Durch Afrika

South Africa – Cape Town (11.-20.08.09)

2009-08-22T10:13:00.001+04:00

On August 11th, we have an appointment with the shipping company in Cape Town. So we take the direct route to Cape Town along the coast. We pass a lot of small lovely villages, the first one being Hermanus, which is known for the many whales who pass along the coast. And we are not disappointed. Very close to the beach, some very big whales can be seen, it’s unbelievable.

From Hermanus it’s just another 2 hours drive to Cape Town, always along the steep-coast, with spectacular views.

We check in at a nice campground 20 km north of Cape Town. Just for one night – in the end we will have stayed 10 nights… it’s a nice place, very well protected from the strong winds and partially also from the rain. The plenty of rain we will see during these days!!

After roughly 150 nights in our very expensive expedition tent, the zippers are beyond repair and we have to use our emergency spare tent (20 Euro) for the last 4 nights! After optimizing it with an extra tarp, it even stands the strongest rains that hit Cape Town again and again…

Our first day trip brings us to the famous wine-region Stellenbosch with its nice surroundings. We only took one picture, it speaks for itself :-)

As an “old” and long-time sailor, it’s a highlight for Thomas to see the Cape of Good Hope. Even with the car, it’s a spectacular journey. We can imagine that it’s a very tricky area for sailing due to the constant changes in the weather.

Cape Point with its Lighthouse.

A view from Cape Point to the Cape of Good Hope.

After the drive and a hike along the Cape Point we enjoy fish and chips from a paper bag in the famous “Fish on the Rocks” in Hout Bay, which is known for the best fish and chips in Africa…

A nice surprise are the many penguins in Boulders. In 1984 the first couple came here for breeding, and already now there are more than 1500 penguins, which are not shy at all and you even have to watch them while driving!

Whenever it’s raining, we go to the Cape Town Waterfront with its nice malls and restaurants along the harbor. Unfortunately, we never can manage to go to Robben Island, the former prison island where Nelson Mandela spent most of his prison time. The trips are always fully booked and require reservation in advance, and often they are cancelled on short notice due to high winds.

Next to the waterfront, the stadium for next year’s soccer world cup is still under construction. It looks like there is still a lot of work to be done! Same for the infrastructure around it…

One morning, we look out of our tent and cannot believe that the weather is so sunny and warm. Very quickly we take the decision to climb the Table Mountain, even knowing that we have to make the strenuous hike up and down, since the cableway is under maintenance. The 800 m up are extremely steep and tiring but we are rewarded with a marvelous view over the city. The hike down is even harder and the next days are Claudia’s most painful days of the whole trip. Getting out of the tent in the morning is a real challenge. Good that nobody can see us :-)

The summit of the Table Mountain.

View on Cape Town from the Table Mountain.

Even the longest trip has to come to an end and now it’s time to leave. We are very lucky with our planning. The last day is a logistic masterpiece! We get up very early (as usually) to dry our tent which we use until the last minute. We leave for the shipping company where we load the car by ourselves into the container and we do the customs clearing at the same time. When we leave the shipping company at 1 pm, the container is already leaving to the harbor. And we go to the airport with our little blue rental car which we parked at the company already the night before.

Now we are at the airport, waiting for our flight to Dubai. It’s astonishing that we will arrive in Dubai in 9 1/2 hours which is 7.600 km away and it took us 188 days and 34.400 km to come here by car!!

Once we are home, we will put together some facts and figures about our wonderful trip. Just in one word: it was like a very beautiful dream that came true and absolutely everything worked perfect. No accident, no problems with the car or the health and, most important, we are still HAPPILY MARRIED!

21.08.2009 Above Africa at a height of 36.000 feet in the Emirates First Class. It was an upgrade and the good luck seems to stay with us till the end ...

South Africa – East Coast to Cape Agulhas (30.07.-10.08.09)

2009-08-12T15:43:00.001+04:00

We made it!!!!!!! We reached the southernmost point of Africa! Cape Agulhas. On August 9th, 2009!! It’s a very emotional moment, since we were not always sure if we ever reach this far point! It’s an amazing place, because it’s here that the two oceans meet: the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. We are not the only people there, but for sure the only ones who came all the way through Africa…

The adventure feeling has definitely passed since we reached the South Coast. Now we are more in a vacation mood, drifting slowly along the coast towards Cape Town.

The last 2 weeks we enjoyed the diverse coastlines and many nice villages and bays.

When we leave the South Coast and enter the former Transkei, it’s like passing from the 1st world to the 3rd world, as some call it. Infrastructure is more basic, the beautiful beach villas are replaced by round huts.

Even the weather is getting colder and wet, very wet…

The area around Coffee Bay looks like Cornwall, and those who know “Rosamunde Pilcher” (TV series) can exactly imagine what we mean…

The rain is getting so bad close to East London so we decide – for the very first time in all these months – to spend the night in a bed & breakfast in Gonubie. The 4 stars of “Amanda’s” B&B keep their promise. The room, or better, the suite, is more 5 stars than 4, and the breakfast is outstanding.

After this night, we are so spoiled that we settle for a 5 stars campground as well! We pick the best one of our whole trip at the Green fountain Farm. Here we even have our own bathroom with hot shower and bathtub as well as a small cooking area.

Once we see garbage spread all over the city, and we learn that the community workers protest for higher wages.

For the last time during our trip, we enjoy the African wildlife in the Addo Elephant National Park. Exactly this day, temperatures reach 35 degrees – it feels like the Bavarian “Fön” – what is very good, because the elephants come in large numbers to the waterholes. Not only to drink, but especially to get a “shower”. We enjoy very much to see them playing and splashing in the water.

During our very early morning gamedrive we see a lot of jackals and kudus, however, unfortunately no lions. Kudus are not only looking good, they also taste delicious! We enjoy them as biltong, droewors and especially smoked :-)

The world famous “Gardenroute” is really as nice as people say. And as always, these nice areas attract rich people – and us :-)

An especially nice place is Plettenberg Bay, where we even can make a beautiful hike on the “Robberg”, a small cape with stunning views of the coast and the sea with its seals. The track is not easy, it looks easy, however, it turns out to be very very slippery. And here they don’t warn you of “slippery when wet”. We are always laughing about the expression in Africaans: “pasop, gladde vloer, wanna nat”…

On the way to Cape Town, we see a lot of ostrich farms. These don’t look nice, but also taste delicious. Scott, thanks again for introducing us to the wonderful ostrich carpaccio and ostrich filet.

12.08.2009 Stellenbosch in winter, which means rain, rain and more rain. We are getting worried about our tent but at least it is clean from the outside.

South Africa – Upington to South Coast (16.-29.07.09)

2009-07-30T10:13:00.001+04:00

Winter in South Africa! We might have ignored this and the fact that we are here at heights between 1000 and 2000 meters. So the nights are cold, bloody cold. Spending the nights in the tent becomes more a survival training than fun, even with the hot water bottles, first thing we buy upon our arrival in Upington. Even the nights in Sudan with up to 38 degrees don’t seem so bad any more.

The first thing we notice here are the bird nests along the road on the power masts. Is it a problem for the power companies??

Our first stop in South Africa is Upington. Here we find the right infrastructure to have the service for the Toyota done, replace our spare tire with a “new” used one and enjoy strolling through the city. Upington is known for its wine, we never heard of it, but Thomas enjoys it a lot…

From here it is a long drive to the East, again through rolling hills with yellow plains and scattered trees. Some call this part the Texas of South Africa. We enjoy the great meat we “braai” in the evenings for dinner. The campgrounds are empty since the school break is over and we seem to be the only hardcore campers around. Excitement is always provided by the animals on the campgrounds. Sometimes there are springboks or elands, Kudus, warthogs, our “friends”, the monkeys, ostriches or even Emus, the Australian version of an ostrich, and all of them have one thing in common: they are very curious and always hungry. So watch your food.

It is a long drive to Sun City, our next destination. It takes us 3 days to reach it. They call it Las Vegas of South Africa probably because they have gambling here but it is for sure a little smaller. The Palace Hotel reminds us very much the Atlantis Hotel in Dubai. No wonder, since it belongs to the same owner. Sun City is located in a valley in the mountains. The center is “Lost City”, the Palace Hotel which is surrounded by a nice water park. There are some very brave people who even use the water slides with water temperatures around 11 degrees. We prefer to stroll around and have a look to the casino. Off season, so the few customers we see seem to be retired.

From here we head for the Pilanesberg Game Reserve, which is next to Sun City. Here we spend two quiet nights on a huge campground, which is not very busy. We enjoy the game drives we take through the park. It offers a very diverse landscape and vegetation as well as many animals. We even spot a few rhinos in very close distance, which didn’t happen too often during our trip so far. Often the small not so popular parks seem to be the better choice in particular since they are not so busy and we have the park nearly to ourselves.

Next destination is Johannesburg and a visit to Scott and his family. Scott is a friend of Thomas, who made almost the same trip 10 years ago. He is the one who inspired us to do the trip and always gave valuable input where to go. Approaching Sandton shows the contrast between rich and poor. We drive through very nice areas around lakes or on hills with pricey villas and the obviously required tight security setup followed by townships, where the poorest of the poor are “living” and which seem to have only very basic infrastructure. Wherever we drive, we also see the progress they are making with the preparation of the 2010 Football World Championship.

We are happy to see Scott, but shocked as well, because he just broke his leg, only some hours before we arrived! It happened while jogging in the morning. We hope he didn’t want to run away from us! But even with his leg in cast and using his crutches he manages to show us around in Johannesburg. A highlight is the trip to Soweto and the visit of Nelson Mandela’s house which has been recently converted to a museum. There would be so much more to see in and around Johannesburg, which probably would take weeks. Thanks Scott and Renée for your warm hospitality and the delicious food. We still remember the “lecker bobotie” Renée’s mother prepared. We also enjoyed sleeping in a real bed for the first time since nearly 3 months.

On our way to Kruger National Park, we make some interesting stops in Pilgrim’s Rest, an old gold digging village. We are amazed how nice the old houses are preserved and we feel like 150 years back in time.

From “God’s Window” we enjoy a beautiful view over the Blyde River Canyon.

We always were looking forward to visiting the Kruger National Park, which is for sure one of the most famous parks in Africa. However, when we arrive, we are a little surprised how unfriendly we are treated by the guards and at the reception. During our drive through the park we notice that it is very crowded and wherever an animal can be seen, there are already some cars around. Moreover, there are not so many animals to be seen. May be we have seen too many nice parks before and it is probably hard to top what we have seen so far. Unfortunately we even cannot stay in the park since all 3000 campsites are fully booked!! So we decide to leave…

Sometimes we feel like being back in Germany…

On our way to the Drakensberge next to Lesotho, we pass an area where a lot of battles took place. One of the most famous sites is the Blood River where they have an interesting display of the battle that took place in 1838.

When approaching the Drakensberge, we notice how much we have missed the mountains in all these weeks! Even the almost unbearably cold night cannot prevent us to stay here for two nights and to make some nice hikes. The good thing of the cold nights is that the campground belongs all to ourselves, even it could host up to 500 people… It’s wonderful to hike, always with the amazing view of the “Amphitheatre”, a 3000 m high mountain range.

But we also are happy to leave, to the hopefully warmer South Coast close to Durban. It is indeed much warmer here, but the first impression is that the real adventurous time of the trip is over. Campgrounds, or as they call them here Caravan Parks, are packed, quite busy and could be also somewhere in the middle of Europe. Probably a good way to get slowly prepared for the return to Germany.

There are a lot of Road Signs in South Africa which make you really think…

We are now 5 months on the road, drove 30.000 km and are still enjoying every moment.

South Africa is a huge country. We drove from Upington to the South Coast 3180 km and it is still a long way to Cape Town.

29.07., Ifafa Beach, a place “even the South Africans don’t know it exists…”

Namibia – Swakopmund to Fish River Canyon (05.07.-15.07.2009)

2009-07-17T14:26:00.001+04:00

Washing too many clothes was not a good idea. When Claudia wakes up in the morning, she cannot move her right arm. After discussing if we should go to Windhoek or to Swakopmund, we decide for Swakopmund, hoping that the warmer climate there will ease the shoulder pain. During the drive to the coast, the landscape changes from savanna with the typical yellow grass and trees and scattered mountain formations to dry desert shortly before Swakopmund. Fortunately, the temperatures rise from 12 to 22 degrees.

