Europe

26th November - 8th December (Greece, Italy, Austria, Germany, Belgium, UK)

by Alex & Kathy

Our third and final continent was to be a brief affair. By now we had caught the scent of home, and were out of money. So we kept our visits brief, but were lucky enough to enjoy the hospitality of many friends and acquaintences along the way.

We absolutely nailed Greece, transiting the country in less than a day in time for an evening ferry to Italy. We had neither the cash nor the weather to do any justice to this part of the trip, but it was great to have a bit of a preview for any future travels in a place neither of us had spent much time.

Our first real stop, then, was Italy, having disembarked in Ancona. The era of paperwork was well and truly over, as no one was in the least bit interested in our Landi. Long live the EU. We had a fantastic drive through Umbria to Perugia, staying in a youth hostel I'd stayed in some years before. We sat in a bar with vino rosso, coffees, Guinness and free wi-fi and just marvelled at how all these things could exist under one roof.

Perugia is quite a fashionable hotspot in northern Italy, and with the cold weather we were forced to wear all of our clothes continually for days on end. Needless to say all 3 of us were feeling a little scruffy and out of place in beautiful Perugia. We'll be back wearing Armani...

Onwards to Rome, via some nice medieval towns on the way, and we had a luxurious 3 days at Alex's father's flat, eating, boozing and catching up. We also got to meet up with an old friend of Kathy's from university who had been living and working in Rome for 8 years. Good old belly laughs....









Italy was not exactly the most Landi-friendly country to drive in - as well it shouldn't be, given how old and beautiful the towns and streets are. But from Perugia to Rome to Verona we felt like an absolute GIANT on the road. Andi could gobble up 3 of those smart cars for breakfast. In Verona at one point we actually had to do a 3 point turn to do a 90 degree right turn. We took the hint and pushed on.

From Verona we crossed into Austria which was by far the coldest leg of the trip. Try driving through this in a leaky, drafty Landi!



From Austria we crossed into south western Germany, staying with the sister of a German neighbour from Mulanje, whom had some of our things in storage in their enormous barn. Although we had never met, they showed us such fantastic, warm hospitality. Apart from working during the day the couple run a 'bed and bike' station during the summer for people cycling along the Rhine. As they said the world comes to them every summer and their house is really wonderful. Recommended! www.radstation-meissenheim.de

Onwards and northwards to Frankfurt, where we caught up with friends who had previously been placed with GTZ also in Mulanje - Andi and his girlfriend Lisa and Christophe. We had a great 2 days trying local 'specialities' like hand cheese (!) and apple wine. Andi, we now know what the Musik is...

Andi the Landi was named after original German Andi (spelt with an 'i'), so it was an awesome reunion all round.




Lastly, but by no means least, we had an easy penultimate leg to Brussels to stay with my cousin Niamh and her husband Chris. I don't think I'll be able to describe the gastronomical treats that awaited us. For the first time in a long time on the morning of the 3rd day, and the last day of our trip, we felt anything but ready to leave!



It's amazing sometimes when you spend time wandering far flung places that you forget how much stuff there is right on your doorstep. We just can't wait for the next trip back to Europe - you couldn't cover it in a lifetime. It also provided handy training for life back in the UK. Alcohol tolerance was slightly improved to around 3 beers, holding a conversation with more than 1 other person, dairy reintroduced although not without difficulty, and on our final day we had been up past 11pm 4 days in a row.

Our final day was spent on motorways, ferries and in service stations. We had one last flurry of red tape, having to drive from Ramsgate to Dover in search of our final carnet stamp, but finally cruised into Peterborough late on the 8th. So the Landi hasn't quite made it to London soon, but it will, oh yes.

A massive thank you to all of you who hosted us on our last few legs. We finished our long trip home on such a high, and you must give us the chance to return the favour! Thank you also to all of you who supported the trip, in so many different ways - proper thank yous coming soon.

