The Welsh Overlanders

Days 107 & 108: South Africa

2010-04-22T08:26:00.004+02:00

Day 107

And so after 107 days on the road which equated to 16,168 miles or 26,202km we had reached the most southerly point of mainland Africa called Cape Augulas. It felt weird to be at such a geographical extreme having got there overland in a 19 year old vehicle.

We sat for a while staring out to sea knowing that Antarctica lay far off beyond the horizon, but after a few waves had crashed against the rocks below our feet, it was time to continue the journey to Cape Town where we would meet up with Joachim for the first time since we towed him to Nairobi.

Joachim himself had only arrived back two days previously, and so was still unpacking when we arrived. After welcoming us into his house in Milnerton and introducing us to his wife Tine, we sat down to dinner discussing the different routes we had taken and telling tales of our differing journeys.

Day 108

We knew that before we could get up the west coast that we would need to get the Landrover looked at by a mechanic to see if it was in good enough condition. We knew that two of the UV joints needed replacing, and that the rear shocks that we had bought in Khartoum were now broken as they were just cheap replacements.

Joachim took us to a Landrover specialist who he knew from when preparing his San Yung 4x4 for the trip, and we found two used shock absorbers and a series of bushes and washers which the garage donated to us for free. Then the mechanic gave the Landrover a quick once over, and explained that the front propeller shaft would need replacing, that we needed a new rear differential oil seal and that all four wheel bearings should be serviced. Coupled with the fact that the new fuel tank was still not sealed correctly and slowly dripping from the side, along with many other minor fixes being required, we knew that we didn’t have enough funds to repair the Landrover and head up the west coast.

In effect, our trip was then over and we would need to ship the Landrover back to the UK. Although slightly disappointed, we had both agreed along the way that to drive all the way from the UK to Cape Town in a 19 year old Landrover like we did would be an achievement, and that if we got as far as Cape Town we would be happy. It was just a shame we didn’t have he funds to return home by land, but on the west coast of Africa we would have needed to spend £1000/€1100 just on visas.

The distance travelled from Wrexham to Cape Town was double what we had planned and accounted for, but we would never regret taking the detours to see some of the amazing places we did see along the way. With us driving on some really terrible roads through Africa, the technical problems that we had with the Landrover on the way had mounted up, but not once had we broken down. As they say, a Landrover is always sick, but never dead, and with the engine still in brilliant condition having done 140,000miles/225,000km given time and money back home, it will be back on the road again soon.

The blog will continue slowly over the next three weeks as we ship the Landrover back to the UK and get the chance to have a look around Cape Town, but there wont be too much to write about from now on having already written more words in the blog than my university diploma thesis.

Days 105 & 106: South Africa

2010-04-22T08:25:00.000+02:00

Day 105

With the Congo visas obtained and our passports back, we tried to see if we could apply for any more, but after a morning of finding embassies where the waiting time for visas was over two weeks, we decided to carry on with our journey towards Cape Town.

Before we left Pretoria we had time to go and to see the Loftus Versveld Stadium where the security guard let us in to have a quick look, but sadly wouldn’t allow us to take any photos. The staff at the stadium all seemed to be gearing up heavily towards the world cup, and there was an air of excitement as it was the day that the remaining tickets went on sale to the general South African public.

The roads out of Pretoria led us south west past Jo-berg and down through a number of towns before it was time to look for somewhere to stop for the night. We eventually found a Guest house in a town called Wolmarandsstad knowing it would take us another two days to get to Cape Town from there.

Day 106

We had found that cheap accommodation isn’t really too prevalent in South Africa, and wanting to save on money we hit the road early so that we could attempt to get to a town near the coast called Oudsthoorp by the evening where we knew from the guide book that there was a cheap backpackers hostel.

The drive through the centre of South Africa was made quite tedious due to roadworks in preparation for the world cup, but by taking this route we avoided the tolled N1 route.

We arrived in Oudsthoorp just before sundown and found the hostel where we could park outside and sleep in the rooftent. Although it is often tricky to find an appropriate parking space where we can unfold the rooftent, at times it has been really easy to use, as after three months we can unfold it or pack it away in under two minutes time which is a lot quicker than erecting a normal tent.

Days 103 & 104: South Africa

2010-04-22T08:19:00.001+02:00

Day 103

For a while we had realised that we would not have enough money to carry out the intended second part of the trip around South and North America, after many things along the way had cost a lot more than expected and having swallowed up the contingency money in preparation, and travelling through Europe. Plan ‘B’ was to get to Cape Town and ship the car back to the UK, but after speaking to Beverly in Khartoum who had travelled down the west coast of Africa, we realised that once we got to Cape town it might actually be just as expensive to drive back up the west coast as it is to ship the Landrover back to the UK whilst we flew back.

The new route back home would take us through Namibia, DR Congo, Rep Congo, Gabon, Cameroon, Nigeria, Niger, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco and Spain, and would involve getting numerous tricky and expensive visas prior to starting our return journey. The Angolan visa we knew would be the trickiest, and so we thought we would visit every Angolan embassy along the way to improve our chances of being successful, the first of which was is Gaberone. The official at the embassy told us it wasn’t possible there, but possibly in Pretoria, Cape Town or Windhoek (the next three we knew we could visit).

With no visa obtained, we headed east out of Botswana and into South Africa, the final country on the first leg of our journey. Once we arrived in Pretoria, just like Botswana it was proving difficult to find cheap accommodation, and the one place we had in mind had closed down, so yet again we found a campsite on the edge of town to camp for the seventh night in a row, the longest sequential spell of camping on the journey so far.

Day 104

The night was cold for the first time since Turkey as we were now below the Tropic of Capricorn, well into the southern hemisphere and a temperate climate once more. The first task of the day was to find a few of the embassies of the countries we intend to travel through on the west coast and enquire about visas.

We found the Democratic Republic of Congo embassy and began our visa application before heading to the Angolan embassy to see if we would be able to get a visa there. After chatting to the security guard, we then got to speak to the ambassador who informed us we could only really get them in Namibia. On the way out I explained to the security guard that we couldn’t apply for the visa in South Africa, and he commented: “I don’t know what’s wrong with these people.”

The next task was to find a cheap hostel, as the campsite from the previous night we could only describe as depressing. We managed to find a place near to the world cup stadium and shared a room with a Canadian called Ben, who knew more about world geography and politics than anyone else I know, and we chatted into the evening discussing everything from American States to African politics.

Days 101 & 102: Zambia & Botswana

2010-04-18T21:29:00.003+02:00

Day 101

The town of Livingston lies 11km/7miles away from where the water of the Zambezi river crashes down hundreds of metres to give us one of the most famous waterfalls in the world; The Victoria Falls. On the short drive out to the falls the wide river is visible from the road with a breathtaking plume of water spray visible in the distance.

After entering the national park area, the roaring sound of water is audible and the waterfall slowly emerges into view from the woodland that surrounds the opposite edge of the river high up. A bridge links the river edge to an island in the middle of the river from where the experience of being so close to the waterfall really becomes apparent. Walking across the bridge was like being in the biggest torrential downpour ever, with every part of your clothes getting absolutely soaked through with water within one minute, it was unbelievable.

We walked around getting extremely wet, but getting the best views of the falls that the other dry tourists would miss out on. The falls were even more spectacular due to the large amount of water in the Zambezi for that time of year. We had heard how full the Zambezi was from other tourists, as we had been told that the pontoon ferry between Zambia and Botswana wasn’t running as the banks had flooded.

We headed upstream to the ferry and found out that they had constructed some temporary piers for the cars to get onto the pontoon ferry, and so we would be able to get into Botswana after all. The drive on the opposite side of the border was through the middle of the Savanah where we saw more elephants than people along the road to Francistown where we camped for the night.

Day 102

In between Francistown and Gaberone is a small Rhino Sanctuary near the town of Serowe, and having read in the guidebooks how cheap it was, we decided to pay a visit and attempt to tick off a few more animals from our ‘spotted’ list (Not a physical list I hasten to add).

The roads throughout the sanctuary were in really good condition, and we managed to cover near enough every road of the 4,300hectare site within about three hours viewing kudus, wildebeast, gazelles, impalas, vultures, ostriches, giraffes, zebras, warthogs along with five rhinos.

Happy with our game viewing we aimed to get to the Botswanan capital of Gaberone by the evening, and after searching for illusive cheap accommodation, after a few hours we found a campsite on the edge of town for a reasonable rate. The plan in Gaberone was to try and get the first of our visas for the second part of the trip once we had arrived in Cape Town.

Days 99 & 100: Malawi & Zambia

2010-04-18T21:22:00.001+02:00

Day 99

The morning was spent trying to exchange money in the city centre, but for some reason which we still don’t understand, none of the banks or bureaux de change’s had much Zambian Kwatcha, and offered a ridiculously poor rate to the dollar if you were looking to buy.

Wanting to get rid of our Malawian Kwatcha we exchanged enough into dollars to get us through the border, then as much as we could into Zambian Kwatcha, some more into Botswanan Pula, and the rest we took to the border to exchange there. The currencies were beginning to become complicated for the first time on the trip.

The border was a relative formality, and we entered the nothingness of east Zambia to cover a lot of ground before the sun set. Without having anywhere in mind to stay for the night, we stumbled across a beautiful small camp called the Luangwa River Bridge Camp just off the main road which was run by a South African guy and his English wife where we rested our heads after yet another long drive.

Day 100

The next real destination of interest on our journey was the Victoria Falls outside Livingston, but we thought we might spend one day in the capital of Lusaka which was on the way. We arrived in Lusaka before midday and parked up to go and get some lunch before we decided whether to stay or carry on driving though the afternoon.

After deciding to carry on driving, we returned to the Landrover to see someone leaning inside with the door open. We both ran down the road towards the car with Nathan arriving on the scene first as I was carrying the laptop bag, when the guy spotted us and began to run. Nathan got a good hard kick at him and ripped the shirt off his back as he tried to apprehend him, but he scampered away having not stolen anything.

We arrived in Livingston and spent around two hours looking for somewhere to camp, eventually finding a hostel where we could park the Landrover around the back and sleep in the rooftent.

Days 97 & 98: Malawi

2010-04-18T21:13:00.003+02:00

Day 97

The next morning we resumed our journey towards the Malawian border passing through Mbeya to stock up on money and fuel as the diesel in Malawi would become more expensive. The border crossing was a formality as we parted with no cash what so ever as the VISAs for UK citizens are free.

The road that follows the shore of Lake Malawi eventually twisted and turned its way up into the mountains, and once again the Landrover was overheating due to the increased pressure on the engine from the sudden rise in altitude. After a few stops to let it cool down whilst we watched the mountain baboons running up and down the road and swinging in the tree canopies, we resumed our journey to Nkhata Bay.

The Mayoka Village resort wasn’t the easiest to find, but its’ remote location on the bay was stunning. After we had eaten there we went to another resort to see if they had the Manchester United v Bayern Munich Champions League game on. Some of the locals invited us into one of the bars on the beach saying they would show a place with the game on, and so we got chatting and eventually went around the corner to watch the game in a strange unfinished hotel resort.

Day 98

The journey to the capital Lilongwe wasn’t as long as the previous two days of travelling which had seen us travel 1100miles/1771km and so it made a change when we arrived at our destination just after midday and checked into the Kiboko Campsite on the edge of the town.

We decided to utilise the facilities and spent the afternoon splashing about in the pool with the football. Once again after a few days of hard driving it was to good to have an afternoon off. If we had the money to spend more time lazing about, then Malawi would be the ideal place, but the budget was beginning to tug on our purse strings.

The Malawians seemed really laid back compared to the past few countries in Africa we had visited, and although we were only passing through, Malawi is another country I will probably visit again in the future. It’s just a shame that the beer in Malawi is all brewed by Carlsberg and is piss poor compared to the rest of the African beers we had sampled along the way.

Days 95 & 96: Tanzania

2010-04-18T21:12:00.002+02:00

Day 95

The ferry back was due to leave at around 11am, so we checked out after a brief lie-in and went for some breakfast in a small café around the corner from the port. The Catamaran journey back to the mainland was really choppy, and at one stage we were nearly puked on by a little girl at the front of the boat who obviously didn’t like the rough sea that that catamaran was smashing through at pace.

Once back on the mainland, the cheapest way to return to the campground was to get two Matatus from the centre of town. If you can speak the language and can cope with cramped conditions the Hiace is a very cheap and relatively quick method of public transport as the journey back cost us much less than $5 between us.

After getting some money out and changing it to dollars, we retreated once again to the campground to watch DVDs on the beach under the full moon that hovered over the Indian Ocean.

Day 96

With our washing done and the Landrover packed, we started our journey to Malawi, hoping to get somewhere near the border by the time the sun went down. Trying to get the miles under our belt as quickly as possible so that we had more chance of getting to Mbeya, the border town by that evening had one major flaw. On one of the main roads heading through and out of a small town I got caught speeding.

The police had parked on the edge of the town with a radar gun and had clocked me doing 77kph in a 50kph zone, resulting in a £10/€11 on the spot fine. I had wanted to get to Cape Town without any speeding tickets, but when you are travelling 12,500miles/20,000km often at high speed through remote areas, the chances are that sooner or later you will probably get caught out.

We didn’t make it as far as Mbeya, but we found a small town called Matakyoko which wasn’t too much further from the border. We found a hotel called the Mid-town motel with really nice en-suite rooms for £2.50/€2.75 per person per night, and the meals from the restaurant turned out just as cheap. After all the day didn’t prove too costly at all.