We find a nice campground directly at the beach and enjoy the warm temperatures, the sound of the waves and the crying sea gulls. However, after a terribly painful night for Claudia, we think it’s better to see a doctor. The diagnosis is an inflammation of the shoulder muscle which requires to rest the arm in a sling and some medicine. It takes a couple of days until the pain gets less. So, no more clothes washing for Claudia, lucky her!

Swakopmund is said to be more German than any German city. We really can confirm this. In the shops, everybody speaks German, the streets have German names, and the restaurants offer real German food. We feel like home and enjoy the city for a couple of days.

From here, we make day trips to the Skeleton Coast which has its name from the many shipwrecks that can be found along the coast.

We also visit Cape Cross where the biggest seal colony of the world can be found, at times more than 200.000 seals. Already from a distance you can hear their noise and smell them. Nothing for the faint hearted!

On our way to Walvis Bay, Namibia’s main harbor, we are reminded of the start of our trip: huge dunes along the road, but also sandstorm!

After some nice days in Swakopmund, we head for the Namib Desert. Most of the drive is on gravel roads…

Even though the off road tracks are very good, and are even used by 2x4, we witness a car spinning and almost flipping over. We help the shocked English couple to get the car back on the road and to fix the two damaged tires.

We stop for the night in Solitaire, a place in the middle of nowhere, just a gas station, a shop/bar, a bakery and a campground. The next villages are 200 km away. A nice experience, and we like this place.

The next morning starts with two surprises: it’s raining for the first time since months, and 14 km after Solitaire, one of our tires blows up. Fortunately enough, we can stop the car without any problems, but the tire is completely destroyed…

… this driver was not as lucky :-(

One of the highlights in Namibia are the sand dunes around Sossusvlei. The red and yellow dunes are the highest of the world, the highest one - “big mamma” – 325 m! We enjoy climbing some of the dunes like the famous “Dune 45”.

The distance to our next destination is rather long and after a break in Keetmanshoop, we arrive after two days at the Fish River Canyon. This canyon is the biggest of the Southern Hemisphere. We make a walk along the rim and enjoy the breathtaking views down to the river 550 m below. Unfortunately, it’s not allowed to hike down without special permit.

Our last night in Namibia should be the coldest of our trip. When we wake up in the morning, the tent is frozen and the car is covered with an ice crust. So we are looking forward to go to Ai-Ais, the hot springs at the other end of the canyon. But even here it’s not warmer at all and we continue in one shot to South Africa.

Namibia was great, but it would be even better to have done it one or two months later when it’s warmer. We also noticed that the whole country seems to be fenced. Possibilities for wild camping are very limited, but on the other hand, the campgrounds are in very nice locations, there is plenty of them, and they are very clean. We really enjoyed our time in Namibia, but we also look forward to our final and last country: South Africa.

Sunset ….

… and moonset in Namibia.

We drove 4120 km in Namibia.

16.07.2009 Upington – South Africa

Namibia – Caprivi Strip and Etosha (27.06.-04.07.09)

2009-07-06T21:02:00.001+04:00

Finally in Namibia! It seems like arriving in another world. Everything is well organized, easy, and you can buy everything in the wonderful supermarkets! We almost feel like being home, with all the signs in German language, the newspapers in German language! However, it’s also a little like leaving Africa, the real Africa, the adventurous Africa.

After entering Namibia in Katima Mulilo we head for the Hippo Lodge. The campground is closed for renovation and we learn that the area next to the Zambezi River has been flooded for 2 months due to very heavy rainfalls in the North, especially in Angola! So we go to the next campground which is already restored. We like this place a lot, especially because of “Schtompi”, a 2 years old hippo that comes out every night to graze between the tents.

Here we see for the first time a real “braai” area, a place where you can make fire and barbecue. Every campsite has its own area and we spend a nice evening with 2 South African guys at their campfire. They tell us a lot of interesting things about South Africa and Namibia, but unfortunately also the bad news that we are in the middle of the South African school holidays now. And we should feel it from now on! Big crowds of people flood the campgrounds, and we are longing for our quiet places so far. We also can feel the winter now. At night, the temperatures drop sometimes under 0 degrees and that’s only the beginning. Everybody tells us that it is extremely cold the further you get south!!

We follow the very nice Caprivi Strip which used to be synonymous for a dangerous area due to the civil wars in Angola, but now it is completely safe with very nice roads. Here we can cover 200 km in 2 hours what took us sometimes a whole day in the other countries. On the border to Botswana we find a fancy campground directly at the Okavango River. It is famous for its crazy bathrooms which are really funny, but not very comfortable, because every time you try to get rid of your morning coffee, people are already waiting outside with their cameras to take a shot of the funny place…

We pass Rundu and from there we continue south towards Grootfontein. We pay a visit to the real bushmen in Kano Vlei and they show us how to survive in the bush without anything. To make fire, to find water, to find food, to find “medicine”. On the 80 km gravel road to the bushmen we understand at last why they say Namibia has the best off road tracks in Africa. They are better than some of the tar roads in the rest of Africa!

In Grootfontein we really feel like home. We buy real “Apfelkuchen” (apple pie), eat our first “Boereworst” and our first biltong (dried meat) which is simply delicious! Meat here is very good and very cheap. A little outside of Grootfontein we hit by chance a brand new, not yet officially opened campground “bushbaby” on a hunting farm. We are the very first guests there and we are treated like VIPs. We spend a very nice evening with the Danish owners Jan and Ingrid. It is a real highlight to sit on the terrace of their lodge, overlooking their farm and all the animals coming to the waterhole. It is a perfect place and we wish you, Jan and Ingrid, a great opening party and a lot of guests in the future!

From here we continue towards the Etosha National Park. We stop at the Hoba Meteorite, a 50 tons meteorite which hit the earth 80000 years ago. It is world’s biggest meteorite!

In Tsumeb, our car is washed after a long time and we are amazed that it still looks like new… now we are asked even more frequently if we really made this long way from Dubai and more and more people are curious about our long trip.

After a night at “Sachsenheim”, a very “German” campground, we enter the Etosha National Park. Again we are very lucky, because the first animals we see are 2 lions relaxing in the grass. The landscape here in Etosha is as we imagine the real Africa: short yellow grass with some scattered trees here and there. It is really breathtaking. We see a lot of animals and have very nice views of the Etosha Pan, which currently has a lot of water and looks like a very big lake. Our plan is to spend the night in the park, but the campsites are completely booked, already since 1 year! The more we enjoy a very quiet place 30 km after the park on top of a hill, overlooking the Etosha plains. To get some exercise, we make a 10 km hike over the owner’s farm and only see part of this huge farm! And this seems to be a small one…

We plan to stay a little longer in Namibia since we are told again and again that there is a lot of rain and very cold weather in South Africa.

Distances in Namibia are huge and traffic is little, so we drove 1460 km on the best roads and off-road tracks in Africa so far.

05.07.2009 Swakopmund

Zambia (18.-26.06.2009)

2009-06-29T14:40:00.001+04:00

First thing we learn at the border of Zambia: we need a specific car insurance. We also learn that this insurance was also required for Kenya, Tanzania and Malawi. However, we always got away with our Dubai insurance card which is not valid. But nobody cared… even the last day, when we were controlled six times by the Malawi traffic police!

Second thing we learn in Zambia: we need again our spare tires, Zambia welcomes us with a flat tire…

After our first night in Chipata – this time we have no watchdog, but watchhorse and watchchickens – we drive to the South Luangwa National Park. On the 100 km gravel road, the spare tire does a good job, however, when we pass a slower car, we are hit by a stone that makes a crack in our windshield. Once more we are amazed about the traffic in Africa, on the one hand the heavy trucks, that are approaching us with 100 km per hour on these bad gravel roads, on the other hand bicycles transporting wood, charcoal and even living goats!

But we are rewarded for this off-road adventure with one of the best campgrounds so far. After three days we are not quite sure what is better – the campground or the national park! The Flatdogs Campground – flatdogs is the South African name for crocodiles – is located at the banks of the Luangwa River, just opposite the Southern Luangwa National Park. All over the campground there are signs that all animals which can be seen in the park are frequent guests of the campground as well. This might be the reason why some people put their tent up in the trees.

Guests at our campsite are elephants, fighting hippos, who even run over the campground during daytime and also come at night to graze between the tents. The least we like are the aggressive monkeys and baboons who always try to steal our food. When they don’t succeed, they quickly climb the trees and pee down at our tent! The guards warn us not to have any food in the tent and even not visible in the car, since elephants have broken into cars before.

The night before we plan to go to the National Park at 6 am to see the lions, one of the security guards – Kewi – wakes us up at 2 am to show us two very big hippos next to our car. We are quite tired when we get up at 5.30 am to leave for the National Park. Nevertheless, we are completely awake when we see 3 male lions blocking our way at a short distance from the entrance gate. The photos we take are not very clear, we are not sure if it is the early morning’s twilight or our shaking hands… after some minutes they disappear into the jungle… later we learn from the game drive operators that they didn’t spot any lion that day. So we were really lucky!

We make a big tour through the park, spot many animals, and even take a drive through swamps where we can only guess where the track leads through the car-high reed.

From the National Park which is considered one of the best in Africa, we head west towards Namibia. The drive through Zambia is marvelous, in particular we enjoy crossing the rolling hills towards the Luangwa Bridge camp. From this camp we have an amazing view over the Luangwa River which also marks the border to Mozambique.

The next morning we continue to Lusaka, the capital of Zambia. We have a good impression of the city with its wide, tree-lined streets. We also enjoy completing our food supplies in very big and well stocked supermarkets. When leaving Lusaka, we are once more stopped for speeding. The officer claims that we did 10 km/h more than allowed. We are sure that this was not the case and bargain the penalty down from USD 30 to 10. In the evening we check our GPS data on the PC which confirms that we didn’t speed.

As we approach Livingstone, we see a lot of fires in the bush that even come close to the street. It’s surprising that nobody seems to care. At least the high reed along the street is gone which limits visibility. We are always afraid that some animal or human being might step out of this reed just in front of the car and we have no time to react. Fortunately this doesn’t happen.

Finally we reach the Victoria Falls close to Livingstone. On the way to our campground we are cornered by three huge elephants. They come very close to the car and we can not even go back or forth. The oldest of them comes from the side towards the car and in the last moment we can close the window before he is putting his trunk in our car. We are scared since we have heard about elephants who have flipped over cars and destroyed them.

We have have been told that the best time to see the Victoria Falls – one of the 7 nature world wonders - is early in the morning. Getting up early is not a challenge, since we never sleep longer than 6 am, but this time it is different since the temperature is only 1 degree Celsius. It might have to do with the fact that we are 1000 m high and the winter in southern Africa started 3 days ago. Already from the distance, we can see the Vic Falls, which are also called Mosi-oa-Tunya – “The Smoke that Thunders”.

But the early bird catches the worm, and we are the first and only guests at the Victoria Falls when we arrive at 7 am. Good that we didn’t take a shower. The Vic Falls take care of that anyway. We are completely wet, and only later we see that people make a business by renting rain coats and flip-flops. We are rewarded that we have the falls all to ourselves and have some breathtaking views. Narrow valley, rainbows.

We spend a very memorable and impressing morning at the falls, which are the biggest in Africa and are 111 meter high and 1,7 km wide. It is for sure one of the most spectacular shows of the nature we have ever seen and of course one of the highlights of our whole trip!

We camped in Chipata, opposite the Lunagwa NP, Luangwa Bridge Camp, the Moorings Camp – Monze, Bushfront Camp in Livingstone and drove 1740 km.

We got disturbed by a hippo when we wrote this blog, on the Numwi Island Campground at the Zambezi River in Katima-Mulilo Namibia. We hope that didn’t have an impact on the quality of the Blog.

27.06.09

Malawi (12.–17.06.2009)

2009-06-20T20:20:00.001+04:00

Malawi people are said to be the friendliest people in Africa. However, when we arrive at the boarder and the officer asks Claudia “Mama, are you retired?”, we are not sure about it. Maybe they are friendly, but not polite. He tries to recover by explaining to us that in Malawi you can retire after working 20 years, but it still hurts…

Paperwork is done quickly and there even is no visa fee. The road to our first campground in Chitimba is very picturesque, and gives us beautiful views over the huge lake. Lake Malawi is 500 km long and you always have the feeling to be at the ocean.

