Luxor

Wall decorations in a tomb in the Valley of the Queens

Valley of the Kings

So many things to do..... We started with the Karnak Temple. A huge temple that used to be connected to the Luxor temple in the middle of the town. Lots of tourists, but because it is so enormous you hardly notice them. Of course we are approached by guards to show us something special in exchange for some bakshees. They all want some extra money. We were allowed to sit on the feet of Ramses II. Then we went to the museum. The luxor museum is a gem. Everything well displaced. Very nice to walk around for some time. And the mummification museum, which was a bit scary with all the mummies lying there. They also mummified cats and crocs, imagine that. They explained how the process worked and some tools were shown. All the viscera, dad explained that they meant spleen, liver, bowels and so on were put in 4 special jars and the brains were removed with a kind of spoon. A bit spooky to see these very old mummies.

Of course we made use of the Egyptian Ferrari, much cheaper than in Aswan and we took a felluca, a sailing boat to see the sunset on the Nile.

But the nicest things were to see on the other side of the Nile. The Valley of the Kings. With a small train you were driven to the valley and there you could choose 3 tombs for one ticket. Of course was our first not much of interest but the guard told us which one to see. A lot of climbing. The only things you could see were the decorations and sometimes the sacrophage. All the other artifacts that were once in the tombs are in museums all over the world. But nevertheless a very hot and wonderful experience. On the west side we also saw some temples, the Collosi of Memnon, two huge statues and the Valley of the queens. There are more then 20 tombs you can visit in the Valley of the Kings, but there are only 3 tombs to be seen in the Valley of Queens. But they are the best. Beautiful drawings and still very colourful. And once back in the hotel a nice dip in the pool!

The big statues are guarding the valleys on the West side of the Nile

10.000 KM

Driving from Aswan to Luxor is only allowed in convoy.In the past there were some awful attacks on tourist and now the Egyptians are very, very careful. Police is everywhere on the streets, roadblocks everywhere especially where tourists are. A lot of protection at all the sites. It is not uncomfortable but driving in convoy makes you a sitting duck. Furthermore it is no fun to see some big coaches in front of you. William sent us an sms that convoy could be avoided to luxor. We tried our luck to skip the convoy and just left, with no problems. Only we had to avoid the word Luxor. We were city hopping first to Kom Ombo then Edfu were we visited a really nice temple and Esna. In Edfu we were all alone, well of course with a lot of protection. But this temple was really worth a visit. We even discovered the Nilometer. This gave the people in the past an idea whether they would have a good harvest or not. The Lonely Planet proofed to be a good guide. We enjoyed the beautiful carvings. There was even a laboratory. All the recipes were carved in the wall.

Twenty kilometers before Luxor we reached our first 10.000 km, we are halfway!!

We drove along the Nile valley, palm trees and the desert in the distance, it was a nice trip, arriving around four in Luxor were we found a nice hotel with rock bottom prices: air co, fridge, swimming pool, continuous Internet, including breakfast for 35 US dollars for 4 persons. We only had to blend in with the tourists. This is a rather difficult exercise because you either need a tattoo or a piercing, gold chains, short shorts and open shirts. Luxor is a kind of Costa like you have them in Spain, so this was and still is a culture shock. We better get used to it.

When will we get the car??

On Saturday it was time for Ed, together with our English friend

William with the help of Mazar to tackle Egyptian bureaucracy to retrieve our car. It took the whole day, sitting, smiling, drinking tea, paying money and to have patience.
Meanwhile Helma and the boys moved hotel with some more luxury and a swimming pool and that was it. Of course we were on the roof to enjoy the views. But homework and playing computer in a cool room is sometimes very appealing. That night we all had a go at the water pipe although Ed is the only one who really enjoys it. But no, no car yet.