Days 93 & 94: Tanzania

2010-04-18T20:58:00.003+02:00

Day 93

With the Landrover needing attention yet again, we headed into Dar to see if we could find a garage. Whilst asking in a tyre garage, a local who was getting his wheels aligned offered to show us where a Landrover specialist was located in the city. We invited Matthew into the car to show us where it was, but when we arrived the place was shut as it was a Saturday.

The security guard had the phone number for a mechanic who worked there and so we gave him a call to see if he could help us. He was doing some private work at the time, but said if we drove up to meet him that he could quickly repair our car before returning to the other job. The house he was at was only around the corner from where we had stayed the previous night, and after finding him the job of replacing the bearings and oil seal whilst fixing the brake calliper was complete within a couple of hours.

We drove Matthew home and thanked him for his help in finding a mechanic. He had gone out of his way to help us and we appreciate the genuine kindness of people who just want to help, rather than the usual African way of helping and then asking for commission. We spent the evening having a few drinks before returning to the Silver Sands resort to go swimming/skinny dipping in the sea after sundown.

Day 94

Zanzibar is a small island just off the coast of Tanzania, famed in history as an important part of the early trade routes. Although our budget was beginning to tighten itself, we both agreed that we must visit the island whilst we were in the area, as we might not get a better chance to do so. We got a taxi down to the port, leaving the Landrover safely parked in the campsite, we booked our tickets and then boarded the next fast catamaran ferry that was leaving the rainy mainland.

The journey took just over an hour and a half, and we arrived in sunny Zanzibar to fill out more Tanzanian immigration and health forms before getting our passports stamped and being allowed onto the island. We took a walk around the old stone town passing through the narrow maze of alleyways that only scooters, bicycles and pedestrians could navigate. To lose the way around these twisting cobbled lanes was quite easy as a tourist, but whichever way you went, you would always end up back at the main road on one side, or the sea on the other.

It was Easter Sunday, and despite Zanzibar being a Muslim place it seemed quite subdued. The maze of alleyways led us eventually down to the old fort in which we found a nice little restaurant/bar where we had a drink and a game of pool for the first time on the trip. Just after the sun went down, we returned to the park on the promenade which had amazingly come alive with stalls selling charcoal grilled food enticing what appeared to be the entire town out to eat and socialise on the sea front. All the senses combined at once as the smell, sound, taste and sight threw up a dramatic and unexpectedly pleasant end of the evening in Zanzibar. (I’m not gonna cook it, but I’ll order it from Zanzibar! – not for one minute could me or Nathan get that song out of our heads.)

Days 91 & 92: Kenya & Tanzania

2010-04-18T20:51:00.002+02:00

Day 91

Early the next morning we repaired the shock absorber and also managed to fix another leak from the fuel return air hose which meant we had a slightly reduced fuel capacity. With the car parked securely at the hotel, and the ferry across from the south beaches in Diani being a drive and then a ferry journey away, we decided to get a Matatu to the ferry and walk around Mombasa.

As much as I hate Matatus, they are a really quick and cheap method of transport, but to drive or conduct one you need an ego. We arrived at the ferry to see people crowding onto the flat deck around the vehicles like ants and within ten minutes we had set foot on the other side in Mombasa. Walking around the old town felt like being in a caneletto painting with the picture consisting of a place made up of parts of Africa, Europe and India.

After viewing the fort and walking around the old town, we headed back to the south beaches to cool down in the hotel room with a cold shower after spending the whole day in the hot and humid climate of the coast.

Day 92

Looking forward to entering a new country, we started our journey towards the Tanzania border at Lunga Lunga quite early. The border crossing took longer than expected due to a coach load of Tanzanians arriving at the same time, but after just over an hour of getting things stamped, we were into Tanzania.

The road to Tanga was quite poor in parts, and at one stage we overtook the aforementioned coach which had slid down the muddy embankment at the side of the road unable to get out. The roads yet again had taken their toll on the car and the front passenger side wheel wasn’t sounding to healthy, but instead of stopping we continued to Dar Es Salam where we knew we would have a better chance of getting a good fix or parts if needed.

It made a change to arrive somewhere before dark, and we found a hotel resort on the northern beaches of Dar called Silver Sands where we could camp for the night and get something to eat in the restaurant on the beautifully smooth beach sand.

Days 89 & 90: Kenya

2010-04-18T20:44:00.002+02:00

Day 89

It was raining for the entire night, and so a few people who were camping on the ground had decided to sleep indoors rather than in a tent. I was OK in the rooftent which was raised 2m (6ft4in) above the flooded campsite and therefore only got a bit damp during the night.

After driving off road again the Landrover needed some slight attention once more, and so me and Nathan got the tools out and started fixing things which had rattled off, whilst at the same time tidying out the back of the Landrover which now looked like an unfinished jigsaw puzzle.

Nathans’ now fiancée Caz had to catch her flight in the evening, and so we drove her out to the airport to say goodbye. I yet again informed Caz on her departure that it’s never too late to change her mind.

Day 90

With Caz out of the way [I’m only joking Caz!!!] it was time for the two of us to back get on the road to Cape Town. The new route we had decided to take was along the coast of Kenya, through Tanzania and then into Malawi, and so our next destination was Mombasa. The entire road from Nairobi to Mombasa was just full of idiots for drivers. The worst incident of the trip happened as I was overtaking a series of slower moving vehicles on the single-carriage road.

Having overtaken one vehicle I continued to try and overtake an articulated lorry, keeping my indicator on and even beeping the horn to warn him that was overtaking. Just as got half way past the long trailer, he decided to pull out leaving me the only option to brake the hardest I ever have and to swerve onto the opposite hard shoulder. The brakes were smoking as we came to a halt only inches away from both the side of the lorry on one side and the grassy ditch to the other side.

After briefly venting our frustration with the driver we sped off towards Mombasa lucky to avoid a serious incident. The roads south of Mombassa along the beaches are cut off by the port, and so we thought the only way around according to the maps was to drive on back-roads through the countryside. This route contained poor roads again, and took a lot longer than we thought. At one stage one of the rear shock absorbers had fallen half way off, and after stopping to remove it completely we continued in the dark to the hotel with one shock missing.

Days 87 & 88: Kenya

2010-04-18T20:32:00.003+02:00

Day 87

The park gates to the Masai Mara open every day as the sun comes up at 06:30 and shut as it goes down at 18:30 and so to utilise this timeframe so as only to pay for one days worth of park fees ($60 per person per day) we got up at 05:30 to get ready. Once we had driven through the gates, the first drive heading west took us past hundreds of Thomson Gazelle, Kudus, Wildebeests and buffaloes before Caz spotted a Lioness in the grass. There turned out to be three of them and it was quite pleasing not only to spot them at all, but within ten minutes of being in the park.

Next we spotted a lone elephant, before stumbling across a herd of giraffes, and eventually a herd of elephants. As we slowly approached in the Landrover and pulled over to take photos, we could see one of the elephants that was a mere 10metres (9 yards) away starting to slowly charge towards us! I quickly stepped on the accelerator and we sped off from the elephant that I’m pretty sure was giving us a first warning.

The day continued with spottings of baboons, hippos, warthogs and various other animals of all sizes until we needed to start our journey out of the park back to a hotel. The route out of the park was again off road and it had started raining heavily leaving some of the roads very wet. The real problems started when the rainwater would channel itself into the road to descend the hills, leaving a lot of the roads completely wet meaning we were effectively driving down rivers! The worst part was a muddy stretch where none of the road could be seen for a thin watery/muddy layer that was un-drivable. Luckily we turned around to find the main road out of the area and back towards civilisation, but we spent around five hours driving off road in the rain and dark through terrible conditions just to get a cheap hotel room for the night.

Day 88

With such an amazing day the previous day we decided to close the loop on our trip around Kenya back to Nairobi so that Caz could catch her flight back from Nairobi airport. I hadn’t been feeling too well all night and the dodgy stomach had continued into the day, so by the time we got back to JJs it was time to chill out.

After getting a much-needed lunch cooked by Nathan and Caz, I headed for a late afternoon kip in the rooftent. When I woke up again in the evening it appeared that the rain that we had witnessed in the Masai Mara had caught up with us in Nairobi.

The entire campground was flooded and so we all gathered inside the main house adjoining the campground for some noodles and a beer. This is when Caz informed me that whilst I was driving the Landrover around the Masai Mara with Nathan and Caz sat on the roofrack to get a good view, Nathan had proposed to Caz, and Caz had duly accepted his proposal! I informed Caz that it’s never too late to change her mind.

Days 85 & 86: Kenya

2010-04-18T20:27:00.001+02:00

Day 85

The reason for visiting Lake Victoria was to see some hippos, and so after breakfast in the morning we drove south to hippo point to see how much we could hire a boat for. The prices were quite high and we couldn’t haggle a lower price so we decided to go and search at the other end of the town where we knew we would find some fish restaurants.

The whole end of the bay to the north was a long terrace of bars stretching wide along the shore, and long back onto the land, leaving a small space around the waters edge for power boats to dock, and for people to drive cars down into the lake to wash them. The fresh tilapia from Lake Victoria was on sale in the restaurants and so we shared a medium sized fried fish tilapia between us. (Whilst getting constantly hassled by hawkers and glue sniffing teenagers.)

Just before we were about to eat, we were approached by a bloke who said he could take us out on the lake in a powered boat to see the hippos for the same price as we could have hired a rowing boat at the last place. After some cheeky negotiation we haggled down the price to a reasonable figure and headed out onto the lake. We only managed to see one semi-submerged hippo for about two seconds, but the one-hour boat ride was quite interesting and we did get to see some Kingfishers.

Day 86

The night before the Landrover had been broken into at the front and an attempt had been made on the lock on the back as well. Nothing was stolen from the front (we remove all valuables when we leave the car parked), the back is impenetrable because of the second hasp lock we installed, and the car wasn’t stolen because we have an immobiliser and a steering lock. Luckily the two locks still function and so no real damage was done.

We started our journey heading to the Masai Mara just before lunchtime estimating that it would take us half a day to get there. After stopping for lunch we resumed our journey at good speed until we hit the off road part of the route.

Progress off road was slow and we ended up driving in the dark with rain starting to fall. One river crossing proved too difficult, as the approach was a very steep rocky dip on which we got the tow bar caught. After a five-minute job removing the tow bar we were on our way to Talek to find a cheap hotel for the night.

Days 83 & 84: Kenya

2010-03-30T17:11:00.001+02:00

Day 83

With Caz’s flight arriving in the evening we had a day to kill in Nairobi, but after the horrendous roads from Moyale the Landrover needed some attention and so we set about fixing all of the parts that had rattled off due to the corrugations.

Although it was day 83, I still hadn’t wired up the fog lights that had purely served an aesthetic purpose on the Landrover so far on the trip. The problem was that every time I tried to wire them, the wiring on the Landrover didn’t match the diagram in the Haynes Manuel, or some of the switches and relays had broken. After an hour of taking apart the entire dashboard to feed the wires through, the fog lights were finally up and running.

In the evening Caz arrived and I had prepared some cottage pie for the three of us. Caz had brought a tent with her, but the rain was so bad that night that the three of us had to cram into the roof-tent to avoid the flooding below.

Day 84

We left Nairobi heading for Kisumu on the shore of Lake Victoria hoping that the journey would not take too long. The roads were all tarmaced, but the potholes and Matatus were proving rather tricky obstacles to our intended velocity.

The Matatus are the Toyota Hiace minibuses that are restricted to 80kph and seem to have a special driving licence requirement whereby drivers must have an IQ of less than 53. Reading the papers I wasn’t surprised to discover that in one day there had been three separate road traffic incidents in Kenya killing over 30 people – all of which involved a Matatu.

We drove over the hill and down towards Kisumu just as the sun was descending over
Lake Victoria creating the most amazing red and purple sky in the distance. After finding a hotel and getting some dinner we headed back to our rooms for a cheeky drink to watch some DVDs.

Days 81 & 82: Kenya

2010-03-30T16:35:00.003+02:00

Day 81

Having the previous day clocked up enough miles to take our journey past the 10,000mile mark we headed south in convoy with Joachim to reach another big landmark on our journey as we crossed the Equator just south of Nanyuki. At the Equator we had the obligatory photo under the sign, and I was given an explanation on the Coriolis effect by one of the locals, where he demonstrated the water flowing in opposite directions downwards either side of the equator, and directly down on the equator. (Although this is true in theory, at the close distances at which he demonstrated this it is certainly a magic trick, but one which I couldn’t work out how he had done it.)

The next stage of our journey was to drive to Nairobi, and so like we did along the Isiolo road, Joachim and us decided to drive at our own pace again (as his car needed several fixes in Nairobi) and so we agreed to meet at some stage along the main road. We sped off towards Nairobi at lot faster that Joachim, and decided to wait for him at one of the junctions about midway. After waiting for over 30minutes, we realised there was something wrong, and so decided to drive back to try and find him. After a long drive back to where we thought we had seen him last, we were just about to give up when we spotted a 4x4 parked at the side of the road in the distance. It was Joachim, and his gearbox had failed meaning the car couldn’t move at all. He was so glad to see us as one of the locals had offered him a tow for over £135/€150, but with us returning in our trusty tow truck of a Landrover and a virgin towrope we continued our journey to the capital once more.

We knew we would have to find somewhere to stay along the way as the distance was too great to cover before it went dark, and so just before I saw the sun descend from its midday position in the north to its evening conclusion in the west for the first time in my life, we found a random hotel/restaurant/bar where we could camp for free for the night.

Day 82

The next morning we resumed to tow Joachim to Nairobi where our intended destination was an overland campsite called Jungle Junction. By the time we arrived in Nairobi, the traffic was absolute chaos, and trying to tow another vehicle through congestion whilst still trying to navigate was proving an extremely laborious task.