The Sangilo Sanctuary Campground is our home for the next 2 days. We have a view over the lake and especially the bar at the private beach has a Caribbean-like flair.

When Thomas discovers a not-used and dusty Catamaran, he doesn’t stop until he has convinced Mark – the owner of the lodge – to fix it. He even gives some of his valuable spare parts to make it ready for sailing. Together, they spend half a day fixing the boat. The effort is rewarded with a nice afternoon sailing over Lake Malawi with strong winds. Even “Mama” is enjoying a longer sailing trip.

Like in every campground we have our own watchdog. Samson seems so busy protecting us at night that he sleeps the whole day next to our tent.

We enjoy swimming in the lake and washing our clothes. Thomas calls it world’s biggest washing machine.

We try to make a day trip to Livingstonia, which is said to give a fascinating glimpse into Malawi’s colonial past and also offers a marvelous view over lake Malawi, since it is located in the mountains above.

However, we never arrive there, because the road is extremely bad.

Nevertheless, we enjoy the great view …

…and give a lift to Georgia and Olli, who walked down all the way, only with their flip-flops!

Another highlight for us is the Vwaza Marsh Game Reserve. This park is famous for its huge population of elephants and hippos. Admission to the park and camping are only 18 Euro and we are the only guests. Already while putting up our tent, a herd of over 30 elephants passes by our place. It is not easy to find the campground, since the sign was again destroyed by the elephants!

The only annoyance are the many tsetse flies! Blue and black towels are to be seen everywhere to attract them, but obviously they prefer much more us and our car. While driving, they follow us in huge numbers and since they are big, similar to horse flies, hitting the windows makes a noise like rain drops against the car. Thanks to our chemical weapons we get along without being bitten…

Driving through the park is how we imagined it from TV.

The park lives up to its reputation. We see many hippos in the lake, even from very close distance, and at night they are eating the grass around our tent. Here still without electric fence like in Kenya.

Thanks to Thomas’ adventurous nature we take a different road back to Lake Malawi – off-road! The bridges we have to pass don’t look very trustworthy, but they fulfill their purpose.

Even there are small shops along the road, we enjoy buying at the fruit stands. It’s always funny for the people selling us “small” quantities, since everything is sold by bucket…

We are happy to be back at the lake, at a beautiful campground overlooking the lake in Nkhata Bay.

On our way south, we pass through very big rubber tree forests. It’s interesting to see how they produce the basic material for rubber.

In Nkhotakota, we stop for lunch break in a nice beach restaurant and try for the first time the famous “chambo”, a delicious fish fresh from the lake. It’s really delicious!

We spend our last night in Malawi in Senga Bay, another beautiful campsite at the lake, and the noise of big waves wakes us up in the morning. Again we have the feeling to be at the ocean… another nice sunrise and we are heading to Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, and on the the boarder of Zambia…

We enjoyed Malawi a lot, due to the very friendly people, the good quality of the streets with little traffic, and the beautiful lake and wildlife.

Our trip in Malawi: Karonga, Chitimba, Vwaza Marsh, Mzuzu, Nkhata Bay, Nkhotakota, Senga Bay, Lilongwee, Mchinji and a total of 1000km.

Tanzania (03.-11.06.2009)

2009-06-15T12:58:00.001+04:00

Already 20 km after leaving rainy Kilimanjaro, the rain stops and we enjoy a nice drive towards the Usambara Mountains. Road and traffic are okay. The only surprise is a 3 meters long snake that seems to be killed just recently and we think about having snake-steak for dinner… this wild snake gives wild camping also a different and new meaning!

Since we missed Kilimanjaro, we still are looking for nice mountains and the Usambara Mountains seem to be a good location. They rise 1500 meters above the big plains. From our campground in Lushoto, the Irente Cliff Lodge, we have a stunning view over the surrounding country, and we are enjoying our “Room with a View”. However, the next morning, our hiking plans are destroyed once more due to rain which follows us all the way down to Dar es Salaam. And we thought the rainy season is over! But no day without surprise: we are used to be stopped frequently by the police, however, this time it’s not just to say “jambo” (hello), but for speeding. We really have to pay a fine! 10 Euro with receipt, or 5 Euro without…

Food we can get from the various shops along the road. We enjoy the fresh pineapples, papayas and bananas.

For lazy people they even have the African version of a drive-trough shop.

A lot of transportation in Tanzania is still done by foot.

Dar es Salaam is very similar to Mombasa. Heavy traffic and again a ferry to reach the South Beach. But once more we are rewarded by a Caribbean-like beach in a nice bay. We put our tent next to the white, sandy beach. Everything is perfect, and we enjoy extensive walks on the beach and swimming in the warm water of the Indian Ocean. However, nothing is perfect, and we suffer a lot from the noise of a close-by discotheque which provides sound to the whole bay. This makes it easier to leave this beautiful place, to continue our trip to Malawi.

Wildlife is everywhere, even on the beach.

When we hear that our friend Juan made it safe to South Africa and is flying back to Spain we try again the “Jump”. This one is for you, Juan!!!

During our drive towards Malawi, we are again amazed by the diversity of the Tanzanian landscape. Often it reminds us of certain areas in Germany, hard to imagine that we are in the middle of Africa. But then, when you see a traffic sign, warning of wild animals, and a few minutes later an elephant next to the street, you are quickly back to reality…

Finally we get a chance for a hike in Iringa. We spend 2 days at a remote campsite next to a river. We enjoy a nice hike to the waterfalls and get a first idea of winter in Africa which will start soon. Since we are at 1800 m, even with temperatures in the 20s during the day, temperatures drop quickly with sunset and reach only 7 degrees at night. So we have to go to bed early…

Our last day in Tanzania is another beautiful road through lush vegetation and over high mountains up to 2500 m before it goes down to Lake Malawi.

We enjoyed Tanzania a lot. We always found nice campgrounds - even if it was on the playground for the kids, travel was easy, the people very friendly and we didn’t even miss going to the National Parks.

There is even a camping version for beginners in Tanzania. It offers luxury items as running water and electric light but we are not quite sure about the internet connection.

Our trip in Tanzania went from Taveta at the Kenyan boarder to Marangu, Moshi , Lushoto, Dar es Salaam, Morogoro, Mikumi, Iringa, Mbeya to Mwandenga at the Malawi boarder and covered 1800km.

This blog is done on Lake Malawi in the Sangilo Sanctuary Lodge on 13.06.

Kenya – Nairobi-Mombasa-Kilimanjaro (27.05. – 02.06.2009)

2009-06-05T21:00:00.001+04:00

We still don’t know what happened. So let’s blame our GPS. We wanted to go from Nairobi to Mombasa which is very simple since you only have to follow the Mombasa Highway. But somehow we take an alternative route which takes us along the south side of Mt. Kenya and along the East Tsavo National Park. A nice drive if there wouldn’t have been the last 140 km which turn out to be a very bad off road track. We even cannot enjoy the beautiful landscape with the lots of baobabs, 1000 years old trees. Just when the sun sets, we finally arrive at the Mombasa Highway and settle down in Kibwesi in a “guesthouse park”. We are the only guests and we are discussing who looks more scary: the many monkeys or the lady who owns the place… but at least we are happy – after a long day of driving – that we hit the right road, and tomorrow, driving will be much easier…

We leave early next morning towards Mombasa – this time on the right way, the Mombasa Highway – and enjoy the baobabs, and even a herd of elephants passing along the highway. The highway is much better than its reputation (“highway to hell”). However, the closer we come to Mombasa, the more the traffic increases until it stops completely due to the high number of container trucks from and to the harbor. Later, the road into Mombasa is even blocked by a flipped over truck – by the way the same happens, when we leave Mombasa after three days.

Setting over to south beach with the ferry is very easy and very cheap. Just 60 cent – the cheapest “entertainment” we had so far in Kenya. After 20 km we arrive in Tiwi Beach in the Twiga Lodge where we put our tent right on the beautiful white beach. We enjoy 2 lazy days and explore the southern beaches. We are astonished to see a lot of German signs, a German bakery, beer gardens, and even German newspapers (however, very old). Obviously, a lot of German people settled down here in Diani Beach. It’s amazing that – as usual – we are the only tourists. Is it really only off season or the financial crisis?

Since we absolutely want to have a look at Kilimanjaro, we decide to cross the border to Tanzania close to Kilimanjaro at Taveta. So we take the Mombasa Highway back to Voi and spend a night at the “Red Elephant Lodge” in the garden. The name keeps its promise and we even see elephants coming to the waterhole in the evening. Our last night in Kenya is quiet, but rather hot, and we have to leave early in the morning due to the very high temperatures.

The road to the border is – once more – very rough. Tarmac with big potholes. It’s surprising, because it’s the road leading to Kenya’s biggest and most visited National Park, the Tsavo National Park. After 30 kilometers, tarmac turns into off road, until the border.

The paperwork at the border is done within a little more than one hour, and here we are in Tanzania!

The first nice surprise in Tanzania are wonderful roads, no potholes, no off road, even on secondary roads. The “coffee tree campsite” we chose from our travel guide is located in Marangu, on the slope of Mt. Kilimanjaro. It’s a very lovely place. We are astonished how green it is here. A lot of banana trees, palm trees, etc. The next day, we know why it is so green! Fog, rain, fog, rain, fog, rain, etc. Thanks God we had a short view of the summit the first evening.

Unfortunately it was around sunset, too dark to take photos. Nevertheless, we found some other views of Mt. Kilimanjaro.

We leave this beautiful place in heavy rain, completely soaked, not without having a last look at least at the gate of the National Park, where one of the most used trials to the summit starts.

We noticed in Kenya that marketing/branding is an important issue. The companies probably sponsor the color for the houses!? It makes the villages nice and colorful.

This blog was done in Lushoto in the Usambara Mountains on June 3rd with a marvelous view 1000 meters down over the plains.

Kenya – Rift Valley (20. – 26.05.2009)

2009-05-26T21:39:00.001+04:00

We are leaving the Timau River Lodge for the Rift Valley with mixed feelings since we loved the place a lot. Mr. Wason, the owner, gives us a hint for a shortcut to the Rift Valley. This track will pass by a private ranch where we can see some animals from the road. And so it happens, while driving by the fence of the ranch, we see some rhinoceros.

We climb the mountains to the Rift Valley. On top of the mountain in 2500 meters height, we pay a visit to the Thomson’s Falls, with 80 meters Kenya’s highest waterfall. We take a hike to the base of the fall and notice that the 3 weeks in the car with little exercise have deteriorated our physical condition quite a bit.

On the way down to the Rift Valley the big rain comes. So far we have been lucky since we got little rain even traveling in the rainy season.

In Nakuru we look for a campground and drive to the Nakuru Lake National Park, which is famous for the enormous number of flamingos coming to this place. We have experienced that the parks in Kenya are expensive but here we are told that the fee to enter the park is USD 60 per day & person and for camping they charge another USD 25 per person. In Kenya every outdoor activity seems to cost a lot. The cheapest we have done so far was a 3 hours hike along the base of Mount Kenya which was USD 3 for a guide. So we camp in the garden of the Hyrax Hill Museum for USD 5. Our neighbors are big and lazy turtles collected from this area.

On our way to Naivasha, we stop at Lake Elementaita since we see a lot of flamingos while passing by. We take a walk from the Lodge down to the lake to watch the millions of flamingos. An unforgettable experience. Camping in the garden of this Lodge is wonderful. We can use the swimming pool and enjoy the view over Lake Elementaita. We feel a little like the settlers in the old days who rest after a day of work on their porch and let their view go over their huge estate.

A short drive takes us to Lake Naivasha, where we spend 3 beautiful days. Fisherman’s camp is a nice place on the shore of the lake with big trees and only a few people. As usual we are approached by tour guides who offer overpriced boat trips to see the hippos and the local parks.