Over and out
Alex and Kathy
xxx

Turkey

19th - 26th November (Kilis - Kahramanmaras - Goreme - Istanbul - Ipsala)

by Kathy



In some respects Turkey was like being back on familiar territory but in other ways things had changed since either Alex or I had visited. The main difference was the money, having conveniently dropped 6 of its zeros off the notes some years back. At the same time, however, prices had substantially increased giving us a bit of a shock. On the first night I thought I'd found budget accommodation for about 8 USD but I soon found out I was out by a factor of 10. And that was one of the cheaper options in town.

There was little time to linger and enjoy the off-cold shower of our 40 USD lodgings (most hotels use solar panels which isn't the best for November) because we had a rendez-vous in Goreme with my mum and David. The drive north from Kahramanmaras through autumnal forested mountains was really pretty, if a little baltic.



Goreme is one of the larger towns in the ancient Cappodoccia region, central Turkey and a bit of a tourist trap to say the least. We took to getting carry out beers and hanging around bus stops waiting for my mum to arrive, which is an activity I haven't done for a long time but do secretly enjoy...

When all reunited we spent a brilliant full day exploring the region, with its quite unique rock formations, dwelllings and churches. Not for the first time on the trip we explored underground cities and rock-hewn churches, these ones built by Christians from the 14th century to hide away from maurauding arabs. All quite a sight, and some of it not for the claustrophobic.

Onwards to Istanbul (and Europe) which has gone and got itself all upmarket. The souq wasn't quite the warren of streets filled with local goods for local markets that Alex and I remembered. It was endless rows of plate, tile and fabric shops aimed only at the tourist market. I didn't see many locals shopping there any more, and only 1 local tea shop for the shopkeepers hidden well away should a tourist dare to look for a local priced chai. It was not the nicest place to browse for souvenirs, where window shopping feels a bit like going into battle. We were even hilariously chased from 2 art galleries when browsing some painting, apparently not taking the 'art' seriously enough. Istanbul is no longer a place for waifs or strays to be seen...

In saying that it is still a beautiful city to walk around, with such striking landmarks as the 15th century Blue Mosque. On the day of my birthday we took a stroll down a quieter tourist market and bargained hard, and enjoyed the sights of the historical centre.

Enough now of these middle Eastern shinnigans. Onwards to Greece.

Syria

15th - 19th November (Damascus, Crac de Chevalier, Aleppo)

By Alex

My last post (Egypt) was quite negative, so I was hoping that Syria would give me some positive experiences to write about. Thankfully, it delivered in spades. Syria was one of my favourite countries on the trip, despite only having spent 5 days here. We were stunned at how welcoming the Syrian people are. Everywhere we went people helped us find, organise and buy what we needed.

The border crossing into Syria, however, was one of our more stressful to date. The branch of the Syrian Central Bank at the border refused to accept our LAST 100 dollar bill, owing to the tiniest of tears in the top corner. This meant that we didn't have enough foreign exchange to enter Syria, and were stuck in no-man's land between Jordan and Syria. I started to have visions about camping in no-man's land waiting for something to change. After a couple of hours of negotiations, a friendly policeman (never far away) convinced the banker to take our dodgy note, and we were on our way, albeit with no forex left and no firm indication as to whether we would be able to use our VISA cards.

As soon as we arrived in the capital, Damascus, we were assisted by the wonderful Ahmed. We had been driving around aimlessly searching for a VISA cash machine, and had stopped next to a bank when Ahmed pulled up alongside and offered to assist us. Only being a week out of Egypt, we were still a little weary of offers of help from stranger, but our fears soon subsided. Ahmed proceeded to guide us around the city for an hour, eventually locating one of the few VISA cash machines, then continued the tour helping us to find a hotel. As we parted, he even gave us a gift which completely changed the way we would be able to enjoy our stay in Syria. Ahmed - we will not forget your generosity - Thank you!

