Got up at 07.00 and had breakfast at 08.00 and went walking to port no.10. It was not far away from our hotel. Our brooker arrived in time too on his Vespa. The drivers of the cars, except Terence, went into the customs area to do the final custom demands. Our brooker told us that it would take 2 hours...... Maria, Atske and me had about 33 cups of mint tea to obtain our places at the cab drivers café. Then it was 13.00 and we got SMS's from Heert-Jan that they were not finished yet. They had to cope with clerks, bosses, officers, higher clerks, higher bosses, higher ranked officers, etc. So we decided to go to the boulevard and went to the Grand Café, next to the Fishmarket where we had that fabulous dinner last night. We had a few snacks, fruit juice, beer and espresso's. Then we got a SMS that the custom works were finished. We met all together at the Cecil hotel. We met our brooker again, thanked and payed him. There we had lunch (again) and a glass of white wine. It was after 15.30 when we went to the very big Library of Alexandria. That is a new design library and lodges an exposition. I took a carriage and went to the other side of the bay, where the Qaitbay fort is located. First my carriage went to the Abu al-Abbas al-Mursi Mosque. My carriage went along the Ra's à-Tin Palace, which is the former King Farouk's palace. After that there was a big beach and many shipyards. There they only make beatifull wooden boats, that is fishing boats and pleasure boats. We went further through the Anfushi district with all the barber shops, café's, grocery shops, etc. Then along the boulevard with the Court and the Unknown Soldier Tomb back to the Cecil Hotel. The rest of our group had arrived too. We slept for a while and had dinner in a Greec fish restaurant. Poor quality. That is the food, not the company! We went to bed at 23.00 and got up at about 01.00 to get our mini-van to the airport. It was a small airport (ALY) near the centre of Alexandria. I forgot about my famous knife (in Africa the big, black security agent said: I think it is your knife, Sir) ( this was at the airport in the Okavango Delta) and the custom safety people discovered it in my hand luggage. I could put in my suitcase, which was just outside the wall. We took off with Olympic Airways to Athens. There we had to change to Air France and checked in again. Here we said goodbye to Louis and Veronique who took another flight to Paris. Now they discovered a knife in Victor's hand luggage, which was not discovered in Alexandria! He had to check in his hand luggage with his knife and came back to us through custom controle again. Then we boarded and went off to Paris. We flew over Italy's Appenine Mountains and the Alps, where we could see the skiing area in which our appartment is located in Switzerland.
dinsdag 11 november 2008
9 november 2008, sunday, delivery of cars, departure
Got up at 06.45 and had breakfast at 07.45. We left for the shipping agent at 08.45. The agent was only a few streets away from our hotel. There we stayed for about 2 hours and we met our broker/brooker. This man should help us to get through customs. With him we went to the harbour and there Maria went together with him into some offices to get copies, lots of copies and more copies, stamps, new forms to fill multiple (5), permits, more stamps from a high manager, more papers, etc. Many office men, who all have chefs, who have chefs too. And they all wanted to see our papers, passports, car papers etc. And their chefs too. Many layers, much time. And we waited, waited and waited. At about 2.00 P.M. Terence was choosen to be interrogated by the secret service, our brooker told us he was in big problems and had to answer questions in one of the offices of a high manager of customes. First the asked his name and when Terence said English they answered no "your name" tell us your full name! It took about 1,5 hours and then Terence got the permission to leave in the afternoon and Victor got permission to drive Terence car into the container the next morning. The end of the afternoon Maria and Mr. Ahmed, our brooker, went too the last office and got the two days permit to drive the cars into the terrain of the Port of Alexandria gate numbre 10. Next morning we have to finish the rest because harbour traffic closed at 03.00 P.M. so we went back to the hotel. Terence had to get his plane tomorrow early morning from Cairo. We had a short rest and went for dinner together with Atske and Heert-Jan. We had dinner at the boulevard in the direction of the castle. The Fishmarket restaurant was at the sea shore and we had to choose our own fish, which was prepared for us. Delicious! Only 1000 LE for 5 persons for a 3 course dinner, including wine and beer. After dinner we walked along the seashore back to our hotel.