At sunset, we are astonished to see a hippo at the boat dock at very close distance. It is strange to read that most people in Africa are killed not by lions but by hippos. When we are ready to go to bed we see a group of 10 hippos just 20 meters from our tent. We can hear them eating and fighting and making strange noises the whole night, until, at sunrise, they disappear back to the lake. What an experience … it’s good that they have installed a little electrical fence to protect the people! Unfortunately the next nights we don’t see them but can hear them in the distance late at night.

We do daytrips to the Green Crater Lake, a private park around a little lake in an old volcano. Again we are amazed how close we can get to these wild animals.

Strange feeling not to be the tallest!

To have a look over the Rift Valley we drive to Mt. Eburu which offers one of the best views over the Rift Valley.

It is hard to leave this beautiful area, which has very nice temperatures, since it is located between 1800 and 2600 meters (and therefore no mosquitoes), offers a great landscape and a lot of small and big animals.

We have decided to go south east from here towards Mombasa at the Indian Ocean.

Our first stop is Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. Originally we didn’t want to stay here in “Nairobbery” (safety seems to be an issue in certain parts of the city). However, when we see the big Toyota shop downtown, we decide on short notice to make our anyhow overdue service. Beside some minor repairs, the car is in a very good shape. We spend the night at “J.J’s”, “Jungle Junction”, a nice campground in one of the better areas of Nairobi. The next day, we enjoy the first big shopping malls and supermarkets since a long time. This gives us the opportunity to complete our supplies. Now it’s Tuesday evening and we are sitting in the living room of J.J’s, waiting the big rain to stop. The first real rain challenge for our tent!!

Our trip through the Rift valley took us from Timau over Nyahururu, Nakuru to Naivasha and on to Nairobi. Roads have been normally good but we have also seen parts with big potholes that often come unexpected.

This blog was completed on the 26.05. and uploaded at J.J’s during the big rain.

Kenya – Marsabit to the Equator (16. – 19.05.2009)

2009-05-22T14:06:00.001+04:00

We are lucky! Jambo! The parts for Juan’s car really arrive Friday at noon. Quickly we bring them to the car repair shop, where they tell us they can fix it in 3 hours… 3 hours become 10, but at least we are ready to leave Saturday morning. At 9 am we leave, however, Juan suddenly discovers he lost his mobile! He wants to go back to town to look for it. So we continue alone – the second 250 kilometers of the “worst road in Africa”… We manage this part of the road in 4 hours and are not sure which part was worse. Corrugation at its best, potholes we have never seen before and more than once we think the car will fall apart. Another traveler said, you can only do this road if you hate your car, and he was right.

We are more than happy to finally arrive in Samburu National Park. We arrive at a perfect time, in the afternoon, when the big animals come to the river to drink. We are overwhelmed to see herds of elephants, giraffes, zebras, etc. And all of this just some meters away from us!

We put up our tent next to the river, and spotting elephant shit all over the place makes us a little nervous! When we sit in the dark, having dinner, we suddenly hear breaking wood, and we discover a huge elephant just some meters away from our tent! Thomas tries to make a photo, which unfortunately didn’t work (maybe due to his trembling hands?).

The next surprise is waiting early next morning. While preparing breakfast, suddenly two monster baboons enter our car! When Thomas is trying to kick them out, they knock over the table, spill the coffee and steal our milk powder. Some meters away they stop, open within seconds the lid and enjoy eating it. Only now we remember that the guards warned us that the baboons even open the tents to find food! But only if nobody is around!?!?!

On our way out of the park, we meet Juan, who arrived late at night and tells us the horror story of his mobile. It has been stolen and it took him and the people in the village half a day to locate the thief and get it back! Nevertheless everything turned out to be fine and we are happy that he also survived the horror road.

Together we continue south to Isiolo and then to the highlands around Mount Kenya. The countryside changes completely since we are over 2000 meters now, and the weather as well. It’s cold and raining. We feel a little like in Germany with all the green and huge grain fields. In Timau, we stop at the Timau River Lodge and like this place so much that we decide to spend the night here. In the end, we stay here for 3 nights.

View from the Lodge to Mount Kenya (5199 m).

Our hot shower is prepared.

From here we go to the Sweetwater Reserve where we see even more big animals.

Our favorite picture during a visit to the open air toilet.

On the way to this park, we cross the Equator three times in one day.

We are surprised how road conditions can change after some rain!

Here in the Timau River Lodge it’s time so say good-bye to Juan, who will head for the coast while we plan to go to the Rift Valley. Unfortunately, we will not see him again, since he is in a hurry and has to be in Johannesburg in 3 weeks. Adios Juan, have a safe trip, hope to see you in Spain or Germany, it was really fun travelling together…

Our route in Kenya so far.

Blog done in the Timau River Lodge on 19./20.05.2009

Kenya – Moyale to Marsabit (11. – 15.05.2009)

2009-05-15T15:27:00.001+04:00

Nakuna Matata!

We are ready and happy to leave Moyale. Like most border towns it has little to offer. When we get up in the morning we are surprised that it is raining. We are told that this is the first rain in months and the local people are happy since there is a shortage of water. We are worried because of the trip ahead of us. The “worst road” in Africa. And we have no other option. It’s the only way to get into Kenya! It also will be strange to drive on the left side – surely that needs some training.

We are at the border and the formalities in Ethiopia – even with another power outage – are done within 45 minutes. On the Kenyan side we immediately notice that everybody speaks good English which makes communication much easier compared to Ethiopia. The Immigration and customs procedures are done within 30 minutes and we are ready to move. At least so we think.

Changing money in a bank turns out to be a challenge. First we have to line up for 20 minutes and then they only accept dollar bills from 2003 and later. Anyway we get some money at the end.

We have been told that there are bandits and attacks on the road to Marsabit and therefore it is necessary to join a convoy. When we stop at the security post and ask the officer he tells us that we can go alone but should take a security person with us for the first 90 kilometers. He wants USD 50 for that but we find out that this price is negotiable. However, since we don’t have a 3rd seat in the car, we talk to Juan. He has been asked by another officer if he could take two security people to Marsabit and they are willing to pay USD 30. Strange world and we decide to go without since we don’t want to carry extra weight on this bad trip.

It is still raining and when we drive out of Moyale, the first minibuses coming towards us are moving right to left on the muddy road. We are getting really worried about the trip ahead of us. Are we one day too late???

The first kilometers are ok and the road is not too bad but then we come to a loamy area. In the distance, we see two trucks blocking the road and at least 50 people who try to push them back to the road and forward. It takes close to an hour to clear the road.

On top of that the road has now 50cm deep tracks (Spurrillen), which are impossible to drive in with our Toyota. So we give it a try and after some spectacular driving maneuvers we manage to pass this 5km stretch of the road.

It is done. We passed the worst mud.

But it even gets worse, the sand and mud is replaced by stones with corrugation(Wellblech) und deep tracks. More than once we hit big stones with the bottom of the car. This is a killer for the car. 250 kilometers and this is only the first half of the road to Isiolo where we will find tarmac roads again.

80 kilometers before Marsabit we meet a Spanish couple which is coming from Nepal (!!) by bicycle (Aitor and Laura). They will need 5 days for this trip and we help them out with water and food. They are travelling since 1 year and 3 months and they tell us this is by far the worst road of their whole trip. When Juan is checking his car he finds that one of his shock absorbers is leaking oil and he has lost its oil reservoir. He decides to go back with Claudia for a little distance to see if they can find it. The unbelievable happens. When they come back after 30 minutes, Claudia spotted the part in this gravel. So we are ready to move again and arrive with sunset at 7 pm at Marsabit. Here Juan sees that he has broken also the second shock absorber!

We find a nice place at Henry’s campground a little outside the village. Henry is a nice Swiss guy who is living here since 30 years! This place is great, we have a nice hut, a pavilion to sit and cook as well as a nice restroom and all this for us alone. We enjoy staying here.

Dinner at Henry’s

Morning exercise at Henry’s with a real Spanish torero

There is water shortage in this area.

The news about Juan’s car the next day is not that great. The shock absorbers are broken beyond repair and new parts need to be ordered in Nairobi and transported to Marsabit. So now starts the long waiting and hoping that the parts will arrive soon. We decide to stay with Juan since we have a nice place and it seems to be better to continue with 2 cars on these bad roads. On top we have to take care of some things after 2 1/2 months on the road. Our car is ok but let’s see how the second 250 kilometers will be.

A highlight is the national park we visit. For the first time we see wild elephants. They are coming at sunset to the beautiful lake Paradise, the last lake that still has some water. The surrounding here is spectacular.

So today is Friday. The parts for Juan’s car are supposed to arrive by plane at 11am. We hope that everything goes as planned and we can leave tomorrow morning for Isiolo.

Only 250 kilometers but so far the most memorable to be polite.

Ethiopia (04. – 10.05.2009)

2009-05-14T14:22:00.001+04:00

Ethiopia… to describe it in three words: very beautiful, very poor, very populated. Travel here is tough, both physically and mentally.

As soon as we pass the border, the landscape, the atmosphere, the buildings change completely. A lot of “bars” (whatever that means) after the border, the beautiful round huts we saw in Sudan are replaced by tin covered huts. Should that be a bad sign? Especially since we arrive in the middle of the rainy season! The landscape is amazing. A lot of beautiful hills and mountains, and – it seems – deserted places. At such a “deserted” place we erect our tent, 100 percent convinced that nobody on earth could discover us. But with the first sunlight, the first “visitors” can be heard around our tent. Within one hour, the whole village surrounds our tent and we have no idea how to arrange our “morning toilet”.

Somehow we succeed and continue our very lovely trip to Gonder. Obviously it is rather difficult to find campgrounds in Ethiopia. A nice place with a fence we shot to camp turns out to be a meat factory. We continue looking for other places and end up sleeping in the garden of the best hotel in Gonder, the Goha Hotel. The place is on top of a hill and offers a fantastic view over Gonder. We enjoy the privacy, just some security guards who are staring at us like animals in the zoo. The whole day we hope to see Juan again, our Spanish friend we left in Khartoum. And thanks to his 12 hours trip from Khartoum to Gonder we meet again and celebrate our being together with some Spanish chorizos.

Going shopping in Gonder is a nightmare. Within minutes we are surrounded by “friends” – the kind you don’t look or ask for – who want to help you and and it is hard to get rid of them. Fortunately, it is better in the other cities. Whenever we take a short break in the countryside we are surrounded, within a few seconds, by kids staring at us or asking - give me food, give me money, give me pen. So having some privacy outside the fenced hotels or campgrounds to enjoy the countryside and attractions of Ethiopia is absolutely impossible.

The next day we visit the Royal Enclosure with its beautiful castles, a World Heritage Site since 1979, before we separate again. Juan decides to go to Lalibela, we prefer the Simien Mountains National Park.

The trip through the Abyssinian Mountains is just breathtaking, however, when we reach the Park Office after 120 kilometers, we have our first flat tire (the first of three within two days). Thomas is changing the tire and the whole village is watching (or is it the whole world?). Quickly back to our nice hotel in Gonder, just to find the next flat tire…

We continue our trip south, direction Addis Abbeba. The roads are wonderful now, but it’s hard to move, because thousands of people and cattle are crossing the streets without looking, and you can’t make many kilometers. But we arrive safely in Bahir Dar, which is said be one of the nicest cities in Ethiopia. It’s really a lovely place with palm-lined boulevards and beautiful lake Tana. And another nice hotel where we can sleep in the garden…however, not a quiet night, since the whole city is watching Chelsea – Barcelona, and people are screaming and shouting and celebrating…

Obama Restaurants & Cafes are all over the place. How will it be in Kenya?

Even we heard that the road to the Blue Nile Falls – a 30 km drive one way - is very bad and that there is not much water in the falls, we decide to go there, and the hard trip is really worth it. Our guide Walalau shows us around and it’s very impressing, even the River Nile has indeed only little water, because of the dry season and the two power plants to which most of the water is deviated. But we are happy to be back to “our” Nile… The price for this lovely adventure is another flat tire!!

