28 october 2008, tuesday, Al Awaynat-Tripoli alternative route

 After 4 hours of driving on bad tarmac roads with a lot of potholes and ridges, we stopped for a rest. Our driver stopped in the town of Awbari at a (truckdrivers?) house where we could sleep in a room with only cushions against the wall. Someoe brought us blankets and we slept for 2 hours. Then the driver had a shower. Later on we had mint tea and biscuits outside. We took a bottle of water, the Libya map and the computer out of the Landrover and we went on. Through Germa to Sebha. A lot of agriculture along this route. Strange contrasts between green furtile parts and right next to it the dry desert parts. We are able to communicate a little bit with the driver in French. Sebha is the birth place of the great leader our drivver told us. Between Sebha and Brak the road is "under construction". The arrea is very dry here, you could call it a desert. For the road construction they use here a lot of Caterpillars. Then we went on to Brak, where our driver lives. He is desperately looking for a ddiesel fill up station. In Brak we found one at last. In a little village a bit further we  stopped and our driver bought uus some breads with liver of .... From here on it is an empty open space with  bllack or brown stones or hard sand. Every now and then there lies a dead camel next to the road. We alsso have regular police checks (all with Ford F150 pick-ups), specially with a truck loaded with a European car. We saw the same Belgian cars as a week ago at the petrol station near Germa. And also a lot of German cars: the real big ones like MAN, Mercedes and Unimog. The sky is clouded now when we reach the coast.Also a lot of abandonned, empty and burned out wrecks (cars, busses and trucks) next to the road. We stopped several times for diesel and to stretch our legs. When we reached Tripoli, I called Hadi to ask him where to meet. Khalid was calling the driver. So we had a lot of contact and afteer a while and several phone calls we met our touroperator Mr. Hadi Bkai. He brought us to a garage to get our Landrover from the truck. That did not fit. then we wennt to a viaduct, bur the neighbours did not want it. A lot of quaralling and hard speaking people. Then there was another viaduct, which fitted perfectly to the backside of the truck and I could drive the Landrover from the truck. We payed the truck driver and Hadi brought us to our hotel: Alokhwa. We parked the car at a guarded parking and brought the luggage to the hotel. Checked in and had a shower. After that we fellled asleep, because we were tired and it was midnight.