Finally the next day during lunch hour Ed showed up with the car with Egyptian number plates and also with a new driving license. Meantime the other party took the Egyptian Ferrari , horse carriage, to the unfinished obelisk, still lying where it was abandoned thousands of years ago, because it cracked. In the afternoon William left for Cairo and we took a trip on the Nile together with Mazar to see the first cataract. The Nile has seven cataracts, six in the Sudan and the first in Egypt. The cataracts contain lots of stones and small islands. The current is very strong and even with a motorboat it is difficult to tackle the current to reach calm waters. On the shore we saw camels and Nubian villages. You can visit the villages but we saw plenty in the Sudan. It was time to carry on. Luxor, the Zijlstra's are on the move.....

Aswan Dam

Panorama of the Aswan Dam

Nothing compares to Egypt

Salaam aleikum.
We are in Aswan and it feels like we are back in civilization. Luckily we were picked up by Mazar, so we hadn’t to worry about getting into town. The next problem was which hotel? At last we went into the hotel where Mazar was staying.
After settling in we walked through the tourist market where there were many tourists all walking with very short shorts, totally not trying to fit in with the Egyptian Religion. Everywhere people are trying to get you to buy something from their shop, it is quite annoying. On the Nile there are boats everywhere and almost every single one of them has got tourists on board. After eating alongside the Nile we went back to the hotel and jumped into bed, although not all of us as one just couldn’t resist having the chance to smoke the sheesha ("water pipe")……

Ma' salama Bart

Next day we went to the Nubia museum, all about Nubian history. This culture almost vanished with the opening of the Aswan Dam. People had to leave their houses and were displaced in other parts of the country. It was all very well displaced and interesting. On the way back we wanted to see the 'Old Cataract Hotel', the hotel Agatha Christie wrote a famous detective, but it was closed, it is off season.

Resting during the hot hours and at 19.00 we went to Philae island for a light and sound show. Of course for tourists but we are tourists now as well and it was actually very well done. It seems if the stones were moving due to the light effect. The story was educational, so for the boys it was a kind of very nice history lesson.

A mummy of a priest rescued from flooding at the Nubia museum

some photo's

At night everyone slept outside or smoked, it was so smelly. We saw Abu Simbel at night, very impressive.

Not our car on the photo, but this is the manner the cars are transported to Egypt. Of course lots of chaos during unpacking and loading, but everything went well, our car arrived safely in Aswan. To get it through customs and immigration is another story. You need patience, money and patience and of course Mazaar!

Ferry at Dongola

Wadi Halfa - Aswan

On Wednesday we thought we could drive our cars on the ferry ourselves but of course things changed as the unloading was still not completed. In the end we left with our cars still on the ferry landing. They would be driven on the boat by other overlanders who arrived from Egypt. So again we had a chance to exchange addresses and met someone who was driving all alone on his way to Blantyre. We went through immigration, customs and were dropped on the boat where we had a cabin with airco. Later on we saw the situation on deck and in the second class and happily withdraw to our freezing cold cabin. We actually had to go on deck to warm up! It was a centralized system which we could not adjust, what a luxury? Anyway, they had some blankets which we needed desperately. The meal was not very exciting with 1 slice of bread and hard boiled eggs and some brown beans (fuwl). After 4 hours we passed Abu Simbel, a temple for Ramses II. This temple was saved from flooding by replacing it some place higher land inwards and everyone was on deck to see the temple that was flooded in light. After that the trip was long and dull.
On Thursday we arrived in Aswan, Egypt, where we due to the poor organisational skills of the Egyptian authorities were kept aboard for another 2, 5 hours. Tired, cold, hot and frustrated our first impression of Egypt was not too good. Finally they let us go and we were one country closer to home while we had overcome yet another major obstacle.

Wadi Halfa

Which road now?

Although we were close to the main road we heard no cars or buses at all. We left early. The first bit was washboard so we made slow progress, and we saw hardly any villages. Again alone on the planet… No, suddenly we were among lots of trucks again in road constructions. And so we reached Wadi Halfa on a tarmac road. It was completely different than Helma expected. Old Wadi Halfa has disappeared under the water of Lake Nasser. The new Wadi Halfa has big spaces between houses so the wind can cool you down. We met our contact person Maghdi. As the hotel was not very impressive he invited us in his house with his family. That was wonderful. Everyone was very kind. We slept outside with the family and it even was chilly around 5 o’clock in the morning. And now we had to wait until Wednesday while Maghdi did all the paperwork to get our car on the ferry for us.
We spent a very relaxing day at Maghdi’s place. We did homework. In the afternoon William and Christine, our English friends, also showed up to stay the last day in this house as well. We saw the train from Khartoum coming, loaded with people who would also join us on the ferry. It was a good thing we were advised to book a cabin.
No football again. We could have gone to another place but again it was at 9.45 and by then we were all already asleep.