Damascus may well be my favourite city that we have visisted on this trip. It has the most relaxed vibe of all the middle eastern cities, a modern vibrant feel in a city littered with ancient historical sites. It is also muc more liberal than the capitals of Syria's neighbours. Alcohol is more readily available and I saw women's hair for the first time in 3,000kms. The souq (covered market) is wonderful to explore and the Umaya mosque exquisite. I really am struggling for superlatives. Oh, and Jordanian beer is cheaper here than in Jordan.



We spent a couple of great nights in Damascus, wandering the markets, eating the best 1 dollar food to date - flat bread wrapped sesame-encrusted falafel with friend cauliflower, chips, pickles, tomatos and a cabbage and parsley salad, coasted in lemon juice and tahini. If your mouth isn't watering after reading the description then you don't deserve to eat one.

Next up, we visited an enormous hill top crusader castle, Crac de Chevalier. Leaving behind the olive groves and winter wheat in the arid south, we climbed steadily out of Damascus and entered the evergreen forests in the hills to the north of capital. Barring the narrow tropical banks of the Nile, it was the first time we had been surrounded by greenery since Ethiopia more than a month before. Crac is easily the most impressive castle I have visited - almost completely preserved, there is no need to close your eyes to be able to imagine how it once looked. There are no barriers and only a few plaques. You can wander freely around the cavernous complex of walls and towers which once housed up to 4,000 soldiers.

Our last stop in Syria was Aleppo, the northern city. Once again, as soon as we arrived in the city adn got out of the car clutching an upside down map, a passerby kindly offered to help us and spent an hour guiding us around the city helping us find parking and accommodation. Aleppo is great to wander around - there's a hill top citadel, anohter great souq to get lost in, and a bizarre christian quarter; but the notable experience was my first real taste of European winter in 2 years. Temperatures plummeted to about 5 degrees and we struggled to find enough warm/clean clothes to keep out the weather. I realised that my body had acclimatised for Malawi - for the next 2 weeks I would seriously struggle to keep warm in temperatures of around 10 degrees despite wearing numerous layers, a weather proof jacket and a beanie. I felt cold morning, noon and night, except for the brief 10 minute post-shower period, in the rare cases that we found a place with hot water.

Syria has so many things going for tourism that it's difficult to write a blog post that doesn't gush with positive comments. But the quality which stood out for me, as you may have already guessed, is the interactions with the lovely Syrian people (and the excellent falafel). I would love to visit this country again sometime, one could easily spend a week exploring Damasucs alone. But time was not our most plentiful asset - we had a date to make in Turkey, where we would take on 2 new passengers for the Journey from Asia to Europe...

Jordan

11th - 15th November (Aqaba - Petra - Dead Sea - Jerash - Irbid)

by Kathy



Short but sweet. It was an enormous relief to leave Egypt, which was probably my most unpleasant travel experience ever. Clearly the Jordanian border staff are used to wild-eyed, half-crazed overlanders breaking free of Egypt's bureacratic extremism, as they welcomed us off the boat in Aqaba with open arms, comparatively low red tape and a sympathetic ear.

We camped just outside of Aqaba and enjoyed some snorkelling in the Red Sea the next morning. The beach was deserted and the coral gardens great to explore. I think we would have hung around a bit longer if things hadn't started to take a bit of a chilly turn weather wise.

Onward then to the long anticipated Petra! Petra is a quite spectacular hidden city built by the Nabataens, expanded by the Romans. You spend a good 20 minutes accessing the city through a steep-sided gorge, and then get lost for hours or days in the warren of small paths, rock formations and ancient streets and buildings around the city. Alex and I, in our usual speed tourist mode did some serious walking that day, bagging only a few of the most famous sights, before totally exhausted ourselves. Despite our increasing travel fatigue, not to mention calf muscle fatigue, it was one of the highlights of the entire trip.







We then headed north to the Dead Sea, finding an awesome bush camp overlooking the sea with the lights of Jerusalem on the other side, only 40km away. It is pretty difficult to get lost in the wild in Jordan however, as a truck of locals turned up late to party the night away, and then a second car turned up with a group of tourists even later into the evening. It was the most bizarre camp ever, and we woke up bleary eyed to a litany of grafitti, food waste and beer bottles strewn around us.