zondag 9 november 2008
8 november 2008, saturday, Gizeh-Alexandria
We got up at 06.30 and enjoyed the fantastic view on the pyramids from our balcony. We had breakfast and left at 08.15. To get out of Gizeh was relative easy, because we were at the edge of the city where the road to Alexandria started. We had a refuel stop right away. After some km's we had to pay for the road. Nice motorway and after 100 km we arrived at the point where we had to turn left to the Al Athrun cloyster. We first came through a very busy little town, where the very little 3-wheeled cabs swarmed around us. Not underneath our big 4x4's happily. We arrived in Al Athrun and got a tour from an english speaking copt monk. Here we decided to split the group. One went directly to the hotel in Alexandria and we went with Louis and Veronique to El Alamein. We turned left to El Alamein and had to drive through the desert. It was long and flat with some bushes. In the first part where we turned left there was a lot of real estate development. At last we reached El Alamein where we turned left to the war graves. We passed the German one (a new build castle again like in Tubruq) and stopped for the Italian one. Beautiful design and flowers all around. After that visit we went east again in the direction of Alexandria. We found the War Museum after some time, because it is now surrounded by new buildings. This whole area is new build and it went on until we reached Alexandria. The war museum unfortunately had just closed at 15.00. The tourist poloice man forbidded us to take photo,s. So we went on to Alexanndria. All the roads we planned were in the good driving direction. It was a hecktic drive again with lots of cars, trucks, cabs and busses. But after a while we reached the sea and our Hotel: Cecil. I was glad the roadbook worked out fine. The group with our guide didn't find the hotel directly. We checked in and parked the car at a guarded parking in front of the hotel. We had the farewell dinner at 20.00. Everybody was very tired and we went to bed 22.30.
zaterdag 8 november 2008
vrijdag 7 november 2008
7 november 2008, Gizeh restday
Got up at 06.30. We had breakfast at 07.30, which was excellent. We left at 08.00 for our visit to the Egyptian Museum. Terence was picked up by a friend from Cairo at 10.00 from the hotel. We drove in a mini-van through the almost empty roads of Gizeh/Cairo, because it was friday, which is more or less a day off for the Egyptians. When we arrived at the museum we were not exactly on our own. Lots of school children, Russians and Japanese. It was an amazing museum which had on the first floor all kind of things throughout the history of Egypt. On the 2nd floor there was mainly an exposition of Tootanchamon. His grave must have been big to store all these artifacts or everything was piled up. Everything was so beautiful and detailed, you can not imagine. There were lots of golden artifacts, from which the mask of Tootanchamon is the most famous. Also 5 of his racing charriots to make war were there, of course golden ones. And lots of mummified animals and pets. His body was in 2 gold sarcophages, 3 stone ones and 4 wooden ones. Looked like tupperware. We also visited the mummies of several pharao's.
After the visit to the museum we Atske, Heert-Jan, maria, Victor and myself; Luis and Veronique visited the city on their own. walked to a restaurant on a boat in the river Nile: The Blue Nile. It had several different restaurants, amongstwhich was a Libanese. We took that one. It was delicious. We took different courses and chaired all the food. After our lunch we went to the old city a 15.00. We chartered 2 cabs for us and were brought to the Al Mu'eez street. That was right in the hart of the old city. We walked through the busy streets of that area. Lots of small streets with all kind of merchants. We bought some little boxes, which were decorated with the inner layer of a shell. Lot af negociating. Victor was busy negociating too. That went very well. We walked further accompanied by a man, who showed us all the interesting parts ans stores.We also bought some spices: saffrane and hibiscus. There were lots of spices in that store I knew from my study. At 17.00 we chartered again a cab, who brought us back to our hotel. That took a long drive. When we arrived here our rooms were indeed changed to the ones with pyramid view. And our luggage was there too! At 20.00 we had dinner in our hotel.
donderdag 6 november 2008
6 november 2008, thursday, Bawiti-Gizeh
Got up at 06.30, packed and had breakfast. We left our hotel in Bawiti at 08.00 and went to Gizeh. Our brakes were still in fine shape this morning. The first part of this traject was nice to see: first we had the Ghariba sand dunes formed out of white sand, the railroad and low table top mountains. The railroad is still working for the transport of iron, dug in open mines. We saw a little further a train with some wagons going to Bawiti. After 200 km we stopped for a short while for some rest, toilets and snacks. Later on as we approached Gizeh, the desert became more monotonous. Here are the oil drills and winning too. It seems that there is less garbage here next to the roads in Egypt. We came near Cairo/Gizeh because there was a lot of building activity. The traffic became more intens and had less rules. We needed to struggle for our place. Because our hotel was next tto the pyramides, we didn't have to drive very far in the hecktic traffic of Cairo. We were soon in our very beautiful hotel Mena House Oberoi. This hotel started in 1860 as a hunting club, when the king wanted to hunt in those days. It is at a location next to the pyramids. We unpacked and checked in at 12.30 already. We had no lunch, because we wanted to be in time to be able to get a ticket to visit the inside of the pyramids. Only 100 persons can get a ticket. We then went to the pyramids, where there were a lot of tourists. From a lot of different country's: Japan, France, Russia, Netherlands, etc. Further a lot of camel drivers for pictures, policemen on camels and horsedrawn charriots. We went into 2 out of 3 pyramids. Small low tiny staires up and down, untill we reached the very centre of the pyramid. It was the room where the king was burried. It is now an empty room. The outside of the pyramids is impressive. We went further to a high point with a view on all the pyramids. Fantastic. Later on we visited the Solar boat, which was found recently next to the pyramids. The body of the king was transported up and down the river Nile in this boat. Beautiful boat made out of Libanese ceder wood. Then we went to see the sfinx, after which we went to our hotel. We went to our room, had a shower, did some email and rested for a while. At 20.00 we had dinner in the hotel. Good food. Later on we looked inside the hotel: beautiful. Then we went to bed after taking some nice night pictures outside.