Eventually we found the campsite just after midday and were so glad to see what a brilliantly comfortable place it was to stay. Most other overlanders who come through Nairobi also stay here, and the owner who is motorcycle crazy has his own garage in the compound with all of the tools and equipment you could ever need.

In the afternoon we visited the local supermarket which we were absolutely amazed by. It was just like being back in Europe with different sections stocking various foods and goods, and it was strange to see such a multicultural place once again as people of all races were doing their shopping there. We spent the remainder of the evening cooking and relaxing in the garden, whilst Joachim tried to find a garage where he could get his car repaired.

Days 79 & 80: Kenya

2010-03-30T08:01:00.002+02:00

Day 79

The drive to the border was achieved before midday, and we needed to stamp out our passports and carnet on the Ethiopian side. The customs official noticed that our visas had expired and told us we would have to return to Addis to renew them. We asked if there was any way we could ‘pay’ for an extension at the border, and before long he reticently received a bribe from us for half of what we would have paid for an extension and stamped our passports out.

We then drove across to the Kenyan side where spent ten minutes and no money getting our passports and carnet stamped in, then proceeded to change lanes from driving on the right on Ethiopian tarmac, to driving on the left on Kenyan dirt tracks, and we were on our way to Marsabit.

We knew the road would be terrible, and that the distance of 150miles/250km would take a long time, and we were right. The first third of the journey wasn’t too bad, then the middle third was horrendous rocky roads mixed with thick muddy patches after a tornado twisted its path across the road in front of us on the horizon and brought with it a rainstorm. The final third was just terrible corrugations of the road surface that we had to navigate through in the dark. After over fourteen hours of driving we had arrived in Marsabit and we looked forward to a much needed sleep.

Day 80

An early start was once again required as the road to Isiolo we had heard was just as bad as the Moyale to Marsabit road. After less than two hours on the corrugated roads we had covered a distance of only 30miles/50km, and we were completely frustrated by the relentless shaking and rattling being done by the road surface to the Landrover.

Just after stopping for a bite to eat at the side of the road we continued our journey to see a familiar car parked up on the side of the road. It was the car of Joachim who we had met in Addis who we thought would be half way back to Cape Town by this time. We were glad to meet him once again, and he made our day when he informed us that the last 60km/40miles of the road to Isiolo was now tarmaced! We decided to drive at our own pace and meet up again where the tarmac started.

When we arrived at the tarmac we could almost hear the Landrover breath a sigh of relief. We waited for Joachim and continued our journey to Isiolo where we found a hotel run by a Dutch couple who had space for us to camp, and who cooked us one of the best (and most definitely the biggest) meals of trip.

Days 77 & 78: Ethiopia

2010-03-30T07:43:00.002+02:00

Day 77

We returned to the garage to refit the tank only to find that the fuel connector pipe had been bent by one of the workers meaning that it wouldn’t connect properly. The tank came out once more, the pipe was bent back, and the tank was once more refitted.

The next stage was to bleed the fuel system of any air, but air kept coming through into the filter and the engine wasn’t running correctly. We called for a mechanic to sort it out once and for all, and after two or three hours of us all investigating, the problem wasn’t in the engine or the fuel system, but in the tank. And so, the tank was removed once more.

The problem was that the internal fuel pipe was touching the bottom of the tank when it was re-welded, and so wasn’t sucking diesel correctly. The tank was opened up, a piece was cut off the pipe and then it was welded once more. This time we tested the entire system before we fitted the tank back between the chassis, and everything was fine.

With the engine running, the car moving again and having spent eleven hours working, we set off back to Rolfs house only to find that the battery had drained and we needed a jump-start. Once back at Rolfs, the electrical system failed again and we dreaded yet another day in Addis fixing more problems.

Day 78

On closer inspection to the electrical system in the morning, I discovered that the mechanic had rewired our split charge system incorrectly when he removed all of the batteries to weld the exhaust pipe, and so the main battery wasn’t charging at all. We were relieved that it was such a simple solution, and astounded that the battery had lasted so long without being charged.

We were finally, thankfully back on the road and exuberantly heading south towards Kenya with the engine ticking over like a dream, and the tarmac being swallowed up beneath our wheels. The scenery of southern Ethiopia was changing around us from beautiful lakes within the savannah, to flat desert land, to mountainous fertile valleys where you might of thought you were in Cambodia.

We arrived in a small town called Yavello in the evening 251miles/404km later, and found a hotel for the night with a short drive to the border awaiting us the next day. From what we had seen of Ethiopia, we vowed that one day we would come back and spend longer exploring the vast landscape of the most fascinating and diverse country we had ever visited.

Days 75 & 76: Ethiopia

2010-03-30T07:42:00.001+02:00

Day 75

Our 14th night in Addis would be our last. Our visas would expire before we reached the border at Moyale, but we thought we would risk not getting an extension for $20 each knowing that if anyone at the border would say anything, that a bribe would be cheaper.

One thing we needed to arrange for was vehicle insurance for the next countries we would be travelling through, and we were able to obtain Yellow Card insurance for Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia all in one policy in Addis for less than £40/€44 for a month.

The evening was spent at Lules bar where we said goodbye to him for the third and final time, once again enjoying his brilliant food and saying farewell to the other people we had met in our stay in Addis.

Day 76

After saying goodbye to Rolf and Rut we were back on the road, and we needed to fill up with diesel at the local garage. Half way through filling the tank, we noticed that diesel was pissing out of the side near one of the electrical connections at a ridiculous rate, and emptying all over the petrol station forecourt. We were devastated.

We drove back to Rolfs house and immediately back to the aluminium company ordering them to remove the tank, fix the problem and refit it at once whilst we headed to a restaurant around the corner for some lunch and a much needed drink.

The tank was leaking through the gasket of one of the connections that had melted when they had welded the tank for the second time, and the solution was to remove the gasket completely and weld the connection on. After this was done we checked the tank to find that there was a small leak through the sides still, and that an epoxy was needed to seal it, but as the sun was coming down and the epoxy needed time to harden, we would have to return the next day. Night 15 in Addis and still counting.

Days 73 & 74: Ethiopia

2010-03-30T07:33:00.001+02:00

Day 73

We were still waiting for a call from Bruke at the garage, but it never came. It was becoming more and more frustrating having no car in a large city and having to rely on Rolf to give us a lift everywhere. The other option was to use the Hilux HiAce minibuses which were really complicated unless you knew the city really well, or to take a taxi which were quite expensive.

In the evening we had arranged to meet up with Jack and Ryan, along with Adam who had just arrived in Addis on his bicycle. We met at a top Italian restaurant in the city centre, introduced Rolf to everyone and shared stories about our journeys so far. After a few beers we aimed to get a taxi home, but as usual various taxi drivers constantly quoted us ridiculous prices just because we were white.

For a short journey which should cost us 50birr (£2.50/€2.75) we were being quoted 130birr, but a stupid quote meant we would search elsewhere. Eventually we found a taxi who quoted us 50birr exactly and we accepted. On the way back though, he took a wrong turn and tried to drive his Lada over a 20cm (8 inch) concrete central reservation in the road and got stuck. Me and Nathan had to get out and tell him how to drive it out safely, otherwise we would never have got home. This is why we needed our Landrover back.

Day 74

The call came in the morning that the car was fully ready. We arrived at the garage to see the mechanics still working and cleaning the car. After an hour it was complete though and we could finally drive off into the city to get the engine jet washed. The Landrover now felt and looked new again, it had never been so clean.

After going out for a bite to eat at Lules, Rolf reminded us that we still hadn’t sampled the local Taj, an Ethiopian wine made from honey. We had left tasting it all through our trip in Ethiopia until Addis where we had heard the quality is much better, and so in the Afternoon we went to a local bar which was renowned for the best Taj in Addis along with Lule and Chimey.

As per usual when with Rolf, the drinking didn’t really stop, and carried on until the late evening when we finished the night off by going for another traditional Ethiopian meal called Kitfo, a raw minced meat served with cheese and spinach, a weird taste, especially because I prefer my food cooked.

Days 71 & 72: Ethiopia

2010-03-30T07:30:00.000+02:00

Day 71

Yet again we were hoping the tank would be ready after lunch, but it was a very optimistic hope if anything. By the late afternoon we had received another phone call wanting us to come to the factory and check that the tank looks good before the final welds were made.

The tank measured well and so we gave the order to weld it whilst we went for a drink around the corner to wait. One hour later and we returned to the factory to see the final welds being made before testing the tank for leaks.

It was too late to fix it back into the Landrover as the sun by this time was low in the sky, and so we went for a bite to eat and a few more drinks vowing to wake up early the next morning to finally get our Landrover up and running.

Day 72

We had drunk far too much the night before and woke up feeling still slightly drunk, but the tank needed fixing before we could get the Landrover back on the road and to the garage.

The fit still wasn’t perfect as the holes for the bolt fixings to the chassis we slightly wrong, but after two hours of toiling underneath the Landrover and bleeding the fuel system, the engine was ticking over again and we were on route to the garage.

The waiting game had resumed again, and we were again hoping for the steering, exhaust and CV joints to be fixed as quickly as possible so that we could resume our travelling. It wasn’t going to be ready at earliest until the morning though, and so a few beers at night once again quelled the frustration.

Days 61 - 70: Ethiopia

2010-03-23T17:59:00.002+01:00

Day 61

The route to the capital city Addis Ababa we knew would be long, and so we started early in the morning to utilize the sunlight hours, so as not to drive on the roads at night. Our exit from the hotel wasn’t as hasty as expected though, as three minibuses had blocked us in overnight.

The roads were the same as on the journey to Lallibela, and once again we experienced some amazing scenery, eventually dropping down into a valley near Waldia that from my reckoning must be the most fertile place in Ethiopia. The whole valley was covered in various plants and crops, and the only visible part that wasn’t green was the grey and dry rocky river delta at the bottom.

The darkness was looming and we were still a long way from Addis, so we decided to try and spot a decent hotel for the night in one of the many villages along the roadside. The hotel that we found in a small village in Robit cost us around £2.00/€2.20 for the night, and the only thing to do there was to eat and drink, but with the price of beer and food being just as cheap, this wasn’t a bad thing.

Day 62

We left Robit early and continued towards Addis. The leaking from our fuel tank had worsened over night and we had split around five litres. This left us with a small cash problem, as we had budgeted to spend just enough money on Diesel to make it to Addis where we could once again use a cash machine to withdraw money.

We needed to change our emergency supply of dollars to ensure we had enough fuel, but once we had found a bank with a cash machine, we were fine. The next task was to phone Rolf and get directions to his house where he had invited us to stay. After getting directions, we proceeded to the nearest liquor store to buy him a crate of beer as a welcome present, and once we had arrived at his house, the old mans eyes opened wide with delight!

We spent the evening drinking and eating with Rolf and Rut in a local restaurant called Road Runner which was owned by a guy called Lule, a crazy Ethiopian who had spent many years abroad in the USA and Columbia to name but two. We were enjoying Ethiopia without end, and meeting some brilliant people along the way.

Day 63

With the tank needing to be fixed we spend the morning removing it from the Landrover and by the afternoon we were at the metalwork compound ordering a local firm that Rolf knew through the owner to fabricate us a brand new tank from zinc galvanised steel for 2000birr/£95/€105.

Then started the long wait for the tank to be made, and with nothing really to do or see in Addis, we proceeded to eat and drink our way through the Addis Ababa restaurant directory under the advise of Rolf and Rut.

In one of the bars in town called Kiel Bar we met a German student called Silke and her Ethiopian boyfriend Sultan, who after a few drinks invited us to try chat the following day, a stimulant plant native to Ethiopia and quite popular amongst the locals.

Day 64

Chat is a drug that is banned in many countries worldwide, but is legal still in a few including Ethiopia and even the UK, although I have never even heard of it in the UK. In Ethiopia it is chewed for long periods of time especially students and people of other professions who wish to stay awake and alert during the night.

The method of consumption by chewing and retaining the chewed leafs in the mouth appears to be a very social event (almost a ritual) and we were joined by Sultan and Silke and two university friends of Sultan. The leafs taste really sour, and one way of counteracting the taste is to simultaneously eat salted peanuts.

After two or three hours of chewing and conversing with each other with bulging cheeks full of chewed up leafs, we both agreed there was a small effect, with us both feeling more alert and awake, but only similar to taking a high dose of caffeine. We spent the rest of the evening in a local live music bar called Harlem Jazz drinking the one drug we know and love.

Day 65

We spent most of the morning and early afternoon trying to find a decent internet café so that I could update the blog, but all of the connections in Ethiopia are amazingly slow. We were informed that the fastest internet café in Addis is across the road from the Kiel bar, but one of the frequent power cuts in the city meant that the computers would not run, so instead we went for a beer across the road.

Rolf came to meet us and invited us to dinner at a large restaurant on the top of the hill overlooking the city called the Face of Addis, and we enjoyed a brilliant meal that cost less than £2.50/€2.75.

Then Rolf took us around a few bars in the Checenyia area of the city, unknown to us, this area is the red light district of Addis, and every small ramshackle bar with neon lights was full of prostitutes trying to ply their trade. Rolf at the age of 65 was loving every minute of the attention of the young girls that warmed to his old charm, but the only thing me and Nathan wanted to buy in these bars was a cheeky beer.

Day 66

Waiting for a fuel tank to be built in a city where the only thing to occupy the time is to eat and drink (and for the more uninhibited gentleman, to get a taste for the ladies) was taking it’s toll after drinking for four nights on the trot, but Rolf had arranged a barbeque in his house for a group of friends, and so we spent most of the day preparing the food, alcohol and a fire.

