31 May, Alexandria – Cairo (Egypt), 216km

 Today we say goodbye to the Mediterranean. Its cool breeze and blue colours has been a soothing and enjoyable companion ever since we arrived in Italy, and will be sorely missed! So, after 4778km of travelling east, we finally turn Orphea’s nose in a Southerly direction for the first time! It is about 220km to the monster that is Cairo, and about 80km outside of Alexandria we can really start to feel the heat intensify. The Desert Highway becomes the Pyramids Road just before you enter the city, and true to its name, we, in complete awe, get a few glimpses of these magnificent structures as we enter Cairo. It is, however, impossible to fully absorb the beauty of it with the effort of driving in the chaotic traffic! At the main cross roads to the Pyramids, we decide to hail a taxi to help us find our campsite. We knew that it was somewhere in the vicinity of the Pyramids, but getting used to the traffic and looking for a place that not even the Tourist Office in Alexandria could find in their directory, was too much to ask!

At the campsite (complete with a distant view of the Pyramids!), we meet, for the first time, other overlanders. German Wolfgang and his Zambian wife have been on the road from South Africa to Germany since 2003! They entertained us with some horrific, but interesting stories about Egyptian bureaucracy and even had a few photos of Heino’s home village of Grunau in Namibia! After the taster of a view we had of the Pyramids, we absolutely could not wait to see them from closer! Having set up our tent, we face the traffic again even though we knew that the site will be closed. There are nightly sound and laser shows at the Pyramids, and we thought that if we can’t get close enough, we might go for this option to have a good look. Instead we meet Ali at the entrance. Ali is a very enterprising “student” and extremely quick with his mouth. Before we knew it, we are negotiating a price for a camel trip to see the Pyramids from close up. At his stables, we mount our camels and set off for a back entrance to the site. Officially nobody is allowed to enter the site after hours, except for the laser show later at night. In reality though, a few Egyptian pound handshakes between these guides and the Tourism Police guarding the site not only gets you in, but gives you the opportunity to have a look without thousands of tourists trampling each other! It was quite a surreal feeling to be so close to these 46 century old monuments rising out of the desert in the setting sun. What made it more special was the fact that we were two of about a handful of visitors there. The mayhem of Cairo was somewhere close by, but we felt totally isolated from it all.

 Before she realised it, Alessandra was wrapped in traditional Arabic robes, and it was photo-shoot time! On the way out we passed the Sphinx, but we were a little too far to get a really good impression of her. We will be back for a proper visit though! Back at the stables we had to see the rest of the family business, making papyrus paintings, first before we could go. The demonstration (of how paper was made in the ancient times) was quite interesting, but again we were fully aware of the now complete darkness outside, and that we still had to find our way back to the campsite! Riding back gave us our first real taste of driving in Cairo. It is a total assault on all your senses: horns blaring, lights flashing and the feel and smell of the traffic heat! The intensity is definitely a step up from Libya, but the biggest difference is the aggressiveness of the driving! There is just no giving and patience, together with road rules simply does not exist! Of course we got a little lost but eventually manage to find the campsite again. Sitting at the bar to calm down, we faced another assault: mosquitoes! There were millions of them and of course Alessandra was the main target! We eventually decide against staying outside to cook, and sought refuge inside our tent. On the agenda for tomorrow, along with applying for the Sudanese visa, is finding a cheap hostel to flee from the mosquitoes!Photos
http://www.flickr.com/photos/transafrica/

INFO: Camp site Cairo- Giza Motel Salma. It is in the village of Harraniyya on the Sakkara Road. Sakkara Road is the second road on the right past the Pyramids (coming from Alexandria).You can ask for Siamg Hotel. We do not recommend this camp site. It is expensive for what it offers and there are a lot of mosquitos. If you don’t want to drive in Cairo look for a B&B in Giza.