woensdag 5 november 2008
5 november 2008, wednesday, Siwa-Bawiti
Got up at 05.00, which is very early. We had to pack, because we had to leave our fantastic hotel. We had breakfast at 06.00 with again a beautifull view. At 07.00 we said goodbeye to the staff and left to Siwa city. There we went to a military post, who had to give us a permit to cross the desert to Bawiti. We left the post at 07.30. We drove out of town and into the desert. After some time we made a detour through the sand dunes. That was a nice practice again; we had to deflate our tyres. After that all went well. The road changed all the time: good tarmac, bad tarmac, no tarmac, gravel, sand. At noon we made another detour to 2 oasis: Nuweimisa oasis and Sitra oasis. We had a nice view and saw enormous banks of shells everywhere. There must have been a sea before. We passed several military posts, which gave no problem at all. At 13.00 we stopped for a quick snack and drink at a military control post. We went on quickly to have, perhaps, lunch at bawiti. Once we were in Bawiti, it was already 15.30, so we didn't want to lunch anymore. Then we heard from our guide that our hotel was changed to the Palm Springs hotel. Apperently in Egypt things are only certain once they are finished, not before!
I had a quick look at the other hotel, but that one was closed. I went back to the hotel and took my own car to let it be repaired, because the brakesdon't work very well. But in Cairo, where we will be tomorrow, there is a Landrover dealer. After that I emptied our jerrcans. In the tank of our car of course. Then I inflated our tyres to normal road use pressure. Then a shower and dinner. Before dinner I will write the dayreport of today.
4 november 2008, tuesday, Siwa restday
We got op at 07.00 and had a shower. After that we had breakfast at another location in the hotel complex. Delicious! At 09.00 we went to the city of Siwa. First we had coffee in the main street on a terrace overlooking the street. There were a lot of donkey cars transporting everything. We visited a bank with a ATM. This one was not working all the time. So we had to pursevere. We alsso visited some streets and shops. After that we gattered at 12.00 and went to the toombes of the Ygyptians and where amazed by the beautful intactl paintings, which were 2200 years old. Then we went to our hotel, where they served us a wonderfull and delicious lunch in the garden near the pool. In the desert! After lunch we first went to the shop, where they sell localy produced clothes. The three of us all bought nice things. Then we prepared our cars for the desert trip, so we deflated out tyres. And of we went. Victor and I took our own car to practice some more. It was a wonderfull trip and after some hours we took a bath in a warm spring in the midlle of the desert: Bir Wahed. Nice and strange. We went further after our bath and some very deep descents, which were peanuts to us thanks to Joop Barten, who instructed us before we went on this travel. At the end of the day we had some tea and also mint tea on a olive tree fire on the top of a high dune at sunset. Beatifull colours. Before that we looked for shells in old layers of stone.
We went back after descending from the high and steep dune from where we were. Whwn we came back at the hotel and we inflated our tyres to normal road use and went to Siwa to the same and only bank again. In the meanwhile Victor was busy letting the car be cleaned from tar of the preceeding day. After all that we filled the car up with diesel and went back to the hotel. There we just in time for the happy hour. After we had all arrived, we went to dinner. That was really fantastic again. At 22.30 we went to bed and took a shower and started to write the dayreport of yesterday and today.
