for weeks and wondering when they would catch up with us?!

Car troubles occupied both Christer (who was trying to get injectors and an injector pump serviced by a local Land Rover specialist in order to try and give him better power in the 3,000+m Ethiopian Highlands) and Fabio whose Toyota had sheared off rear wheel studs (modified for his wider wheels) and needed new front shockers, steering tie rod ends as well as new fridge batteries as they were no longer holding their charge. Not easy things to locate in Addis –and Fabio seemed to be starting to suffer from the “collywobbles” Marianne had earlier? Having seen enough of Addis, the pollution and the rain, after stocking up at the quite good nearby Bambi Supermarket- which has many (pricey) imported Western goods- after two days, we left them in Addis trying to source mechanics and spares and headed north again towards Debra Marcos and Bahir Dar in Amhara Province with the promise to wait for them to catch up at the Ghion Hotel in Bahir Dar on the shores of Lake Tana,550 km further on.

The road north wound through some very green and pretty countryside with rich topsoil and ploughed fields (with nary a tractor in sight – all plowing doine by bullocks!) Some parts of the road were heavily populated with very interesting looking people. (It seems like all of Ethiopia lives on the road- and “pit stops” have to be made in hurry as within 3 minutes no matter how deserted the roadside looks, some kids will come running up with calls of “Birr, Birr” !) Unfortunately is was not unknown for some of them to throw stones at Tin Can as we were driving off when they inevitably got nothing – and the rear door now has chips in it to add to the baboon scratches received earlier! We are a bit worried about our rear window glass in Ethiopia – as kids and youths seem all too ready to toss a stone? We also wonder how they learned the ubiquitous “You, You -Birr, Birr” or “Gimme something”? Surely not many “Farange” tourists regularly toss out Birr, food or anything else in these situations? An expat we spoke with surmised it was the UNAid agencies who years ago during the Ethiopian famine freely and indiscriminately handed out “goodies” and who caused the annoying trait to develop? Who knows, but whilst the adults in Ethiopia can be charming (although many of the guys on the roadside carry scary looking weaponry from old vintage WW11 Italian carbines and British 303’s to more modern but still ancient Kalashnikov AK47’s)!,the kids are some of the most painful and “hyped up” we have suffered? And there are unbelievable numbers of them – and more arriving every day with a 4% growth rate!

We climbed to 3,100m before,190km north of Addis, crossing the 15kms of switchback road plunging 1,200m into the Blue Nile Gorge across the new Japanese built bridge and up back to 2,600m again! Impressive scenery, but slow work to arrive at Debra Marcos at about 5.00pm -where we stayed in a large, clean double room at the fairly new FM International Hotel in the centre of town for the relatively high price (for Ethiopia) of ETB460 ($30)- but still, as is the norm in Ethiopia, the hot water still did not work properly nor the toilet flush! The meals and service was good and Tin Can was securely guarded in the hotel courtyard.
On the following morning we completed the next 250km through green and fertile country to Bahir Dar and the Ghion Hotel GPS N 11*35”825E 37*23”146’ , where we camped in the grounds for ETB100($6) and they allowed us the use of one of their rooms for a hot shower. Nothing flash, but more pleasant than Addis and right on the shores of Lake Tana with its islands and Coptic Christian monasteries inviting a look together with a trip with a local mini bus and guide for ETB500 ($35) to the nearby Blue Nile Falls while we waited for the others to catch up. ( The falls are not blue, they are brown from all the good Ethiopian topsoil flowing down the river in huge quantities to a grateful Egypt. Too many trees have been cut down across the country and together with poor practices, soil erosion is a major problem the Ethiopian government is trying to combat).

After a fairly relaxing 4 days in Bahir Dar (despite the near constant on again/off again rain which became tiresome – never knew Ethiopia could be so wet?), we received news that the others were not going to catch up on time as vehicle repairs had still not been completed in Addis. Christer and Mia were having to apply for visa extensions as their Ethiopian visa expired in three days. Bored with Bahir Dar, we decided to move on to the large regional centre of Gondar and a day or two at the World Heritage sites of the Coptic Christian church, its relics and the Castle of the Emperor from the 16th century. Gondar struck us a quite a pleasant town with old, well laid out cobbled streets – and certainly the historical sites are worth a visit. We stayed one night at the brand new 5 storey Nigat Hotel with avery nice room where everything worked, but some distance out of town and with questionable security GPS N 12*36″761′ E 37* 27″018″ ETB 400 ($25) and the next night at the better Fasil Lodge GPS N*12*36″567′ E37*28″278′… with a lovely view and next to the World Heritage site for ETB700 ($40). Both were quite good. Camping is not a viable option in Gondar.