Ingo had now been joined by his brother Mark, and along with another overlander called Joachim that Rolf knew, we started cooking around 4 kilos of meat just after 5pm. The evenings musical entertainment was provided by me and my guitar, and lasted for hours with everyone requesting songs that I had the tabs for on my laptop.

The rain started late in the evening and the fire was abandoned as we took all of the furniture, food and alcohol inside to continue playing music and drinking under shelter.

Day 67

We awoke late with a hangover and were too late to go and get our Kenyan visas. Instead we tried to be productive finding a bank where we could withdraw money and an internet café with broadband.

This was supposed to be the day that the tank would be ready, we were hoping we would be able to pick it up in the evening, and be able to fit the tank in the morning then to take the Landrover to the garage, but the tank was not ready and we were unsure of how much longer it would take.

Yet again in the evening we went out for a meal and stayed up late drinking with Ingo on his last night in Addis before driving back to Bahir Dar.

Day 68

The Kenyan embassy opened at 9am, we were out of there by half past and then had to pick up our passports again in the afternoon. We were glad the process wasn’t as frustrating as obtaining our Ethiopian visa.

In the afternoon we drove to one of the overland camping grounds to meet Joachim who was interested in taking an unusual route into Kenya on the western side of Take Turkana and was hoping that we would be driving with him. We met up and told him about the delay with our fuel tank, which meant that if we wanted to drive together he would have to delay his departure from Addis which he wasn’t keen on doing after spending two and a half months in the city.

In the evening Lule from the Road Runner bar and restaurant had invited me to play the guitar in the courtyard of his bar after hearing from Rolf that I was playing at the barbeque. I played in front of around 30 people for two hours with the musical genres ranging from Irish folk, rock and country and western. For my troubles Lula had offered me free food and drink all night, but sadly I had a dodgy stomach and couldn’t take advantage of the free beer!

Day 69

With the tank taking longer than expected the Landrover was stuck in Rolfs compound still needing to be fixed, so we decided to see if the mechanic would come to the Landrover to fix it. He arrived to take a look at the Landrover and give us a quote estimate, but insisted we should really wait until the tank was in and drive it to his garage.

We still needed to buy some new bolts with which to refit the tank and so we took a drive to a hardware shop just around the corner. On the way there we bumped into Chimay who owns the Kiel Bar, and Rolf had arranged with him that we meet up for a drink in another bar nearby which served draft beer.

Every morning at breakfast Rolf would say “No alcohol today.” By lunchtime we would be drinking. After one drink he would say: “This is the last beer now.” Then after we had finished that one he would say: “One for the road.” We only went out to buy some bolts and we ended up drinking from sunset until after midnight, but as Rolf said: “When you buy some bolts, you have to have a beer!”

Day 70

We were hoping all day that the tank would finally be ready, and in the afternoon we phoned up to see if it was complete. It wasn’t so in the meanwhile we tidied up the back of the Landrover and waited for the call.

Later that day at around 3pm we had the phone call that the tank was ready. We drove out to collect it, and it looked good. We paid and drove back to Rolfs house, donned our clothes reserved for getting dirty and tried to fix it back into the Landrover before sunset.

The tank had been built three or four centimetres too wide and wouldn’t fit between the chassis. We were really frustrated by now, and had to drive back with the tank and inform them to fix it. We knew yet again that our wait would continue for at least another day.

Days 59 & 60: Ethiopia

2010-03-23T17:47:00.002+01:00

Day 59

The route from Bahir Dar to Lallibela we knew would be a 50/50 mix of tarmac and gravel, and the main road from Lake Tana to Gashema was exactly that, as the road was still being built and tarmaced. The scenery and drive we both amazing as the twisting road which was often only one lane wide rose high into the mountains offering spectacular views, and some hair raising moments whilst overtaking lorries with a shear drop of over 1000m to one side of the Landrover.

The last 30miles/50km was really bad gravel, and took us down 2000m into a valley, and back up the same distance the other side to Lallibela. The engine started overheating with only 8km to go, but we let it cool down as it started to get hot before resuming our journey.

Once in Lallibela we found a hotel, and then tried to find somewhere to watch Man Utd play against Aston Villa in the Carling Cup final. We already knew that the Ethiopians was crazy for the Premiership, and so yet again it was easy to find a small tented garden with benched seats and a TV where the owner would charge 2birr (£0.10/€0.11) as an entrance fee.

Day 60

The reason we visited Lallibela was to see the rock-hewn churches that were built there over 700 years ago and carved out of solid rock with both the exteriors and interiors sculpted to form the architecture. From the inside, the churches are quite uninteresting, but from the outside, especially the more photographed church of St George looks really impressive.

Out of the eleven churches in the area, two are now covered with some rather crude space-frame canopies to protect the churches from the weather, and it is sad to see such an ungraceful display of architecture around what is a world heritage site, especially when the entrance fees to the group of churches are so high. (300birr/£25/€28)

Fed up of the hassling again, we decided to chill out for the rest of the evening in the hotel watching movies. Being a tourist in many places that we have visited along the way soon becomes a chore of politely telling people that you don’t require a guide or help or directions to a hotel (where they will get commission) as they follow your white skin down the street like a shadow.

Days 57 & 58: Ethiopia

2010-03-23T17:31:00.001+01:00

Day 57

With the front axle now put back on, the garage were trying to charge us £75/€82.50 for the time spent removing and reattaching the front axle, even though we had warned them not to do any work until we have a quote. For four hours work in Europe this would still be above the normal price, but for Ethiopia, a waiter wouldn’t earn this type of money in a month.

We argued and eventually paid £30/€33 to the garage so that we could leave their compound with the Landrover and get back onto the road. We said goodbye to Rolf and Rut, but exchanged numbers agreeing to meet up again in Addis at Rolfs house in less than a weeks time.

The road south from Gondor led us to a small town on Lake Tana called Bahir Dar, it was an ideal place to chill out for a few days in the sunshine, reading and relaxing with a few cold beers.

Day 58

The Nile Falls we knew we located only 20miles/31km from Bahir Dar, and so we decided to drive out there with the Landrover after getting a quick breakfast at the hotel. The road there was terrible, but by now we were getting used to driving on the gravel roads that were commonplace in the more rural areas of Ethiopia.

We arrived at the adjoining village to the falls only to get the standard amount of persistent hassling from the locals trying to sell themselves as tour guides and it proved impossible to just wander around without someone latching on and following our every move. The falls were not as impressive as we had hoped, as the river has for a long time been dammed in a hydroelectric project, and would have been quite an enjoyable trip if it were not for the hassling.

We returned to the hotel to sit down watching a game of football on the large screen TV when we discovered we had a visitor. Rolf had recommended this hotel to us, and had decided to come and spend a night in Bahir Dar with his friend Ingo, and then to try and track us down to see if we fancied a beer! We spent the evening having a few beers with both Rolf and Ingo, before retiring to bed with a long drive in front of us the next day.

Days 55 & 56: Ethiopia

2010-03-23T17:30:00.002+01:00

Day 55

After packing up the Landrover and driving back into Debark to drop off our scout we hit the road back to Gondor once again along the bumpy and dusty gravel road. Half way into the journey we were overtaken at high speed by a German registered Nissan Patrol who was beeping his horn waving to us enthusiastically.

As we got closer to Gondor we saw the same car at the side of the road with the bonnet raised, so we decided to pull over to see if we could offer any assistance. The fuel injector was broken and he needed us to tow him to the garage in Gondor. The garage was full of 4x4 vehicles getting fixed, and so we decided to see if we could get the Landrover seen to asking for the mechanic to look at the fuel tank and steering leaving him to give us a quote whilst we went for food with Rolf the German and his young Ethiopian girlfriend Rut.

Rolf had spent a long period of his life travelling through Africa and had now retired to Ethiopia where he had spent the previous eight years living in Addis. Rolf like us also had a taste for the beer, and so that evening we out for a good drink together, sampling the various Ethiopian beers that were available.

Day 56

Thinking the previous day that the garage were taking out only the steering shock absorber to test it, we arrived at the garage in the morning to discover they had taken out the entire front axle. We then asked them if they had prepared a quote for fixing the steering, the fuel tank and welding a small part of the differential and the exhaust. The quote came to $790 (around £500/€550). This was phenomenally expensive for what was only a days work, and involved no parts. We argued with the garage that this was silly money, and Rolf phoned a friend in Addis to see what price we could get the work done for there to discover it would be a third of the cost.

We informed the garage that they should put the front axle back on, and that we wouldn’t pay their ridiculous prices. Rolf was having the same problem with the mechanics trying to remove random parts of his Nissan without his approval, and asking for large sums of money to fix his car.

We would have to spend another night in Gondor, and so after going out for something to eat with Rolf and Rut, we ventured into a local Ethiopian bar where local music was being played with singing, drumming, dancing and drinking combining to form the evenings entertainment.

Days 53 & 54: Ethiopia

2010-03-23T17:24:00.003+01:00

Day 53

In the daylight we discovered that the seams of the fuel tank were sodden with diesel. One of the waiters in the hotel knew a mechanic and so we arranged for him to come and see the problem and give us a quote for removing the tank and welding the leaks.

It took two mechanics two hours to remove the nineteen year old tank from the rusty fixings of the undercarriage, and once we had drained it and removed the bottom shield, six of us stood around the tank with a piece of chalk circling the dozens of holes, just like being stood around a pub quiz machine playing spot the difference.

The garage only had the electrical welding equipment and not the better oxygen based welding guns, and so the job was only really a temporary fix until we could either get it re-welded somewhere else, or preferably get a new fuel tank.

Day 54

With the Landrovers fuel tank back in place we drove up into the Simian Mountain National Park with our compulsory local gun carrying park scout who couldn’t speak a word of English. The park is home to over 6000 gelada baboons and after only a hours drive we spotted a couple of hundred at the side of the road.

We got out of the car to go and walk amongst the baboons and sat down watching and taking photos. The baboons were not intimidated by our presence, and would come within touching distance of us so long as we made no sharp movements. After a while we resumed the drive upwards to over 3,300m above sea level. We got out for another longer walk around the park seeing the amazing scenery including the Geech Abyss, a 2000m shear face of rock that dropped vertically from beneath our feet into the valley below.

We drove back to a campsite near the entrance to the park where we knew a few of the other overlanders we had met on the ferry would be camping that night. We cooked dinner on a campfire before the sun went down and I eventually got the guitar out to play a few songs to give us something to do once the sun had gone down.

Days 51 & 52: Ethiopia

2010-03-23T17:21:00.003+01:00

Day 51

Away from the desert in the Ethiopian highlands the heat was once again bearable, and the sun shone down as we took a walk around Gondor to the Royal Enclosure, a walled area of the town with numerous remnants of castles and palaces dating back four hundred years.

In the afternoon Nathan was interested in watching the Manchester United game on the TV, so we set off on a walk around Gondor to try and find somewhere to watch it. It turns out the Ethiopians are crazy for the English Premiership and it wasn’t long until we found a hotel where they had the game against Everton on the big screen in front of around a hundred Africans and two Welshmen drinking a cheeky afternoon beer.

After the game we drove up to another hotel on the top of the hill to see the view and sample the local food. We tried the fasting food which consists of a large flat sour kind of pancake with numerous dips and vegetables on top. We weren’t overly impressed with the sour bread, but some of the dips were really tasty.

Day 52

To reach the Simian mountains towards the north of the country involved a long four hour drive on gravel roads to the ‘base town’ of the mountains called Debark. The suspension and steering on the Landrover were taking a battering, and the dust storm that was created by the back wheels was churning up dust into the small gaps in the rear door, covering everything inside with a horrible layer of dust.

Once we had found a hotel we decided to check that the Landrover was OK. The day we arrived at the Ethiopian border we had discovered a small leak coming from the fuel tank. Initially we had thought that the local youths who were hassling us for cash near the border had sprayed Diesel over the tank in some sort of scam, as they all appeared to know where there was a good mechanic once they had alerted us to the problem.

We took a closer look in Gondor to see there was actually a slow leak, but on another inspection in Debark, the tank was leaking around ½ litre (a pint) per hour. The sun was going down, and so we placed a bucket under the tank until the morning when we would try and get it fixed.

Days 49 & 50: Sudan & Ethiopia

2010-03-23T17:21:00.001+01:00

Day 49

We returned to the Ethiopian Embassy before 9am, filled out the forms, and submitted our application. After waiting over an hour and a half, the visa officer called over Nathan asking questions about our trip, and then mentioning that she couldn’t issue us a visa as the photos in our passports were too old.

We argued politely that our passports were 8 years old, but still valid for two years and had been accepted by every other country we had passed through so far with no problems. We argued that whatever picture was in our passports, they would always be old, whether it was one year or nine years, and that they are still valid, but the stubborn woman seemed incapable of reason in her thinking and she insisted that we needed new passports to obtain a visa for Ethiopia.

The other option for us was to visit the UK embassy to get a letter with an official stamp from them explaining that the passports should be accepted. If we didn’t get our visa that day, we would have to stay in Khartoum all weekend. We found the British Embassy, but it only opened at 11:00am. The Ethiopian embassy closed at 11:30am, and we knew it was going to be tight.

We each managed to get a letter from the British Embassy which cost us each $100/£65/€75, but we had no other option. We returned to the Ethiopian Embassy at 11:45am, but were luckily still allowed to get the visa processed. One letter and two hours later, and we had our visa. Thankfully we knew we would be out of the unbearable heat of Khartoum the next morning.

Day 50

It appears that we left Khartoum at the right time. The heat that weekend apparently soared to a freak high of 50 degrees Celsius! Instead of being stuck in an oven, we were on our way to the Ethiopian border, with two new shock absorbers which had had managed to fit the previous day after the embassy fiasco had unfolded.

