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Trapped In Travel Purgatory
Egypt, Aswan 11 - 17/07/2012
Day 398 of our journey. We were finally in front of the 'Arrival Hole' (sic!) to Egypt, but more than 2 millennia late. The ancient egyptians had long disappeared, leaving behind a lot for the rest of humanity to wonder at, and for their 7th century invaders to profit from. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4102.jpg After more than 24 hours in the gut of the most horrific mess of a ferry in the entire Africa, we were at our wits end. We crawled out, together with our 500 fellow inmates, dirty, puffy eyes, smelling as if we had spent the night in the sewer. Here's how the ferry crossing had played out: First the lucky few who had booked first class cabins weeks ago claimed their place on top of the food chain. The rest of our sorry asses would kill each other to squat on every inch available on the upper deck, on hallways and under deck. We gazed at our Yamaha through the window. Within minutes, toilets started to reek, so breathing become difficult in the seedy underbelly of the ship. But we haven't even left the port yet. We were unaware that this trip was the prologue of our worst experience in the entire Africa. First, our passports were confiscated by the crew. They would return them to us when we would arrive on the other side. The passports were chucked along 500 others in a cardboard box, so you might think it would have been tricky to fish them out again. But we were only four foreigners on this ship, us two, plus Carola and Joe. Remember that daytime temperatures have been hovering around 50 Celsius. On the ferry that required constant relocation. Moving from under deck to the upper deck, we could witness life unfolding: mothers breastfeeding babies people would accidentally spill soup on (actually at least Ana did), fathers rearing their progenitors with a good beating, men peeing, women gossiping, people fighting for the one meal included in the ticket, then snacking on nuts and seeds they would later sleep on. The smells and sites are difficult to describe. But the worse of all was the constant noise. For the over 24 hours we were on board of this mess, people did not stop talking, or to be accurate, shouting. First we were too excited and hot to sleep, but finally we had to concede we were too exhausted to sit on the benches and keep being the center of attention. Men were on one side of the ship, we were on the other, with women and kids. Arguably, it was noisier in the women compartment. But they were also kind and beautiful, so we could admire their exquisite henna tattoos while sipping on tea. In the meantime, in the central hallway, on the WC doorstep, two women had laid out a veritable boutique, selling anything from trinkets, scented oils, incense, and food. We went on the upper deck, where 150 men were praying. We were impressed, but we will had no place to sleep on. Nighttime found us in an intense debate with the crew, who kept changing their mind about where we were allowed to squat. Around us people laid on top of each other and our bags, without being bothered. Finally, after a lot of begging, it was agreed that we can lay our mattresses on the deck. It was so windy that we had to wrap scarves around our heads and stuff our ears with TP. It was not quiet, but it was fine. I cannot imagine what the two men who keep chatting all night by our side had to share. Maybe their lifetime story, or an entire movie trilogy. In the morning Joe tried to unfold back into normality. He has been backpacking since last October from San Francisco across Latin America. In Cape Town he had found a companion in Carola, a Berlin native. As much we we enjoyed the company of the Sudanese, the four of us felt trapped in the same purgatory, united in misery, like inmates in a prison, plotting an escape. Long time travelers, we had a lot of experiences and opinions to share. We were the last onboard to receive our passports. Visas are not a problem for this super touristic country: 15 bucks at any port of entry. The good news about Egypt stop there. Because to bring their vehicle into the holy land of the pharaohs, one must endure all the trauma of humanity since the time of the pyramids. It would take us a couple of days to be convinced that we would never be allowed to take our bike out of there without a Carnet de Passage. As we didn't carry one, for very valid reasons, the Saudi Club would issue one for us. I cannot even think about the costs we had to negotiate without popping a vein. When egyptian mafia will be through with us, we'll be as broke as a newborn baby. Those who travel with their own Carnet can easily avoid the utterly useless Aswan fixers. They do nothing you cannot do yourself. After a ping-pong of phone calls to Cairo, Hurghada, Aswan and Sudan, we had to concede the fight was over. After telling us about the 72 hours transit Carnet, the club people changed their mind, and refused to issue it. It simply wasn't profitable enough for them. Because, my friend, that's what Egypt is all about. Money. 'I Love your Money" So fixer for us it was. First he drove us four to town. From the rooftop of our hotel we had a superb view over the Nile and the Elephantine Island. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/pano_egypt_nile.jpg In the room we noticed how modern islam has become http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4108.jpg At night the suuk of Aswan started buzzing. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4068.jpg During the next 48 hours we would experience more embarrassing and unpleasant moments than all of us had had in the rest of Africa and, in Joe's situation, the Americas. The only remarkably positive event of those days was that, as you can see, our camera came back to life. After pretending for days that the gizmo dramas was behind us, since arriving in Aswan he had been jerking and trying to turn on and off our ever growing collection of damaged goods. Armed with a working camera, we were ready to record whatever Egypt wanted to throw at us. Like shopping for groceries. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_3953.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_3956.jpg We struggled to perform the simplest tasks like buying bread, or tea. Quoted up to a whopping 10 times the normal price, groped (even if the girls were wearing scarves), hassled and even pushed, for the first time in our journey we had a hard time enjoying it. "I love your money' is what someone literally told Carola, after lots others worked on their own catch phrases like: 'I can help you spend your money', 'You know how much?', 'What do you want', 'No hassle' (performed while firmly grabbing your arm), or just 'Money'. Don't get me wrong, we are the same people who spent months in Nigeria and DRC, both notorius for not being the easiest countries, and we will continue to advocate that they've been both misunderstood. We are talking random, unprovoked act of humanity here. Ancient egyptians must have been quite cool, and the nation that inherited their civilization is not that bad. But there are a lot of 'bastards' out there, as James had warned us months ago, and they do no favors for the legendary muslim hospitality. After the wonderful Sudan, this is even more striking. Let's take the so called 'teagate': every man in Egypt, from poor to rich, from shop owner to garbage boy, can be seen at any time of the day constantly sipping tea, either in the men-only ahwas, or in their workplace. The tea, which for example in Turkey is a free token of hospitality, is good indeed. But Egyptians would not share this tea with us, unless we paid for it the price of aged whisky. Slowly we learnt how to avoid being ripped off, so we could sample some local food. Which is less than great, given all the history and favorable geography. Sure, there are kebabs and pigeons stuffed with pilaf, but they sound better than they taste. Salads were never fresh, tahini was bland. The fuul and ta'amyia (lava falafel) are excellent though, so are Sayid's hand-tossed pizzas, the meat pies and the traditional fast-food, kushere, a mix of carbs (rice, pasta, noodles), with tomato sauce, lentils and chickpeas. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_3945.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4075.jpg Mind you, while going through all this, our Yamaha had not yet left the Sudanese soil. After exhausting all means of sorting our papers alone, with nothing else better to do, we decided to join Carola and Joe on a trip to Abu Simbel. In 1902 the british built a first dam on the Nile. It proved not good enough, so 6 decades later work started for a second High Dam. The consequences of it are yet to be understood. Sure, it provides water to irrigate innumerable farms and electricity for 15% of egyptian households. But is also impoverishes the soil by depriving it of natural sediments, it disturbs endemic wildlife. Many treasures of the ancient world, along with the entire Nubia, have vanished under Lake Nasser. The remarkable temple complex of Abu Simbel was saved in a unique international operation. The temple of Ramses II and the smaller secondary temple were cut, then reassembled like a giant puzzle, 100 m back, and 200 m higher, against artificial hills. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/pa...abusimbel1.jpg After brushing off hundreds of desperate vendors loaded with tourist junk, we arrived dumbfounded and speechless, in front of the four 20 m high colossi that mark the entrace to the main temple. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/pa...abusimbel2.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_3989.jpg The unique facade speaks of a pharaoh with an ego like no other. By his feet, statues of his mother and favorite wife, Nefertari. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4021.jpg The interior of the temple is exquisitely decorated with bas-reliefs depicting highly formal, ritual scenes of the pharaoh in the company of the gods and the forces of darkness defeated. It is not allowed to take photos, arguably so that the postcards printed in China and on sale at the ubiquitous hasslers can still have a market. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_3999.jpg Evidently, moving the temples has forever altered their monumental and esoteric effect. Imagine that they had been carved into a mountain, so that the sun would penetrate inside only on a certain day of the year (hypothetically the pharaoh birthday). Nowadays they sit isolated on top of an artificial landscape. We kept wondering what it must have been like to discover these ancient buildings back in 1813, when the dunes had reached the knees of the colossi. The adventurers who found them must have been quite impressed, as they felt appropriate to mark their names in stone. After the amazing visit to Abu Simbel we were hurdled back into the 7 vehicle convoy, a ridiculous system to move rich foreigners around the country, that his yet to be exploited by the lazy terrorists. |
The Nile Valley And The Red Sea Coast
Egypt 17 - 19/07/2012