We still hope to have the Swedes and Germans catch up before crossing into Sudan. All of us will be looking forward to descending from the Ethiopian plateau and the daily “wet season” clouds and rain and confined hotel carpark camping areas to the warmer climes and open desert “wild camping” Sudan promises?

The earlier conjecture of whether we together with Fabio and Anne shipped vehicles from Port Sudan to Mersin in Turkey has been settled after weeks of deliberation. Port Sudan/Turkey is out. Too expensive after shipping costs coupled with necessary airflight tickets Port Sudan/Khartoum/Cairo/Istanbul worked out at about USD$4,000/ vehicle/couple. Also the ship would take 30 -40 days to get to Turkey and we would all be faced with the need and expense of backpacking around Turkey for a month without vehicles and equipment.
So the decision has been made- we go via Lake Nasser Wadi Halfa/ Aswan and Egypt. Fortunately we have met up with an Oasis Overland Tour group who have booked a private barge on 8th August for Lake Nasser and who offer some small prospect of us joining their barge if there is space? Despite potential Egyptian “hassles”, the Western Desert and Pyramids seem inviting? After Cairo we have two apparent options: a recently commenced RoRo ferry from Port Said to Mersin in Turkey or potentially driving through Libya, Tunisia and a ferry to Italy? The Libyan route is said to be opening up again with reasonable safety now that the good Colonel Gaddafi is history (and the West and Westerners are loved and cherished for having helped get rid of him) -and some recent overlanders coming south seem to have got Libyan visas and managed to travel that way without trouble? We will visit the Libyan Embassy in Khartoum or Cairo to see what they say and we will see? Won’t do it alone…..

Next Sudan….

More photos in the gallery at:https://picasaweb.google.com/110392977689469430264/Ethiopia

(Taking decent photos of people is very difficult and embarrassing as either they want “Birr” if you so much as point a camera or get annoyed. So apologies there are not more “people” photos we would love to have. Every day is an overload of sights of intriguing looking people) .

16/7/12
Arba Minch
Total KMS travelled so far: 22,520
ETHIOPIA FLAG

“You! You! You!” Who knows what silly Westerner first taught Ethiopian kids the word “you”, but that has become the catch cry at high pitch whenever they see a “farange” or foreign vehicle! We know that in the schools they try and teach something better like: “Hello! What’s your name?” but “You!” it is everywhere. Not that they mean to be rude or anything, it’s just what has been learned somehow, together with the occasional “Birr” or “Give me”. Everywhere. All the time. And there are many.

Nevertheless, all of us agree that in general all the hype you read in guidebooks and from other travelers that Ethiopians are “in your face” all the time is nonsense? We have found that the adults are very polite and reticent, the kids somewhat more hyped up perhaps – to the extent of doing “monkey dances” on the roadside when they see you vehicle coming. Generally only when they see a strange vehicle? We find that when we walk the streets, usually we are left alone. First impressions of Ethiopia are that it is hilly, green, fairly relaxed and nice. A good place to be. We are just getting used to Ethiopia’s Julian calendar and time system – where time is 6 hours behind us and 12.00 midday is 06.00 in the morning and morning coffee time is afternoon tea time and who knows what day of the week it is? The roads are quite good (and lovely asphalt in general) and traffic is light. Compared to the Tanzanian and Ugandan highways with trucks, matatus, and buses everywhere, driving in Ethiopia is a pleasure despite being on “the wrong side of the road” and constantly dodging people, cattle and goats walking the road.