After this, in dire need of a cleansing experience for so many reasons, we plunged down a canyon to 500m below sea level and enjoyed a fantastic hot spring and waterfall experience, bathing in 60 degree heat water in rock pools and caves. Arriving at 8am to 'Jordan's Best Kept Secret' meant we had the place totally to ourselves, but by 10am on the weekend word had clearly got round and we escaped just in time as the hordes descended, feeling completely rejuvenated.



We then promptly undid all the good work by swimming in the Dead Sea, the world's saltiest body of water, to experience the feeling of floating high in the water. The beach and everything about it was totally grotesque. Alex loved it, I hated it. The photos speak for themselves.

Again, time was not on our side and we pushed on to Irbid in the north in preparation for crossing into Syria.

Egypt

30th October - 10th November (Aswan, Luxor, Giza, Hurgada, Nuweiba)

by Alex

It wasn't until we disembarked our ferry boat at the Jordanian port of Aqaba, and I once again heard long forgotten common courtesies, that I realised just how much I had disliked Egypt. Tourists have been coming here for so long that the ingrained dual pricing (or state sponsored racism, in my opinion) and hassle make it a fairly tough country for the independent traveller.

Thinking back, we got of on the wrong foot from the start. The only border crossing between Sudan and Egypt is a passenger ferry along Lake Nasser, vehicles are shipped separately on river barges. The ferry boat was pleasant enough, taking 17 hours, but unfortunately Andi the Landi was lost at sea for 7 days, rather than the 36 hours for which we had prepared to be apart. This meant surviving on VERY limited supplies of clothes, underwear etc. After a few days waiting in the Egyptian port town of Aswan it became clear that we were going to be apart for some time, the barge having broken down and a tug dispatched from Egypt to fetch the stricken vessel. Kathy and I, fed up with constant hassle for boat rides, desert trips, taxis, alabaster etc decided to break out for a few days and wait for an arrival date for the car - so we took the bus to Luxor to see the temples of Karnak. This is when we discovered that traveling around Egypt as an independent is kind of like being in the Truman Show. Throughout our week long stay in southern Egypt (the terrorist bit) we continually came up against barriers whenever we tried to leave a city. The ever present Tourist police are on hand to stop foreigners from travelling on selected modes of public transport. This is ostensibly for security, but it quickly became clear that it is really a sanitisation exercise designed to fool tourists into thinking that they are not actually in Africa. We were refused access to local minibuses, but allowed to take the more expensive inter city coach (neither of which travel in the foreigners' convoy). We could take the train, but only 1st or 2nd class. Once the landi turned up we were able to drive, but only in a ridiculous convoy that travels at break neck speeds stopping only in tourist spots.

Eventually we made it to Luxor, and saw the awesomely impressive temple of Karnak. Definitely a contender for the prize of "most impressive man made thing" that we have seen on the trip. Its hard to capture the scale of the monuments and buildings, but here are some pictures anyway (Kathy included for purposes of scale - she is 5ft 8in at time of writing)

We planned to leave luxor and travel through the white desert, slipping beneath the radar of the omnipresent tourist police for a few days. Unfortunately it was not to be. At the first road block we were turned back, being told that it was too late to start the drive out from the city. This led to our most spontaneous decision of the trip so far. As we wandered back into the city of luxor, desperate to get out somehow, we found ourselves in a traffic jam of coaches. After a few minutes we worked our way to the front, and a police roadblock. "Hurgada?" yelled the policeman. We had somehow found our way into the evening convoy between Luxor and Hurgada that was in the process of setting off. The resort of Hurgada lies about 300km North East from Luxor, the opposite direction from the white desert, but it was the only way we going to leave Luxor that night, so we joined the convoy of some 300 coaches, winding through the pitch black eastern desert to the Red Sea coast, and started to rethink our Egypt action plan.