http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/ruta_egypt.jpg As we were informing in a 'fast forward', after long negotiations and after paying for the Aswan and Hurghada mafia' s Ramadan, we finally had our own egyptian no. plates and CpD. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4103.jpg Freeing my bike from the shabby barge brought us to tears. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4090.jpg The port looked like a dump, but we were on cloud nine http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4092.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4098.jpg Egypt is said to be a gift of the Nile. To cross it, we took the road along the fecund Nile Valley. In Luxor, a modern town built on 4000 year old ruin of Thebes, we had time to take in some ancient architecture. Entrance to the highly restricted temple was along a paved processional way, bordered by sphinxes. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/pano_egypt_luxor.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/pa...luxoralley.jpg The massive pylon gateway to the Luxor temple is marked by an obelisk. Its pinnacle was once covered in gold, so that it projected the live-giving first rays of sun into the temple. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4110.jpg The temple of Luxor, just like the adjacent complex of Karnak, and like all egyptian temples, was built on sacred sites. The pharaohs were keen to contribute their own design to the existing buildings. The most prominent example is Karnak, the result of over 2000 years of reconstruction. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4133.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4144.jpg The processional egyptian rituals dictated a longitudinal temple layout. The hypostyle hall marked the transition from the open courtyard to the progressively smaller and darker succeeding rooms, the last and least accessible one being the sanctuary (naos) where only the god, the pharaoh, or the high priest could enter. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/pa...pt_karnak2.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/pa...pt_karnak6.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4169.jpg The hypostyle hall of Karnak has been restored to give an idea of its past monumentality, but picture this place decorated in splendid colors. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4232.jpg Whereas in most cultures it's purpose is decorative, Egyptian art, largely unchanged for over 3000 years, was essentially functional. The clear outline, the profile of nose and mouth, the eyes shown as if see from the front were techniques that ensured that the figure could breathe and see and, when magically reactivated through correct rituals, able to function effectively. The hieroglyphic inscriptions usually represent the five names of the pharaoh, followed by protective symbols and epithets such as 'life' or 'health', just like under Islam, the name of the Prophet Mohammed is followed by the formula 'peace be upon him'. Sometimes a cartouche was carved, to protect the royal names, or to prevent potentially negative elements to be magically reactivated. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4231.jpg After so much intellectual effort and a brief meeting with Carola, the ride to Hurghada was a welcome relief. The scenery was breathtaking, but the city was not. The sorry babylon of kitsch contemporary architecture and rubble chucked in such a stunning location is appalling. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4268.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4269.jpg Even if we could have afforded the 100 dollars per person (all inclusive) required to stay a night in the massive tourist hub, it was not the right place for us. 100 km north we couldn't resist taking a dip in the uber blue waters of the Red Sea, then, rejuvenated, we rushed to complete our Cape to Cairo race. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4283.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4292.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4297.jpg |
Ramadan In Testosterone City
Cairo 19 - 24/07/2012
'The Tale of the Jewish Physician' from the 'Thousand and One Arabian Nights' (now believed by scholars to have been written by a Cairene in the late medieval period) contains this text: "He who hath not seen Cairo hath not seen the world: her soil is gold, her Nile is a marvel; her women are like the black-eyed hours of Paradise; her houses are palaces; and her air is soft, more odorous than aloes-wood, rejoicing the heart. And how can Cairo be otherwise when she is the Mother of the World?". These days, as in most mega cities of the world, pollution is rampant, and that endemic haze is not so soft, but there are still palaces and superb mosques scattered throughout. The Nile still feeds the nation across a lush valley. The women, though, are less conspicuous than the old thousand and one stories would suggest, so we cannot vouch they are still as angelic. This is testosterone city, a sprawling mix of museums and pyramids, skyscrapers and medieval gates, of crowded streets with few precious traffic lights and a million bumpers, where car horns never stop, where old cars, bursting buses, donkey carts and pedestrians intermingle in astonishing patterns, and yet keep moving. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/pano_egypt_cairo1.jpg Cairo is the largest city in Africa, and in the entire Arab world. Symbolically enough, we had arrived here on the first day of Ramadan, a Friday. It was special to see the immense city in festive mood, with all Cairenes celebrating the holy month. Communal tables are laid out in the street from 7 p.m. till 3 a.m. It is a wonderful opportunity to finally experience some egyptian hospitality. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4501.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/pa...pt_cairo17.jpg When sun sets, people start flooding the streets and public squares to enjoy the feast and some shopping. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4569.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4565.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4568.jpg We walked the the grand avenues lined with superb French and stalinist architecture. It is hard not to fall in love with this city. I was also difficult to be at ease there. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/pano_egypt_cairo2.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4393.jpg Egyptians love to say 'Welcome!' (or 'Welcome to Alaska!), excited by the sight of strangers. But this is a city on speed, and welcome, my brother, sometimes you're not. Sprits are tense, speeds are high and tempers easily lost. As politely as you may refuse the countless offers for stuff you don't want, you are bound to make a few egyptians mad. In the historic Tahrir Square, we tried to imagine how these temperamental people focused their intensity to start the still bubbling Arab Spring. The revolution is weekly reenacted during friday gatherings, and signs of revolt are visible everywhere. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4396.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4384.jpg We explored the underbelly of the bazaar of Khan el-Khalili, a market that once gained such a stranglehold over world trade, that Columbus had to seek alternative routes, eventually discovering the new world. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/pano_egypt_cairo9.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4534.jpg Chinese goods have conquered even this age old market. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4401.jpg Even lentil soup is sold in fast-food packaging branded in the far east http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4387.jpg It's astonishing what can be found on the back allies: a diminutive shop with any imaginable trinket for PCs http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4388.jpg The oasis of the massive Islamic Cairo are its mosques, like Al Ahzar, world's oldest university, built in AD 970. Students still come here from all Islamic world. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/pa...pt_cairo10.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4481.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4483.jpg Like they do in the more recent madrases http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/pa...pt_cairo14.jpg Cairo being the archetypal melting pot where the many cultures of the world mix with the many ages of the world, its oldest past is not islamic, but christian. The Coptic churches predate the arrival of arabs, but their founders decided to build them on top of the ancient fortress of Babylon. Then there are those pyramids. When the Ancient Greek civilization was at its peak, they were already 2000 years old. The sprawling Cairo has long swallowed them, along with entire Giza. But to see the pyramids, we had to endure our share of 'torture that no pen can describe from the hungry appeals for baksheesh that gleamed from Arab eyes'. Just like Mark Twain, who wrote these line on his 1866 visit. Once past the aggressive touts and fake 'gifts', we could marvel, knees shaking, at five millennia of human genius. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4742.jpg The pyramid of Kheops, the largest of the last seven wonders of the ancient world still standing http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4662.jpg Limestone once covered both the three large and the six small (women) pyramids, making them glisten like crystals in the desert http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/pa..._pyramids3.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4695.jpg The pyramid of Mycerinus (Menkaure) bares the evidence of a failed 12th century attempt to dismantle it http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/pa..._pyramids1.jpg The Sphinx or Abu al-Hol (the 'father of terror' in arab) was actually carved out of bedrock. It's like meeting your idol in the flesh, impressive, but somehow smaller than we had imagined. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4688.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/pa..._pyramids7.jpg In egyptian veins, Pharaonic blood has been drastically diluted. The most dramatic transformation was not the merit of generations of Libyans, Persians, Greek and Romans, but of the 4000 Arab horsemen who conquered the country in AD 640. Masters of trade, modern egyptians love to do what they do best: sell. But it is difficult to enjoy the site, with vendors of all description tugging persistently at our sleeve, offering camel rides, caleche tours and whatnot. Tourist junk is displayed all over ancient rock and animals are hysterically whipped by men who have forgotten to respect the creature that feeds them. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4779.jpg In the middle of change, the Pyramids are still standing, virtually unchanged and perfect, even if designed and built by imperfect humans. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4752.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/pa..._pyramids6.jpg |
The Thousand And One Egyptian Sins
Syria becoming a bloodbath has rendered our plans to continue across the Middle East towards Asia obsolete. The only way out of Africa - a continent we are seriously thinking to adopt as home one day - is either west (Libya, Tunisia, then cheap Grimaldi ferry to Sicily) or north-east by ro-ro ship to Turkey. In Nairobi we pondered selling the bike (knowing it could become a financial disaster to overland Egypt), or doing like many do - drive back to South Africa and ship from there to another continent. Confident that we can crack the egyptian mafia, we had to come all the way up to concede that we can't. On the 4th of july the libyan authorities have again suspended all visa services. We spent a day at the embassy in Cairo discussing our chance to obtain this visa before our carnet for Egypt would expire. Turns out there isn't any. The info for the only boat taking travelers and their vehicles across the Mediterranean has been all this time in our weathered Moleskine. This boat leaves on Tuesday evening. So we decide to take it. Follows part two of what we had endured in Aswan.