Kerma – Wadi Halfa

Camping in Kerma
Almost full moon, lots of noises in the night, goats, cows, donkeys and three different imams in the mosques that woke us up early the next morning.
We went back to the souk to try to fine the way to Abri, which was also difficult because of the road constructions. We wanted to go along the Nile, but the Sudanese only want you to take the shortest road. Anyway, in the end we were on the same road we left the day earlier and had to skip the third cataract of the Nile. For 40 km we were in the desert, no proper road, stones, and sand. The good thing was that the haboub had stopped. We finally saw some blue skies.
At last we saw the Nile again. It is an impressive sight, all sand except a string of palm trees and the Nile. Now we crossed lots of Nubian villages. Ed and Helma were able to exchange some Arabic greetings. On the way we were invited to a wedding, 2 times for breakfast and some tea or water. We hardly met other cars so it was very lonely and hot.
Then we reached Abri, our target for the day. In the souk we found our English friends again. As we were supposed to be on the same ferry it was good to see them.
Although there was a place with air cooling and cold drinks it was tempting to stay there but Ed was overruled. We wanted to camp for the last time along the Nile. We found a wonderful spot. In the evening the villagers came back from their gardens and gave us unions and lemons. Tomorrow Wadi halfa.

Khartoum - Dongola - Kerma

At last we leave Khartoum. Everything is organised, plenty of water so that we could hardly sit in the back seats and after saying goodbye to our dear Sudanese friends we left for Dongola. The road was all tarred so it was an easy drive. Today we learned to rest between 2 & 6 o’ clock because then it gets very hot. We also met an English couple who have done a journey to all 4 corners of the world and are now on there way back to England. That night we slept in a hotel where we could watch the football games Romania vs Italy and Holland vs France and so we went to bed at 24 o’ clock.
The next day we got up early because we had to be in time for the ferry. It was haboub weather and there were some rough waves on the Nile. Mum was scared of course. Lots of cars and donkey’s and people were on the ferry. We met some Sudanese people on the ferry who were also going to Kerma and he said we could follow them. First some tar road and then road constructions, and now it becomes tracks in the sand. Because of the wind it was hard to follow the car before us, which was going very fast. So, on the way we lost him and we went the wrong road and had to ask people the way. They said that we were on the way to Abri. So we had to decide what to do. At last we went back to Kerma. In the souk we found a place with fresh fruit juices. Dad ordered from another place traditional breakfast: foul, brown beans, jibna that is cheese from the goats and eggs. It was nice and we also had a good view on the Nile. The place filled up with men in jellabia, those white dresses, and boys to see us eat our fatuur. But it was not annoying like it had been in Ethiopia. Then we drove of and found a quiet place along the Nile. We rested there because it was too hot to do something else. After 5 hours relaxing close to the Nile and under the palm trees, we set up camp at the edge of town. And with eating our usual pasta meal we were able to call it a tiring day.

Evert

Khartoum – 2

It was nice to return to the hotel, the shower and the air co. But alas, no European championship football on television. We have more than 200 canals but no football. So we missed the wonderful start of the Dutch team.
The next day again haboub and rain. It cooled down very well, but Khartoum is not used to rain. Immediately all the roads were flooded. The next day we heard that the weather also had had consequences for the air traffic. A plane had crashed, burnt out completely and there were many casualties. We can virtually look on the air strip but hadn’t heard or seen a thing. Today Khartoum was quiet, no planes coming in or going out. And it was cloudy but still very hot.