In other Egyptian news, the pyramids are really big, Sinai has been overrun by package holiday makers, and in general we were quite pleased to leave the country. The only thing I'll miss about the place is filling up all 100 litres of diesel for a tenner. The boat trip to Jordan marked my departure from Africa after 20 months unbroken on the continent, but this was no time for tears - still 2 more continents before christmas. We would have liked to simply drive into Israel, which borders the Sinai peninsula, but this would have precluded us from entering [sworn enemy] Syria. Not being able to enter Syria would mean having to drive through Iraq. With all the border politics coming into play, we could only be entering one region... The Middle East.

Sudan

by Kathy

19th - 29th October (Metema - Gedaref - Khartoum - Meroe - Korti - Dongola - Abri - Halfa)

As we plied the road from Gondor to Metema I found myself entertaining unexpected butterflies in my stomach. I don't think I'd felt nervous approaching a country since, I dunno, some Silly-Stan in previous years, so it caught me off guard.



This was an irrational fear. I knew this because all travellers' tales of crossing Sudan regale its warm hospitality proving the highlight of every overlander's trip. I also knew it was irrational because my 'ratio-meter', Mr A F Butcher, sat beside me is only capable of measured responses to any given situation. Some things warrant feelings of fear (1) or not (0), and was clearly current ly set at 0.




Still, in saying that, the Sudanese embassies in Pretoria and Addis had made it pretty clear that they didn't like strangers around those there parts. And Sudan, previous state sponsor of terrorism and former axis of evil shortlist contender is not the greatest friend of the US and, by transferrence, the UK. This had been confirmed by the US national seen running from the Addis embassy in floods of tears. With all this in mind, how on earth would they receive us at the border?



Turns out with a nice cup of mint tea and an offer of a bed for the night to rest. The border staff were most concerned at Alex's post-Kitfo health, and so we sat at the border, drinking tea, discussing Alex, and moving on to education, politics and local infrastructure. These discussions were punctuated by the occasional stamp or perusing of papers and offers of more tea.



We sipped our tea with some post-Ethiopia suspicion. Indeed Alex opted to reject his tea outright behind the immigration building. But as the minutes ticked by we realised there was no catch. It was as if we were being hosted rather than processed; a border first. After 2 hours we prised ourselves away and finally drove off. Really, that's all you need in Sudan - time and tea.



Arriving in the first major town was equally as straightforward. A friendly motorcyclist guided us to the bank of our choice, where a friendly policeman took over the assistance. As Alex went to change money I nervously guarded the vehicle, but people merely smiled or greeted me as they went on with their day. I felt like we'd been released from some kind of siege.



As I sat there was a minor collision of a car and a minibus right in front of our Landi. I ducked down behind the wheel, waiting for the fireworks to start, but they never came. The policeman intervenced, helping the drivers negotiate, with no raised voices or tempers in sight. Everything was resolved in such a relaxed way, before Alex had had a chance to say 'Change Dollar?'.



And so the scene was set for the transit through Sudan. There was desert, driving, time and tea. Khartoum's red tape misery was offset by a loverly stay with a friend's friend Stephanie, working for IOM, who gave us the lowdown on their work in southern Sudan and more.



Northwards to the Nile, with more tea, but pyramids and ancient temples added to the mix. We learnt the true meaning of 'furtouk' (sp??), which entails being welcomed for tea and refreshments, in the villages along the way. A typical encounter may look like:



Step 1: Invited for tea through hand gestures. Tea is served, smiles exchanged

Step 2: Names, origins and marital status established through much gesturing in the absence of common language. This included audit of people present and their relationship to the home owner

Step 3: Opinions canvassed o global figures such as Barack, Bush, Brown, Blair and Beckham, and other celebrities brought to you by the letter 'B'. Opinions registered using the 'Thumbs Up/Down' mechanism e.g.



Barack = 'Thumbs Up' + smiling face

Bush = 'Thumbs Down' + sad face



Kathy & Alex abstain from any voting on Al-Bashir



Step 4: Complicated ranking system of above celebrities using hand gestures and stick in sand

Step 5: Petition of thanks and extrication



These exchanges were often as hilarious as awkward to all involved and really made the long journeys shorter. We were once asked if we thought Sudan was dangerous we laughed tea through our noses.