30 May, Alexandria (Egypt)

We start the day on our little balcony overlooking the sea! We make coffee on our little stove and after a breakfast we bought from a local bakery the night before, we are ready to explore this hectic city! Alexandria is the second city of Egypt and was founded by Alexander the Great. Its huge Library (destroyed by fire centuries ago but rebuilt in modern times) made it a cultural centre and the city also witnessed the love of Anthony and Cleopatra. There is almost no evidence of its illustrious past left today though. Instead, the backbone of the city is its huge waterfront with the main square of Midan Saad Zahgloul. Off this square leads the surprisingly modern street of Safiya Zahgloul full of trendy clothes shops named after Hollywood stars. We’ve spotted Marilyn Monroe, Travolta and Demi Moore so far! The further away from the waterfront you go, the more rundown and poor the areas become. The traffic is every bit as hectic as you would expect in Egypt. We are still deciding if it is more dangerous being a pedestrian or being on the bike! The people themselves are a mixture of very traditional, conservatively dressed men and woman with trendy youngsters, presumably from the local university mixed in between. As in Marsa Matrouh, the city becomes really lively in the evening.

Most shops stay open until really late and it is not uncommon to see whole families complete with small children walking the streets till midnight. We visited yet another Roman amphitheatre, this one the only one in Egypt though. For the first time since the Cinque Terre in Italy we came across larger numbers of tourists. The catacombs of Kom El Shukaba are fascinating underground burial tombs, found by accident when a donkey fell through a hole into it! Of further interest is the fact that the decorating style is a combination of Roman and Egyptian styles. With the setting sun we join the locals for a stroll on the waterfront. We are really enjoying our last, cool evening next to the Mediterranean Sea!

29 May, Marsa Matrouh – Alexandria via El Alamein (Egypt), 350km

 Today we face the last part of the eastbound stretch of our trip! It is also the windiest and therefore dustiest day so far, in other words, not much fun to be on a bike!

Around 180km from Matrouh is the town of El Alamein. The surrounding area has seen some of the fiercest battles of the Second World War in Africa.  The only thing more depressing than the windswept, dusty, barren desert landscape is the thought that so many men died here for the foolishness that is war. It is terrible to think that even in modern day politics war is justified, and as a result of it more young woman and men are dying in similar landscapes every day.

 The sight itself is very thought provoking. The big battle took place between 1941 and 1942 and thousands died in it. We visited the Italian war memorial and 38000 died from that country alone! In the cemetery there are the remains of 4800 fallen, a lot of them unknown. The rest were swallowed by the desert and sea. We also visited the military museum in El Alamein town itself. This illustrated the everyday life of the soldiers in the desert. It also exhibits some tanks and war vehicles that were left behind after the war. They found a 1912 model Ford Canada supply vehicle in the 1990’s, and amazingly the mechanics managed to get the engine running after all those years! The rest of the journey passed quite quickly, almost too quick as we completely missed the entrance to Alexandria city! We only realised about 35km further when we had to collect a toll ticket for the road to Cairo! Having completed our eastbound journey, we decided to celebrate by going for a slightly better hotel, complete with a TV in the room and an en suite bathroom! Best of all though is the location, next to an off licence selling cold beer for Heino and a bookshop selling English books for Alessandra!

More pictures:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/transafrica3/

27 – 28 May, Marsa Matrouh (Egypt)

After “ironbutting” it through Libya in five days, we get to sleep late today! Because of the hectic schedule in Libya, the constant presence of the guides and the lack of decent facilities due to the bush camping, we decide to spend two days in Marsa Matrouh. More importantly, we need to discuss and digest what we’ve experienced before we can move on to Egypt! The morning is spent exploring Matrouh. It has a very busy vibe and we are constantly greeted with cheery, if somewhat aggressive “welcome, welcomes”! This is normally followed by a barked “where you from” or “what your name”. We get the idea that it is a similar situation to what we experienced in Gabes in Tunisia, where we are more or less the only tourists in town. However, it doesn’t have the dodgy, somewhat dangerous feel that Gabes had. Matrouh is a town popular with native Egyptian holiday makers and doesn’t really see a lot of tourists. It is by far the most “African” town that we’ve been in so far with meat hanging outside shops, long queues of people waiting to buy bread and donkey carts disrupting traffic! We can immediately see a difference in the way people dress. Here we see far more woman completely covered (some even with gloves, others that don’t even have a peep hole in their scarves) and men wearing the traditional robe-like outfits. We are really surprised as we expected Libya to be more like this, and definitely not Egypt! We can’t help to feel sorry for the women who are completely covered in black in the hottest conditions!