It was wonderful to relax here in a nice hotel, getting used to the heat before we continue with the next part of our trip. Thank you all friends in Khartoum, for your hospitality and for your company. It was great to show the boys the city we have so many fond memories of. We have had a wonderful time!

On Thursday 12 June we had a last meeting in Soba hospital. Helma was showed the pediatric department with the new dialysis ward, very impressive. We managed to find a sticker for the car and did some shopping. We went to the Chinese for our last meal in Khartoum.
On Friday 13 June we will leave Khartoum for Dongola and Wadi Halfa. Next week Wednesday we will take the ferry to Aswan, it only runs once a week. Until we are in Egypt I don’t think we will be able to update our weblog.

Bart in Omdurman souk, and NO we did not buy it!

Meroë

A tarmac road brought us to Shendi where we visited the faculty of medicine. Ed, as guest of honour was allowed to cut the ribbon to open an exhibition of paintings made by the students. The faculty is next to the river Nile and it is cooler in Shendi than in Khartoum. They wanted us to spend the night in the guesthouse, but we wanted to try out our camping gear in the desert.
Before that we visited the pyramids of Meroe, where we were the only visitors; in Egypt this will no doubt be different as there will be thousands of other people. Bart and Evert made a trip on a camel, which was far more scarier than on a donkey´s back. Camels make a strange sound and they spit saliva if they are angry. They are of course also much bigger animals.
It was good to see that Meroë had not changed.
At the other side of the hills we put up our tent and made everything ready for camping. The moment the sun disappeared it is not so hot anymore. We are very well organised. Everyone has his or her own task and that works quite well. Within 30 minutes the tent was all ready for sleeping and we were having our hot meal.
At that moment a car drove directly towards us.. police? No, again other overlanders, this time from Belgium. We spent a nice evening together with giving each other addresses and telling about our adventures. Katrien and Peter had spent a long time in Egypt and had met our German friends on the road in Wadi Halfa.
When we finally went to sleep it was very hot, hardly any wind. In the middle of the night finally some cold wind which changed rapidly to a haboub. Fortunately the tent was strong enough. The next morning Ali the camel driver was waiting for us. Yesterday I gave him the left over pasta and when he left suddenly his cell phone rang. Strange experience to see a man on a camel with a cell phone! Because of the wind we were not interested in another trip on the camel. We drove back to the guesthouse in Shendi for a nice shower and Ed went away for a meeting to return with a carton box full of very nice mango’s and some other presents from the Dean of the Medical school as well.

Khartoum-1

It was hot! Between 41-45 degrees Celsius. The road to Khartoum gave us no problems. Near the city we noticed that Khartoum had expanded tremendously compared to 1995 when Helma was here the last time. Nice buildings, big offices etc. And they have traffic lights with counting signals, so you know exactly when to be prepared. And the road was busy. We met our friend Ahmed Fahal who drove us to a hotel in Amarat, Kazar Hotel. Nice with air co, TV and good Internet connectivity.
Here we were settled for the coming days. Ed disappeared to see all his colleagues and went from one meeting into the other. Helma did the laundry and supervised homework with the boys and as treat they had fast Internet. In the afternoons we drove around the city to see the Nile, Omdurman and find a place to eat, which was not hard at all because fast food is now very common in Khartoum. We had a swim at the international Club, which had not changed compared to 1991 when we visited it during our MSF days. From our hotel window there was a good view on the airstrip in the middle of the town. Bart has become an excellent spotter.
On Wednesday the boys celebrated their birthday, with a swim, nice food at the Chinese restaurant and ice cream at an ice cream parlour. The next day we were invited by prof El Hassan and had a very enjoyable time with his family in a Turkish restaurant. Other people celebrated a birthday party. There was so much noise that they gave us also a piece of the birthday cake as compensation. That was a good idea because now the boys had their birthday cake also. On Friday we were invited at our good friend Ahmed Fahal´s house. At that time there was a haboub, a sandstorm and some rain! Rain in June is very exceptional. But of course this comes along with power cuts. So we had a late, but very nice Sudanese meal in the garden. It was cool due to the earlier rain. The next day we went to Omdurman to visit Salah Ibrahim (another old friend) and his family. We showed them our blog. The boys played football on the top floor of the house with the other children. After our brunch we had a look in Omdurman souk, the market which was still excellent to visit. We saw the tomb of the Maghdi and the Kalifa´s house, the last part of the Omdurman city wall and went looking for the camel market. Unfortunately they had moved, but what we saw reminded us of the Sudan from the nineties.
The next day we went to Shendi and the pyramids of Meroë.