But we continue our trip to Addis Abbeba on very beautiful roads. In Debre Marcos we try to find a campground or a hotel, but impossible! In the charity institution of Mother Theresa we are allowed to put up our tent. Immediately we are surrounded by a lot of children, and it makes us very sad and depressed to hear from a sister that all of the 120 orphans living there are born HIV positive… Helping them is fighting against windmills… This night we are very moved and depressed… we get up very early the next morning, but some of the kids are already at our tent and want to know everything…

We continue our trip to Addis Abbeba on very good roads, through really breathtaking landscape. It’s impressing to cross the River Nile for the last time, a very huge gorge, that really can be compared to the Grand Canyon! At noon, we finally arrive in Addis Abbeba and enjoy a cold coke in our nice “Taitu” hotel. As usual, we have a lot of things to arrange, like checking the car with Toyota or finding an Internet Cafe to upload our Sudan Blog. Mission impossible! After some hours looking around we end up in the business center of the Hilton Hotel…

The next morning welcomes us with a very nice surprise: Juan’s blue Toyota is parked next to our car, so he must have arrived at night. Happy to see him again, we head for the “Merkato”, which is said to be Africa’s largest market. It’s nice to look around, but it is wise to take care of your wallet! Even we are very careful, somebody attacks Thomas while he is talking with the taxi driver. Thanks God Thomas’ reaction is very quick and nothing happened.

We continue our trip south towards the Kenyan border. The first 50 kilometers after Addis Abbeba are a nightmare. Lots of trucks and traffic. It’s hard to move. However, after 2 hours, it improves a lot and with sunset we arrive in Awasa, where we plan to spend the night at Ethiopia’s “best campground”. Our GPS leads us directly to a place which is no campground any longer, but the lodge of Petra and Thomas, a very nice German couple with its lovely kids Paula and Josha. They tell us that the owner of the campground left last year and there is no campground any longer in Awasa!! But they invite us to spend the night in their garden. We have a lovely evening with them on their terrace and enjoy their hospitality and a quiet night. Thanks to you, Petra and Thomas, it’s really Ethiopia’s best campground!

The last day in Ethiopia is lying ahead of us! The last 500 kilometers to the Kenyan border. This trip is extremely beautiful. The landscape changes from hour to hour. It’s very green in the Highlands, and later, coming closer to the border, the earth is red, we see a lot of camels and very lovely surroundings. With sunset we arrive in Moyale, the border city, and we find a room in the city’s best hotel (again! – no comment).

We cook in our room – to be on the safe side – and are talking about the next day, the first 250 kilometers in Kenya, a road that is said to be the worst in Africa. Unfortunately – that should be the truth!! But there is no other option, the only way to get into Kenya…

We are always looked at -

… but all of us are kids and you can play with them!

Traffic is slow due to different “obstacles ”.

We drove 2014 kilometers in Ethiopia. The main roads are new and good but nevertheless the average speed is less than 50 km/hour. Once you leave the good roads you find bad gravel roads which are a killer for the tires.

Our Trip trough Ethiopia.

This blog was done on the 13./14.05.2009 in Marsabit (Kenya) waiting for spare parts from Nairobi for Juan’s car.

Sudan (29.04. – 03.05.2009)

2009-05-08T18:54:00.001+04:00

It’s hot in Sudan. Very hot.

The first thing that comes to our mind when looking back to Sudan are the extreme temperatures. We experience temperatures between 44 and 48 degrees during daytime and around 35 degrees at night. We drive – with a few stops for sightseeing - during the day to escape the heat, and sleeping in the tent becomes a challenge, since the tent feels like a sauna. And it is getting worse if there is no wind. Our t-shirts are soaking wet within minutes. Water consumption is extreme so that we have to use every chance to refill our water tanks.

The landscape in Sudan is beautiful. The first hours we feel we are still in Egypt. Exactly the same desert, the same black mountains…and the same lovely River Nile…

Most of the time our journey even follows the River Nile.

We enjoy the many small nice and colorful Nubian villages which we pass.

The 3rd Nile cataract is a real highlight of our trip through Sudan and gives us the chance to go for a swim and a morning bath in the Nile and also to cool down.

Juan, our Spanish friend, is taking a morning shower in the Nile.

The roads in Sudan are amazingly good ….. … but we still have to do a lot of off-road driving.

We even have most of the time mobile phone coverage.

Driving through the Nubian Desert…

The desert along the Nile

There are almost no road signs in the remote areas so that careful trip planning is an absolute must.

Even with all the driving we take our time for lunch breaks …..

… and at night, even with temperatures beyond 35 degrees, we try to have a good meal and relax with a shisha.

Juan spoils us with delicious Spanish food.

And if we don’t cook ourselves we always find a Sudanese “shopping mall” with a nice coffee shop.

The campsites we find are always quiet and in beautiful surroundings.

Beside its beautiful landscape, Sudan has a lot of hidden secrets which need to be discovered, like the pyramids in Karima ...

… and the temple of Mut.

We try to bring some life to these old ruins.

We feel very privileged to travel by car with air-condition if we look at the local transportation in Sudan.

After 3 days we arrive in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital. It offers some nice places like the confluence of the Blue Nile and the White Nile, but after a short visit to this huge city, we quickly head for the desert. Unfortunately, we also have to say goodbye to Juan, since he has to organize some things in Khartoum…
Adiós Juan, we really hope to see you again in Ethiopia!

During the trip from Khartoum to the Ethiopian boarder, the landscape changes completely. We see the first round huts and feel to arrive in the real Africa..

Due to the high temperatures, travelling is quite exhausting in Sudan, but we enjoy every minute. Finally we have to say goodbye to Sudan and the river Nile. We enjoyed the beautiful countryside, as well as the nice and hospitable people.

We drove 1765km in Sudan.

On the 4th of May we are in Ethiopia and are writing our blog on a nice plateau overlooking the surrounding mountains and being watched by a group of local children.
We immediately
find out that being in Africa means always being surrounded by hundreds of children, no matter if you stop for a bite to eat, for taking a photo, for going to the toilet or if you want to write the blog… that’s why our blog is somehow shorter than usual, but it’s hard to concentrate with hundreds of eyes staring at you…

Ferry to Sudan (27.-29.04.2009)

2009-05-02T13:13:00.001+04:00

When we arrive at the port at 10 am (7 hours before departure) we thought we are the first passengers, but there are already hundreds waiting to enter the harbor… It takes 3 hours to arrange all the paperwork for us and the car. We are told that the car can only be loaded on a separate barge, after all the other luggage is stored, that means again waiting waiting waiting… we find a small “coffeeshop” where we have at least some shade, but still the temperature is 35 degrees.

The group of passengers with cars and Mr. Mahmoud from the harbor.

At 4 pm, we finally enter our 1st class cabin. 1st class is a big word for a small and very basic cabin. After seeing the toilets, we decide not to eat or drink the next 24 hours… Mr. Salah from the shipping company pays us a last visit in our cabin. Bye bye Mr. Salah, and thanks for everything, everything was perfect and worked as planned!

At 5 pm, the 3 cars are loaded, and half an hour later, the barge and the ferry are ready to leave for Wadi Halfa, the port in Sudan. We are supposed to arrive the next day around noon, the cars one day later. Let’s hope and see…

We immediately notice that “hand luggage” has a completely different meaning in Africa: toilets, refrigerators, treatmills, airconditions, all kinds of furniture, etc. there is nothing we don’t see! And that is only the hand luggage, the real luggage went with the barge. It’s hard to move around because of all the people sleeping, eating and the luggage on deck. But after all, the scenery is really nice and we enjoy the talk with the others as well as a beautiful sunset.

At 6.30 am, shortly before sunrise, we pass Abu Simbel. Unfortunately, the light is not yet good enough, that’s why we put also a photo from a previous trip…

At 10:30 am, we arrive in Wadi Halfa, but we have to stay another 2 hours on board to finalize again our documents. Once we leave the ferry, thanks to Mr. Magdy from the shipping company, customs and transportation to the village is done quickly and we check in in the “best hotel in town”. We extend our decision not to eat and drink another 24 hours…

We spend a relaxed day, sitting in front of our hotel, talking with Juan, a very nice Spanish guy we already met in Assuan and who is planning to make the same trip, however, in 6 weeks! We liked each other from the first moment and decide to make the trip through Sudan together. Suddenly, at 6 pm, we get a call from Magdy that the barge has arrived in the harbor. Not only we are surprised but also Mr. Magdy since the barge is 12 hours early and that never happened before. Maybe it helped to offer the captain of the barge a good tip if he brings the cars safe and in time to Sudan.

So we leave right away to the harbor to get the cars off the barge. A little tricky activity since the ship is 50 cm higher than the dock. We manage it somehow with the help of the captain and within an hour we are back to our hotel for a good night sleep in our luxurious hotel room.

The next day starts early, 8:30 am, since we have to pass customs with the cars. Also this exercise is done amazingly fast and within an hour we are ready to leave Wadi Halfa to explore Sudan.

Egypt – Cairo to Aswan (20. – 26.04.2009)

2009-04-26T16:30:00.002+04:00

Please note that you can expand the pictures by double-clicking

The almost three weeks in Munich were wonderful, but we are very happy to be back in Cairo! The car is still here, however, the battery is empty. So it was really a good decision to have a second starter battery with us. Better to do a live test here than in the desert! The next surprise is that some insects – while we were away – felt very much at home in our sleeping bags and left as a present some hundreds of small eggs!!! So our first way leads us to the laundry to make sure that we are not travelling with an army of who-knows-what…

After our experience at the Mogamma (here finally a photo of the building with the hundreds of windows) we are positively surprised that we get the visa for Sudan and Ethiopia within 24 hours each. The people are extremely friendly and helpful. The only problem was that the addresses in the travel guides were wrong, so we made our own Cairo marathon – and all this with 35 degrees. But at least we can leave Thursday, as planned, to Upper Egypt.

To escape the hassle going with a convoy along the Nile, we decide to take the lovely road along the Red Sea Coast. With every kilometer south, the temperature as well as the wind increases. In the mountains behind Hurghada, we find a nice place for our tent, where even the wind calms down, but not the temperature. We get a good night sleep and continue our way to Marsa Alam, the southernmost point we reach on the Red Sea. From there we continue to Edfu on the Nile river and on to Aswan.

A coffee shop on the way to Edfu. Cheap, cheap…

We have been to Aswan five years ago, and still it’s the same nice and relaxed place it has been before. One of the most beautiful places all over Egypt! Here we get a first taste of Africa, not only due to the Nubian influence, but also due to the 42 degrees in the shadow! Even the strong wind, which feels like a hot hair dryer, doesn’t give any relieve. It’s getting even worse at night as it only cools down to 35 degrees. And all this in a tent without air condition! We feel like chicken in the oven.

The next morning, we are ready for the big challenge – getting a space for the car and us on the ferry to Sudan. We read a lot of horror stories about this trip in the Internet and are prepared for the worst! Mr. Salah of the Nile transportation cooperation gives us the last 1st class cabin (we will give an update later what 1st class means here). We also get good instruction how to get the paperwork for the car done which means going to the Police Traffic Court and to the Traffic Police. We are very proud that we can finish everything on our own and in the same time as other European travelers having their local friends with them. After three hours, everything is done.

Making copies for the police

When we ask Mr. Salah if it’s allowed to take photos in the port, he mentioned that we even should take pictures of our car. We still don’t know if he said it because we will not see our car again or in worse shape. A first impression of the situation in the harbor we get from a picture in his office. Tomorrow we will know more when we have to be there at 10 am (even the ferry leaves at around 5 pm). According to the “schedule”, we will arrive in Wadi Halfa 24 hours later, and our car, which is going by barge, 48 hours later. Let’s hope and see…

Here some photos of lovely Aswan:

The trip from Cairo to Aswan was 1.400 kilometers, total since departure from Dubai 12.900 kilometers.

Germany (01. – 19.04.2009)

2009-04-18T21:55:00.001+04:00

We finally leave Cairo after we have been informed that the ship with our container arrived in Hamburg on March 30th. So everything should be ready to get our goods to Munich.

Obviously, we brought the good weather to Germany. For the next 2 1/2 weeks, we have sunshine and temperatures you’d rather expect in May.

That makes the visit of our parents/parents-in-law a pleasure and gives us the chance for some hiking in the mountains.

Even unpacking our things is much nicer while the sun is shining. We are very happy that the container arrived Thursday before the long Easter weekend. So we are busy with unpacking and refurnishing our flat. Nevertheless, we find the time to see a lot of friends.

Now it’s time to say good-bye to wonderful Germany and to return to Cairo, where – hopefully – our car is still waiting for us.