In saying that, Sudan's leadership is, of course, appalling, prolonging localised conflicts in the south for political gain. This topic never came up in our trip and, in any case information is tightly controlled. In the north of Sudan Al-Bashir's government is rated pretty highly (read 'Thumbs Up') as many African leaders because 1. he's been in power for a long time 2. he's built roads. By these criteria Stalin and Mao also start looking a little rosier. Anyway, it certainly wasn't the time or the place to discuss...



And enjoy Bashir's roads we did, losing the tar only in the very northern section of the Nile. This was the very highlight of the trip, as we spent 3 days weaving the 400km through villages, low on fuel and money. En route the local road contractors even took us under their wing during a tyre change, putting us up at 2 of their guesthouses along the way. Words couldn't describe the joy of a hot shower and wonderful home cooking. We came to Sudan expecting the worst food and found some of the best.



So we arrived at Halfa with 4 litres of fuel in the tank and 0.50c in our wallet. We got our ferry tickets, parked Andi on a barge and set off for Egypt.

Ethiopia

by Alex

2nd - 19th October (Moyale - Yabello - Arba Minch - Awassa - Addis - Debre Zeit - Addis - Debre Berhan - Lalibela - Gonder)

Ethiopia - where do I begin? When asked whether we were enjoying Ethiopia whilst in the country, we typically slipped the word "rollercoaster" somewhere into the answer. I had read a number of blogs by travellers in Ethiopia, quite a mixed bag. After just 3 days in Ethopia we had had enough - we couldn't wait to leave - we were angry and fed up; but I'm happy to say that we perserved, and checking out 2.5 weeks later we will look back on our time there with some satisfaction.

For Kathy and I, having lived 2/1.5 years in southern Africa, the journey up until now had been reasonably easy, with a few obvious exceptions (er, see Tanzania...). We usually had enough of the local language (at least Kathy did), and there are more similarities than differences between the Bantu peoples of Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya etc. By contrast Ethiopians are very different bunch, and suddenly we had no common language with 80% of the people we came into contact with. Whilst East Africa was a comfortable bubble for us, Ethiopia was a culture shock.
I don't think that it's unfair to describe rural Ethiopians as 'aggresively curious' of foreigners. For much of the drive from the Kenyan border to the capital, Addis Abbaba we felt quite uncomfortable, particularly being in our own vehicle. Stopping in towns and villages along the route became something of a chore, with kids and young people crowding the windows and doors, some begging, some wanting to see what was in the vehicle, but all shouting "You! You! You!" endlessly and pointing at us. We are used to being singled out, kids from Malawi to Kenya shout "Mzungu" as we pass, but in Ethiopia it took on a whole new over zealous tone. At first we countered by mocking, shouting "YOU!" back with as much ferocity as we could muster. This soon got tiring though, and we just settled into quiet acceptance. The other major annoyance being a foreiger in Ethiopia is begging. There is a bigger culture of begging in Ethiopia than in any country I have visited, despite it being significantly better off than many of those. It was the incessant begging that got to us I think. I estimate that on average, every day 50 people would ask us for money, and after a while you realise that a lot of people view you as a walking ATM which makes you feel a lot less welcome, and sometimes angry. When walking up an alley towards some playing children, we watched the mother (standing in front of a reasonable concrete house) coach her children to say "give me money" as we walked past. We exploded at the woman sparing no expletives. She may have only known 3 words of English but she got the message. At one point I was walking along the street on my own and I heard "You! give me money!" I was tired and fed up, this must have been my hundredth "interaction" of the day, so I just showed him the bird (google it, Dad) without even turning to look. Feeling a bit ashamed I glanced back are realised I'd just flipped off a kid of about 6. Whoops.

OK. Enough about begging, and the negativity, I had to get that off my chest but now I can move on and talk about what we actaully did, which was quite a lot since we spent 2.5 weeks in Ethiopia - the longest we expect to spend in any country on this trip. There were plenty of good things about Ethiopia, although it took us a week or so to get used to being there.