The people themselves are, in our opinion, somewhere between the Tunisians (completely used to tourists and therefore not very genuine) and the Libyans (not used to tourists at all and therefore exactly as they are).

After tending to our laundry issues, it is time for a good meal. We’ve been looking forward to Egypt as it is the cheapest country of the trip so far. We are not disappointed as we completely stuffed ourselves, sometimes for as little as five dollars US! Of course we explored the local beaches as well and, pretty much the same as in Libya, the sea is absolutely beautiful! It has the most amazing colours but is a bit spoiled by the fact that some of the beaches, especially those close to the town are a bit dirty. Agiba beach in particular is very nice and we enjoyed a “beautiful swim” as Mr. Abdullah would’ve put it. Alessandra, to avoid any harassment, decided to adhere to the local customs and swam fully clothed!

We’ve really enjoyed our lazy two days and we feel recovered enough to hit the road again!

Libya in a nutshell.

To get the context of this summary right, we have to start by saying three things: 1. Libya has been a bit of a logistical nightmare for us. The fact that we had to go through an agency and had to have a guide increased the cost and hassle dramatically! 2. Because of the above, we decided to spend just 5 days in the country and didn’t really plan to see anything. Therefore we didn’t really spend enough time to have a clear, informed impression of the country. 3. The quality of our experience depended heavily on our guides as it was ultimately in their hands what we were exposed to. Think about Libya and invariably you’ll think about Ghaddafi raising a finger to the West. In reality though, there is so much more to this country than just its leader! In terms of politics (we didn’t explore this avenue too much as we were warned that it is a sensitive subject), the only thing that we did notice was the complete absence of it in our contact with the locals we met. In fact, the first political remark we had was in Egypt when a policemen told us exactly what he thought of Tony Blair!

 Travelling through the country makes you wonder though, what exactly is happening with the country’s oil billions?! Benghazi and Tripoli apart, you’ll find most buildings in a rundown state and the roads are in an increasing state of disrepair without any maintenance works in sight. In terms of landscape Libya is really unimpressive. Undoubtedly there will be some desert lovers disagreeing, but we decided not to visit the desert part as we would see enough of it in the other countries we will be travelling through. The coastal route, however, is quite boring with long stretches where the only colour is provided by the occasional glimpse of the Mediterranean. The Green Mountains between Benghazi and Tobruk, together with the Greek and Roman ruins are the only exceptions.

There is one aspect of Libya that sets it apart from others, and that is the people! We could only describe it by saying that in Tunisia we were charged three US dollars for a tin of Tuna that should’ve cost one. In Libya, we would probably have got it for free! Through the small gifts, free meals and friendly smiles we could really see why Islam is described as a religion of peace, love and generosity. Would we have gone to Libya if it wasn’t on our way? Probably not. Would we have missed out? Big time! Would we go again? Because of the travelling restrictions, no. However, I would advise anybody interested to visit this country, to go NOW before mass tourism teaches the people of Libya to treat tourists like walking ATM’s! 

Libia… riassumendo

LIBIA : DOVE I TURISTI RICEVONO DONI

La Libia era stata al centro delle nostre discussioni, consultazioni e ricerche per mesi, avevamo anche pensato a itinerari alternativi per evitarla. Questo principalmente perchè ottenere il visto e viaggiare indipendentemente senza l’aiuto di un’ agenzia sembra ancora molto difficile. Viaggiare accompagnati da una guida non sarebbe stata mai una nostra scelta. E invece sono state proprio loro le nostre due guide Mr Abdullha e Mr. Mammudh a trasformare quella che doveva essere una volata di 2000 km in un’ autentica e indimenticabile esperienza dell’ ospitalità e generosità araba.