The first couple of days we plan to organize our visa for Sudan and Ethiopia and hope that we are able to leave for Assuan by the 23rd of April.

Egypt – Mogamma and Sinai (22. – 31.3.2009)

2009-04-12T10:14:00.024+04:00

“Go to window 40… go to window 38… go to window 20… go to window 37… go to window 18… go to window 40… come back in 4 days…” That’s what we were told at the Mogamma (the biggest government building in Egypt with 40.000 employees) when we went there before our trip to Siwa (Oases Trip).

“Go to window 38… go to window 18… go to window 20… go to window 40… go to window 18… go to window 37… come back in 4 days…” That’s what we were told when we came back after 7 days… and that’s the moment when we are about to give up our plans to stay longer in Egypt. But we have to extend our visa, so that we can extend our car license. And all of that because the bloody container from Dubai still didn’t arrive in Germany!

After complaining and several discussions we are lucky to find a very friendly officer who promises us to make it in 1 day instead of 4 days…

So we come back the next day – we find our way to the Mogamma now with closed eyes, ready for another “go to window…”, but after waiting 3 hours, we have our visa extension and are ready now to go to the customs at the airport, to extend our car license, which seems to be the real challenge. But the next day, with the help of Thomas’ colleagues, we can finish the issue very quickly and for a tenth of the charges described in the travel guides, and are happy that everything came finally to a successful end. (It would have been nice to have pictures of the windows but it is forbidden to take photos in Egyptian government buildings).

Our flight to Germany was already postponed twice, so we keep the departure date March 31st, and are happy that we have one more week in Egypt. This time we go back to Sinai, hoping to make some hiking in high Sinai.

Pharaon/Coral Island, a famous dive spot close to Taba

Hilton Taba

Our short trip leads us first to Taba at the Gulf of Aqaba, directly at the Israeli boarder. That’s where we spent our very first Christmas and New Year after arriving in

Egypt

5 years ago… we go to all the places we went five years ago, like the wonderful coloured canyon, or Nuweiba.

It's time to lose some weight

Feeling strong enough to face the cold temperatures in High Sinai, we continue to Saint Catherine. We spend the first night in the Blue Valley, a part of the desert where, back in 1980, a Belgian artist painted some rocks with 10 tons of blue colour. We don’t know if the blue colour makes it appear even colder or if it’s the constant wind, but we spend one of the coldest evenings and nights until now.

Hoping to get a little warmer while hiking, we start the next morning to climb Mount Sinai. But the higher we get, the colder the wind is blowing and shortly before the summit (2285 meters), we have to go back, since we have the feeling to hike at Mount Everest, at least temperature-wise… But we love the mountains there and the atmosphere. So we decide to look for a warmer spot for the night which we find 1000 metres down between Saint Catherine and the Read Sea.

The summit of Mount Sinai

The normal tourist takes the camel to the top

St. Catherine's Monastery at the foot of mount Sinai, where 22 Greek Orthodox monks are living.

From there it’s just another 300 kilometres and we are back “home” in Cairo, where we are very happy that our lovely friends Anne and Hans offered us to stay with them until our departure… we spend two wonderful days with them and are really very happy that we can leave with them all our things and especially our car, while we are in Germany. DANKE, DANKE, Anne and Hans, we really don’t know who would have been so generous and patient with all our things and tons of sand we carried in your beautiful villa…

During our short trip through Sinai we drove 1344 km and 11511 km since the start of the trip in Dubai.

Egypt – the Oases (16. – 21.3.2009)

2009-04-05T17:06:00.030+04:00

It is not an easy decision where to spend the 5 days until our next appointment at the Mogamma, since all places in Egypt are wonderful, we want to be everywhere at the same time. But after some discussion, we decide to go to the white desert. We went there often before, but we still love it. So we leave to Baharyia, the first of the 4 oases on the way to Luxor.

Nothing changed over the last years in this lovely laid back oasis. As usual, we go to our old “popular restaurant” to have tea, it is as if we came here two weeks ago, not two years ago (Andrea and Markus: still “mafish cappuccino innaharda”). It’s a lovely place, where everybody has to pass by, and we meet two guys from South Africa who make the same trip as us, but are already on their way to Assuan… they tell us it took them a whole week to get their car out of the customs in Cairo, which makes us very suspicious about what is still lying ahead of us. Some more visits to the Mogamma and to customs???

Later we put our tent exactly at our old place in the desert – it’s like coming home. And even though we were “spoiled” over the last 2 weeks with good food and hotel luxury, we enjoy the life in the desert immediately…

We were always dreaming of crossing the desert from Siwa (very close to the Libyan boarder) to Baharyia, which always failed due to the missing permission from Cairo. This time we find out that it’s possible to make it in one day, if we get the permission in Baharyia. Again permission, documents, papers… In deed it costs us some patience and long hours of waiting (but we are experienced now after our visit at the Mogamma), but finally, late at night, we are informed that we get the permission! We just have to go with 2 other cars and a policeman – due to security reasons. The next morning we arrive at the meeting point 30 minutes too early, German as we are… the other two cars arrive late and when, after 1 ½ hours, the policeman still doesn’t have any idea where to sit in the 3 completely full cars, we are allowed to leave without police.

Reading about the trip in the travel guides, it sounds like travelling through hell, no road, in the middle of nowhere, very difficult… but in the end, the 420 kilometres are not that bad.

We enjoy the trip and the company of the others and finally understand why it’s important to have TWO spare tires: one of the other Toyotas has 3 flat tires at the same time and he is more than happy about our equipment. He even tries to use one of our spare tires, which turns out to be too big, and the car looks like limping, but at least we make it to the next break…

Exactly when the sun sets, we arrive in Siwa and are so happy that we finally made this trip that has been a dream during the last years. Looking for a place to camp we learn that it needs another permission (!!!) to enter the desert. Permission, permission, permission, permission… Not being in the mood for another permission, we head for the desert in the dark and put our tent just somewhere – it’s always funny and interesting to wake up in the morning not knowing where… it happened to us before that we were sleeping in the middle of a street. But this time it’s nice to wake up with a lovely view over Siwa.

We spend the day in Siwa, the weather is not very nice, but we enjoy the old city, the nice coffee shops, Cleopatra’s bath and the atmosphere which is very special. You almost see no car, just donkeys and bicycles. It’s as if time stood still over the last 100 years.

Unfortunately, we cannot go back to our place in the evening, since another sandstorm came up and we have to hide between the palm trees to escape the worst. So we spend the second night surrounded by trees, and the shaking trees make a scary noise during the whole night.

When we leave the next morning to the north coast (the Mediterranean Sea), it’s still stormy, but the sky is blue and we arrive in Marsa Matrouh after 3 hours of driving on the most boring road in the world. 300 kilometres without any turn, without any tree, just straight ahead – and only 90 km/h are allowed!

We eat some fresh grilled fish and seafood in Marsa Matrouh and continue in the direction of Alexandria. When we are looking for a place to sleep between the sand dunes, a police car is following us, blocking our way, and 4 policemen jump out of the car, pointing at us with their Kalashnikovs. First we think that is the end now, but after explaining to them that we are no drug dealers coming from Libya, they let us go, but don’t allow us to stay in the desert, since they claim it’s too dangerous.

But 50 kilometres later, we give it a second try and find a nice place close to the sea. The wind is still so strong that we are happy to find an old little stone hut that protects us from the storm. Immediately a farmer family comes to say hi and brings us fresh baked bread and we spend a nice time talking with them.

On our way to Alexandria, we finally visit the Military Museum of the 2nd world war in El Alamein, which gives a good overview about Rommel’s battle in 1942. We are also shocked by all the new hotels that are built along the north coast, as well as by the ones being already dilapidated…

We think all the gear which we use today when going in the desert was invented at that time.

It was a lovely trip but nevertheless we are happy to be back in Cairo, in the same little hotel in Maadi, hoping for the next day to finally get our visa extension at the Mogamma…

So fare we drove 2993 km in Egypt, which brings us to a total of 10166 km since we left Dubai.

Egypt – Friday morning with the guys

2009-03-23T17:48:00.010+04:00

Friday morning in Cairo meant always to meet with a group of guys to go for a motorcycle ride in the desert. Meeting point was the house of Marc in Sakkara located next to the desert.

When I called Marc, for the first time after 18 month, I was happy to hear that the group still meets on Fridays for the desert ride. Marc invited me to come over and join them on the Friday trip. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my motorcycle cloths with me but Marc offered me to use his Quad and Zaki gave me a helmet. So I was ready to go.

I came like always early and Marc’s place filled quickly with cars and motorcycles. I was happy to meet some old friends and also to see a lot of new faces. After a coffee the “Sakkara KTM Club” left for the desert. We had a perfect morning in the desert and I realized how much I had missed these Friday mornings in the last two years.

Thanks Marc to let me use your High Performance Quad. It was first time for me (I don’t know if I told you before) and a of lot fun too. I hope we can repeat this once more while I am in Cairo and good luck to all of you.

Egypt - Sharm-el-Sheikh & Cairo (01.-15.03.2009)

2009-03-22T19:19:00.035+04:00

"Welcome to Egypt!" These well-known words will follow us during our whole trip through Egypt. Everybody seems to know these words, even those who don’t speak English. After the time-consuming and complicated immigration procedure we are finally on our way to Sharm el Sheikh, the main touristic area on the Sinai Peninsula. The drive through the mountains in the morning light is breathtaking and we notice that a lot of money has been spent to improve the roads. After all these long weeks in the tent we have planned to stay at the Hilton Sharks Bay resort, a very nice hotel where we have been before.

We enjoy the very nice hotel and our wonderful suite and get a lot of things done in the town like washing our clothes, taking care of our blog, calling all our Egyptian friends, just relaxing at the wonderful pool and enjoying the delicious food. After driving 8000 km it’s also time to do the service for the Toyota. “Welcome to Egypt” – this also means our first flat tire since 8000 km, but it turns out to be a loose valve, which is quickly fixed and the tire is inflated with our compressor.

After 5 relaxing days (unfortunately 3 of them have been very windy and cold), we leave for Cairo. Saying good bye to Sharm is not easy. We have enjoyed the great hotel with the extremely nice and helpful staff as well as the fact to have great food without sand in it. Nevertheless, our blog is called “through Africa” and after 6 weeks on tour, we are eager to leave Asia and cross to Africa which we do through the tunnel under the Suez Channel.

Cairo welcomes us with light traffic due to the fact that it’s Friday. Quickly we find our way to Marianne Morsi in Maadi, a very nice German lady who rents a room in her flat. We enjoy her warm hospitality and really can recommend this nice accommodation. Maadi is a lovely suburb of Cairo close to the Nile. This is not the real Cairo, since it is very clean, green, organized and quiet. A lot of beautiful shops and restaurants etc. can be reached by foot. It turns out to be also the perfect place for Thomas to reach his former dentist since after eating delicious peanuts, he lost a part of a tooth due to cavity and has to see him a couple of times. Delicious peanuts, but expensive!! This incidence is unbelievable, since he had been to the dentist in Dubai on the 24^th of December 2008 for a final check-up to prevent exactly this from happening during the trip. “Welcome to Dubai”.

We thought there should be no Cairo Blog without some pictures from the Giza Pyramids.

We spend a lovely time in Cairo seeing a lot of friends and visiting touristic sites in Cairo which we had never visited before or for a long time. We have an exceptional view over the city from the Cairo Tower.

But the real highlight is a visit to the old Islamic Cairo around Khan el Khalili, the historic bazaar in Cairo. During our many previous visits to it, while living in Cairo, we noticed that renovations of old buildings had started, now we see that a very good job has been done. We are happy that our friends bring us there at night, and we are overwhelmed by the beauty. A part of this area has become a pedestrian area and everything has been not only renovated, but is also very nicely illuminated. We walk for a couple of hours, enjoying the feeling how beautiful Cairo must have been in the past. We are the only tourists, lucky to have these wonderful friends who know this place and show us around. A delicious dinner in the excellent traditional Naguib Mahfouz restaurant makes this night perfect and unforgettable. Thanks a lot to our dearest friends Nasser and Hala for this extraordinary night we surely will never forget.