Driving into the south to the country the only evidence of the famine we saw was the motel car park over brimming with UN vehicles. The country side was very pretty - rolling hills grazed by cattle and camels, beautiful birdlife everywhere. We didn't realise at this point, but it would be the most mundane landscape we would encounter in Ethiopia. If Rwanda is the land of 1000 hills, then Ethiopia is the land of 10000 mountains. We spent a pleasant night in the Nechisar National Park. We bush camped on top of a hill between two sweeping valleys, an incredible view. I woke in the night to the sound of hundreds of hooves shuffling past both sides of the tent. A huge heard of zebra was moving down to the lake shore for a midnight drink (to avoid the now drowsy crocs I suppose) and moved right around our tent and landy.

The zebra in this park are known for herding over 100 in number. I couldn't tell you how many there were just then however, I was scared that if I took a peek I would startle them into stampeding over our tent!

Addis abba leaves all the previous african capitals in the dust. At 7million people, it is big, vibrant and colourful. It is also extremely noisy. I'm already used to being woken up at 5am by wailing imans calling the faithful to prayer, but in Addis the Ethiopian Orthodox christian priests don't just call the faithful to prayer, they broadcast the whole ceremony over their public address system. You can see this in 2 ways: either it turns all of addis into one giant prayer meeting, or it encourages laziness - why get out of bed and go to church when church comes to you.
Our time in Addis was marred by The Horror. These are the words I will use to remember our days wasted at the sudanese embassy in Addis. I don't want to delve too deep into this one, but in summary the embassy was the most unpleasant beaucratic experience of my life. I can only summise that Sudan maintains such a dreadful mission abroad to filter only those souls who really want/need to go there. I hope to soon forgot the week we spent coming and going, caling copying waitng and paying. Luckily I have a memory like a seive....

The highlight of our time in Addis was meeting up with another Link colleague, Michael Ambetchew. He and his wife took us to Asqual, an Ethiopian restaurant in Addis probably a little orientated towards tourists, although patronised mostly by ethiopias. We watched and heard traditional song and dance, drank honey wine and shared a single huge plated of delicious ethiopian food. It was a lovely night - Kathy and I made a mess of everything that we even looked at - not being hugely experienced at eating using Ethiopian bread (injera) as the only utensil. I'm sure we provided entertainment for our hosts...

On from Addis we visited the spectacular rock hewn churches of Lalibela. Dating back centuries, these buildings are quite something to behold. I think I was more taken from a civil engineering point of view than a cultural one, but that's me. The area obviously receives a lot of tourists, and correspondingly we found moving around much easier than in other similarly rural areas of ethiopia.


Our final drive in Ethiopia took us along a fabulous mountain road with breathtaking views to the east and west. Our final destination was Gonder, hailed as Africa's Camelot. We had a great couple of days relaxing and eating some great ethiopian food. I was so relaxed in fact that I let my cullinary guard right down and ate some Kifto - a kind of raw minced meat. Mistake. Oh well, it was bound to happn sooneror later...

By the last week in Ethiopia, we were really enjoying our time there. We met some lovely people, and saw some great things. Funny to think how negative were our opinions 2 weeks previously. Onwards and downwards (topographically speaking) to Sudan, the true home of beaurocracy.

Kenya

by Kathy

27th Sep – 2nd October (Malaba – Eldoret – Lake Nakuru – Nanyuki – Isiolo – Marsabit – Moyale)

Kenya was the very first country I visited outside of Europe and the US in university holidays in 1997, when I was 19. I remember getting off the plane in quite a haze and being the victim of a bit of a heist within minutes, being whisked off to the taxi driver’s brother’s so-called ‘safari firm’. It was probably the luckiest scam ever, as we ended up in the Masai Mara game reserve completely unplanned and enjoyed a fabulous, if rather, erm, budget, safari.