Il nostro itenerario era stato pensato solo come “la via più breve per arrivare in Egitto”. Abbiamo percorso in 5 giorni la strada costiera da Ras Adjher punto di frontiera con la Tunisia a Tobruck, centro principale prima del confine egiziano, passando per Tripoli Surt e Bengazi. Il paesaggio è principalmente di deserto sassoso con qualche scorcio del blu del Mediterraneo, a nord ovest di Bengazi si trovano le “montagne verdi” (Jebel Akhadar) un’ inasapettata zona di abeti e pini quasi da paesaggio svizzero. Lungo la costa vi sono gli scavi archeologici delle cittàromani di Leptis Magna e Sabrata e greche di Apollonia e Cirene. Probabilmente questi cinque giorni in Libia sarebbero rimasti solo un vago ricordo se non fossero stati “vivacizzati” dalle visite agli amici di Mr Abdulla lungo le nostre tappe e dal continuo trafficare per noi un pò comico, un pò tenero e un pò fastidioso delle nostre guide. Fin dalla prima cena che le nostre guide hanno cucinato sul fuocoda campo, abbiamo deciso di mangiare “system Libya” come nel loro inglese stentato ci hanno spiegato. Tutto viene scodellato in un grande piatto di portata intorno al quale ci si siede (per tera) e si magia con le mani, il pane e un cucchiaio.

Tanti sono stati gli incontri lungo la strada: il meccanico di moto con l’officina in una stradina laterali a Bengazi. Intorno alla sua officina si raduna tutto il vicinato dai bambini schiamazzanti all’ anziano signore tutto elegante che si da delle arie perchè è vissuto all’estero e può fare da traduttore con noi forestieri. Il meccanico, dopo un giro di prova su Orphea, con tutto il circondario in torno ci da la sua diagnosi ”si potrebbero romperi i dischi della frizione” e ci saluta regalandoceli come ricambi per l’eventualità che la sua predizione si avveli.

Il ristoratorte del bar difronte alle rovine di Cirene che non solo ci offree il pranzo ma ci regala un vasetto di miele. Mr Mohamed e la sua famiglia con quattro figlie e due figli che ci hanno ospitato nella loro casa vicino ad Al Beida. Con loro abbiamo vissuto l’atmosfera si una tipica serata conviviale in una famiglia mussulmana, chiacchierando e ridendo in un mix di lingue, condividendo la cena dallo stesso piatto, seduti su cuscini e tappeti, guardando le stelle e bevendo the alla menta nel loro giardino. La nostra impressione della Libia e della sua gente è sicuramente parziale visto il poco tempo traacorsovi, ma ci rimarrà sempre il ricordo della genorisità in cui ci siamo imbattuti e ovviamente il ricordo di Mr Abdulla e Mr Mammus i nostri unici e spelendidi amici arabi (per ora).

PS: Se qualcuno è interessato a viaggiare in Libia noi raccomandiamo vivamente l’agenzia a cui ci siamo rivolti:
Mr Sami Elgalbany
http://www.almuheettours.net

26 May, Al Beida (Libya) – Marsa Matrouh (Egypt), 643km

Due to Mr. Abdullah’s last-minute change to our schedule, we now have a very long and full day ahead of us. At 7am we are woken up by him, and to our utmost surprise it seems that he is impatiently waiting for us! Shortly after 8am we make our way down the mountains in the direction of Tobruk, 200km further east. From there it is another 180km to the Egyptian border. At Tobruk, Mr. Abdullah make another one of his impromptu stops. On a previous occasion he also stopped and very enthusiastically explained something to us, of which we only understood number 1. This time he explained something about number 2 and we were equally clueless! When he pointed to war-graves from the Second World War, we realised that he must’ve been talking about WW1 and WW2, or about a first and second battle of World War 2. Whichever way, we stopped to have a look at the war-graves and signed the guest book. In the little building they had a very interesting exhibition on how General Rommel was driven back by the Allies from Alexandria in Egypt to Cap Bon in Tunisia, more or less the whole route we did. We really felt it was a shame we didn’t have more time to study this properly.

