Wednesday 22 December 2010

The infamous ferry and the incredible Sudan…

The ferry (and only entry point) from Aswan in Egypt to Wadi Halfa in Sudan across Lake Nasser has a reputation that stands before it. This is the second draft of this blog as the first one for those not interested in bureaucratic processes was really not all that interesting! It is basically a border crossing that takes five days in real time and a five year supply of patience! The process to leave Egypt includes obtaining various pieces of paper that prove you had not committed any driving offences whilst in Egypt – without a computer system it can only be through mental telepathy that this process has any truth to it, we are sure it is fool proof.

The ferry itself is rather old and not exactly what you would call seaworthy, the amount of luggage or produce that the locals each carry means that space is extremely limited and the ‘airline seats’ that we had paid clearly never existed! On getting the bike on a sad looking barge, we boarded the boat and once dark find a nice spot on the roof of the captains’ cabin and with our mats and sleeping bags had a pretty good night sleep under some amazing stars. Before departing the ferry (which is in itself a 4 hour process) we had to have our temperature taken by some grotty thermometer before being told we had ‘a healthy ear’ get passports stamped and get a piece of paper that permits you to travel. After clearing customs (which included getting a sticker on your bag and then a tick on the sticker without anyone actually looking in the bag) we got into a taxi of sorts and headed into Wadi Halfa where the fight for the least flea ridden bed began – grateful for bringing out tent we slept outside.

The next morning we must ‘register’ as tourists in Sudan, I am aware that this is getting a bit long so will try to shorten this: Give copies of important documents to the first man, get them stapled and receive the instructions – computer, captain, cashier, me… We find the only man with a computer and get another stamp, then to the captain for thumb prints and some more stamping, then to the cashier, then back to the first man who puts everything in a nice blue folder and a sticker in your passport, then back to the captain who stamps a bit more and then back to the first man who takes the blue folder back and returns the passport. Sounds simple but this is about a 3 hour process!

Thanks to a fellow traveller who had a tracking device in this car on the barge (which comes slower than the ferry as it cannot travel at night, no lights apparently) we receive notice that it is about to arrive. Tille headed back down to the port for another few hours of stamping, chassis number checking and general confusion before arriving happily back into town with an undamaged bike. One last meeting to get the carnet back and we were done, it is now Wednesday evening!!!

Now once in Sudan – the great stuff really begins. We drove through the Nubian Mountains and Desert from Wadi Halfa to Dongola, then on to Karima, Atbara and south to Khartoum. This route took us through some of the most amazing desert we have seen and after about 6 weeks of riding through countries that are mainly desert this is really saying something! The roads thanks to the Chinese are the newest and best bitumen we have had since Europe, creating an easy way through the desert and crossing with the green banks of the Nile that are dotted with mud hut villages and local people. The Nubian people are so warm and friendly and can appear from nowhere with the offer of tea. We camped next to 7000 year old pyramids in Karima and again outside of Atbara. They are just sitting there, nestled in lovely red dunes and with a full moon were an incredible sight to see.

We will now head towards the border and cross into Ethiopia some time near Christmas. After hearing so many negative stories about the political and safety situation in Sudan we have had nothing but purely positive experiences.

We would like to wish everyone a very, merry Christmas!!!

Tuesday 21 December 2010

Riding in Sudan.... (Courtesy of Natalie & Paul Productions)


Riding in North Sudan with Natalie & Paul and a fellow Finnish rider.

Friday 10 December 2010

Deserts, kings and temples...

Within half an hour of leaving Cairo (note, without getting lost!) we were back in the silence and vastness of the desert that we are known to love so much. The first oasis on the western desert loop was Bahariya which takes you back in time to a world of mud huts, donkeys and women shyly looking out their doors at the funny tourists going by. The ingenuity of these people in their decorative use of mud, cement and bricks is really incredible. We used Bahariya as a base to service the bike and enjoyed two days of peace and quiet after Cairo. The road to the next oasis takes you through the white desert which is breathtaking; the construction of the Romans and Pharaohs is something to see, but Mother Nature wins hands down each time. The dusty oasis of Farafra marked the end of the white desert and we wound on through the next day to the green and lush oasis of Dakhla where we spent the night being entertained in a Bedouin camp and enjoyed the local hot spring. The last day was a bit of a stretch to Al Kharga which wins the award for being the least attractive oasis by far! The desert loop is incredibly about 99% of good bitumen, an amazing feeling to fly along through sand, stones and so many colours. The tourist police were our constant friends with an average of 8 check point stops per day.

After 5 days in the desert even we as desert lovers were happy to see the green created by the Nile as we headed into the west bank of Luxor. We are staying in a time warp hotel that was built in the 1920’s for archaeologist digging in the Valley of the Kings; dinner is served on silver trays with dome lids by very attentive young men – bit lush really!

We spent today in the Valley of the Kings (which was sadly very disappointing) but then enjoyed the Temple of Hatshepsut and absolutely loved the Karnak Temple. From tomorrow we are really on the long route south, destination tomorrow is Aswan where we hope to finalise our ferry booking for Monday which will take us into Sudan.

Die Wüste…..