I also remember being rather overpowered by Nairobi’s sights and smells, accidentally sleeping in brothels, saying ‘Jambo’ inanely to little children who then tried to pinch the sunglasses off my face. I remember the endless but stunning journey out to Mombasa by local bus and the beautiful sight of the Indian Ocean. The whole trip made quite an impression and I remember it in some detail unlike any other trip since.

I was quite excited, then, by the prospect of a return trip to Kenya, a wee bittie older and, ideally, a bit wiser to see what had changed. Alex was equally as excited to visit a country where his parents had lived some 30 years previously. And as if to add to this frenzy of excitement we had picked up a couple of ‘Landi to LDN’ exclusive guests, Robbie and Jessy who live and work in Silicone Valley, CA, for the first leg, helping to completely revitalise our tired chat, music collection and even future business planning.


I guess the weirdest change entering Kenya this time was being able to communicate. Despite a few teething problems similar to Tanzania (saying once again that our journey had been a great big red salty sausage) I soon got back into the flow. The other major observation, compared to Tanzania, Uganda and Malawi was the sheer amount of industry and commerce at a local level. Even very small trading centres had all sorts of goods and services and major towns indicated on the map were just that (unlike western Tanzania)! Our first port of call, Eldoret, was such a huge sprawling industrial centre it would dwarf Malawi’s national capital. I don’t know if that marks a change or not; I read that Kenya had recently fallen off the EU’s ‘Developing Nation’ list, whatever that means. But you do get the feeling that Kenya has usually been one step ahead of its neighbours, at least from an economic development point of view. And nice as it was to communicate in Swahili it wasn’t really all that necessary. On our first morning I stopped to greet two women running our guesthouse and they replied with great gusto, only to return to their conversation, I soon realised, in English.

In saying that the driving still wasn’t particularly straightforward, getting caught once again after dark on a partially constructed road to Nakuru. Once we finally arrived there after 9pm there was momentary panic to find Jessy and Robbie a transfer to Nairobi that night, in time for their early morning flight!

Once resolved Alex and I literally passed out at the first guesthouse, waking early to enter Nakuru National Park. The park itself was really stunning, with an enormous amount of wildlife in quite a small area, centred around saltwater Lake Nakuru. The stars of the show were the huge pelicans that circled like arial bombers and the flamingos as far as the eye could see.

After Nakuru Alex and I kept to back dirt roads to weave across country to avoid Nairobi and take in the sight of Mount Kenya. We seemed to cross the equator 5 times in a few hours, each crossing duly marked with a Fuji Film or other sign and a curio shop. Without GPS we couldn’t really verify that we were indeed making another crossing or simply witnessing quite wily business acumen.

From Nanyuki we started north through Isiolo and on to Marsabit. At Isiolo the tar finished and it was an almost entirely Muslim town, which we entered on the eve of Eid. It was really an enormous shift in such a small space of time. It marked the end of eastern Africa with its overlapping languages and cultures and the start of northern Africa & Arabia….We then, at 11am, threw ourselves onto the Isiolo – Marsabit – Moyale desert road, which slowly sapped our energy, water supplies and spare parts.

Alex and I have been driving on all sorts of roads and in all sorts of conditions since we left the UK and are generally pretty happy off-road. I don’t think, however, we’d ever driven on such pronounced corrugation through such heat for such a long period. We swapped driving strictly every 1 hour to keep refreshed and our speed up, and it was a long, long couple of days. Yet the sights on the way were amazing! Huge herds of camels, cattle and small animals like dik-dik constantly appeared and disappeared. Masai people were everywhere on the southern section of the road, walking huge distances in such heat. In the northern section the Berber people replaced the Masai, still with camels and cattle a-plenty.

Anyway, several punctures, new shocks and about 14 hours driving later, we finally approached Ethiopia. At one of the final outposts in Kenya one Berber lady spotted me and said ‘Faranji!’ and thrust her hand through the car window looking for some money. I guess at this point we sadly waved goodbye to wonderful, relaxed Kenya and approached Ethiopia with some apprehension.