So, we continued eastwards and at about 2pm we reached the Egyptian border. The Libyan side goes smoothly with yet more of Mr. Abdullah’s friends and at about half past two it was time to burden Orphea again with all our luggage. It was also time to say farewell to Mr. Abdullah, and after nearly 2000km and lots of good times, it was quite an emotional moment. With a final warning for us to look carefully after our luggage on the “bad Egypt” side, we leave Mr. Abdullah and cross the line into Egypt, on our own again. This is the border crossing we dreaded the most! Renowned for being a confusing maze, this is also the most likely place where they will spot the wrong chassis number. With the passports, Heino queues up for the immigration part of the process. With the best part of an hour gone, most of that waiting for the border guards to finish their smoke break, we’ve done immigration and now it is time to get the bike through! Heino starts by changing money for all the border fees while Alessandra guards the bike. It is here that he is approached by one of the locals offering him help in getting the process done. Alessandra negotiates a price that basically consists of all our leftover Libyan money, and so the circus that is Egyptian immigration starts! The whole process consisted of about 10 different steps, most at different locations in various parts of the vast border post. Heino basically spends just under 2 hours (no exaggeration!) running behind this local, just handing over papers and money as required, smiling stupidly at border officials talking just in Arabic.

When it is finally done, Orphea with new Egyptian plates and Alessandra with new Libyan friends she made whilst waiting, we finally make our way into Egypt. It is quite a beautiful entry into Egypt as we go down the mountain into the border town of Sallum. We decided that since there is enough daylight left, to head straight for Marsa Matrouh instead of staying in Sallum. The bike is amazingly heavy again after the nimble bike we rode through Libya, but we make good time and after about two and a half hours and as it gets completely dark, we enter the town of Marsa Matrouh. After some searching we find our hotel, off-load the luggage and head for the tourist restaurant for a well deserved, first-in-5-days beer!

25 May, Benghazi – Al Beida (Libya), 219km

Our original plan for today was to go through to Tobruk, about 400km, which will leave us with only 180km to do the last day as we also have to do the notoriously difficult Egyptian border crossing. However, Mr. Abdullah tells us about this beautiful “proper campsite” up in the mountains in the region of Al Beida, only 200km further. Of course we have no idea what he is talking about but by this time we know that there is not much to do about it and besides, we trust him a lot more now that he knows how our travelling system works. It will, though, leave us with 400km as well as the border crossing to do the next day! Since it is an easy day, we sleep late for a change and do some maintenance to Orphea. By 11am we are in the saddle again and this time the scenery along the route changes quite dramatically. We go over the Jebel Akhdar or Green Mountains and we are told that this is about as green as it gets in Libya (excluding of course Mr. Ghadafi’s Green Book and square!). We told Mr. Abdullah, now on his own with us, that we want to visit Cyrene and go for another swim today. And so he did. After about two and a half hours we stop before the gates of the old Greek city of Cyrene. It was built by Greek settlers in 600BC and is on a hill overlooking some great landscapes. The most amazing thing is that Alessandra met fellow scouts, Libyan scouts, here on a daytrip! Although the girls are all veiled, they are unmistakeably scouts with the all the signs and symbols on their uniforms, as well as the fact that they know Baden-Powell, the founder of the scouts! It does make you wonder how the scouts, with an English founder and a strong Christian origin, ended up in a Muslim, dictator ruled country

With a final three-finger salute to the scouts, we head to the tourist restaurant for lunch. This restaurant belongs to ANOTHER friend of Mr. Abdullah and so we get another free meal, plus a bottle of honey! The generosity of the Libyan people will always be something we remember, and appreciate especially after some of the over pricing we experienced in Tunisia. Mr. Abdullah, true to his word, suddenly stops the car on the way back from lunch. He announces that this spot is for “beautiful swim” and so we make our way over an amazingly rocky path to an equally rocky beach! The swim was beautiful though. Last on the days schedule is to find the “proper campsite” in the mountains. The further up the mountain we went, the more we realised that this is one highly unlikely location for a campsite! Eventually we arrive at a sort of farm and are greeted by – you guessed it – Mr. Abdullah’s friend!