Unfortunately, the plans for our trip are getting upside down. Our container from Dubai seems to be lost between the oceans. We have to extend our Egyptian visa and the temporary car licence now, which seems to be a real challenge. We have to go to the “Mogamma”, the huge government building that even plays a role in the cartoon “Asterix and Obelix”. Thanks god we don’t have to carry big stones like Obelix while being sent from window to window, until, after 3 hours, we are told to come back in 4 days! We decide to use the waiting time to make a trip to the desert. The evening before leaving we have a nice dinner in Helwan, in the Tata restaurant we know from our old times. It’s a small and simple restaurant with the best shrimps and calamari one can imagine. We even meet Claudia’s friends from Helwan and spend a lovely time with them talking about the good old days.

Jordan (18.-28.02.09)

2009-03-03T22:44:00.027+04:00

Jordan welcomes us with a very cold morning (-1 C°). We go directly to the German Theodor Schneller School in Amman which seems to have the only campground in Amman. Victor, the housekeeper, tells us that the campground is still closed until April, but offers us a room in the school’s guesthouse. The room is very basic and cold, but at least it offers us hot shower and a bed and – very important – free internet! Since it’s still early, we decide to go downtown by taxi and get a first impression of the city. After waiting 15 minutes for a taxi we simply enter the next local minibus which is a nice experience. After changing once, we even reach exactly our destination, the Roman Theatre, and we are proud that we made it! We have an extensive look at the Theatre, the Citadel and the bazaar. Coming home, Victor surprises us with an electrical heater in our room and the bad news that rain and even snow is expected for the next days. The next day, Friday, we have another tour through Amman, this time with our own car. It’s really a very nice city and we enjoy especially the bazaar which offers absolutely everything…

The next morning we wake up from the sound of rain and find already a small lake in our room. We pack the car and leave for the Dead Sea. While going there, the rain intensifies and mixes with hail. Unfortunately, we can’t see the beautiful countryside, but at least it’s much warmer down at the Dead Sea. We decide to continue going south, hoping the weather would improve. It’s very impressive to see normally dry wadis turning into torrents. The dark sky gives it a dramatic touch. Further south, the rain stops, but is replaced by another sandstorm, so we end up at the Red Sea in Aqaba. After sunset, we find a nice campground close to the beach. The only other guests are two couples from Braunschweig, Thomas’ hometown. Thomas has almost tears in his eyes (we had a long discussion about this remark…)

The next morning, when we have a look at the local newspaper, we know that we took the right decision (snow in Amman!). The more we enjoy a really lovely day in Aqaba (this time it’s Claudia with tears in her eyes, looking over to Egypt and not being there yet).

Since we changed our plan upside down, we have to extend our car insurance which turns out to be a very big challenge. The insurance company in Amman tells us to go to the licence department in Aqaba. When we ask the tourist information office, they tell us we can do it in an insurance office around the corner. There they tell us (and all this in Arabic!) to go to the harbour, where they send us from one gate to the other. At the end, we even convince the security officers to let us in without an extra permit. After 2 hours, we arrive at the right office, but the insurance officer is sound asleep behind his desk!! With the help of some other employees, we wake him up and finally get our insurance extension within five minutes…

Finally we can go to our next destination, Wadi Rum, a very impressive landscape with red rocks, desert and millions of tourists! Shocked about all these masses of tourists, we quickly leave the visitor centre and find a camping spot in a completely empty part of the desert. We are sure to be outside the protected area of Wadi Rum, but the next morning a park ranger tells us we are just inside the park (500 metres).

So we buy an official permission to visit the park, which is really worth seeing.
Back at our campground Thomas finds his destiny: every herdsman who passes by with his sheep or goats or camels gets a free tea or coffee. We get the feeling the word of this new desert cafeteria spreads quickly, since more and more Bedouins are passing by. We enjoy a lot their company. Even the goats love our place and come to drink our dishwashing water…

But anyhow, the next morning we close the coffee shop and leave for Petra…

The trip to Petra is already breathtaking. A steep road climbs up to the mountain range and follows it all the way to Petra. Again and again it offers marvellous views. Finding a campground is not easy in Petra. The only one is under maintenance and closed. We find a Bedouin camp which is rather crowded and we are afraid of their entertainment program at night. So we prefer to hide between the rocks above Petra, since wild camping around Petra is forbidden. Our place is at 1400 metres, so it gets really cold and at 7 pm we are already in our sleeping bags. The next morning it’s not easy to leave the tent early morning with temperatures around 0. But we want to arrive in Petra before 8 am, when all the tourist buses come.

Petra is chosen as one of the seven world wonders and is without doubt Jordan’s most valuable treasure. It’s a waste unique city, carved into the cheer rock face by the Nabataeans more than 2000 years ago. The day in Petra is very impressive, but very tiring as well. We walk around, look at all the major attractions, climb mountains and even the 950 stairs to the Monastery from where we have a wonderful view. At the end we walked 16 kilometres and are completely exhausted when we leave Petra in the late afternoon. We are very happy to arrive at our old campground in Wadi Rum, and the next morning from there to Aqaba, definitely our last station in Jordan. We are surprised to hear that the day after we left Petra, the road we took from Petra was closed due to heavy snowfall! So we escaped exactly at the right time!

We had decided not to write always about the weather, but especially in Jordan this plan doesn’t work! Back to Aqaba, another heavy storm which made us change even our trip to Egypt. In the morning, we go to the harbour to get the speed ferry to Nuweiba at 1 pm. We are told they will not take cars today due to the rough sea and we have to take the slow ferry at midnight! We could understand that for the day before, but today, the sea is flat like a mirror and we cannot imagine that the weather is different in Nuweiba which is only 60 km away from us. So we wait another 3 hours, still hoping they change their mind. But without success! We come back to the harbour at 6 pm, buy our tickets, and wait again… at 9 pm our car is loaded to the ferry and after waiting another 4 hours we finally leave at 1 am. When the ship leaves, the sea became really rough, and the ferry takes 4 hours to Nuweiba (the speedboat would have taken only 1 hour). Sleeping is impossible in an overcrowded restaurant with hundreds of people listening to their mobiles, having loud discussions, and children running around the whole night…

We are happy to enter shore in Egypt at 4.30 am. We are very positively surprised to have our Egyptian visa within 15 minutes, without any waiting time. But fortunately, we didn’t know what is lying ahead of us… we drive our car to customs like the other (only) 9 cars. The customs officers do only a rough check of our car, all others have to totally unpack their cars. So we assume that we should be out within one hour. But now we find out that the customs office for the paperwork is not open yet and we have to wait another 2 hours! When finally the customs officers arrive, we find out that the insurance agents will only come later… And all this waiting in a very cold and windy weather (again the weather). At 9 am we finally leave the harbour after 4 ½ hours and are happy to be finally in Egypt.

Even with the mixed weather, we had a great ten days in Jordan. We really enjoyed the spectacular nature as well as the very friendly people we met, especially in the desert and mountains. We covered 1400 km and endless hours walking.

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (16.02. - 18.02.2009)

2009-02-20T22:29:00.021+04:00

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. When reading various Travel Guides it is often referred to as the forbidden Kingdom, since getting a visa as an individual tourist is hard. Claudia started calling the Saudi embassy in the mid of November but it was nearly impossible to reach anybody. We found out that the reason is the upcoming Hajj. So we decide to visit them late December when the busy time is over. The embassy in Dubai is an impressive complex. We reach it a few minutes before 12 but at a wrong gate. When the guard hears that we are German he calls the visa office and announces us since they close at 12. We will notice again and again that being German makes things easier in this part of the world. After entering the visa department and a 45 minutes wait we talk to one of the office stuff to find out what documents are required. We don’t understand right away what we need to bring so the guy seems to get tired and gives us a telephone number to call for additional information. It turns out to be a visa agent. When visiting their office we are told which documents to bring and that we need to have a Jordan visa before we can apply for the Saudi visa. Moreover, we are informed that the easiest is to get a 3 days transit visa. A tourist visa for a longer time would require an approval from the Ministry of Interior for Claudia and that can take time!! To cut it short, we decide for the transit visa and after a visit to the Jordan embassy and some additional visits to the visa agent we get the visa within 7 days. This is a real relief, since the only other way to get to our next stop Egypt would be through Iran.

So now we are approaching the Saudi border. After being told by friends that it is absolutely forbidden to bring in magazines with indecent dressed people, pork or alcohol and that they ask you to offload the content of the complete car we get prepared. We started the evening before to censor with a black marker our German magazines, and there is a lot to cover, and Thomas even considered emptying his after shave. Like often things that seem complicated are much easier than anticipated; within 45 minutes we have cleared the UAE border and have our Saudi stamp and car insurance. Customs only had a brief look at our cooler. No searching the car. Nothing!!

So - here we come Saudi Arabia. It is cloudy, a flat desert and the first buildings we see, a gas station with some shops, look like from the fifties but not maintained since then. So not the golden streets we expected and fancy buildings. Traffic is little and the highways are well maintained. As we continue our journey the roads get worse, big potholes, and often 2 lanes are closed for rebuilding the street. When we approach Damman traffic increases and we see the industrial backyard of Saudi. Not really a nice sight. As we continue the desert transforms and looks more than a light green savannah with tents of bedouines and their camel and sheep flocks in the background. With the increasing wind and dropping temperature it reminds us of pictures of Mongolia. We find a spot for our tent off the highway before the wind increases even more and thunderstorms with light rain start. Now we understand why they sell woollen galabayyas with a fur inside in the shops we passed. The next morning when we get up after a stormy night the thermometer shows -2 degrees.

The second day around noon a sandstorm starts and the visibility goes down to 100 meter maximum and we have to decrease speed to 80km/h since the automatic goes constantly in kick down mode. Shortly before dawn the wind gets less and we go off the road and set up our tent. We prepare for a windy and cold night. After 10 minutes sand is everywhere in the car as well as in the tent. The temperature drops quickly and at 7 pm we are already in bed. Luckily a little later the wind stops and we have a nice but cold night.

The next morning, we wake up under a blue sky and -2 degrees. We enjoy a coffee without sand for the first time in days and the warm sun.

The last 600 km of our 2000 km journey are covered within 6 hours and we approach the Jordan Border at 4 pm. Procedures are similar to the ones entering Saudi but require a little bit more running around and paperwork on the Jordan side. Due to a lot of cars and the hassle to change money and not to get a bad deal it takes two hours and we are in Jordan. Finally Claudia can change back to the normal dress code.

In the three days in Saudi we drove 1946 km and have seen desert, gas station, desert, gas station …..

By the way, thanks to all of you for your nice comments in our blog and via e-mail. It's always nice to hear from you and it's a big motivation to continue as well. Writing the blog is not as easy as we thought, since during daytime it's too bright for the computer, at night it's too cold or windy. So working on the blog is limited to the few hours we spend in hotels...

United Arab Emirates (09.02. - 15.02.2009)

2009-02-20T21:11:00.024+04:00

The few days in the UAE made us love this country even more. Of course it’s due to our lovely stay with our friends who “pampered” us in every aspect. We arrange a couple of things with banks, visa issues, some shopping and just enjoying… Claudia becomes sentimental and it’s not easy to make her leave the Ibn Battuta Mall, a place she visited a hundred times before, all of a sudden realizing that it’s such a wonderful place… But after 2 days we finally leave, with not only one crying eye… Connie tries to convince us to stay, but if we don’t leave now, we don’t want to leave at all…

On our way south to Abu Dhabi, the temperature reaches 34 degrees, which makes us a little nervous: will we be hit by a sandstorm? Hopefully not, because we are going straight ahead of Rub al-Khali, the Empty Quarter, the biggest sand desert in the world.

On our way to Liwa, we pass by a fancy and crazy automobile museum. A rich Sheikh from Abu Dhabi has a collection of more than 200 cars, all the old cars from the first minicooper, the first Hummer, Toyota, Beetle, a rich collection of old offroad cars up to the biggest pickup truck in the world (Dodge). Normally the museum is open only on weekends, and today is Wednesday, but Shami Kumar, a very friendly and helpful Indian, lets us in through the back door, and a little bakshish even makes him show us the inside of the big Dodge: a big apartment with 4 bedrooms, kitchen, living room, bathrooms, absolutely incredible and crazy. And this truck was even able to drive, which it did for 29 kilometres! It’s really worth to visit the museum, even for people who are not interested in cars at all (like Claudia).