After around 2pm we had arrived in Gallabat and proceeded to stamp out of Sudan. Another problem of the visa fiasco and the Landrover repairs was that we had very little money left, and in Sudan we were unable to withdraw money from their cash machines. Luckily the border crossing into Ethiopia cost absolutely nothing. We completed all of the documentation procedures whilst being hastled by about ten locals wanted to help us, then asking for commission, but we crossed the border post (a piece of rope between two wooden sticks) for no cost at all.

The day turned out to be the longest drive of the trip, and we arrived in Gondor in the dark to find a hotel and go out into the town for a meal, and our first beer in 12 days. It was longest I had gone without a beer for 5 years, and as it slowly trickled through my stomach and into the liver, I was no longer ill, the loss of appetite had returned, and the shaky hands had stopped. The two meals and four beers had cost us less than £3/€3.50. We had arrived in Ethiopia.

Days 47 & 48: Sudan

2010-03-23T17:13:00.003+01:00

Day 47

Glad to get out of Khartoum, we left the campsite without paying as no-one was ever there to take any money from us during our stay despite us constantly asking who we are supposed to pay. Trying to find the way towards Ethiopia was tricky with no road signs at all (not even in Arabic) and so finding the way through asking local people was like trying to play a game of ‘hot or cold’.

After stopping to ask directions in Wad Medani, a local who could speak English said he would show us the way if he could get a lift as his house was on the way. His house was in a small village just outside Wad Medani on the main road to Gedaref, and when we dropped him off he invited us into his house for a drink of tea, and even offered us the use of his bath or the guest bedroom if we wanted to have a quick afternoon nap! This for us summed up the general kindness and hospitality of the brilliant Sudanese people.

We wanted to get on the road again and get to Gedaref so that we would be close to the Ethiopian border the following morning. Once we had arrived in Gedaref, Nathan was reading a guide book which stated that visas could not be attained at the Gallabat border, and after checking on the internet we realised it was correct. We would have to return to Khartoum to visit the Sudanese Embassy.

Day 48

We didn’t relish the though of returning to Khartoum, but it had to be done. We knew that getting the visa would take a day, and that we would really need to get the rear suspension fixed – even with a bodge – as it was getting worse and worse. We set off early and arrived in Khartoum after midday, arriving at the Ethiopian Embassy to find that like all embassies it was shut for the afternoon.

We thought that might be the case, but knew we still had one day before the Muslim weekend in which we could obtain a visa, and the guards at the gate informed us it would only take two hours.

The next job was to find a hotel (as honest as we normally are, we didn’t want to return to the Blue Nile Sailing Club to pick up the bill) and to get the Landrover fixed. Returning to the Industrial Area we stumbled across four more Landrover spare shops, and found a guy who said he would be able to fix it the next day after we had obtained our Ethiopian visas.

Days 45 & 46: Sudan

2010-03-23T17:07:00.003+01:00

Day 45

The plan in Khartoum was to try and fix the Landrover, but after searching the internet we couldn’t find any parts dealers in Sudan. Needing to look at the problem ourselves we decided to take one of the wheels off to get better access to the rear suspension, but the wheel nut spanner was old and simply bent as we tried to release the nuts.

We then took a walk into the city centre to find a new spanner for the job, and after asking in one garage, he directed us to the industrial part of the city where there was one Landrover parts shop. Sadly they didn’t sell the bushes and washes required for the suspension fix, and so we thought the best thing to do was to wait until we reached Addis Ababa in Ethiopia.

That evening in the Blue Nile Sailing Club we saw another Landrover parked next to ours. It was a Series I, which we guessed was over 40 years old and we got chatting to the owner Beverly (male not female) who was from the UK and travelling around Africa having sold his house. This guy was quintessentially English, and we initially thought that he must be ex-military (even nicknaming him The Brigadier), but he was an electrician from Derbyshire.

That night a few other people who were camping had told us there was a talent competition at a local Italian restaurant, and so I took along my acoustic guitar from the Landrover. Some of the talent on show was shockingly poor, but even my rendition of Cannonball by Damien Grey was not good enough to beat a local rapper who sang about his love for Sudan being similar to his love for women. After the talent content the night was rounded off by two local bands who performed some Sudanese rock music.

Day 46

After another unsuccessful look for parts for the Landrover, we returned to wash the Landrover for the first time of the trip, and the brown bodywork was once again returned to it’s former blue colour.

We drove out to where the Blue Nile meets the White Nile to see the difference of the colour as they meet. It was interesting to see, but not as spectacular as people had made out, the Blue Bile looked blue, whilst the White Nile looked as brown as the Landrover before we washed it. We returned to the camp and sat down with the brigadier who was telling us of his trip and route through Africa, picking up some very helpful information on where to stay and which roads to take.

It was our last night in Khartoum, and the Blue Nile Sailing Club had a music night with more local bands on. Two of the Swedish cyclists who were on the ferry had just arrived and I sat down listening to the music whilst they told me of their journey from Wadi Halfa. After only 20km they had punctured two tyres, been involved in a road accident and then damaged the rear hub of one of the bikes, getting the bus to Khartoum where they could get replacement parts (which we eventually heard cost over €2000/£1900!).

Days 43 & 44: Sudan

2010-03-23T17:01:00.002+01:00

Day 43
149miles/240km

We awoke to find that the mosquitoes in the hotel had enjoyed a bite to eat the previous night - even though we had mosquito nets on. We hit the road once again and took the opportunity to stop for food and tea in a few of the settlements along the way.

Our destination was the Jebel Barkal, a series of Egyptian Pyramids just outside Karima. We took the Landrover off-road the long way around to the pyramids, and the suspension wasn’t sounding too good over the bumps.

The plan for the night was to camp in the Nubian Desert, the complete wilderness of Sudan offered an ideal place to find a spot in the middle of nowhere to get out the rooftent, set up a campfire and cook the evenings meal. We enjoyed a full roast with vegetables and gravy before getting some sleep.

Day 44
185miles/298km

The journey to Khartoum would take us past another site with temples and pyramids, but we completely missed the turnoff, and we ended up miles away travelling quickly towards the capital. We decided to carry on and set up camp at Blue Nile Sailing Club where we intended to stay for a few days.

The food in Central Khartoum is the most unvaried selection I have ever witnessed. The choice is between Falafel, Fuul and kebabs, and after too much of all three along the way through the Arab world, we didn’t have much of an appetite. Plus, we couldn’t wash poor food down with a beer as Sudan has banned alcohol with Sharia Law being the legal system.

We did manage to find a wide selection of pirate DVDs for very little cost for sale in the city centre, so we spent the evening sat outside in the still over 30 degree heat watching movies on the laptop next to the River Nile.

Days 41 & 42: Sudan

2010-03-23T16:55:00.002+01:00

Day 41
1miles/2km

With the barge taking longer than the ferry we had two days to kill before getting the Landrover back. The previous night me Nathan, Jack and Ryan had played (and beat) the locals in a game of football, but other than that, there was nothing really to do in Wadi Halfa.

We spent the morning completing immigration registration and getting a photography permit, and then we chilled out in the shade drinking Pepsi and eating the local food. After returning to the hotel, we heard a knock on the door from one of the other drivers who had a 4x4 on the barge telling us the barge was arriving and that we should go down to the port to unload it.

We knew we couldn’t complete customs formalities until the morning but we arrived at the port to see the barge coming in before each of the vehicles was driven off the barge, half onto a floating platoon, then onto some ramps, and finally onto the pier. We just couldn’t understand why there was so much trial and error from the port workers in the method of creating a ramp when they do it every week, but after four different approaches, the last Landrover was driven off a now lighter and more buoyant barge making the last decent the largest drop, but probably the smoothest of all four.

Day 42
239miles/385km

We awoke to complete the customs formalities, where the police took away all of our music CD’s into a small room for inspection, closed and locked the door behind them, and shut the curtain so that we couldn’t see what they were doing. Very strange, but perhaps they were hoping we had some pornography that they could watch.

With the roads ahead being newly tarmaced, we got a quick bite to eat and resumed our journey south. It turned out that the new roads that had been financed by the Chinese were better than most A-roads in Europe. The tarmac was smooth with no speed bumps to catch us out, and it even had cats-eyes either on both sides or just in the centre.

We stopped off at a few villages along the way to get some food and drink, but it wasn’t long until we had reached Dongola. We thought we had seen the end of the annoying Sudanese paperwork when we had left Wadi Halfa, but when we checked into a hotel for the night we found out we needed to go to the police station to get permission to use a hotel! Passport, VISA, South of Khartoum Permit, Photography Permit, Hotel Permit – what will we next need permission for??

Days 39 & 40: Egypt & Sudan

2010-02-14T06:35:00.002+01:00

Day 39
12miles/19km

The ferry to Wadi Halfa was due to depart in the afternoon, but we first needed to complete all of the Egyptian border formalities at the port just south of the High Dam. We arrived at the port at 9am to start the customs check, get the carnet stamped, get our passports stamped and finally to drive the Landrover onto the barge which will take it into Sudan.

The barge is a separate boat to the passenger ferry and takes a few days longer, so once we had driven the Landrover onto the barge, we proceeded to the 2nd class area of the passenger ferry to the upper deck to meet fellow travellers and backpackers who were also heading south through Africa.

On board were 3 couples also driving 4x4s to Cape Town, Jack and Ryan that we met at the embassy in Cairo, along with 3 more backpackers and 6 cyclists. One of the cyclists from the UK was cycling to Cape Town to raise money for mosquito nets for Africans in the fight against Malaria. He told a story of how in Egypt had camped behind a mosque, and awoke the next morning to find himself bitten over 100 times in the face by mosquitoes leaving his face swollen so that he couldn’t see through one eye for a day. He had fallen to sleep not bothering to wear his mosquito net!

Day 40
0miles/0km

The night on board the ship was pretty crap. I didn’t take my sleeping bag on board and couldn’t get any sleep on the cold and windy deck of the ship, even when I tried to sleep inside a chest full of lifejackets, using them as both pillows and a duvet.

Early that morning though we passed the Abu Simbel site on the west bank of Lake Nasser, a site only accessible by an organised tour, but one we could view at best and for free from our ferry journey.

The disembarkation from the ferry was chaotic at best. The ferry had been loaded with tonnes of electrical goods that the Sudanese were buying in Egypt to take to Sudan, and the scramble off the ship, out of the port, onto a bus and finally into taxis was fraught with tussles past people carrying anything from big boxes of headphones to washing machines.

Days 37 & 38: Egypt

2010-02-14T06:34:00.001+01:00

Day 37
5miles/8km

The next stage of the journey into Sudan required us to get a ferry along the Nile from Aswan to Wadi Halfa, but first we had to book the ferry, and hand back our temporary Egyptian licence plates to the police.

The first step involved going to the traffic court to get a document which proved we hadn’t been involved in any accidents or been caught speeding. After that we headed to the Traffic Police office to hand back the plates and receive another document we would need for customs. Only then could we book ourselves onto the ferry.

The rest of the day was spent trying to be productive and finding someone to fix the cover for the rooftent that was ripped on day 1 when I drove the Landrover under a low car park ceiling in Brugge. We found a local cobbler who sewed it back together with leather for 30EP/£2.60/€3, and then headed off to the souks to buy some meths, spices and to get our laundry done.

Day 38
41miles/66km

With one day remaining before the ferry we decided to change the oil on the Landrover, and so we found a local disused garage with a pit to use. Whilst underneath the car, we found out what the skeaking coming from the rear suspension was. The speed bumps throughout Egypt had taken their toll, and the shock absorber bottom washers that adjoin the bushes had sheared over the retaining bolts resulting in a large amount of ‘give’ in the shock absorbers. We decided to leave repairing it until we arrived in Sudan.

After the oil change, we travelled south to visit the Philae Temple on an island in the middle of the Nile. When the Aswan dam was constructed, it left the surrounding area completely flooded, including an old temple site dating back at least 2000 years. For a long time the Philae Temple was under water, but with the help of UNESCO the Egyptian Antiquities Department took down the temple brick by brick and re-built it on a new higher island which can be visited by tourists.

In the evening we finally finished watching ‘Withnail & I’ on DVD after four times in previous evenings of trying to watch it, only to fall asleep half way through.

Days 35 & 36: Egypt

2010-02-14T06:23:00.002+01:00

Day 35
213miles/343km

Due to the speed bumps and police checkpoints, we were travelling on average at only 30mph/50kph, but we knew we would reach Luxor by nightfall. By now in the journey we were both becoming extremely capable of overtaking, which is commendable considering that in that having a right hand drive and driving on the right makes overtaking large vehicles very difficult as you can’t see past them without pulling out completely, and the blind spot to the left is very exposed.

At one stage on a single carriage road, we were overtaking a Tuk-tuk, which was overtaking a donkey and cart, whilst on the other side of the road, a minibus was overtaking a lorry. The number of near misses had extended past the digits of both hands, but the only accident we witnessed was a motorcycle crashing into a man riding a donkey.

We arrived in Luxor, found a hostel and once again chilled out for the night taking advantage of the happy hour on the roof terrace knowing we only had a few more days before we entered Sudan, a country where alcohol is forbidden.

Day 36
190miles/306km

We spent the morning touring the impressive Temple complex at Karnak, before heading over to the west bank of the Nile to see the rather unimpressive Colossi of Memnon.

We had read that travelling between Luxor and Aswan as a foreigner was only permissible when in convoy with the police due to terrorist attacks in the past targeting western tourists. It appeared though that this ridiculous system has been stopped, and we passed through each police checkpoint with no problem, at each one expecting to get stopped and escorted along the road.