3 november 2008, monday, Tobruq-Siwa
Got up at 05.00. Breakfast at 05.30. That's early! We left at 06.00 in the dark towards the Egyptian border. The landscape is not that interesting. We had a refuel stop before we reached the border. We passed several police controls before we reached the Libyan customs. Our crew has never been so speedy as today. Should they want to go home? When we were in nowmansland, or agent from Egypt had not arrived yet. At 09.30 he was there. We went through several passages until we reached the last one. That one took a long time! Thanks to Mr Hendy! We had lunch/dinner at 16.00 in the only restaurant in the nomens land between Libya and Egypt. Maria was busy with our guide and the customs people to accelerate the proces of getting the cars in. At 17.15 the cars were allowed in Egypt and we got new numberplates for Egypt. We fixed the numberplates to our cars and started our route to Siwa immediatly, because we had to do another 500 km after the border to Siwa. Our guide was in front of us and in every bend of the road he used his turning lights to say to us if the bend was to the right or to the left. Very confusing! We decided to go on to Siwa without stopping. the road from the border to Marsa Matrouh was good, but after turning south to Siwa we hd some bad parts and our cars became slippery and very dirty at places where they were busy reconstructing the road.. The last 200 km was a good road and we arried at 22.45 in Siwa at our Hotel Adrere Amellal. A very simple road a the end but a stunning end with a fantastic hotel. We immediatly had dinner at 23.00. We had a most delicious meal with real wine (alcoholic!). At 24.15 we went to bed after checking our luggage and finding our rooms in this wonderfull hotel. We had never seen a more romantic hotel without electricity, but with candles and oil lamps evrywhere.
dinsdag 4 november 2008
2 november 2008, sunday, Cyrene/Apollonia-Tobruq
Got up at 07.00. Did some email. Had breakfast at 08.30. We went to the ruins next to the hotel. From our hotel they loooked small, but once we were there, there was a lot to see. The ruins were next to the sea. A few ruins and the former harbour were under sea level. After we returned from the ruins Khaled and I let the air out of the brake system. Then we first went to Darnah. That was a nice road along the coast, green at first and later on it became more desolate. After having passed Darnah we went to Al Tamimi, here we wanted to have lunch. But once there, we found no good restaurant and decided to go on to Tobruk. We did not have lunch, because we wanted to visit the war graves. We went to the Fench, Commonwealth and German graves.
After having seen all of this, we went back to the hotel and had a shower. At 19.00 we went to a restaurant nearby the hotel. We had good meat (brochette) and pizza's. The crew got presents from us, since it was the last evening with them. We went back to the hotel at 21.00 and went to bed. After writing the day report I went to sleep too. Tomorrow we will have a long day, crossong the Libyan/Egyptian border. Khaled will assist us at the Libyan side and our new guide Ahmed Hassan at the Egyptian side. I wonder how long it will take! We have to drive 140 km to the border and after the border about 500 km. We all want to be in time because they have happy hour when we arrive iin Siwa.
zondag 2 november 2008
zaterdag 1 november 2008
1 november 2008, saturday, Binghazi-Cyrene/Apollonia
Got up at 07.00 am. Shower. Email in the lobby. Got a nasty message about our friends from Belgium. They both lost their lives in a bus accident in Egypt together with 2 of their grandchildren. Terrible. After breakfast we packed and checked out. First Victor and I went to the car and asked Khalid to help us repair the brakes (there was air in the brake system). Yesterday they almost did not work. Today it is better. We left at the hotel at 09.30. The part through Benghazi went alright, but afterwards we had to tell our guide what we wanted to see and which road we wanted to take according to our roadbook. First we payed a visit to Tolmetha (= Ad Darsia). There was a museum with all kinds of statues, sarcophages, etc. The ruins were to far to walk, so we went on because we had lost to much time already. We went on to Qasr Libya, which we found after some time because it was not indicated with a sign. It was a christian church half under the ground and a castle from the year of 539. Nice surrounding, makes you think of the Provence in France. All very fertile brown soil and a lot of agriculture. Many trees, bushes, cows, etc. Then we went to a canyon, where they builded a big hanging bridge across. You could see caves where probably in ancient times people had lived. From there we went to Cyrene (now called Shahat). There were Greek and Roman ruins, which where beautiful. Fom there you were able to see the sea. After that visit we had to go down to the coast with real hairpins in the road. Beautiful scenery and more ruins, well preserved. When we went down further, we drove along an ancient Roman/Greek graveyard. We then descended further to the coast and arrived at 17.00 in Marsa Susah (=Apollonia). There the ruins closed at 17.30 and we decided to pay the ruins a visit tomorrow morning. Together with Heert-Jan and Atske we had a beer on the top floor of the hotel on the terrace. After that we took a shower and had dinner afterwards. All real Libyan food. Very tastefull. During dinner we were asked by 2 just married couples to go with them on a fotograph. The women had beautifull henna paintings on their hands. After dinner we drunk mint tea and went to bed after doing some email.
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