After a warm welcome we are told that the woman part of the house is on the other side of the house, and Alessandra is marched off to where she belongs! This would be the last time that we see each other until sleeping time. Heino is to spend a very interesting and enjoyable evening with 5 other very traditional Libyan men. This is done in the huge men’s room, with couches all along the walls and all that is done here is to sit, lie, smoke, and eat and drink the refreshments that the children is serving us with! Twice the men got up to do their evening prayers, but apart from that, all the time was spent chatting, smoking and drinking coffee, all without a woman in sight. Heino found it very agreeable indeed! Meanwhile Alessandra arrived at the female quarters. The main room was divided in two, one for the kitchen and one as a lounge with carpets and cushions. She was welcomed by the 4 daughters and the lady of the house, accommodated on the cushions and had all the typical women chat. The youngest daughter was really interested in all the western famous people (like Ricky Martin and of course football players).  They tried to teach her some Arabic, with little success. The mum and the daughters seemed to be very close and have a very good relationship. They prepared dinner for everyone and send the boys to deliver it to the male room. The mum speaks a bit of English that she learned whilst studying at Benghazi University. When she speaks about her life there is always a gap between before and after marriage. The atmosphere of the evening was really enjoyable and relaxed. After dinner (always System Libya) we sat in the garden looking at the stars. All girls were very enthusiastic about Alessandra and one made her write in her diary and another brought her a flower from the garden. The mum even gave her small bottle of perfume. We think that the Libyan people will not stop surprising us! When we finally meet up again, we couldn’t stop talking about our experience of the evening! The day ended up with so much more than we expected and we experienced an evening in a real, authentic Libyan house. We were completely won over by the Libyan people and their amazing kindness and generosity!

More pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/transafrica2/

24 May, Surt – Benghazi (Libya), 638km

This is the longest planned riding day of our trip with around 650km to do. We really need an early start and our two guides don’t disappoint us.  By 7am they are ready for breakfast, and we leave at 08.15!

They seemed to have got the message, which is just as well, because the risks we took the night before were made more evident when we count 4 dead camels and one sheep next to the road! The landscape is flat, sandy with nothing but the occasional glimpse of the Mediterranean Sea to add a bit of colour. Around the halfway mark it is time for lunch as well. It is not exactly the quick sandwich stop we hoped for, but instead we go off the road via an amazingly bad piece of road (good practice for Sudan!) to a have a proper cooked lunch on the beach! We weren’t too fussed about this as we made good progress and we had the whole marvellous beach to ourselves!

After a cooling swim and a good lunch, we hit the road again. About three hundred kilometres later we arrive in the surprisingly modern city of Benghazi, hometown of Mr. Abdullah. During the course of the day Mr. A, unsatisfied with Orphea’s speed, decided that she is running only on two spark plugs. So, entering Benghazi we find ourselves in the most amazingly dodgy backstreets, imagining how all our things will be stolen from the hostel. Instead, Mr. A takes us to yet another friend of his, this one a motorcycle mechanic. After a lot of hard revving of Orphea and a hair-raising life-flashing-in-front-of-your-eyes test drive with Heino on the back the mechanic made the strangest diagnostic for the lack of speed: something is wrong with the clutch! Now, we are open to suggestions, but we always thought that the clutch is for changing gears, and once it is in 5th gear, the clutch doesn’t have anything to do with the top speed! In another amazing display of generosity, the mechanic gives us a full set of clutch plates as spares! We are not even too certain if it will fit, but the gesture is really kind. Of course he wouldn’t touch our money!

Arriving at our hostel in a slightly better part of town, we finally get to have a shower after all the bush camping. An added bonus is that Orphea gets to sleep inside as well, just outside our room. With clean clothes and smelling a lot better we get to finally meet Sami, the owner of the travel agency. He tells us that Mr. Mahmoud will be leaving us the next day as he has to accompany other travellers to Tripoli. We are surprised by how disappointed we are and realised just then how much we are enjoying ourselves with our Libyan friends. Of course it is out of the question to skip a meal with Mr. Abdullah around, so at 10pm we head to a Turkish restaurant for a hasty, sleepy meal. With the longest planned day done, we are looking forward to an easier day tomorrow. Egypt is only two days away!

23 May, Tripoli – Surt (Libya), 392km

More pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/transafrica2/

It’s our first day in Libya and we are up by 7am, ready to go by about 7.30. We’ve got into the routine by now of starting early so that we can arrive early at our destination. This way we have more time to relax when the riding is finished and it also gives us more time in case of any eventualities or breakdowns.