On arrival in Aswan we tried to find somewhere to camp to no avail, but we did manage to get a game of football on the go with some local kids in the village where we were looking for the camping ground. Final score: Team Nathan 4-4 Team David.

Days 33 & 34: Egypt

2010-02-14T06:22:00.000+01:00

Day 33
95miles/153km

Caz had to get back to Sharm Al Sheikh for her flight, and rather than getting a 7 hour bus, she had found a cheap domestic flight from Cairo, and so our first drive of the day was to the airport just outside Cairo.

After saying our goodbyes we drove back through Cairo heading south to see how far we could get before it went dark. Trying to find our way back through the city was an absolute nightmare, and after two hours we had found the Pyramid Road which leads to the highway, and we heading south at 60mph/110kmh.

The sun was descending rapidly to the west, so we headed for a town called El Faiyum where we found a hotel for the night so we could resume our journey refreshed in the morning.

Day 34
206miles/332km

The highways of the previous days around Cairo we knew would not be seen again for a long while. The road that roughly follows the route of the Nile down to Aswan was a single lane for 95% of the distance, and passes through numerous villages, each with a series of Traffic Police road blocks and annoying speed bumps.

As we headed south it was noticeable that the skies were getting brighter, and the people were getting darker. The friendliness of the Egyptian people was still the same as ever, and one local businessman even paid for our falafel and fuul naan sandwiches as we stopped off along the way.

We arrived in Asyut trying to find a cheap hostel, but the one that we had in mind was full, so we searched for another cheap hotel before heading out for food. We found a small café where we ordered some cheap food, and at one stage had 12 separate plates and bowls on our table, with everything from soup, salad, humus, chips (they call them potatoes here), rice, half chickens and bread. We paid our 40EP/£3.60/€4 and left feeling more than quite full.

Days 31 & 32: Egypt

2010-02-02T19:33:00.002+01:00

Day 31
0miles/0km

Me and Nathan awoke early to go to the British Embassy to get a letter of invitation which we needed for our VISA for Sudan. The whole process is a bit of a joke, as the letter costs £25/€30 and is just a photocopy of a standard letter that they give to everyone, but we knew this and we knew we wouldn’t get a VISA for Sudan without one. We eventually found the Sudan embassy but had forgotten to bring some passport photos. It would have to wait another day.

The three of us then headed for the Egyptian Museum which displays over 130,000 artefacts relating to Egyptology. The jewel in the crown is the gold death mask of Tutankhamun, which is probably one of the most recognisable historical artefacts in world history.

It was an important day for Egypt as they had recently got through to the final of the African cup of Nations hoping to win it for the 5th time, and the atmosphere in Cairo had been building up all day. We decided the best place to watch the game was in the city centre hostel with the locals who worked in the hostel. Egypt scored in the last ten minutes to beat Ghana 1-0 and to ensure that Cairo wouldn’t be sleeping that night.

As soon as five minutes after the final whistle, the whole of downtown Cairo was awash with people celebrating on foot, on bikes, or in cars with flags and fireworks flying high in the night sky. The party was non-stop, and we thought it would be rude not to join in!

Day 32
0miles/0km

Nursing hangovers, we awoke to a much quieter city centre than usual. Many people had even closed their businesses for the day after the victory in the football. We returned to the Sudan embassy to complete our VISA application and bumped into two other Brits who were taking a very similar route to us through Africa, but with public Transport.

After a cup of tea (very British) we exchanged contact details, knowing we would see each other along the way down to Cape Town. If any friends of Ryan or Jack have been directed to this site from their Facebook group, feel free to browse the photos of all of the places Ryan and Jack will have seen during their trip!

We wanted to find a swimming pool to go for a swim, searching all day in vain only to find a small hotel pool that was in the shade and freezing cold. We decided not to bother, and to chill out around the cafes of Cairo instead.

Days 29 & 30: Egypt

2010-02-02T18:59:00.004+01:00

Day 29
85miles/137km

The next morning we awoke to find Romana still being extremely clingy, and waiting for us outside the hotel. By this stage I was convinced he was gay and was attracted to me and I was trying my hardest to shake him off without just telling that I’m not gay.

The four of us went to see the Suez canal taking a passenger boat across the water, and whilst I tried to avoid Romana, Nathan and Caz were lapping up my misfortune, laughing and giggling as I was trying commenting on attractive girls we were passing, trying to make my position clear without being direct.

We eventually went our separate ways much to my relief, and drove on the Cairo through the chaotic traffic that churns up in the city on a regular basis. The Romana jokes from Nathan and Caz continued for the rest of the evening, as we stayed up drinking Arak and looking forward to visiting the pyramids the next day.

Day 30
5miles/8km

With the traffic and parking in Cairo being an absolute nightmare, I awoke early to move the Landrover to a better parking place, and then we had booked a tour of the Pyramids at Giza and Saqqara along with a trip to Memphis which included a tour guide and transport for a reasonable price.

First up was the short drive out to Giza to see the Pyramids and the Sphinx. Things started to go badly when we arrived at the smaller pyramid as I had lost my entrance ticket to the tomb. After paying again, we descended the small entrance tunnel deep inside the humid pyramid. The air pressure and humidity was too much for my nose, which then started to bleed all over the floor. Whilst trying to find some tissues from her bag, Caz dropped 600EGP/£54/€60 inside the tomb before we headed outside again. Once she had noticed, we all knew it was too late, but it was still worth trying to go back and find it. On the way back down, Caz smacked her head against the low ceiling of the pyramid entrance and knocked herself out for 30seconds!!! The tour guide was convinced we were drunk or had been smoking the local herb!

We got to see the Sphinx in Giza before heading to Saqqara and Memphis to see the other sites. It was an amazing day, and we were all glad that we had arranged for a guide and a driver, as trying to navigate Cairo by ourselves would have been impossible.

Days 27 & 28: Egypt

2010-02-02T18:47:00.002+01:00

Day 27
235miles/378km

With no real itinerary we got on the road just after midday and arrived at St Catherine’s Monastery 3 hours after closing time. Then we were informed by one of the Police officers on one of the many random check points on Egypt’s roads that Caz would have problems travelling on to Cairo with us as she didn’t have a full VISA issued at the airport, and only a free one valid in Sinai.

The closest place we could get one from was Nuweiba Port where we had entered by sea the previous day, so Nathan and Caz decided to try and get the VISA that night, whilst I drove around trying to find a campsite.

We had arranged to meet back at the port at a certain time, but in trying to find the campsite, I bumped into two other travellers looking for the same place, and we spent an hour trying to find the place. When we eventually did, I booked us in for the night and returned to pick up Nathan and Caz, who by this time were worried something bad had happened.

We spent the evening chatting to a guy called Robert from Belgium who after poor health had quit his work, sold his house and decided to travel the world ‘following his nose’ on his motorbike for the foreseeable future. The guy was a legend, and I hope we meet more people like him on the trip.

Day 28
262miles/422km

We set off early to arrange a VISA for Caz, and after an hour, everything was sorted and we were on the road to Cairo. The intention was to camp somewhere outside of the capital, and we arrived in a town called Ismailia at a petrol station whose owner invited us in for a cup of tea telling us camping was impossible, but could direct us to a cheap hotel in the town.

Following his instructions we arrived at a run down hotel where little English was spoken, but already after 10 minutes waiting in reception next to the hotel café, we had been offered tea, coffee and hashish! The rooms we checked into were the most run down I’ve ever seen, but for 85EGP/€8.50/£7.60 per night for the three of us, we weren’t complaining.

Egypt were playing in the semi-final of the African Cup of Nations that night, and we decided to stay and watch it on the big screen set up in the hotel. After every Egyptian goal or Algerian red card, the Egyptians and us went wild, and by the end the score was 4-0 to Egypt with Algeria only having 8 men on the pitch.

Whilst in the hotel we met a local called Romana who drove us around the streets of Ismailia at 60mph/110kph celebrating with the Egyptians and setting off fireworks in the centre of the town. This was the most random night of the trip so far.

Days 25 & 26: Jordan & Egypt

2010-01-30T20:26:00.001+01:00

Day 25
42miles/68km

With the ferry expected to leave a 1am the following day, we chilled out yet again and tried to stay at the Hotel for as long as we could before being asked to leave. We left at 5pm, and with 5 hours to kill before we had to be at the port, we got some food and ended up watching the African Cup of Nations game between Senegal and Egypt.

We found a small tea shop in the middle of the town, and with everyone around us supporting Egypt, we thought we would too. They ended up winning 2-1 in extra-time which set up a tie in the Semi-finals against Algeria.

We headed for the ferry terminal, got all of the documents stamped, and waited for the ferry. It departed 7 hours late amid absolutely chaotic organisation which made us question whether the same uncoordinated procedures are repeated every day the same ferry sets sail.

Day 26
124miles/200km

The ferry arrived in Nuweiba at around midday, and when we had finally got off board, we had to go through the dreaded Egyptian border post. After paying for all of the taxes and insurances, with the help of an English speaking Traffic Police Officer and a small ‘Traffic Police Tax’, we were on the Egyptian roads heading towards Sharm Al Sheikh.

We eventually found our apartment, and tried to explain our trip to the owner. The blonde haired woman was baffled as to why we would want to drive to Cape Town, and asked us if we knew that we could get a flight to Sharm Al Sheikh in under 5 hours. She will never understand why we want to travel the world, and I will never understand how people can spent an entire week sat on a beach.

Nathan’s girlfriend Caz though was well aware of the flights from the UK, and that is why we had ventured to this part of Egypt, to pick her up from the airport so that she could join us for a week.

Day 23 & 24: Jordan

2010-01-30T20:03:00.003+01:00

Day 23
190miles/306km

We completed our journey to Petra with clear skies allowing the sun to shine down whilst we drove through some amazing scenery jet again in the heart of Jordan. We parked up at the complex and entered the huge site, with the looming red cliffs forming narrow alleyways taking us into the complex.

The first main sight was the hugely impressive Treasury that slowly comes into view through in the small gap between the cliff faces, and suddenly reveals its entirety as you enter a large square between the rock faces.

After a long walk visiting various other sights, we took a long walk up to the Monastery at the top of the hill. It was worth the walk, but after walking all day, we were ready to head off and find a place in the Jordanian hills to camp for the night.

Day 24
32miles/51km

We awoke in the middle of nowhere after a bad nights sleep as the weather yet again took a turn for the worst, and even though we camped in a very secluded and covered location, the wind still battered the tent all night.

The next stage of our journey was to Aquba so that we could get the ferry across to Egypt. We had planned on taking the border through Israel and then onto Egypt, but we had heard from other travellers that although there are ways not to get an Israel stamp in the passport, the Carnet for the Landrover would give the game away to the Sudanese officials, entry in Sudan would not be easy, and it possible ruin the whole trip.

We decided to play it safe and booked the ferry that day in Aquba before getting a bite to eat and chilling out in the sunshine for a change.

Days 21 & 22: Jordan

2010-01-27T22:08:00.004+01:00

Day 21
0miles/0km

After a lie in for a change we spent an hour trying to fix the washer relay on the Landrover and then walked into the city centre to view the sites. The Roman amphitheatre was our first destination, and a really cool place to visit. The entrance cost only 1JD/£0.90/€1 for tourists and nothing for locals who used the concrete terraces throughout the day to chill out or to eat their lunch.

We then walked up one of the seven hills of Amman to the Citadel at the top which offered some amazing views over the city, but the sunshine of the morning was fading into the grey clouds and we decided to head back down and try to finish of the electrical system of the Landrover before it rained.

With the split charge battery now installed (4 weeks later than planned!) we were slowly ticking off the modifications left to do on the Landrover, and so hopefully by the time we get to Cape Town we should have completed everything!

Day 22
150miles/241km

We knew that there was a market every Friday on the car-park where we had parked and fixed the car the previous day, but we didn’t expect them to block us in at 7am with stalls covering the entire parking ground, with no access roads or paths at all. The only way out was to drive over a 30cm/1foot high concrete pavement. We first attempted it with the sand ladders that Nathan had made at work, but they wouldn’t support the weight of the Landrover to bridge something. We spent an hour gathering bricks and rocks to make a ramp, and with the help of a few of the market stall owners, we navigated the Landrover up and over the pavement, and back onto the road.

The drive out of the capital led us west to the lowest point on earth – The Dead Sea. The scenery was amazing as we descended to 400metres below sea level, with the Dead Sea stretching out beyond us, with Palestine on the horizon at the opposite shoreline. We took a dip in the salty sea and floated around for an hour before retreating back to the shore which was composed of what can only be described as icicles of washed up salt. With our skin feeling horrible and salty, and with no showers around, we headed for the small town of Karak to find a hotel where we could check in and shower.

Feeling refreshed again we took a tour of the castle there and then spent the afternoon installing the electrical feed for the fridge in the Landrover (another job which should have been done a month ago) to the intrigue of a few local children who had come over to watch. When we had finished we decided to get the football out and give them a game. The centre of Karak turned into carnage as we chased the football around the streets, with even passing Japanese tourists enthusiastically joining in our game, trying to tackle the local youngsters!

Days 19 & 20: Syria & Jordan

2010-01-27T21:52:00.002+01:00

Day 19
0miles/0km

The weather was thankfully better, and we used our time to organise the back of the Landrover yet again and to finally get the laundry done. The local laundrette service was quite expensive, so we ended up doing half of our washing in the hotel bath and hanging out socks and pants around the room to dry.

We went for a walk around Damascus, through the Souks (shopping arcades) and around the old town. I had been looking to buy a camping chair since we left, as I couldn’t buy one in the UK in the middle of winter for some reason. We didn’t think there was much hope of finding a folding camping chair in Damascus either, but we stumbled across a shop where I bought a deckchair for around £6/€7.