Only a few kilometres after the museum, we find a nice campsite between the sand dunes and are happy that the weather is absolutely quiet and nice. As we enjoy sitting in front of our tent, all of a sudden the storm comes! We cannot believe it! Within seconds, a very bad sandstorm is hitting us. We have to flee into the tent, where we find already little sand dunes. We are lying in our sleeping bags, watching how we are more and more covered by the sand. The wind is very strong and the next morning we hardly can believe the tent is still in an upright position. The weather is bad, still stormy, no visibility at all. Quickly we pack our things. Everything is full of sand (and we left Dubai soooooo clean!!). We hardly can see 50 metres and all of a sudden, like a Fata Morgana, 40 camels are standing around us. Five minutes later they are disappeared. Like a dream. The herdsman passes by and tells us that this is only the beginning, the storm will increase! How much we love him for these "good news"!!

On our way to the Liwa oasis, we almost see nothing, driving with light is required to be seen by other cars. After a lot of looking around for a quiet place, we finally find shelter for the day and the following night behind a nice farm where trees protect us against the storm. In the evening, two nice guys from Bangladesh, who run the farm, give us an insight of what they plant, invite us to their house which is just one room. They are very proud to show us an English DVD and after “enjoying” their hot milk, we leave and spend a very quiet night. Thanks God! The next morning, the wind is almost over, but we and the car are still full of sand.

Finally we can entry the Empty Quarter and find a truck road, leading us from Hameem south, through the enormous sand dunes. It’s a really breathtaking trip, and at the end we even hit the border to Saudi Arabia. Long kilometres of fence with barbed wire and a service road with tarmac! We didn’t think that we would come so close to Saudi Arabia! On our way back, we climb a 200 metres high sand dune. It’s not easy to climb, but going down is fascinating. Unfortunately the air is still full of sand which makes it difficult to take photos. To all our friends in Dubai: you absolutely have to come here! It’s a MUST. Even if you don’t leave the track, you see amazing dunes, however, good weather is a precondition. The next day we find another very beautiful road from Liwa city south to the Moneeb dunes. Amazing! The best we ever saw! It’s hard to leave the Empty Quarter, especially because the weather is finally nice now… On our way to Ruweis we spend another beautiful night in the dunes before heading north to the Saudi Border.

One last night in UAE which we spend at the beach in Sila, preparing for crossing the border tomorrow morning. Now we are well prepared to enter Saudi Arabia: We destroy all suspicious food, get rid of suspicious newspapers, empty Thomas’ aftershave, since any kind of alcohol is forbidden, last dress check for Claudia (black galabeyya) and finally, after 1 ½ years in the UAE, it’s time to say good-bye…

Total distance driven in the UAE 1214 km.

Oman (26.01. - 08.02.2009)

2009-02-10T19:06:00.029+04:00

Bye bye Dubai – or „buy buy, do-buy“? We are in the middle of the Dubai Shopping Festival, and it’s a good time to leave, otherwise our travel budget is finished even before starting the trip. One last photo at the black palace beach, with a marvellous view of the Burj al Arab, and here we go.

During our trip to the Omani border, we are very quiet. Being a little sad is not the only reason. We are shocked! Shocked about our car which is hopelessly overloaded… packed up to the ceiling, not one single centimetre space left. And HEAVY!! If we don’t get rid of many things soon, we don’t know how to continue the trip. However, our depressed mood is blown away as soon as we reach the Omani border where once more we make the experience that Omani people are extremely friendly. We get our visa in no time and are treated in a very nice and friendly way. About 40 km after the border we find a nice place for our tent between the sand dunes. As soon as we settle down, the wind is getting stronger, and having the sand in the coffee, the mouth and everywhere makes our appetite “growing” for what is lying ahead of us. We eat only dry bread, not only because of the sandstorm, but also because we don’t know how to find anything in our chaotic car… The night is stormy and the tent doesn’t stop to make a rattling sound the whole night, but in the morning the storm is over and we are going ahead to the mountainous region in a good mood.

We are very happy to reach the Jebel Shams plateau, with a view to Oman’s highest mountain with 3.000 m. After a cold night (- 6 degrees) we start climbing it at sunrise, a real challenge, but it’s worth it. A beautiful view from the summit, walking in the snow, simply marvellous. We come back to our tent the moment the sun sets, after hiking 10 hours, 1.300 metres altitude and a distance of 23 km. Never in our life we were more exhausted, even too tired to eat (and that really never happened to us before). Just a hot soup, and at 7 pm we are in our sleeping bag, completely exhausted and freezing, even too tired to sleep. The next morning, it’s quite difficult to leave the tent due to our sore muscles, but we are very happy and proud of ourselves.

The Omani mountains are the cold-coffee-lovers’ country. As soon as the coffee is poured into the cup, it’s already cold, but it’s always a nice experience to see how to be happy with just a few things. Not having enough food on our yesterday’s hike, we were happy to eat just some spoons of honey…

From the mountainous region, we continue our trip, visit the very interesting Hotta caves, very huge caves with nice stalagtites and stalagmites, even a lake with a lot of blind fishes, before we continue to the desert. Ramlat al Wahiba (Wahiba sands) is an enormous desert with incredibly nice sand dunes. We find a campsite in the middle of the dunes. Amazing!!

The next day we go to Wadi Bin Khalid, beautiful freshwater pools where we enjoy some refreshing walks in the water before driving to the coast of the Arabian Gulf. In a very remote area we sleep behind the dunes with a beautiful view of the sea. Just some lonely fishermen cross our way. From there, we head 200 km to the South, following the coastline, a wonderful trip where the sand dunes of Ramlat al Wahiba reach into the Sea. At some places there is not even a track, and we have to decrease the pressure of our tires not to get stuck in the sometimes 100 metres high dunes. Some discussions if we should continue or not… almost the beginning of our first crisis…

But at the end, we arrive at our destination, a nice place in the desert, where our friend “sandstorm” is already waiting for us… Camels are surrounding our tent, not understanding what these strange creatures are doing exactly under their tree…

When we leave the next morning, we have one of the most boring parts of our trip ahead of us. Endless kilometres of straight road, no tree, no dunes, no hills. We are very happy to see the first mountains in the distance, and even more happy when a breathtaking road takes us from 600 m to over 2000 m at the wonderful Sayq plateau. Another beautiful campsite at 2.300 metres, but while having our dinner, the temperature is already falling below 0 degrees. The following night turns out to be a nightmare. Storm of its best and terribly cold. We are happy when the night is over and we can quickly pack our things to go to the much warmer Muscat. High over the roofs of Muscat we find a nice campsite with a spectacular view over Muscat. It’s a wonderful moment when all the Muezzins of Muscat’s very beautiful mosques are calling for prayer at the same time. It makes us feel very comfortable to finally arrive in the real Arabic world…The next morning we make a nice trip with a small motorboat along the shoreline of Muscat. Ahmed, the owner of the boat, is laughing to see us holding tight to the boat, since the sea is very rough and we are about to fall overboard. However, we enjoy the beautiful view of the new hotels and bays along the shore… The rest of the day we spend in downtown, make a nice walk through the government quarter, the souk, and finally Carrefour. It’s nice, after almost 2 weeks, to be in another mall, enjoy junk food and free internet at Costa Café… but at the end of the day we are even happier to return to our quiet place above Muscat.

Muscat is one of the most beautiful Arabic cities we have ever seen. Very clean, very organized, a lot of very beautiful mosques and buildings, nothing compared to crazy Dubai… so we are sad to leave this nice place after another day and to continue our trip north along the sea. A last nice campsite in the mountains before we reach the UAE border at Al Ain, where we spend another day and another night close to Hatta before finally reaching Dubai.

Our lovely friends Connie and Hanspeter offered us warm beds with hot shower (obviously not knowing how packed and dirty we are). We spend 2 lovely days with them and really feel at home. Thanks a lot for your warm hospitality, Connie and Hanspeter, our dear friends. You really don’t make it easy for us to leave…

After the 14 wonderful days and 2700 km in Oman, we hope we are now well prepared to enter the Rub al-Khali, the Empty Quarter, the biggest desert in the world and from there on to Saudi Arabia.

Our new home

2009-01-24T20:50:00.014+04:00

Thomas:

A car is similar to a house. You buy one and then you find out it needs renovation or optimization since you feel it can or has to be customized according to your likings. So the inside of the Toyota Land Cruiser was a little too conventional with 8 seats and only little storage space but it has a 180 litres fuel tank. What we needed was a small living room, a bedroom, a kitchen, a workshop and a rooftop terrace with a view and all this on approximately 2 m². What a challenge! However, the internet gave some good ideas how it could look like.

Measures of the car are quickly taken and a plan drawn. Removing 6 of the 8 seats of the car is a task of one hour or maybe it was two plus. How to implement the plan is easy said, harder to do and took much longer than expected. The idea was to put boxes in the back of the car to store the belongings and also allow sleeping on them (bedroom) in case the weather is bad or for other reasons if it is more appropriate to sleep inside. To figure out the details how to do it was basically a lot of looking around in Dubai and I had to visit Hardware stores, used car markets, 4x4 shops, IKEA, and so on and so on. The decision was to build it from plywood and have it done by professionals. So the wooden boxes I found at IKEA and I was so proud of didn’t get the approval of the carpenter. So let’s do it all in plywood (there is enough in Dubai). Adds a few kilos but will be for eternity and for sure last longer than the car.

Fixing an appointment in Dubai is a challenge. So after the 3rd trip to Satwa the right carpenter is found and is available. As we implement the plan, we adjust it a little here and there and improvise where required. German engineering/planning skills meets local practical implementation skills. That has to be good at the end. After 6 hours the boxes are in the car and customer and carpenter are happy. Next came the real test, a short camping trip to Mussandam (Oman), which reveales that the current setup can be further improved. Two more short visits to Satwa and me spending a couple of hours in and under the car does the rest.

The next step is finding a solid roof carrier, which is not available for the Toyota Prado, but why not take one for another Toyota Model and fix it for the Prado. Here goes again a day of work with the professionals. Rest is then tinting the glass in the back (for privacy reasons) since we want to sleep in the car and Claudia likes it dark. Moreover a 2nd spare tire is needed, which everyone recommends. Getting it can be easy, just going to Toyota and paying AED 2000 after discount for the alloy-rim without tire or going to the used car market and get it new with an original tire for AED 800.

The rest is then packing, unpacking, sorting, packing, optimizing, packing and hoping that in the end we will find what we are looking for if we need it. Claudia mentioned the highly sophisticated excel-based packing list we have for this …. Where did I store this bloody part again – ‘six weeks ago’?????

Finally packing is over now. Tomorrow we will leave Dubai for Oman…

Moving out...

2009-01-19T22:07:00.014+04:00

Claudia:

The relocation company did a great job today! All our belongings are already on their way to Munich (at least we hope)… We are happy to get rid of many many things, but we cannot imagine how these hundreds of boxes should fit in our small apartment in Munich? After the relocation guys finally left after a hard day of packing, we decided to see some friends to say good bye, and at this occasion I found out that they took ALL my shoes!! I was standing there, literally in the rain (it really was raining today) with my "complimentary Hilton flipflops", trying to imagine how to climb with them all the mountains in our agenda… but in the end we were lucky to reach them and they were very friendly to unpack again… thanks God…

Now we are sitting in our almost empty flat, happy that another step is finished and a little sad in the same time, because we know that never in our lives we will stay again in a flat which is so beautiful, located directly at the beach, with a view that took our breath away every day during the last 1½ years.

But as Thomas said: now we change a big flat with no garden to a very small “flat” with the biggest and most beautiful garden one can imagine…

… and it’s the right time to leave anyhow. We just learned today that the rent for this flat will increase incredibly – 5.500 Euro per month! Comparing to this, it’s a real bargain what we paid. Despite the financial crisis, prices are exploding in Dubai, and we would have to leave anyhow, since this is not even close to our budget :-)

So now we are looking forward to spending our last nights in a REAL flat, in a REAL bed, with a REAL shower, however, eating already from plastic plates and wearing our old and worn out clothes we will wear for the next months…

But as always – after the packing is before the packing… so the next days we will spend with packing the car…