After crossing the border at Moyale, the Swedes Chris & Mia, Germans Fabio and Anne and us have kept together. We looked for camping the first night at a town called Mega. I won’t even mention the name or co-ordinates of the hotel courtyard we ended up camping in because it was a cesspit with not even a cold shower– and we paid too much at ETB50 ($2.50) each due to my poor negotiating skills! However, things improved the next day as we rolled through lovely countryside towards the Omo Valley and next night saw the three vehicles camping with a beautiful view across the valley at the relatively luxurious Kanta Lodge 2kms west of Konso town where they opened up one of their rooms for us to have a hot shower in and fed us well at their good restaurant. A little bit expensive to camp at ETBirr 150 (USD$9) per person (by Ethiopian prices) but good all the same. We all spent two days there recuperating from the Isiola/Moyale expedition, doing washing and cleaning up.
Key Afar was the next stop where there was a very interesting market day in progress and we managed to see Banna and Hamar tribes people who walk miles to bring their wares to market. Anne and Mia were rather keen to see Mursi tribes people (who wear large lip plates and scarify their bodies in intricate patterns, but were to be disappointed unless they paid $50 later near Jinka to go with a guide to a reputedly rather “touristy” Mursi village where the people apparently have their “hands out” all the time – which they chose not to do. Even taking photos in the Key Afar market was tricky – where if you raise a camera the call for “Birr! Birr!” goes up from the Banna and Hamar. You need to pay to take a photo, which is probably fair enough? Usually ETB2 (8c) – which ain’t much!

On to Jinka at the entrance of the Omo Valley region where we camped in the courtyard of the quite reasonable Jinka Resort Hotel GPS N 05*46”759’ E36*33”907’ for ETB 50 each ($2.50) and had the use of a room/shower for the two days we were there. Jinka had just had much rain and a large flood the day before and mud was everywhere! Quite a rainy spot – and we had some more rain that night. Makes a change from the dust- but give me dust any day! We explored the rather good German established tribal anthropology museum at the top of town and had an excellent meal of sour dough pancakes “Injera” and hot meat “Tibs” or meat/bean dish “FirFire” at a local eatery that night for the huge price of $5 each including beers and the ubiquitous strong Ethiopian coffee. (Usually ETB5 ($0.30c) for an “espresso”. Eating out in Ethiopia is so cheap, we all agreed there is little point in buying one’s own supplies and cooking for oneself?
We also met up with a charming an interesting pair of Belgian guys in Jinka (and later again in Arba Minch) called Frank Baelde and Dirk D’Hulster who were busy doing exploration in Ethiopia to prospect a route for the cycling and mountain bike tours of hilly Ethiopia they hope to run shortly. Frank has spent many years in Africa living in Burundi and completed a solo motorbike tour of nearly everywhere in southern and eastern Africa some years ago.

Decisions were made not bother to travel the further 80km (160km round trip) on gravel roads further west into the Omo Valley and NP just to see Mursi tribes. We are all sick of gravel roads. Chris and Mia stayed on in Jinka for a day whilst we, Fabio and Anne independently headed northeast to Arba Minch on the shores of beautiful Lake Abaya where we ended up camping at the very comfortable Paradise Lodge Arba Minch with lovely views across Lake Abaya GPS N 06*00”469’ E 37* 33” 281’ for ETB260 ($15) per vehicle per night (with a hot shower)! Even the German, Norwegian and Swedish Ambassadors have stayed at the place, so it’s the best camping spot in town! Even has high speed Broadband WiFi and toilets that flush! What more could one want? Certainly beats the alternative campsite mentioned in the Bradt guide of Roza’s Place, which Chris inspected and reported as a dump.

Unfortunately on day two at Paradise Lodge and after happily in the morning walking 6kms to the town of Arba Minch and back with no trouble to find the only ATM (Dashen Bank), Marianne rapidly came down with a severe case of “Bombay Belly” in the afternoon and looked very poorly. The first sign of any complaints in 5 months or more– we have been very healthy to now, touch wood. (She blames the fact that she has not been cooking her own food for the past week and eating out instead where many hands “fondle” the food and hygiene and water is uncertain? I told her not to have the Caesar Salad where we all know risks are taken)!

We rented a very nice room (with a view and a toilet) at Paradise Lodge Arba Minch for ETB850 ($50) for the next two nights whilst Marianne recovers, as she surely will. The Swedes and Germans have headed off to Lake Langano and then on to Addis Ababa where we will hopefully eventually catch up with them at Wim’s Holland House…..