Day 20
70Miles/113km

We headed for the Jordanian border early to ensure we had enough time to get through, and doing it whilst awake and alert is much easier than messing about when tired. It only took us around 50minutes to get stamped out of Syria, get VISAs, vehicle insurance and to get the Carnet stamped, and we had entered Jordan. At every stage of the process we were greeted by a Jordanian who first asked where we were from, and then said “You are welcome in Jordan”, “Welcome, welcome” or “Welcome to Jordan”. This is what happened every time we then met anyone, anywhere in Jordan for our whole stay.

We arrived in Amman and tried to find the hotel from only an address and failed miserably as the address was in western script, whilst the road signs and maps were mainly in Arabic only. We were hungry and headed for a bite to eat at a local buffet restaurant first. We both had huge plates full of chicken, rice and vegetable with a cup of tea for a mere 4JD/£4/€4.40!

We got a taxi to the hotel, checked in for two nights and chilled out for the evening in anticipation of exploring Amman the next day watching ‘The Terminal’ on satellite TV and drinking Arak.

Blog updates in Syria

2010-01-20T21:45:00.004+01:00

We would like to appologise for the lateness of our recent entries as The Syrian Arabic Republic has banned web access to many websites including blogspot and youtube.

We will endevour to upload some photos from Turkey and Syria once we get a fast enough internet connection here in Jordan.

In Syria we noticed that the picture of the president is on posters all over the city, and so we also wanted to put a photo of him onto our blog.

Left: President Bashar - Syria; Right: Captain Darling - Blackadder

Days 17 & 18 - Syria

2010-01-20T21:35:00.001+01:00

Day 17
324miles/521km

With the Landrover fixed we were back on the road through Syria, without a map. We travelled first to Crac des Chavaliers, a huge crusader castle that stands high on top of a hill in the west of the country.

With the diesel costing around £0.28 (€0.31) per litre, it was proving a lot cheaper than Turkey to fill the tank. The next drive was to Palmyra on the far east of Syria, through Homs and out into the huge expanse of nothingness in the Syrian Desert.

The old ruins of the classical temple complex lie just on the edge of the new town that has been formed nearby, and we arrived just before the sun was setting. Hundreds of columns still remain intact and upright, with one huge ‘monumental’ arch still also standing.

Our plan was to ‘stealth camp’ in the desert for the night, and so after wandering around the ruins, we headed out on the main road into the desert towards Damascus to try and find a track into the flat arid land that surrounded us, somewhere we would not be within reach of civilisation. We found a track nearly 2miles (3km) from the nearest farmhouse, and 600yards (1km) from the main road. We had set up camp for the night in the Syrian Desert, closer to Iraq than we were to the capital Damascus.

Day 18
208miles/335km

We awoke at sunrise to get going just in case the owner of the desert land we had camped on spotted us in the morning light. We hadn’t slept well, the wind had howled all night, and heavy rain had left the normally arid land slightly moist.

After half an hour of being on the road to Damascus, the rain started again, and didn’t stop all day. The desert roads were covered in water, we couldn’t believe it - we were in the middle of the desert and it was pissing it down. [We found out the day after that the whole of the Middle East had received 200mm/4inches/a years worth of rainfall in one day!]

We arrived in Damascus with the traffic worse than we could imagine. We knew the city traffic would be chaos here, but the flash floods had left sections of the roads impassable. We found a hotel and went to get some food, trying the local Falleh - a really tasty and filling local dish.

Days 15 & 16 - Syria

2010-01-20T21:34:00.001+01:00

Day 15
382miles/615km

We set out early yet again heading south through Turkey stopping off at the Underground City of Derinkuyu, which Nathan reckons is the best underground city he has ever been to. Only 10 percent of it is accessible to tourists, but it consists of connected caves and underground tunnels that have been carved out of the rock to create a settlement for a community of up to 50,000 people which includes dwellings, stables, cellars and even a chapel.

After Derinkuyu the plan was to get as far south in Turkey as possible so that we could cross the border early in Syria the next day. On our way south we noticed two problems with the Landrover. The first was a creaking coming from the transmission with vibrations when going uphill, and a liquid covering part of the engine. The liquid turned out to be diesel leaking from one of the injectors, which was easily solved by tightening a bolt on the injector intake. We had noticed we had been using quite a lot of diesel, and there was a strong smell of it in the Landrover, but we thought the smell was from when we filled up the jerry cans and also when a petrol station attendant enthusiastically filled the tank so far that it started pouring over the side.

The second problem we knew was the universal joints in the propeller shaft that knew would need replacing along the journey. We decided that the best thing to do was to find somewhere in Syria to fix it as Turkey is very expensive, and so we made a dash for the border and aimed to be in Aleppo before the prop-shaft dropped off.

The border was a nightmare. We changed all of our money into Syrian pounds, only for the Syrians only to accept US dollars. We managed to eventually get money changed and everything sorted and paid for within about 3 hours, and we hit the Syrian roads at night. These are by far the most crazy roads I have ever driven on. People drive with no lights on roads with no lane demarcation, past pedestrians standing in the road waiting for taxis in the pitch dark.

We made it to Aleppo and checked into a cheap hostel for the night. Also in the hostel were 3 other ‘overlanders’. We stayed up till early in the morning chatting about each others travels, drinking and eventually I got the guitars out for the first time on the trip and sang and played until the early morning.

Day 16
14miles/23km

The Landrover needed fixing, and so with the help of Ali who worked in the hostel, we found a garage on the outskirts of Aleppo. We got into the garage pit to inspect the prop-shaft and found that we needed to replace 2 universal joints, but we only had one spare. The garage arranged for a second one to be brought, and after two hours observing the mechanic at work and fixing a few other small problems the Landrover was back to normal.

Whilst waiting for the parts we sat down drinking tea with the owner [also called Ali, who sends his regards to our parents in the UK: Salaam aleikum!] and inspecting the old universal joints which were completely worn away, but thankfully not so much so that the prop-shaft would have fallen off.

We spent the afternoon walking around Aleppo eating kebabs with random people in the streets greeting us in English as we passed. We still didn’t manage to get the laundry done, so Nathan has reverted to turning his pants inside-out so we can continue longer without needing a laundrette.

Days 13 & 14 - Turkey

2010-01-20T21:30:00.003+01:00

Day 13
497miles/800km

We wanted another early start to avoid the morning rush hour this time, and knowing it was a long way to our next destination of Cappodacia, we decided to get up when the prayer calls were sounded at around 06:00am.

The long drive took us out of Istanbul, which we had just realised was the largest city we had ever been to with a population of over 11million. The traffic out of the city was bad even though it was early, but by midday we had passed the capital Ankara and were heading onwards and upwards into the mountains of central Turkey.

The scenery became more rocky as we approached the region of Cappodocia, a huge area created from volcanic activity which resulted in an unbelievable national park similar to something we had both seen in pictures of Arizona.

As we approached the small town of Goreme in the heart of the region, the sun was descending in the sky and we were greeted by a spectacular view of the town as we turned a corner on the windy road down the hill. This has to be the most amazing natural landscape I have ever seen.

Day 14
47miles/76km

The previous night we had decided to camp using the rooftent for the first time on the trip. The weather had been good, but that night it got very cold and rained heavily. We decided to put the tent away and find a hostel carved into the rock for our second night in Goreme.

We utilised the Landrover by driving around Cappodocia seeing a whole range of areas with really amazing rock formations. I enjoyed the childhood innocence of wandering around the uninhabited caves, climbing on the rocks and exploring.

The rain started again that afternoon which was frustrating as most of the things we wanted to see were all outdoors. We thought we would use our time trying to get our laundry done, but as it was out of tourist season, the laundrette was closed which left us with three bin bags of dirty clothes. We will find somewhere soon. Hopefully.

Days 11 & 12: Bulgaria & Turkey

2010-01-14T21:07:00.002+01:00

Day 11
324miles/521km

After replacing the oil in the Landrover we set off early from Varna and headed for the Turkish border. Missing a turning, we decided to carry on down the coast road instead of turning back, and ended up weaving our way through a forest near the border. The roads were bumpy, windy and extremely slow, and so we were pleased when we finally got the frontier.

After getting our first Visas of the trip, and sorting out our vehicle insurance with the help of a customs inspector who’s voice was so high only dogs could understand him, we were allowed through the final barrier and onto Turkish Tarmac. Compared to the Bulgarian roads, it was heaven. The Turks had just completed a new dual carriageway from the border to meet up with their main motorway heading to Istanbul, and it was as smooth as driving on plate glass.

We arrived in Istanbul during rush hour. This was a mistake. The whole city was awash with vehicles of all size racing around its narrow streets trying to avoid the pedestrians. When we eventually found and arrived at the hostel we had booked, we were pleased to enjoy a beer in the rooftop bar overlooking the Hagia Sophia in one direction, and the Mamara Sea in the other direction.

Day 12
0miles/0km

We awoke at 05:30am to the sound of the morning call to prayer from the nearby mosques. Just as we thought they had stopped, another call one sounded from an even closer mosque, which was twice as loud. We got an early breakfast and headed out.

With the Landrover parked up for the day, we went for a walk in the sunshine to visit a few of the local tourist hot spots. The Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque were each a five minute walk away from the hostel and were the obvious first port of call. I could have spent all day composing photographs of the Blue Mosque, but I could tell Nathan was getting bored of standing around as I took multiple photos trying to get the perfect exposure.

After visiting the Blue Mosque we headed through the Grand Bazaar and took a walk over the bridge to the other side of the Bosphorus to arrive in Asia, our second continent. This was the gateway to the rest of Turkey, and although we found Istanbul a fascinating place full of friendly people, we were still looking forward to more warmth, and cheaper food.

Days 9 & 10: Romania & Bulgaria

2010-01-14T20:31:00.004+01:00

Day 9
238miles/383km

We got up early to take a walk around Bucharest where we visited Victory square to see the Victoria Palace, the image I most associate with Bucharest from the TV. From there we headed through Revolution Square to view a series of photographs from 20 years ago and the fall of communism, with our final destination by foot being the Palace of the Parliament, the worlds largest and most expensive administration building.

We were back on the road by the afternoon and heading for the warmer climate of the Varna on the Black Sea coast where we had booked a room in a villa for two nights hoping to use the time and the better weather to sort out a few things with the Landrover and our equipment.

We arrived in Varna, but couldn’t find the villa anywhere, and neither could the locals whom we asked. After searching for over an hour, and with the battery on the laptop having run out we couldn’t get any further contact details for where we were staying. We eventually found a hotel in the area where no-one could speak English, and no-one knew where it was from the written address, but one of the barmen luckily could speak German, and so he let us look on the hotel internet to get the phone number of the owner villa who came to meet us to show us the rest of the way.

Day 10
0miles/0km

We awoke pleased to find to a blue sky and a temperature of over 10 degrees C outside. Also outside was the great sea view that the villa owner Eddie had told us about the night before but was too dark to see the previous evening. Eddie who was originally from Liverpool made us feel extremely welcome in his house for the duration, and it was good to park the Landrover on a driveway where it was secure.

We spent the morning organising the back of the Landrover, finally fitting the fog-lights, attaching the fuel jerry cans to the roof rack and improving the security by fencing off the back of the Landrover from the front.

The rain came out in the early afternoon to hamper our progress, but we persisted regardless and were pleased with the work we had done and we both looked forward to getting into Turkey.

Days 7 & 8: Hungary & Romania

2010-01-12T07:45:00.003+01:00

Day 7
378miles/608km

After clearing the snow from the Landrover we started our journey out of east out of Budapest and towards Romania. The roads were becoming more treacherous for our suspension, and once across the border into the flatlands of western Romania, we were faced with small winding roads through linear roadside villages, the visual landscape had completely changed and we now felt as though we were in Eastern Europe as we lost count of the number of times we had overtaken a horse and cart.

We made our way out of the flatlands and up into the Carpathian Mountain range as the striking colourful villages that consisted of arrays of brick shacks following the main road flew past our windscreen like a vivid dream.

We arrived late in Sighisoara, but had made brilliant progress right through the heart of Transylvania, through some strange and fascinating places that formed an introduction to Romania that I will never forget.

Day 8
233miles/375km

The fog lingered over Transylvania to obscure our route out of Sighisoara towards Brasov, but once we had completed our crossing of the Carpathians, and somehow navigated our route with little help from any road signs, we were heading down into the Bran Valley to visit the Bran castle, otherwise known as Dracula’s castle.

The link to Dracula is tenuous, and I won’t go into it here, but the castle stood on top of a hill guarding the valley entrance to the region, and luckily the fog had cleared for us to get a good view from the outside, and then walk up to tour the inside.

Bucharest was our next destination, the biggest city we had visited, and possibly the most decrepit as well. The pavements in the city centre could only compare to mud tracks, the road signs didn’t exist and stray dogs roamed the streets like rats. [Nathan: You wouldn’t want to be a cat in Bucharest]

The architecture was fascinating. At first glance you would think you were in Paris, as the Boulevards linking circular plazas were lined with a mix of Beaux-Arts and Baroque, but mixed in with a seasoning of large round Russian Orthodox churches and the tall Communist style concrete housing blocks that were crumbling to expose the rusting reinforcements below.

Days 5 & 6: Austria & Hungary

2010-01-10T20:33:00.003+01:00

Day 5
496miles/798km

We awoke at 10:30, and with hindsight I have to admit I was probably still drunk from the previous nights partying. We managed to get on the road by 12:30, the sun was in the sky again, and we both felt good. Then the clouds descended and the hangovers and tiredness began to take hold. The music choice in the Landrover went from The Courteeners to Nick Drake as we chased the descending sun eastwards.

