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.
The journey
- David Jennings & Nathan Topham
- Wrexham, Wales, United Kingdom
- For the past 5 years, me and my best friend Nathan have talked about the possibility of travelling around the world by land and sea, and so finally we have a route, savings and time to set off around the world. What we are doing is living out a dream, a dream we share with many people worldwide, a dream of travelling this vast, diverse, beautiful and interesting planet, but unlike the many others who keep it as a dream, we have the tenacity to make this dream a reality.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Day 23 & 24: Jordan
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.
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.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Days 21 & 22: Jordan
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!
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
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.
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.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Blog updates in Syria
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
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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