The curtain rises to a scene of our bare minimum spread on the sidewalk in downtown Cairo. It's Tuesday, not even 6 a.m., and police is frantically searching our panniers for something unruly. We are about to leave for Port Said, where we have an appointment in the office of AK Naggar Shipping. Established only due to the Suez Canal, Port Said doesn't look like the most prosperous egyptian city, as the Human Development Index suggests. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/EgyV6_06_04r.jpg source It's Ramadan, most offices work only a few hours a day. We set to wait for Nabil, who heads the booking agency handling the infamous boat. He shows up an hour and a half late, but doesn't shy away from scolding us for asking questions (do other people just pay?). Oh, the boat is yet to arrive tonight, then it'll wait in the port until tomorrow to be unloaded. We are asked to pay: $200 per motorbike ($500/car) $300 per passenger $125 booking fee + 'shipping order' for Canal Shipping where the customs clearance is done $205 customs clearance (1250 EGP) That makes $1130 for us and the bike. Mind you, the cost for 1 bike + 1 person coming from Turkey (on the very same boat), all included, is $278, as opposed to $830. Prices for the boat are up 50% since April, customs clearance has almost doubled. Nabil has the audacity to say that we are 'unlucky' for showing up during Ramadan, when everything is more expensive. For a while he tries to intimidate us into paying 1500 EGP for customs clearance. We ask why, when he initially said 1250, already more than the 750 EGP recently paid by others? We are told to pay our tickets and go clear customs in the office of Canal Shipping, which is a block away. You might think that for over a grand we would be politely invited to wait on a couch. Well, because we ask questions, we shall suffer. In Sayed Saleh's office, Nabil is on the speed dial. Here a working day is even more fun: chatting with friends, checking sports news online, and mostly playing with a coin in your empty ashtray while staring spaced-out at the streetscape. After working for years to come to Africa, this doesn't leave us unimpressed. Assam has a short temper and poor english, Mohammed doesn't speak any. These employees of Sayed are supposed to do the actual customs clearing work. We ask how much we need to pay. Everybody is appalled. We are sent with the two stooges to 'ask in the port'. A useless trip: in the port we aren't even allowed to wait by the gate as random bums walk freely in and out. The two stooges go someplace to 'ask for us'. Of course they return with the news that we should pay 1300 EGP. We reply that we are prepared to pay not more than what we did in Aswan for the same bogus customs clearance, so 505 EGP. The same 'merchandise', the same country, right? Assam, the rudest and most aggressive of the lot, starts shouting that they made a mistake in Aswan and this is the CORRECT amount, and walks away. Back in Canal Shipping office, back to square one. Hours pass, we realize we cannot break the chain of middle men. Finally we figure that customs clearance is still 750 EGP (whatever that means and whoever gets bribed), 50 is for storing the vehicle in the port (why should we do that when the boat is not even accessible until tomorrow?), the rest is 'commission'. We look at each other. We admit we don't have the balls to attempt Syria. And we don't' have enough money to make a point and ship ourselves out of here. For us it's too late, we cannot go back. So we agree to bloody pay. We take another useless trip to traffic police, where supposedly the officers must 'see' me to issue a certificate that I haven't been involved in no accidents. Of course, I am told to wait outside while the two stupid dogs go xerox my egyptian and romanian driving licenses. Nobody comes to see, bothers to inspect the bike, or ask for a document containing any actual data about the vehicle being 'cleared'. Check out what is written on the egyptian carnet, which goes in my file, along the above mentioned photocopies and a form. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_5382.jpg This mess plays out as if Assam and Mohammed are doing it for the first time. A few hours into the process, Mohammed asks candidly if we have a car or a motorbike and where is our boat supposed to go. Back at the booking agency, we empty our wallet into Nabil's hands that start to shake with gluttony. His voice changes, his eyes glisten, his back arches under the weight of a thousand and one egyptian sins written in his DNA. It's over, and this is the only evidence we will ever have: http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_5385.jpg Port Said is a city of booking agents, shipping companies and custom people. Why have we all come to the same booking agent, blatantly in cohorts with the customs? These shady characters will party hard with our money. We don't have energy left to enjoy our last after in Africa. We buy tomatoes, cheese, bread and figs. The market is great, the people seem nice, and in the night everybody will feast on shrimp and squid. But we are spent. We curl into our Hotel de la Poste lair, and sleep. The next morning we drive to Sayed, where we wait for a couple of hours until Assam remembers we must take the bike to the port and start collecting stamps in my file. More mambo jumbo ends in me having to leave the bike in storage for a few hours. The boat has been loaded and awaits us, departure is scheduled for 6 p.m. At 4 p.m. we are still in Nabil's, numb of waiting, each with our own departure though to digest. Ana walks to the market to spend our last pounds on more tomatoes, cheese and bread. And figs. And dried dates. We save a bill of 50, what if they will ask for a storage fee for the bike? we say. A turkish driver shares our waiting couch and people are discussing furiously something. The driver turns to us: 'problem', he says. 'What problem?' I ask. It turns out he doesn't have a CpD. We tell him how we got one from the Saudi club in Aswan. Nabil and his employees seem bewildered by this information. We give them the contacts of the club and the fixers, they discuss, but we don't know the outcome, because suddenly a guy from the office informs us we must literally run to immigration to get our passports stamped. There everybody is busy distributing Ramadan packages. We get the stamps, then we run some more to the guy's car who drives us back to where our bike is stored. They ask 150 EGP for storage. I laugh and I tell them I have only 50 left. I mount back the luggage and I drive it to the boat where a couple of hours later, after Sayed, Assam and Mohammed had fought a few fights, a man arrives to inspect our bike and the file. They want to make sure we are taking our dubious vehicle out of their bureaucratic life, and we cannot wait to do so. In the end, crossing Egypt with this vehicle costed an astonishing 1750 US dollars, 3 times more than 22 other African countries combined, including the ferry from Europe to Morocco! Egypt overland, never again. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4793.jpg On the boat bearing the logo of Scanlines under Moldavian pavilion, it's just us, three turkish drivers with their trucks, the russian and ukrainian crew and a turkish chef. After 9 p.m. we budge. The dinner is typically turkish, but not bad. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4806.jpg The cabin is spotless, but scalding hot. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4807.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4808.jpg We struggle all night to catch some sleep, and in the morning we discover that the boat is back in the port, in the same place we were the night before. Lunch passes, hours pass, and we hear there is a passenger we are waiting for. Late afternoon trucks start arriving: the boat fills up with russian and turkish truck drivers and their vehicles bearing the 'transit' plate we fought in vain for. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4826.jpg It's Thursday and sun is setting over Africa as the boat finally exits the Suez Channel. For us, Africa ended two countries ago, but we are still heartbroken. We'll come back! http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/pano_egypt_suez.jpg The next days were a blur of sweating, showering and waiting for the next meal to happen, while Ana discovered that she could still speak rudimentary Turkish. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4823.jpg Carola's account of her own trip is spot on. Unfortunately it also says that there is no other agent for this boat. What can you do to avoid this scam? If you have more time, wait for Libya to resume visa services, drive the coastal route (check Temehu.com for news updates), ferry from Tunis to Italy (roughly 150 euro for 2 people + 1 motorbike). Or cross Syria. Or, if you have more money, ship from Port Sudan or Alexandria and fly out. Your choice. We are sorry for the wonderful village people we met in Egypt, but their country is not the best ending to a tour of their great continent. |
Cape To Cairo. Done.