The night was closing in, and after only one stop for a brew just outside Vienna, we continued driving through Hungary determined to get to the hostel we had booked before it was too late. We eventually arrived and checked in just before 23:00. We had dinner and went to bed too tired to do anything else.

The long days of driving have paid off as we are now in Eastern Europe and the food, the diesel and the beer is cheaper. The places are more different and exciting, and the further east we head, the warmer it will become, but the snow was still falling in Budapest.

Day 6
0miles/0km

We awoke to find the Landrover and the rest of Budapest for that matter completely covered in 3cm of snow. We spent the day wandering around Budapest seeing the sights and buying food for the next few days. With the help of an extremely friendly hostel owner (who insisted he wasn’t racist but made it quite clear he didn’t like the Turks) we found a brilliant market hall in Pest and were able to buy some really cheap and tasty food.

Budapest seems to be the frontier to eastern Europe, with what appears to be one foot either side of what was once the Iron Curtain. In places it appears as developed as the rest of western Europe, but it still holds a visual connection with its history as part of the Eastern Bloc.

We planned our onward route in the evening and decided to get to bed early for an early start planned to travel further east into Romania, knowing that the progress from now on would be slower as the roads become worse.

Days 3 & 4: Germany & Austria

2010-01-07T20:07:00.004+01:00

Day 3
272miles/438km

After another much needed sleep we spent the morning walking around Freiburg. Snow had fallen and it was perfect skiing weather with no clouds in the sky. After our walk around the city we drove up into the Black Forrest to take Christoph to the ski slopes which was on our intended route over to Austria.

It was the first time we had used the third middle seat in the Landrover, and it was good to have Christoph accompany us on a short part of our journey before we said our goodbyes and continued along the North of the Bodensee into Austria and onwards into Innsbruck. Thanks very much to Christoph for your unbelievable hospitality.

Day 4
0miles/0km

We decided to spend the morning organising our equipment from the back of the Landrover now that we had been on the road for 3 days, and we knew what needed sorting out. We were hoping for good weather to make the job easier, and we were greeted with another day free of clouds, but the –10°C temperature wasn’t expected or enjoyed.

The evening was spent firstly in the Innkeller where I was pleased to meet most of the friends I had known from my previous 6 months in Innsbruck where we shared a few drinks, and I got chance to say my goodbye. At the end of the night it was sad to leave the house of Chris at around 5am in the morning, but it had to be done as me Nathan had booked a hostel in Budapest for the next day. Only 500miles to travel on a hangover.

Vielen Dank Helene für dein Gastfreundlichkeit, es freut uns. Ich werde schreiben, aber dauert die letzte woche, ich bin zu faul für mich diese blog auf English zu scheiben!

Days 1 & 2: UK, France & Belgium

2010-01-06T20:41:00.007+01:00

Day 1

336miles/541km

We finally departed from Wrexham as the clock ticked over from 23:59 31/12/2009 to 00:00 01/01/2010. A new decade had begun, and the trip down to Dover was quiet and tiring, illuminated by the full moon and a few fireworks that were being fired into the sky to welcome in the new-year. During the ferry crossing to Calais we both slept, and when we awoke, we found ourselves in France to see the sun come up across the flat lands that stretch into Belgium.

Our first stop was Brugge. It was either that or Lille, but we had seen the film ‘In Brugge’ and decided to see if it really was like a fairytale. Trying to find somewhere to park I followed the signs for parking, only to find them leading us into a tunnel to an underground car-park where there were no warnings for the height clearance. The sound of crumbling concrete as the roofrack hit the ceiling was not a good sound, but luckily the only damage was the rooftent cover being torn and the car-park ceiling probably needing to be looked at by the local council.

Brugge is a very scenic city, but I wouldn’t call it a fairytale. [Nathan: Belgium is weird.] Not wanting to start eating into the budget by paying for lunch in a restaurant, we decided to cook a (tuna) curry in the car on a camping stove. It certainly wasn’t a delicacy, but it removed our hunger. Wanting to get to sleep we bought a few cheap beers from the nightshop next to the hostel and sat in the room chatting until all of the beers had been drank, and the alcohol had kicked in enough to send us straight to sleep. We finally got a well earned sleep and left early the next morning for another long journey to Freiburg in Germany.

Day 2

469miles/755km

We managed to pass through four countries by mid afternoon as our drive from Brugge took us through Brussels, Luxembourg and on into France and Germany. The brief stop in Luxembourg City was enough to stretch the legs and have a quick look around a strange place where France and Germany collide at the heart of Europe.

The onward journey to Freiburg was terrible. The roads were unlit, with no cats-eyes, and the windscreen washers on the Landrover had ceased functioning meaning the windscreen was constantly filthy.

We arrived in Freiburg to meet Christoph, an old freind of mine from my days spent in Manchester. We spent the evening eating, drinking and chatting, though we were still tired from the journey and retired to bed ready for the journey to Innsbruck the following day.

Departure Day!

2009-12-31T20:29:00.002+01:00

The Landrover is packed and we are ready to go. Thanks very much to everyone who has helped us in our preparation, and hopefully I should have some photos to upload very soon.

Das Landrover ist gepackt und wir sind bereit. Bald, hoffentlich soll ich fotos hochladen.

One Month Until Departure.

2009-12-03T08:59:00.000+01:00

If everything goes to plan, we have less than one month until we leave. Since the last post we have bought vehicle insurance and personal insurance, and we have (mainly Nathan has) also bought most of the equipment we will need for the journey.
This equipment includes the roof top tent, a fridge for the back of the Landrover, a Hi-lift jack and tow kit in case we get stuck on bad terrain, a multi-fuel stove so we can cook using diesel, a 12V electric shower and many more smaller items I might list on here in the future.
Nathan is busy building a few items for the trip at work, including the roof rack. Hopefully before we leave we should have posted more pictures of the Landrover.

Both of us have nearly finished our vaccination course, and are now testing the Lariam oral vaccine for Malaria, hoping that we don’t get any side effects.
We have also been buying many books to read along the way, I’m particularly looking forward to reading the books of Ray Mears before arriving in Africa!

Wenn alles geht gud, wir haben ungefähr ein monat bis unsere abfahrt. Seit die letze Nachrichten, wir haben Fahrzeug versicherung und persönlich versicherung gekauft, und wir haben (oder Nathan hast) auch meist von die Ausrüstung gekauft dass wir fur die Reise brauchen.
Die Ausrüstung einschließt das Dachzelt, ein Kühlschrank für hinten von das Landrover, ein ‚Hi-lift Jack’ und eine Schleppenausrüstung falls wir werden auf schlect Gelände festsitzen, ein Multibrennstoffherd so dass wir mit diesel kochen können, ein 12V Elektronischdusche und viel mehr kleiner Artikels dass ich vieleicht bald auf hier aufführen werde.
In arbeit, Nathan baust ein Dachständer [‚roofrack’ auf English], und hoffentlich bevor unsere abfahrt, wir sollten mehr fotos von das Landrover auf diese Webseite aufladen.

Beide von uns haben fast unser Impfungenkurs gegenden, und jetzt proben wir die Lariam Oralimpfungen für Malaria, und wir hoffen dass wir keine Nebenwirkungen bekommen werden.
Wir haben auch viel bücher für die Reise gekauft, und bevor unsere Ankunft in Afrika, ich fraue mich auf die bücher von Ray Mears zu lesen!

The Route

2009-11-03T19:51:00.001+01:00

The route has been decided not only because of a desire to visit certain places along the way to Cape Town, but because of limitations of the road network in Africa and certain countries being too difficult or bureaucratic to travel through.
We have decided to change our initial route through Italy into Tunisia and Libya because the entry requirements for Libya are unnecessarily bureaucratic and expensive involving paying large sums of money for an entry invitation, VISAs and the cost of having an official travel guide travelling with us through the country.
The route we have now decided on takes us through Germany into Austria, through the former Yugoslavia and into Bulgaria and Turkey. From there we will travel through the Middle East into Egypt, and down the east coast of Africa to Cape Town.

Jetzt haben wir die Route entschieden, nicht nur wegen ein Wunch zu bestimmt Landes entlang die Weg nach Cape Town besuchen, aber sondern auch wegen die Beschränkungen von das Straßenetz in Afrika und weil bestimmt Landes schwierig Erfordernis haben.
Wir haben uns entschieden unser erste Route durch Italien, Tunesien und Libyen zu änderern weil die Eintritterfordernis zu bürokratisch und teuer ist.
Die Route wir haben nun entschieden, nimmst uns durch Deutschland nach Österreich, durch das alt Jugoslawien nach Bulgarien und die Türkei. Von da, werden wir durch der Nahe Osten nach Ägypten, und unter östlich von Afrika nach Cape Town fahren.

Wales; Wales
England; England
France; Frankreich
Belgium; Belgien
Luxembourg; Luxembourg
Germany; Deutschland
Austria; Österreich
Slovenia; Slowenija
Croatia; Kroatien
Serbia; Serbien
Bulgaria; Bulgarien
Turkey; Die Türkei
Syria; Syrien
Jordan; Jordanien
Israel; Israel
Egypt; Ägypten
Sudan; Sudan
Ethiopia; Äthiopien
Kenya; Kenia
Tanzania; Tansania
Malawi; Malawi
Zambia; Sambia
Botswana; Botsuana
South Africa; Südafrika

The second part of our trip will require us to ship the Landrover to South America, where we will then drive up the west coast to Ecuador, where again we will need to ship the car to Panama or Costa Rica before heading up through Central America into the USA.

Der zweite Teil von unsere Reise wird uns erfordern das Landrover nach Sud Amerika zu verschiffen, wo wir werden dann hinauf westlich von Sud Amerika nach Ecuador fahren, wo wieder wir werden uns brauchen, das fahrzeug nach Panama oder Costa Rica zu verschiffen, bevor wir fahren durch zentral Amerika nach die USA.

Brazil; Brasilien
Paraguay; Paraguay
Argentina; Argentinien
Uruguay; Uruguay
Chile; Chile
Peru; Peru
Bolivia; Bolivien
Equador; Ecuador
Panama; Panama
Costa Rica; Costa Rica
Nicaragua; Nicaragua
Honduras; Honduras
El Salvador; El Salvador
Guatemala; Guatemala
Belize; Belize
Mexico; Mexico
USA; USA
Canada; Kanada

If by the time we get to the USA we have enough money left, we will then tour around The States and Canada ending up in New York where we will need to ship the Landrover back to the UK. We need to return the car to the UK to ensure that we can get our deposit back from our Carnet De Passage, a piece of documentation which allows us to temporarily import the vehicle into a country without paying import tax duty, on the condition that the vehicle also leaves the country.
If we don’t have enough money to tour the USA, we will drive directly to New York and try to arrange the journey home across the Atlantic.

Wann wir kommen nach die USA mit noch genug geld, nach werden wir durch Amerika und Kanada Reisen, endlich in New York zu ankommen, wo wir werden uns brauchen, die Landrover zuruck zum Großbritannien zu verschiffen.
Wir mussen die Landrover zum Großbrittanien zuruckbringen damit wir unsere Carnet De Passage Anzahlung zuruckbekommen werden. Das Carnet de Passage ist ein Dokument, das uns lasst das Fahrzeug zu Importieren ohne Steuer zu zahlen wann wir versuchen das Fahrzeug zu exportieren.
Wann wir haben nicht genug geld zu die USA reisen, wir werden direkt nach New York fahren und unsere Reise hinüber der Atlantik arrangieren.

The Landrover

2009-10-20T20:52:00.001+02:00

So, since the time I have set up the blog, we have bought a Landrover. It’s quite old, but for it’s age, it has only done 125,000miles, which for a Landrover Defender is nothing.

The next stage is to kit it out in preparation for the trip which will take us across terrain in Africa that can vary from tarmac to sandy, rocky, muddy and very wet. At the same time we will be buying all of the day-to-day items that we will need during the trip, including a rooftop tent that we will sleep in most nights.
We are both also currently getting our vaccinations for the trip, and gathering the final information we need on the route and all of the countries that we will pass through.
As I’m currently working in Austria, and trying to learn German, I thought it would be a good Idea to write every blog in both English and German to improve my language skills. So, for those of you who speak German, feel free to correct my poor grammar!

Also, seit die Zeit dass Ich das Blog aufbauen habe, wir haben ein Landrover gekauft. Es ist ganz alt, aber trotzdem, hast es nur 201,000km gefährt, welche für ein Landrover Defender ist gar nichts.
Das naschte Stadium ist zu die Landrover ausrusten, damit wir für die Reise vorbereiten können, die kannt von Asphalt zu sandig, steinig, schlammig und sehr nass verändern. An derselben Zeit werden wir alles tag zu tag Artikels kaufen dass wir für das Reise brauchen werden, einschließlich ein Dachzelt dass die meiste nächte wir hinein schlafen werden.
Auch zurzeit, impfen wir beide, und sammeln wir die letzte Auskunft, die wir brauchen für die Route und alles Landes dass wir durch fahren werden.
Weil zurzeit ich in Österreich arbeiten, und Deutsch lernen versuche, Ich dachte es wird gud sein zu jedes blog auf beide English und Deutsche schreiben, damit ich mein Deutsch verbessern kann. So, wann sie können Deutsche sprechen, du darfst mein schlect Grammatik korrigieren!

100 days and counting...

2009-09-23T21:27:00.000+02:00

It's now only 100 days before the expected departure day, and so I have decided to start a blog in preparation for the journey where friends and family can keep up to date with our travels.

More to follow soon.