Lekker slapen in Kassab

Kassab

Formalities went smooth and it was hot. We had left the highlands and for the coming weeks we had to get used to high temperatures.There were regular police road blocks and our passports were checked several times. But Ed found soon the place where we would spent the night: research centre and hospital Kassab about 30km before Gedaref. From our old friend El Tahir everyone in the hospital people knew that we were coming. He had shown them pictures from 14 years ago! The welcome was very warm and they all looked very well after us. Cold drinks were available and pretty soon we were talking about the ‘old’ days in Um- Kuraa when Ed and Helma were working on a kala azar project. A nice diner was served. We slept outside under a mosquito net. Dr Brima asked if we wanted to use internet. Internet in the middle of nowhere? We were a bit sceptical after our experiences in Ethiopia and we tried our blog. Within seconds it showed on the screen, unbelievable! The boys were happy, meaning that they would be able to play games on the internet again in Khartoum.
The next day we visited the hospital and everyone wanted us to take photographs. It was very impressive. More surprises lay ahead. We went to the market to buy items for our breakfast ´fatuur´, and they even had yoghurt! All soda drinks were available, even our favourite Fanta Black Currant and all kind of nice juices. Things must have changed in the Sudan, would we still recognise Khartoum?

Gonder

Never alone in Ethiopia

On went the trip to Gonder, the ‘Camelot of Africa’. We had no idea Africa had castles at all. Emperor Fasilidas around 1650 started to build the first castle: the royal enclosure is now in the middle of the city. Every emperor built an additional building, banquet hall, sauna or something else. It was still in a good shape. What was most interesting to us that they kept lions in a separate building. Every ruler used to have his own tame lions, Abyssinian lions, in a special house, called the lion house. Even Haile Selassie had his tame lion and the lions accompanied him on every trip!
We also went to the royal bath which is still used in January every year. The river will flow through the bath, about 4 meters deep. The water will be blessed by the priest and then all the people jump in the water ! It is an ingenious system because afterwards they let the water flow back to the river. Again our ‘babies’ were free of charge to enter into the bath. Bart and Evert are not too happy by the fact that everyone calls them babies. As you can see on the photo is taking a taxi in Ethiopia always a lot of bargaining and of course are the children watching and shouting :'you, you' and 'babies'.
Lastly we went to Debre Berhan Selassie church which was created around 1690. On the ceiling they painted lots of angels. We thought it was the nicest church we have seen, mainly because the fact that our taxi driver together with the priest tried to show us in very basic English all the paintings on the wall and their meaning. It was really touching. But that was enough. So much for culture and churches. Sudan was waiting.

Debre Berhan Selassie Church and the angels on the ceiling

The trip to the border was again a battle of dust and detours, but we knew tarmac was waiting in the Sudan. The villages we drove through were poor and underdeveloped. The immigration office was in a kind of shed and no computers because there was no electricity. We spent our last Birrs on water and biscuits and crossed the border into the Sudan.