We tried to explain this to our guides, but we were already told our schedule. We will visit the museum in Tripoli for one hour, after that walk around the medina for another hour and finally make a start for Surt, stopping at Leptis Magna, all in all about 400km. This schedule seemed to be completely inflexible, partly because we can’t really explain properly why we want to make an early start, and partly because we have to go to Tripoli centre to register us with the local police.

This frustrated us a lot, especially since we got used to deciding our own schedule in Tunisia. When breakfast in the company of the owner of the land and his neighbours finished only at 9am, Heino decided to take his watch off! We understood that they had to be with us at all time, and that in this way we see more than what we would have, but it was difficult getting used to. Our guides (nicknamed Laurel and Hardy as Mr. Abdullah is slightly plump and Mr. Mahmoud is tiny) seem to be genuinely friendly and helpful. The language barrier is quite difficult but they make up for this by treating us as real tourists as opposed to somebody who is just passing through. They, in the African way, are really laid back, not just in terms of time, but also in terms of money and other practical matters.

So, leaving Orphea in the campsite for now, we head into Tripoli where the first stop is the Museum. This is right next to the Green Square, where big billboards of Ghadafi advertise the fact that it is this year 37 years ago that he wrote his famous Green Book. We were only allocated one hour (of course this turned out to be one and a half hours!) for the museum, and we decided to focus on the modern history of the country. This turned out to be quite interesting as we learned how the “great leader of the Jamarihiya” transformed the country from royal oppression to a military dictatorship.

Next we were taken for a walk through the Medina. This turned out to be the most frustrating morning of the trip so far. We wandered aimlessly for about an hour and a half. We were wondering if we were being shielded from some form of bureaucratic process that Mr Abdullah is tending to, or if they are just enjoying being in Tripoli! We really wanted to know what is taking Mr. Abdullah so long, as we haven’t seen him since he dropped us off at the museum, and we are just waiting for him before we can go. We tried to force ourselves to relax, but we were acutely aware of the fact that we still had 400km to do!

When we finally met up with Mr. Abdullah, we (but more them) decided to have lunch first before we set off. Libyan soup and a kebab later it was half past two, and we haven’t moved an inch in our direction yet! When we finally got back at the campsite, Heino had reached the end of his patience. With a few quiet words to Mr. Mahmoud it was explained that we weren’t really interested in seeing Tripoli all that much, and that our main desire was to see Leptis Magna, but now with all the time wasting, we will not be able to make it in time as it closes at 5pm. We weren’t sure if the message got across, but everything was quickly packed up and we finally left at 15.30!

130km later we arrive at Leptis Magna to find out that it is indeed closed as we predicted. Mr. Mahmoud however managed to arrange an hour for us to visit the site. While we visited the site (with Mr. Mahmoud following us) Mr. Abdullah bought us Libyan stickers for our helmets. We were really touched by this as well as the fact that they were not holding anything against us after the Tripoli episode.

Leptis Magna really is a beautiful. Set next to the sea, it is really well preserved and the theatre especially is amazing. Our visit was a little rushed, but was still thoroughly enjoyed. With 270km to go, we leave Leptis Magna at 18.15. An offer to have coffee first before we leave was really strongly declined! As can be expected we had to break the overlander’s golden rule: don’t ever ride at night! This is something we’ve also decided beforehand, but in this case we just could not avoid it. The roads were not too bad, but there were potholes all too often to add to the danger of cars not having lights as well as the free roaming animals! At 10pm we tell them at a police check point that we can’t go on and that we should stop for the night. After consulting with the policemen for a suitable bush camping place, we pull off the road in the middle of nowhere and set up camp for the night. By now we are slightly cranky and tired and Heino even contemplated skipping dinner and going straight to sleep!

When we saw the enthusiastic way in which they start to get everything ready for us, we couldn’t help to forgive all and in the end we all helped out to prepare dinner and get ready for the night. We couldn’t find any firewood anywhere, so we got out our little petrol stove (which Mr. Abdullah found very impressive!) and a while later we were eating System Libya. Under the stars, drinking tea that Mr. Mahmoud made for us in the Touareg way after a tough day, we finally connected and found each other!