Wir lieben die Wüste und dieser Abschnitt der Wüstentour war ein absolutes Highlight. 1500km auf einem dünnen Asphaltband durch alle möglichen Formen der Wüste nur unterbrochen durch 4 Oasendörfer.
In der ersten Oase haben wir dann am zweiten Tag den überfälligen Service für das Motorrad erledigt. Wir haben uns Zeit dafür gelassen und früh morgens angefangen, als es dann dunkel war hatten wir es geschafft mit Hilfe unserer Taschenlampen auch noch die letzte übriggebliebene Schraube unterzubringen. (Vielen Dank nochmals an Harald für das super Training).

Am dritten Tag kamen wir dann in die weiße Wüste, einfach phantastisch!!! Die Menschen errichten großartige Bauwerke von denen wir schon einige auf unserer Reise bewundern konnten, die Natur schlägt sie alle.

Nach fünf Tagen hatten wir auch diesen Wüstenabschnitt geschafft und waren froh etwas Grün zu sehen. In Luxor haben wir uns dann wieder ein paar Altertümer abgesehen: Das Tal der Könige, den Tempel der Hatsepsut und den Karnak Tempel. Vom Tal der Könige können wir leider keine Fotos zeigen da dort das Fotografieren verboten ist. 

Friday 3 December 2010

The crazy city of Cairo...

On leaving our heavenly resort in Matrouh we headed further east to El Alamein which was central to the desert battles in WWII. We stayed in what can only be described as the grottiest hotel in the world but did get a bit of a history lesson from the Commonwealth war museum!

The next day we ventured into Cairo, a city with the population of Australia and I would even dare say more roads than all of Australia put together! I was armed with a mental plan and a map but after missing the very first turn ended up terribly lost and the final stretch to the hotel saw Tilmann ride the motorbike through a market, down a footpath and the wrong way down a one way street – but we made it! The bike is living downstairs from our hotel in a courtyard that is shared with the back of some local shops – the shop workers have taken a fancy to her and insist on pressing all the buttons, sitting on it and using it as a coffee table!

Cairo can only be described as mental; each day is like two days without sleep thanks to the people, traffic, pollution and the mazes of streets. The pyramids today were however an absolute highlight of the trip so far for me as was Tutankhamen’s tomb at the Egyptian museum.

We leave tomorrow to head back to the quiet of the desert we love so much with visas in hand for Sudan and Ethiopia and motorbike oil (another saga) for a service that Tille will do whilst we relax in the calm of a desert oasis…

Welcome to Egypt

…..hört man hier von jedem! Und ca.70% wollen dir dann was verkaufen. So ist es zumindest hier in Kairo.
Aber von vorne: Nach Libyen haben wir uns erst mal ein paar Tage in Marsa Matruh in einem sehr schönen Strandhotel erholt. Dann ging es weiter nach Al Aleiman, der berühmten Stadt aus dem zweiten Weltkrieg. An der ganzen Mittelmeerküste entstehen unzählige neue Urlaubshotels. Doch wir haben leider nur eine schäbige Herberge gefunden, da besagte Hotels noch nicht fertigen sind oder die fertigen geschlossen waren, da die Sommersaison beendet war.

Dann ging es nach Kairo!!! Was für eine Stadt!. 20Mio. Einwohner! Das absolute Chaos, und wir mitten drin, denn leider haben wir uns natürlich auf der Hotelsuche verfahren. Nach einigen nerv raubenden Stunden hatten wir es dann doch noch geschafft. Die nächsten Tagen hies es dann Visa und Motorrad Öl organisieren. Hört sich einfacher an als es ist… nur ein kleines Beispiel: Wir hatten die Adresse der äthiopischen Botschaft aus unserem Reiseführer (aktualisierte Ausgabe von 2010), allerdings fanden wir KEINE Botschaft unter der angegebenen Adresse, nach zig-fachen fragen fand sich dann jemand der wusste das die Botschaft umgezogen war…. Aber wie so vieles bis jetzt hies es auch jetzt wieder Ende gut alles gut. Oder das Motorrad Öl…. Es gibt wohl keins in Ägypten, hier wird Auto Öl verwendet, was dann aber nicht so gut für die Kupplung ist. Allerdings gibt es in Kairo einen KTM Händler(der muss doch wohl das passende Öl haben) hat er dann Gott sein Dank auch….. allerdings nur einen Liter, er kann aber bestellen, das würde nur 2-3 Wochen dauern. Naja besser als nix, …als wir dann den Shop gefunden haben (wie alles hier nach mehrfachen fragen), finde ich in einem Schranken einen weiteren Liter, den ich dann nach mehreren Telefonaten auch kaufen durfte… Am Ende klappt doch alles, nur der Weg dorthin ist in dieser Stadt manchmal wirklich krass….

Heute haben wir dann noch die touristischen Highlights angeguckt. Die Pyramiden sind absolut beeindruckend und ein Highlight dieser Reise. (kleiner Wehmutstropfen ist allerdings das gefühlte Trillionen Touristen vor Ort sind und noch mehr Souvenir und Kamelreitservice Händler, also auch hier ein Kampf, diese abzuwehren) Im ägyptischen Museum sind die Schätze aus dem Grab von Tut-Anch-Amun zu bewundern, die allein schon den Eintritt wert sind.

Alles in allem liegen einige anstrengende Tage hinter uns und wir freuen uns schon wenn wir morgen wieder auf dem Motorrad Richtung Süden unterwegs sind.