Lake Tana

Again another 180 km to Bahir Dar and Lake Tana on bad road. But Bahir Dar was a lovely place, with wide lanes and palm trees. And Helma is always pleased to see water. On this lake there are lots of small islands and an each island there is a monastery. We hired a boat and visited 3 monasteries. For the first one we had to walk about 20 minutes through a lovely area with coffee trees, oranges, avocado’s and mango’s. The church was OK but the little museum of all the equipment people used in the past was very nice. We saw how they made the ‘tej’ and played on some instruments. On the second island only men were allowed. From the pictures Helma knew she missed something. In this monastery they kept very old books and ornaments. The monastery on the last island was very small and very new with beautiful drawings. The last stop was the outlet of the Blue Nile; here one says goodbye and wishes the river well on its trip to the Mediterranean Sea, a trip of more than 5000 km. We would see it again in Khartoum. It was already an impressive river and the current was enormous. Luckily we were sitting in a motor boat otherwise it would have been impossible to reach the hotel again. On the lake we saw again lots of pelicans. Some boats were really exotic made from straw as they must have done thousands years ago. Children sold mini boats made from straw to tourists. We thought the real one was much better.
At the hotel Bart was followed by a nice monkey. At first he was a bit afraid, but later on he didn’t mind even if the little creature jumped on his head. No picture available, the camera was not stand by.

Due to the public holiday we stayed at the hotel where we had a good view on the lake, for a boat show. Unfortunately it was cancelled due to high winds. Never mind, we enjoyed and played a lot of Cluedo and cards.
Not far away were the Blue Nile Falls. But after seeing the Vic falls, we decided to give it a miss because people warned us it was not so impressive anymore. They built an electricity plant and that reduced the width of the falls enormously.

some more photo's

Priest at the church

Tired??

Evert on the mule

Lalibela - 2

Monday 26 May
Then it was our turn to have some fun. The night before we arranged for a trip with mule donkeys which would bring us up the mountain to the church and back. At first I thought the donkeys couldn’t do it, but they did, all the way! We did have to walk a few bits but mostly they carried us. Of course my mum didn’t participate, because she was scared of heights and falling off, but dad did. It was a good thing she wasn´t around because it was sometimes really scary. Amazing really but they carried us on the top of cliffs, we could almost fall down! The church wasn’t much, but it was king Lalibela´s first rock hewn church. Going down we walked most of the way. And not to forget Evert´s donkey was the fastest, mine got the whip a few times but it was ok. These Mules are much more comfortable than a horse but not faster. It was fantastic. Yes indeed!
Bart

Lalibela-1

On our way to Lalibela, the place of the rock hewn churches, we were again confronted with detours, road constructions and dust eating. The Chinese are everywhere in Africa, constructing new roads. We saw them in Malawi, Kenya and now in Ethiopia. We also realised that we have made this trip a little bit too early; in five years time the whole road from Cairo to Cape town will be tarmac. Never mind, we just continued. The views were excellent although we had again our regular traffic jams due to the cattle.
On Saturday 24 May we reached Lalibela after a climb of more than 2 KM. The views were stunning. On top of the plateau again Chinese to fix the road, but compared to what we have been through we could only comment that the road was not too bad. The last 20 K were even tarmac. That was the airport road. People who are flying in have no idea what an achievement it was to arrive in Lalibela by road.
Lalibela, also known as the second Jerusalem of Africa, was the capital of Ethiopia in the 12th and 13th centuries. King Lalibela had either a vision, or had been in Jerusalem, history is not clear about that, that he wanted to create a new Jerusalem for all Ethiopians to visit. It is very isolated ( it took us 2 days) and on 2630meters high. Nowadays it is a World Heritage Site. And we have to agree, it is very impressive. It is the centre for pilgrimage for many Ethiopian Orthodox Christians.
In total there are about 11 churches which are connected by tunnels. Unfortunately most tunnels are closed now, but the one we have seen was quite scary and pitch-black. Every rock hewn church has a priest and every church has its own cross. Some had a very nice interior with paintings, others were just impressive as such. You see us in front of Bet Giyorgis, the masterpiece, a church in the shape of a cross. Around the church there are many caves for pilgrims. We were a bit shocked when we saw three mummified corpses of pilgrims from the 16th century. The guide told us all about the special meanings of the crosses and the drawings and so on. It was a very interesting tour, well worth the trip.