We need to admit this upfront: It's been a fast one. It's been hard to wrap our heads around it with countries changing sometimes on a weekly basis. The East route is arguably considered The Easy One. Partly because you can basically drive a fully automatic city car all the way. It's tarred, except for the Moyale-Marsabit stretch, hailed as the shock-killer of Africa. Frankly, the dreaded stretch was a bore. The Turkana route sounds far more adventurous and rewarding. We eluded a few times the asphalt curse, to pamper our Yamaha in some dirt and our souls in open horizons. The East Route is also The Expensive Route. No more pricey visas, but less rice'n beans mamas, more 'budget' campsites, more temptations (safaris etc). Few of us out there manage to do the road and trek $500/hour gorillas while at it. Sometimes it’s like spying from the street through the windows of a posh mansion where $25 per bottle bergamot-scented sea salt is a staple. A bit frustrating. Until you meet the people. East Africans are more mellow. Smiles flow, bush camping is a treat and hospitality paramount. Besides a sense of accomplishment, we note our regret that we didn't linger. The highlights of this segment of ITW have been:
The uber hospitable motorcycling community of South Africa & the Jones family from the vibrant Johannesburg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/mix1.jpg Exploring Lesotho and Ethiopian highlands http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/mix2.jpg Flying over the Okavango Delta in flood. Made us want to go back to school and fulfill childhood fantasies of becoming naturalists. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/botswana/IMG_0946.jpg Coming 'home' @ Zambia's Rapid 14 http://intotheworld.eu/blog/zambia/IMG_6855.jpg Destination we’d most like to return to: Mozambique. The friendliest people, a chilled afro-latino vibe and lots of wilderness to get lost into across the little visited northern provinces. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/mozambique/IMG_1940.jpg Zanzibar. Truly a thing of beauty. In spite of all human mischiefs, the archipelago retains its allure. Natural beauty, amazing people, edge-of-the-world tranquility and (in our book) the best foodie destination across the continent. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/tanzania/IMG_2306.jpg Sudan, tamam! Desert and desert people simply speak to our hearts. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/sudan/IMG_3787.jpg The most surprising city: Cairo. Because of its diversity and superb architecture, reminiscent of Paris. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/IMG_4393.jpg Best food: Zanzibari octopus; best drink: guava & lime in Sudan; best pudding: Zanzibari jackfruit. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/egypt/mix3.jpg __________________________________________________ __________ To conclude, here are the statistics for this leg: Journey • Countries visited: 9 (South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, Zambia, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt) • Number of days spent on the road: 136 (12.03.2012 - 25.07.2012) • Nights in the tent: 57 (minus 1 on ferry, 78 in real beds - of which 59 couchsurfing in South Africa) • Distance covered by bike: 21,200 km • Distance covered together with other overlanders: 0 km (encountered plenty of them in Nairobi) • Fuel burned: 1060 l Records • Highest daytime temperature: +54C (129.2F) (Nubian desert, Sudan) • Lowest daytime temperature : +7C (Ethiopian Highlands) • Record continuous riding (km): 730 (Abu Hamad - Dongola, Sudan) • Record continuous riding (hours): 14 (Addis Ababa - Lalibela, Ethiopia) • Highest altitude reached by bike: 3,251m / 10,666ft (Tlaeeng Pass, Lesotho) Maintanance • Engine oil used: 9 l • Engine oil filters used: 3 • Air filters cleaned: 5 times • Front tires used: 1 (Heidenau K60 Scout, bought in Windhoek, totaling an astonishing 25,000 km) • Rear tires used: 2 (1 Heidenau K60 Scout from Windhoek to Durban, proved faulty, replaced; 1 Michelin Anakee 2 from Durban to Awasa, Ethiopia, where I switched to a second hand K60, a give-away from JJ's Chris) • Punctured tires: 2 (both in Nairobi) • Front brake pad sets used: 2 (new sets from JoBurg with the new discs, thanks to Linex Yamaha) • Rear brake pad sets used: 2 • Rear brake disks used: 0 • Sprocket sets used: 2 • Chains used: 2 (1 from Cape to Cairo, where we bought a new one from the Yamaha dealer) • Biking gear washed (times): 5 • Bike washed (times): 2 • Tent washed (times): 1 • Mattresses washed (times): 1 • Haircuts: 3 Problems • Offroad crashes: 7 • Onroad crashes: 0 • Crashes with other vehicles: 0 • Stops by the police: 1 (excluding as usual military posts). In Cairo it was the first time our panniers got searched, medicine packaging broken and mechanical bits spread in the street, making sure that the suspiciously shabby looking motorbike terrorists would not harm the egyptian people. • Fines for speeding: 0 • Breakdowns: 0 • Minor technical issues: 2 (gear lever replaced with moped bit - Mozambique; exhaust pipe cracked - Egypt) • Damaged gear: 9 (broken prime lens - Tanzania; broken laptop - Tanzania; broken GPS - Sudan; tankbag torn - R.S.A.; duffel bag proven faulty - Tanzania; several clothing items disintegrated) • Health issues: 2 (food poisoning - Ana @ Ethiopia; scorpion & Tse Tse sting - Ana @ Mozambique) • Stolen items: 0 • Lost items: 2 (glove - Lesotho; sunglasses - Egypt) Money & Visa • Most expensive fuel: 52 Meticais/l (1,5 Euro/l) - Mozambique • Cheapest fuel: 1,8 Egyptian pound/liter (0,24 Euro/l) - Egypt • Local SIM cards bought: 2 (RSA, Egypt) • Countries with Vodafone roaming available: 8 (South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt) • Countries not requiring visa for Romanian citizens: 3 (Botswana, Zambia, Tanzania) In any case, we’re well into planning our next move as I write this. I bought new earphones for my shuffle with 1 euro ( 5 egyptian pounds) and I'm listening to Staff Benda Bilili. The songs are both sad and joyful — the Congolese always seem to find the irony, and even the humor in often hopeless situations, and make music about them. As Coco's unmistakable voice sings about his sister, I smile and I nod, now I am able to understand a little of what he's talking about. I remember how raw our life in the open bush of central Africa has been. Roger's impossibly delicate string attached to a milk tin interrupts my recollection. My limbs struggle to resist the beat. As my eyes wet, I somehow feel our hearts remained with this other Africa, the corrupt, the messy, the difficult to understand and to cross. The easy to love. |
Beautiful Freaks
Turkey 28 - 30/07
http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/ruta_turkey.jpg About half-morning on the fourth day since we had climbed aboard, the ship was not alone anymore. The sea appeared to be as changeless as always, but in the early haze of sun, a couple of ships - of which not a glimpse had been given before - littered the horizon. At last! We were waiting for something big to happen today, but again, nothing did. Our guilty indulgence was nursing the postpartum of leaving Africa behind and planing how to come back. We felt cheated by the mellowness of the easy life onboard, the seamless transition between two continents. My usual nightly rituals used to include climbing a hill (no need, we have stairs), clearing a bit of bush (the interior designer had taken care of that), hitting the sack around 7 p.m. under the stars (couldn't, unless we slept on deck). Sailing just wasn't jazzy enough to keep us interested. And frankly, it was taking a LONG. DAMN. TIME. After marinating on the sea since forever, we had marmalade for brains, flabby muscles and cloudy eyes. Only at noon the horizon cracked open and Asia gleamed in the form of Mersin. Truckers maneuvered, sweat flowed, hours passed, and us and bike were out of the ship gut and on Turkish soil. Not the bit we had planned, but as least this side the border was really easy. Turkey is striving for some reason to join the EU, so formalities were a breeze. There was no talk of bogus customs clearance, even if we had arrived in a port. No costs, not even a visa, and of course that minutes into the process we were sipping on free turkish tea. The only downside was the abominable price for petrol: 2 bloody euros per liter! Frankly, I don't know how these people cope. Maybe the world renewed turkish cuisine helps. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_4829.jpg What we have here is a southern special: spicy sausage on charcoal. The 'chef' carried a spring of fresh parsley and mint into the kitchen to chopped us a sumak-sprinkled salad. Of course tea was still on the house, and it did a lot to pop my bubble of scorn for the world we were to adapt back into. As soon as I could, I took my bike off the main tar, to where the Mt. Demirkazık of the Ala Dağlar National Park blocks the sun. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/p...ountains02.jpg Soon there was not an ounce of steaming memories left, either — it was again just us and the bike. It was a great place to start making peace internally with our feelings for Africa and to strengthen our resolution to nomad back on its less beaten tracks as soon as we could. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/p...ountains04.jpg Keyword: KaBOOM. I was a spring of energy, and it felt great. Dormant villages, donkey lazying, the smell of mountain grasses. Our day was happening, right there. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/p...ountains01.jpg Wild camping is rad, because it gives us unrestrained chances to revive our connection to our environment in an intimate way. But what good is a camping spot if it’s on fenced land? Cappadocia, situated in central Anatolia solves this problem, offering access to plenty of unclaimed 'properties'. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/p...padochia09.jpg Those stars had seen quieter campers. By this time into our two-man show we had grown quite anxious at the proximity with our departure spot and we had an itinerary to plan. We were not ready to hit that invisible finish line yet, nor were we able to to continue our quest further east. Moneywise, gearwise, GPSwise, we needed a pitstop badly. Traveling like we did had done both good and bad to our longtime relationship. Our living space had shrunk to a moving chair by day, and to a 3 sqm room by night. But that was our mobile home, an essential constant in an ever changing world. Even when things got sketchy, we managed to hold onto our jeu d’esprit, a low-stakes way to keep a hand in the game, while trying to deal with the problem with some charm and a few laughs. Which is more than what could be said for what was going on now. Really, though, there wasn't much to discuss. Unavoidably, we were going to Romania to sort our shit out for a while. Coming to Cappadocia to get lost among its surreal fairy chimney and pink canyons was just being in denial. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_4878.jpg Luckily Cappadocia delivered. 10 years ago Ana was spending a lot of time in Turkey and this place, she told me many times, was an offroad paradise. It was not my first time in Turkey, but it was in Cappadocia. I was eager to verify that information. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_4957.jpg 3800 years ago, during the late Bronze Age, the Hittites started to settle on this land which was to be colonized by Persians and Romans, until becoming a refuge for early Christians in the 4th century. The arrival of Turkish didn't disturb life in Cappadocia, which grew even more isolated from the rest of the region. The relief played its part. Vaguely delimited by the upper Euphrates to the east and by the Taurus Mountains to the south, historical Cappadocia consists of a high plateau over 1000 m in altitude. Volcanic peaks, one of which reaching almost 4000 m, piercing through a semi-arid, landlocked territory. There's nothing quite like it on Earth. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/p...padochia07.jpg 10 million years ago this was an inferno of bubbling volcanos. Temperature differences of the lava layers generated a soft color harmony that speaks nothing of such a violent geological past. The eruptions continued until recent times, further shaping a surreal landscape. It's a world renowned ballooning destination, and indeed, it must be wonderful to float above such a beautiful place. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/p...padochia03.jpg We set off from Göreme village, the tourist hub to the region, towards Ürgüp, through the pinkish folds in the Red Valley tuff. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/p...padochia08.jpg The view required a snack, feet dangling above more beautiful geological freaks. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_4932.jpg Where some sort of erosion resistant basalt caps the softer, 100-150 m thick tuff stratum, the Cappadocian land is populated with strange columns. These are hoodoos (also called fairy chimneys), tall, totem pole-shaped spires of rock, shaped over millennia by flood waters and wind, protruding from the bottom of the arid consolidated volcanic ash. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/p...padochia06.jpg The fragmentary, Dadaist moonscape was proper detox for our Africa postpartum. I was again in my prime environment. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_4948.jpg We took a small path that eventually freewheeled us through a diminutive village hidden in the bush-littered valley. A man on a donkey gave us the 'what planet are you coming from' look. No wonder. If a decade ago Cappadocia was a place where the traditional life magically coexisted with the arrival of tourism industry, today that trickle of vacationers has become a flood, and such villages have become almost extinct. Anatolian apricots are still grown in the valleys and gözleme still cooked on hot plates at home, but tourists are rarely aware of all this. Where Ana spoke of dusty gravel now lays an efficient network of tarred roads. Avanos, where she once informally played with clay, has become a proper town and pottery legend, with its own Hilton resort. Of course, we must not fear modernization, and I suppose it is more democratic to allow more than the regular hippies into the region. But man's appetite for profit has little if any boundaries, and for Ana it was difficult to look in vain for traces of lost Cappadocia. These are photos from the Love Valley taken more than ten years ago. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/Untitled-3.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/Untitled-3-2.jpg The landscape has retained its mesmerizing allure. We thought the absence of punctures in our well worn Heidenau would be reward enough, but somewhere between Avanos and who-knows-where, white sandstone started glowing. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_4984.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_4986.jpg Romanticizing the past, talking and riffing an occasional fully formed joke about the rocky genitalia of mother earth, we had effortlessly rolled into a particularly fantasyland section. Any sense of order and any imagination provoked, and subsequently defeated by the many colors, textures and irregularities of the land. I could have been in a whole other galaxy for all I cared — this landscape was making my Yamaha look good. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/p...padochia12.jpg Cappadocia doesn’t overbill the 'you’ll love to ride it' angle, either – there's plenty to knock things off any offroad to do list. Like deep sand in a forest of fairy chimneys. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/p...padochia13.jpg Soon sunset was getting ready to happen and tuff and I were getting serious. I had to get over the touristy layout of the next site, but once I did, the cameo that rock and sand made in a day filled with tarmac and resorts was like having Cyril Despres step out of your closet and asking if you want to borrow his life for a day. I was chuffed. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_5029.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_5032.jpg Troglodytes have carved churches and homes in the soft tuff, and even built underground cities. We waited for the sun to set, while trying to imagine what it must have been like to squat in this unworldly place, and listening to sparrows ending another day in the sky. Soon the authority of the starlit sky over everything below it could no longer be questioned. The earthy boulders, the sand-hugging vegetation, the hoodoos, all frozen in silence. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/p...padochia17.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_5049.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_5051.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_5059.jpg That evening we stayed in Ibrahim's guest house. We did not plan to, but it turned out he had been born in that very house, carved in the age old tuff by his grandfather. His mother still lived there as well. Ana mentioned how Cappadocia had changed and that kickstarted a conversation that required more time. Zapping through one of his books, Ibrahim told us his own story of how to cope with the boom of tourism. Of how what is left of older generations has become home prisoner in a land conquered by 5 star resorts and a bit of corruption. We shed a tear for those people we had searched in vain for all day long, for those white-scarfed ladies who used to cook lunches on their kilim-covered platforms, for those donkey riders Ana could vaguely remember. For our own grandfathers, whose pigskin shoes and wooden tools have long burnt into the pits of modern Romania. The photos below are from a government sponsored album and some are more than 30 years old. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_5075.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_5077.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_5083.jpg A few old bits hanged on the walls of the inner yard: a comb for weaving kilims (traditional Anatolian wool carpets), a spinning wheel, a saddle. Once useful tools, now charming decoration. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/p...padochia19.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_5074.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_5069.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_5068.jpg Göreme itself hardly resembles a village anymore. There are fancy establishments and cafes everywhere, an information touchscreen and even a bus stop, and streets are lined with vehicles of all description available for rent. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/p...padochia20.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/p...padochia22.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_5104.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_5105.jpg Despite being on the territory of one of the world's best cuisine, we were fueled by nothing but white cheese, olives and tomatoes, all good, but all bought from the supermarket. The restaurants are no longer for budget travelers, and traditional food is virtually nonexistent. We did find mantı (turkish hand-rolled ravioli), künefe (a honey drenched pastry with a cheese filling) and lentil soup. They tasted nothing like they're supposed to. But gastronomical and cultural disappointments aside, this place is still undeniably alluring. One pleasure still afforded by Cappadocia — whether because of public demand or a sensible development policy — is a relative lack of the commercial ethos that consumed so many other places. Of course, as we visited during a heatwave when few people were around, our optimism could be unfounded. If developers stay within the confines of settlements and common sense, the legend will have to adapt, but it will be allowed to go on. With its impossibly beautiful landscape and its constantly changing sameness, Cappadocia is only advertising the love for freedom, to create, and to be, and that in itself is enough for us. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_4890.jpg |
Hi Guys, you are both INSPIRATIONAL. Great photo,s shall follow this thread. All the best and ride safe, Cheers mate.:scooter:
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Quote:
Cheers, Ionut |
Africa 420 – Romania 1
Turkey – Bulgaria - Romania 30/07 - 02/08
http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/ruta_turkey.jpg We knew the drill. We had a killer time. We came, we saw, we hung with the people, we went to bed late, we forgot to stay with the programme. Next morning our mission was to cut across central Turkey, from Cappadocia to the Aegean coast. Too tired, man, I gotta hit snooze, again. Enter the Turkish tea, a perfectly brewed solution for the un-frisky. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_5249.jpg The road from Nevsehir to Kayseri was once dotted with Hans (travellers’ rest houses) and was part of the Silk Road. It doesn’t look that offerable today, so we pushed on to Konya, the most conservative Turkish city. It was a long day. As we started to climb the central plateau, the landscape became sweeter, the rolling hills rounder and the bees on sunflowers buzzier. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_5127.jpg In Romania we are fed up with the tasteless Turkish produce that have been flooding the market. Listen to this, my fellow salad munchers, do not mistake that sorry-ass tomato you buy in Bucharest or Cluj for the real thing. Which is what the hard working Turkish farmer grows, and what the Turkish man eats. We soaked in the images of peasants caring for their crops, tools in hand, like they’re supposed to. And in Afyon we lunched on their tasty yield. A simple snack of tomatoes, olives and figs. Everyone was lining up to get their freshly baked Ramazan pidesi for the fast-breaking iftar meal. This traditional flat bread with a characteristic grid of puffed up pockets of dough is a staple of Ramadan. The Afyon variant is 80 cm long and super thin. A hefty compliment to our meal. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_5128.jpg Turkish produce is regional: we rolled into the sour cherry country, so we bought a handful of organic dried fruits sold streetside by a green-eyed lady. Sometimes our foodie ‘compulsions’ push us to the more interesting stories that food so often tells. Frankly, after so many food-centric reports, this time we couldn’t be bothered. It was about time to find a decent camp spot. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_5133.jpg It was a home-run. Our free-spirited attitude landed us in deer country. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_5145.jpg We felt the soft wind on our face, saw a giant sun set behind the hill, knowing it was again one of those raw, unfiltered experiences we’ve grown accustomed to feed on. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/p...padochia23.jpg It has been incredibly freeing to move across vast distances for months. To claim our spot for the night, to FEEL that energy that keeps it all together, to experience rain, wind and sun. We’d never felt so alive, so in the moment! On that hill, with those golden grasses shedding smells of summer, and with those unseen beasts scavenging for food throughout the night, we needed nothing more to be happy. Morning came, and a countdown started. Plan was to do the final leg to Bucharest via Bulgaria – within the pinch-yourself parameters of one day. That would leave us with one more night on Asian soil, ‘so let’s find ways to pipe in some adventure’, I promised, knowing how important that was for my girl. Sometimes, though, adventure looks for you as much as you look for it. First, we arrived in Izmir, and because Turkish infrastructure is so complex and we were using a map taken from a notebook, finding the right exit to the seaside town of Çesme was an overkill. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_6636.jpg Nerding-out on the enlightening thought of the day, we must have looked a bit lost in traffic. Not a bad look, I’d say, because it led to good stuff. Two dudes on a moped approached us and asked if they could help with directions. We were fine, thanks. Shouldn’t we all celebrate that fact with some lunch? they said. Adana kebap? Kebap is nothing special – but this south-eastern Turkish variety most definitely is. Hand-diced hand-sculpted, juicy. Half an hour later we were all dissecting our respective samples in the laid back office of Mehmet, together with his buddy, Tümer. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_5157.jpg It turned out that Mehmet is a mechanic and enduromaniac. One day we hope to cheer him as 'Romaniac'. We spent a few hours with the guys: both totally into bikes and totally in sync with what we dig as well. Check out more pics on our Facebook page. They asked how have I changed as a rider and how have us both changed as human beings. It is easy to answer the first, because no matter what I’ve done before, how many wheelies I’ve pulled and what bikes I rode, the great outdoors has had the biggest impact on what I can do now, and what I want to do next on two wheels. The latter question I love: we could spend days answering it. But I’m not going to do that now. Two years ago the sidewalk near my place had petrol from my Yamaha all over it, and I was taken by ambulance. 14 months ago we were stuck in the middle of an Italian highway with a broken car filled with my Yamaha and too much luggage. Life travels by so quickly. We are both so happy and thankful that we were able to complete this journey. It was all I could think about for a long time and something once we both couldn’t dare to set out to do. If you too dream of adventure, do it, there’s never a better time than now. Lunch done, ready to go. ‘Do you need anything done?’ said Mehmet in a classic ‚why the hell didn’t we think of that’ fashion. Why not discard the shredded Heidenau? http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_5160.jpg We ended up sweating buckets just to pull the tyre off the rim: that desert heat had baked it well. More biker friends and clients showed up, everybody wanting to participate, because people are so friendly here that any small detail like this is just a reason to stop and chat and make friends. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_5169.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_5172.jpg Time to leave these lovely chaps and hit Foça. Thank you from our hearts, guys, see you next time! http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_5165.jpg Foça is a quiet little town sitting on the tip of a peninsula. Because of the Aegean Sea, deep blue stretches up to the pontoons of Eskifoça (Old Foça), where locals gather daily to bathe and hang out. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/pano_tur_foca02.jpg Many of the islands dotting the bays and coves are actually extensions of the mountains on the mainland. Apparently the word ‚archipelago’ was originally used for them and the Aegean Sea!? http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/pano_tur_foca01.jpg We found the small beaches and the coastal area too dirty for something that is supposed to be under some sort of environmental protection, so we went back to the old town for the sunset. The sinking sun made us think of Namibia, where we had experienced the most glorious skyscapes, and we wondered ‘what are our Himba pals talking about right now?’, ‘who is Vital drinking with?’, ‘is it cold in the Namib?’. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_5202.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_5207.jpg It was time to feed ourselves. By night, the old town is even more romantic. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_5221.jpg The fishing harbor had filled with people, mostly tourists, who strolled about and dined on the local staple: deep fried calamari and stuffed mussels. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_5218.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_5217.jpg The fishermen were also enjoying their meal right on their boats, and I must say that looked more tempting than the regular seafood joints. A man was selling some unidentifiable snack on ice: fresh almonds! The last bite before pitching camp on a glass’n beer caps littered beach. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_5224.jpg Have you watched ‚A Nightmare On Elm Street’ as a kid? In one of the installments of the francize, there was a scene when Freddy Kruger thrusts his arm with blade-covered fingers through wallpaper, nullifying the threshold between real and imaginary. We were sound asleep when the wind became our nightmare, and a snapped tent pole our Freddy. The pole ripped through the outer layer, waking us up. Wind took over. First we were too sleepy to think clearly and we tried to keep the tent in place with rocks. It only caused another part of it to break. Then we tried to remove the structure and sleep inside as it was. The noise itself was more unbearable than the feeling of fluttering fabric against our face. So we pulled our mattresses out, and slept like we used to on the Romanian seaside during our teenage years. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_5236.jpg In the background, three enormous caravans, inhabited by three Italian retirees who had been living on that beach for a while. The morning view was splendid, and the wind softer. If only the beach wasn’t so appallingly dirty: on waking up I had to kick a used nappy off my flip-flops. Yikes! We took a swim in the gloriously clear water, and moved on. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/pano_tur_foca03.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/pano_tur_foca04.jpg We had few kilometers of Asia left, before crossing in Çanakkale, the second Turkish city situated on two continents. Outside town there’s a replica of the legendary Trojan horse. According to Homer’s Iliad, this thing ended the ten year siege of ancient Troy (which contemporary scholars have agreed to place in the small village we passed on earlier). http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_5254.jpg The wooden horse from the movie Troy is also exhibited in Çanakkale: it’s an improved design. Next to it, the ferry docks, with boats crossing the Dardanelles strait every hour. To save time in the morning, we grabbed a bite and took the 10 p.m.: the town was vibey, the night was warm, but it was hard to be in the moment, our minds drifting to past adventures. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_5262.jpg This journey has redefined how we see ourselves. I always thought that riding my bike across Africa with my love would be awesome, but never imagined it would be quite as rewarding it has turned out to be. From the first month in Morocco to the last days spent in the searing desert, with a couple of life-changing events and a ‘team’ performance that exceeded even our most optimistic expectations, Africa gave us fourteen of the most remarkable months of our lives. We are now facing the challenge to build on the legacy of these months. It was done. We were on the Gallipoli peninsula, back in Europe. We couldn’t spend the last night in the tent. For us it was symbolic, and sad. The tent had taken us thru thick and thin, and now it needed us to take care of it. There’s always a better way to do things, and we’ll get our chance. That had been our last sunset as nomads, but there will be another, if we do what’s right. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_5263.jpg The Dardanelles looked more like a winding river than one of the most hazardous waterways in the world. At its narrowest it is hardly over a kilometer wide. We lingered by the waterfront while the super jolly waiter kept forking out an amazing breakfast: boiled eggs, white and yellow cheese, veggies, olives, simit (Turkish bagel), tea, jam, more eggs! (in the shape of menemen, a Turkish dish with onion, tomato and green pepper), orange juice, even watermelon. I don’t think there is anyone actually capable to eat all that, and indeed we never needed to eat again that day. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_5270.jpg Our last stop before the border was Edirne (Adrianople), the former capital of the Ottoman Empire before Constantinople took over. After passing by it many times in the past, we were finally going to visit a masterpiece of classical Ottoman architecture, the Selimiye Mosque. It dominates the city, and at 83m its minarets are the tallest in the Muslim world. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_5357.jpg But the genius of the architect whose apprentices would later design the Taj Mahal doesn’t shine in the monumentality of the exterior, but in the simplicity of the interior. The mosque and its complex of schools is an UNESCO World Heritage site. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/pano_tur_izmir01.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/pano_tur_izmir04.jpg At that time the dome of Hagia Sophia was the largest in the world and Selimiye was to surpass it. Under an octagonal central dome the space flows symmetrical, unsegmented, allowing the mihrab (which points to Mecca) to be seen from any location within the mosque. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/pano_tur_izmir05.jpg Light floods this culmination of a lifelong search for perfection. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/pano_tur_izmir07.jpg After the nerdy intermission, we crossed the first border in ages where we didn’t need to remove not even our helmets. Suddenly we were surrounded by familiar things. We had crossed Bulgaria without stopping many times before, but always in the night, so we were not aware it looked so weirdly similar to Romania. Except for the language and obviously for the Cyrillic alphabet, nothing felt foreign, not even the people. We bought a map from a gas station and set out to cross this strangely ‘Romanian’ country as fast as we could. Dusty provincial towns, dilapidated roads, a ski resort on top of a mountain, and coffee in a gas station just like the ones we had designed and built what it felt like ages ago. It was a surreal afternoon, progressing to an inevitable that we somehow imagined and knew, yet didn’t perceive, nor were we sure about. To be the same people we could not pretend we were, but did we hope to find significant, or should I say ‘satisfactory’ change at our destination as well? There was only one way to find out: http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_5358.jpg On that last stretch before Bucharest we had a lot on our minds. Traveling, vagabonding we had reached far and wide, we had achieved freedom. Instead of imagining how things might be, we were so lucky to see them as they are. We were humbled by nature, blown away by its wildlife and touched by the kindness and limitless generosity of total strangers. The question now is where it all goes from here. Do we look back, and say: ‘Well that was wonderful, but it all will kind of go downhill from here?’The sun set over Romania, and it was just as beautiful as elsewhere in the world. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_5361.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_5361.jpg My mom was waiting for us in the empty apartment where one room contains our previous life packed in cardboard boxes. Ana opened the garage for me. I parked the bike and removed the camera. I was on cruise control, exhausted, not really registering what was going on. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_5366.jpg Even now I struggle to remember those details, and I fail. I knew every molecule of that outside, but not the quiet cataclysm unfolding inside. Ana’s parents were on the train, and when they arrived, we had already tossed the smelly gear and showered, as if we had never left. I saw the poster Ana had made for me in 2010, when I arrived there from Germany, soaked and shivering with cold, but a victor on my first Tenere, the one that should have taken us to Africa. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_5368.jpg I noticed that Ana’s mum had made a note for us saying ‘welcome back!’ http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_5367.jpg An hour later we were hugging more people and choking with more emotions. We had missed these people, as they had missed us. But the love that connected us survived the distance. So why shouldn’t you, dreamer of the open road, fear to follow it? We risked our significance, and we’ve grown, we became better. We challenged ourselves, and it stretched our limits. We’ll never regret it, and we do not regret that the adventure is over for now, because, as our friends wrote on this quirky ‚trophy’, the reality and the happiness of the next 'round' depends on us. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/turkey/IMG_6623.jpg |
Fantastic
Enjoyed every minute of it along with you guys, great trip, nice writing and good photos. Setting off ourselves in November for a Argentina - Alaska trip. Meanwhile we live the dream on here (passed through Romania 3 weeks ago , the roads in the North are all new now, best roads in Europe! big change from 5 years ago!)