Addis Ababa - 2

That evening we enjoyed our first traditional meal: injera with all kind of nice side dishes. It tastes a bit like sour bread. It is spread as a large pancake and the food is just heaped on top of it. It can also be served rolled up; so it is important not to mistake it for a napkin. It is usually made from tef, an Ethiopian cereal only grown in the highlands. It is rather filling. You just wrap a piece of injera around some food and eat it. Usually a “pancake” is shared with other people. And to be honest this was far more then we could eat among the four of us. For drinks Helma tried the wine made from honey `tej´ which was rather powerful, so she had a good night sleep.
Although our Sudanese visa were arranged it took us 3 days and a lot of money to retrieve them. But with the Sudanese visa in our passports we were ready to go. The boys were happy because they were able to see the final between Manchester and Chelsea. After the match there was a big after party on the streets in front of our hotel.
The next day we had a nice but ice cold swim in Ghion hotel and had for 4 euro a very filling meal including drinks for the 4 of us. Can´t complain about the prices in Ethiopia.

Addis Ababa -1

The road to Addis was excellent. We managed without major difficulty to drive into the city. Big road, very widespread, no traffic jams and everywhere the white and blue minibuses or taxi’s. We stayed at Taittu Hotel. The oldest Hotel built in 1898 by the Emperess Taittu. Very historical, rundown, but with a nice atmosphere. Big rooms and very cheap, and a safe place for the car.

Everywhere are cafe´s where you can eat and drink lovely juices. We never tasted a better and tastier cheeseburger then here. We went to the museums, well worth the visit and saw Lucy, a fossiled hominid discovered in 1974. She is the oldest hominid found who walked on two legs, some 3.2 million years ago. How small our ancient ancestors were. We visited the St. George Cathedral and Museum. We went shopping and bought some tourist things and walked and walked all the way up to the Sheraton Hotel. What a artificial place in this wonderful town. Although the Piazza area, the area where we stayed, is relatively safe, in other parts pick pocketing occurs. You have to be careful as they are clever; two boys started to fight and yes they managed to take some change from Ed’s pocket. Luckily we were prepared so they only got some 1 shilling notes but nevertheless it is not a nice experience. Ethiopian around us were genuine shocked. This behaviour gives Ethiopia a bad name for tourists. But we know it happens in all the major cities. Bart was very impressed because he saw it happen.

Moyale – lake Awasa

Moyale is a dreadful bordertown. Although formalities went smooth, they are even computerised and could scan our passports and our barcodes, the town was not very exciting. It was too late to go to a next place, some 100 km further on. The good thing is that Ethiopia is very cheap. Hotels, very very basic but only 4 euro per room do make a difference. Also petrol is half the price of Kenya. In the end we stayed in a grubby place, with the idea to get up early and drive as fast as we could to a nice place at lake Awasa, run by a German- Ethiopian couple. Only 500 km and on tar road but through mountains and lots, lots of small villages. Everyone uses the road and so do the donkeys, donkey-cards, goat, sheep, cattle and lots of children, shouting: “faranji, faranji”, foreigner or “you, you, you”. Once we were stuck in a kind of procession and after 10 minutes or so we were able to drive past them. Lovely scenery again, exotic people, so different from the Black Africans. From green rift valley places to dry white sandy places with lots of termitehills. They gave us the idea we were in a statue garden.

In Awasa we had difficulty to find our camping place but with some help we managed to enter a lovely garden where our German friends already were drinking ‘St George’ beer. One day of cleaning the car, laundry ( by hand), relaxing and recovering of 1000km hard work. Evert was all exited because in the garden 1 huge and 2 smaller turtoises lived. In the evening we walked to lake Awasa. A nice lake but you could not swim in there because of the hippo’s. We decided to give the boys a treat and the next day we went to lake Langano, 100 km furtheron, a lake with brown, tea like water, but you could swim. So we did and we water cycled and relaxed.

Marsabit - Moyale

Samburu women

Mount Kenya in a distance

We left early to make it in a good time to the border. We drove through the Kaisnet desert and the Dida Galgalu desert, a very rocky road. We were really scared for our tyres. And we hardly saw a car. Close to Moyale we met two cars going south to cheer us up that we were almost there. Quickly we exchanged addresses and back to driving again. And finally after 6 hours and 250 km we drove into Moyale. Then we had to wait because the immigration officers were having lunch, so that is what we also did and waited for them to appear. After that formalities at the border went smooth. The immigration officer told us that Ethiopia is a unique country. They have a unique language, different time, different alphabet, different calendar; they are now in the year 2000 and celebrating their millennium! And so on




And you know what... he was right. Ethiopia is unique!



That awful road!

Isiolo- Marsabit

If people had told us the 257 km from Isiolo to Marsabit is just like the dirt road to South Luangwa in Zambia we would have slept better. It was like that. Hunderds of kilometres of unpaved road, sometimes smooth, mostly with rocks and sometimes wash board. Some people say you have to drive very fast over washboard, but our experience is that the car would start sliding so for us that was no option. The average speed was 30-40 km per hour, maximum. As Mr Pitt from Newlands Home would have said: “endure it” and that is exactly what we did. Hang in there, shaking, eating dust and keep going, hour after hour. Every kilometer counts! . Again the scenery was breathtaking beautiful, mostly volcanic. We saw beautiful birds, some gazelles and very exotic people, the Samburu. We also saw our first camels and in the Losai Nature reserve we saw also the Gerenuk. Funny gazelle with a tiny head but a very long neck. That was the animal lacking in Evert’s experience, so he was very happy.
On the road we met a German couple, on the road since November last year, coming from Germany first along the West coast all the way down to South Africa and now up to Germany again in the eastern part of the continent. It was nice to know that you are not alone on the Trans- East African Highway !!
Very close to Marsabit we met Swiss Henry. A relief worker who never left the area, married to a local girl and now he has his own construction company. We were already planning to go to his place where you could camp or stay in a masaai hut, very convenient and very cheap. He also had fresh eggs and bread. What a wonderful place to recover from the road. But next day would be even worse, that is what all the travellers and books promised us.

Nairobi- Isiolo

We left Nairobi without problems. The road was in a good condition and the scenery in the Rift valley was wonderful. We hoped to see Mount Kenya but it had disappeared in the clouds. Slowly the vegetation changed and became more dry and the soil white instead of red. We passed the Equator!

We stopped at a nice place called Gadissa Lodge run by a Dutch couple. Unfortunately the pool was green, so no swimming for the boys. The next morning we finally saw Mount Kenya from a distance. Although we could have visited some more game parks we wanted to go ahead. A difficult road lay ahead. Of course the boys were disappointed, but sometimes choices have to be made.

Ed relaxing after a long day driving

Nairobi

Sunday 11 May we arrived in Nairobi. It was very quiet in town so we managed to look around for a place to stay. As we are allergic to rain we decided against camping and found a nice family room, with breakfast at the Heron Hotel. Memories from long ago came back to Ed and Helma. We were placed in this hotel as MSF Aid workers. It was at that time also cheap but definitely not suitable for children because of the nightlife. The hotel has changed and is now excellent for families. They also have a nice swimming pool. In the afternoon we met Paul Dieleman from Malawi and were invited to his place where the boys had another swim in the pool attached to his compound. The next day we were busy with internet, homework and shopping. They have nice shopping malls in Nairobi so Ed was able to buy books that had disappeared in the container and a new roadmap because the other had disappeared somewhere in Tanzania. But most of all we enjoyed ( yes again!) a nice meal at Golden SPUR in Holiday Inn hotel. On our way back we were stuck in one of the famous traffic jams of Nairobi on Uhuru Highway. That evening we met “Dr Hofman, I presume”, also an old friend from Malawi.
The next morning while Ed was busy to obtain our visa for Ethiopia and collecting information from other “overlanders” we went to the Giraffe Centre where we had a lovely time kissing Giraffes, making photo´s and gaining some info about Rothschildt Giraffes. We quickly had a look in Karen Blixen´s House but the entrance was so overpriced we did not enter the place, but the security guard showed us the old coffee machine which was interesting. This was never showed to tourists so we felt very important. Then we had our farewell lunch with Paul and Jan and left yet again a small bag with items with Paul to bring to Malawi or Holland.

We finalized our packing and shopping and were in the evening prepared for the difficult road that lay ahead.