Hopefully you can settle down and plan the next one! Gino & Fiona |
Romanian Joyride
Quote:
Romania 02 - 31/08 It took a while to see this, and now we do: the Zaïre crossing was the pivotal event that springboarded us to the next level. Sharing our various memories of Zaïre and of what happened after that with Alper in Curtea de Argeş, we realised that the whole experience continues to simmer on. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/ro/IMG_5547.jpg Wait wait… Did I say Alper was in Romania with us? Wasn’t him the German dude who joined us on a race across Congo Brazaville in December? Hell, yeah, he is back in our life, and boy, are we glad! First, I’ll give you a recap of what he’d been up to since we split. It was December 2011, and me, Ana and the four Vidals from Toulouse were stuck in Kinshasa, while Alper and his then-girlfriend were sharing our faith, but in Matadi. There was no way any of us would be allowed to enter Angola overland, and we had all the same big decision to make. Give up, fly over, or push forward on routes that aren’t on any map. Do or die. Each of the three teams had a different set up, different strengths and weaknesses and different objectives, but we all ended up choosing the same way out. Alper and Esther left first, and based on their initial SMS we decided to take a different route, which in the end proved even more treacherous. The Germans suffered a lot, so did the Toyo. They crossed in a little under four weeks, breaking the suspension just on the finish line. Then in Namibia disaster hit: Esther was taken down by malaria and kidney failure, which abruptly ended their adventure. After accompanying Esther home, Alper returned to sell the Toyo, not before driving it all the way down to the Cape of Good Hope. Here is their story in Motorrad magazine. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/ro/alper.jpg Back in Germany, they got back to work. Alper is a motorcycling tour guide. If you are a biker and want to head out to the best roads of Europe and Turkey, he’s your guy. Twice a year Alper takes his clients across Romania, so we jumped at the opportunity to get together. Exiting Bucharest I was filling up the tank with Romanian petrol (well… that’s a bit of a stretch, it was just a Romanian gas station) for the first time in quite a heck of a while. The price of petrol: 1,40 Euro/l. Ouch! http://intotheworld.eu/blog/ro/IMG_5430.jpg My Tenere was thirsty and it showed. As soon as the horizon opened, the race was on. We were meeting Alper in Curtea in a couple of hours. When we saw the KTM 690 Enduro we felt a tingle in the heart: the gang was reunited! We had Romanian wine with pork steak, while the garage reeked of pickled cabbage. That’s what Romanian folk does with cabbage in autumn, making our neighbours suspect the biological war has started. No matter how many things we had to chat about, there was one word that kept creeping into our conversation: CONGO. It had been the most difficult mental and physical challenge of our lives. It demanded everything. Weatherwise it was no joke: downpours, cotton mud, pockets of swampy water under layers of moving sand. Wearing the same damp muddy clothes and sleeping in a wet tent day in and day out. Most of the day was usually spent with orientation and assessing the terrain. When we were still reasonably sane. Once fatigue and stress took over, we become disorganized, less focused. We started to make mistakes. Then it was digging and operating whatever tool we could harvest to extract us from random swamps, trenches and holes. Finding food was a bit challenging. We subsisted on fruit & veg, insects, scavenged corn or nothing at all for parts of the journey, which was fine with us, but less fine for the kids. We bought pasta and rice three or four times and bread about 5 times during those 4 weeks. I remember the feasts we had in Mbuji Mayi and Kamina: it was not the nutrition, it was the diversity that lacked and that we were cheering back into our lives. But even though we have all described the trip on our respective blogs as ‘horrible’ and ‘crazy’, we enjoyed stretching our limits to new extremes. Congo made us stronger, more focused, albeit less prone to luxuriate in the modern amenities of ‘civilization’. Since Zambia there have been no more bug eating, no more digging for hours in swamps, no more sleeping in rainstorms. Ok, except for that weird Sudan storm, which maybe a brainiac out there could sometime explain to us. Is it crazy then that the two of us and Alper were still talking Congo hours past midnight? http://intotheworld.eu/blog/ro/IMG_5552.jpg Eight months ago our party of six adult and two kids had had an intimate encounter with the unseen Africa. All of us travellers secretly believed that the Wizard of that Oz could free us from our pole of prejudice, remove that routine rust, encourage us to disregard limits, help us rediscover our heart and our courage. We found indeed many adventures and overcame many obstacles on our journey together, just as we did on our separate ways, but most of all we found the Congolese, these special breed of people we knew next to nothing about. The Congolese are volcanic, resilient, relentless, and once you've showered in this, you're hooked. Eight months after returning from the African Land of Oz, we realised that the two of us and Alper are obsessed with our memories of it. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/congo/IMG_6082.jpg In the morning we said our goodbyes till next next time.We had a simple plan to make the best of our day: ride the Transfagarasan, arguably one of the best drives in Europe. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/ro/IMG_5562.jpg Hairpins, pine forests, naked rock, maybe a waterfall, a spring or a glacier lake. The staple on this infamous road built in the 70s. But there’s more to Transfagarasan than the call of the bends. When I was a kid that's where I was spending most holidays. I remember climbing it on new year's eves, loaded with pots of Romanian dishes, snow up to my waist. It was crazy, it was fun. Me and Ana also have a thing with Transfagarasan, where we would escape during our busy years. There's this small waterfall we love, the weekends we would come braai, the full-throttle drives we pulled just for the sake of it, the sparrow-infested lake at the 166 m high dam. That’s where we started our climb, taking a right turn off the tar, into the forest. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/ro/IMG_5605_6_7.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/ro/pano_ro_vidrarudam.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/ro/pano_ro_vidrarudam2.jpg We had left Bucharest without a map, with just a rough idea of how we would cut across, and chased this barren peak we would occasionally spot through the pines. We gave up control to the journey and let experiences materialize. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/ro/IMG_5618.jpg Coursing through we met this team of overlanders. They didn’t appear to own a GPS either. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/ro/IMG_5619.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/ro/IMG_5625.jpg We crossed into bear country. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/ro/IMG_5627.jpg The bears had finished harvesting the season’s berries, which can be clearly seen in the photo below. That means that in spite of the overzealous poachers, our bears are still hanging in there. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/ro/IMG_5739.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/ro/IMG_5742.jpg You’d never see me without a smile on my face on these empty roads. The smell of pine leaves and wild herbs crushed under the wheels give a soul tingling joy. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/ro/IMG_5663.jpg Like that. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/ro/IMG_5669.jpg And like that. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/ro/IMG_5673.jpg Or like that. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/ro/IMG_5682.jpg But a man’s gotta take a break at some point… http://intotheworld.eu/blog/ro/IMG_5667.jpg Especially before a climb http://intotheworld.eu/blog/ro/IMG_5683.jpg When the slope jumped the 45 degrees limit, my tires gave up and I needed a different bike for the task. Next time! http://intotheworld.eu/blog/ro/IMG_5707.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/ro/pano_ro_trfg2.jpg The mountain doesn’t only feed the soul, it also quenches the thirst. We stopped by a spring where a trailer had been parked. The owner must have been out with work. Our city-folk tendencies for inequity, waste and abuse of finite resources always seem vulgar in the face of such humble set-ups. We drank our water in the sun, thankful to the anonymous host and enjoyed being alive. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/ro/IMG_5711.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/ro/IMG_5715.jpg It was almost lunch time, so we turned back to Transfagarasan. The climb never fails to deliver. It's not a road you can easily summarize, except to say you'll invariably want seconds. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/ro/pano_ro_trfg3.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/ro/pano_ro_trfg4.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/ro/pano_ro_trfg5.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/ro/pano_ro_trfg6.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/ro/pano_ro_trfg7.jpg At 2040 m altitude there’s a glacier lake and a chalet. In winter it is only accessible from Brasov, but as the sun was up we enjoyed our meal on the terrace. Fresh trout, tripe soup, apple pie… Romanian stuff. Nothing too fancy, but if cooked with fresh ingredients and love, can be a welcome discovery. So if you’ve seen the Top Gear episode and you’ve perused the magazines, here’s another reason why you should not exclude Romania from your to-ride-list. Of course give us a shout out, ‘cause even if we’re not around, we can assist with a friendly couch and more. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/ro/IMG_5746.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/ro/IMG_5751.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/ro/IMG_5753.jpg Lots have changed within the year. There’s a heap of tourist activities being developed and the denizens and their traditional produce stalls have multiplied. Smoked bacon, sausages, cheeses, preserves etc. And no, this article has not been sponsored by the inept Romanian ministry of tourism. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/ro/IMG_5784.jpg Worrying a bit about the potential boom of the industry and of how it could bring down the charm of Transfagarasan – still a lonely road in my book – we started the descent back. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/ro/IMG_5830.jpg Nothing beats the views, the smell of wind threatening to take you down, the open valley where cloudscapes conglomerate. I’ve driven this road in all seasons and I think early June is best, when snow caps aren’t yet melted and the waterfalls are in full swing. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/ro/IMG_5768_69_70.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/ro/IMG_5802_3_4.jpg http://intotheworld.eu/blog/ro/IMG_5869_70_71.jpg We took a peek at the abandoned mine http://intotheworld.eu/blog/ro/IMG_5867.jpg We stopped by our ‘place’, the Goat Falls. The sheep were being herded home by the handsomest canine militia. http://intotheworld.eu/blog/ro/IMG_5911.jpg It was a long ride to Bucharest, but we were glad to have such a tangible target to aim at. Home is a place of great meaning, where we can rest and where we can be near to people we care about. We have been away in the wilds of Africa for many months, we’ve seen a lot of amazing places and met many incredibly kind people, and now, after recharging with nature, we are hungry for more. There’s just a lot to sort out. I wonder if I can roll up my sleeves and make all the administrative bullshit that comes with it my bitch. |
amice, jos palaria! nu te mai intreb ce si cum, doar pe cind si unde urmatoarea tura
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multam fain, in primavara asta suntem pe cai! iara si conferinta la TED, emotii din greu :)
thanks a lot! soon we'll be riding again; here is our TEDxBucharest stint, with 3 stories from Africa, a very emotional night, but lucky for us the audience was electrifying and kept us going :) Ana Hogas & Ionut Florea at TEDxBucharest - YouTube |
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