From Cape to Cairo!

The Islamic countries in northern Africa and the Middle East are in turbulent waters!

In Sudan the north and south are in a relative state of peace about their separation, Egyptian people are finally quiet as mr. Mubarak has left his position as president, so up to now we have continued our journey as planned (we do not go into Libya!). What will happen to the remainder of our schedule remains unclear as in the recent weeks a lot of violence has been reported in the larger cities of Jordan and Syria. In many Arabic countries people are not happy with their current regimes and finally speak up. So, we have to be alert, though we do not think we will have trouble by avoiding the larger cities or large gatherings of people.

Ethiopia

After our refuelling in the capital of Ethiopia, we went further north. Ethiopia is not so ‘African’ as the other countries we have been traveling. Getting close to the Sahara everything changes: the people, culture, the atmosphere… and every morning in the villages you are woken up at 5 by the calls for prayer sang from the mosques. 

In the north of Ethiopia we mainly visited three places: the rock hewn churches of Lalibela, the castle of Gonder and the Danakil Depression.

Travelling in Ethiopia is very interesting. The scenery is amazing, the food (injera; a sour sticky pancake with different types of sauces ) is very cheap and sometimes quite OK, the music is strange but nice and the people… the people can be very friendly and hospitable but mostly they are very extremely annoying to white people. First of all, there are people everywhere and second; all people in a radius of 1 km come rushing to your car if you stop. The words we heard most in Ethiopia are: you, you, you and money, money, money. Besides that, if you want something done there is always a lot of hassle involved. So, interesting times.

Lalibela is a small town in the mountains where several churches were hewn out of solid rock around 1300 AD. Some of them are monolithic (standalone from one piece), others semi-monolithic, and all still in use by Christians. Every year large ceremonies are held where thousands of pilgrims gather. 

The Danakil Depression is an area in the north east of Ethiopia, on the border with Eritrea (an historically peaceful place…. not). Most of the vast desert landscape is below sea-level and reported to be the hottest and one of the lowest on earth. In this dry and hot (35 degrees on average and max above 50) place live the Afar, a people known for cutting of the genitals of male unwanted visitors; so better be friendly here… The reason for those few lunatic travellers of visiting this inaccessible area is its spectacular active volcanoes and numerous boiling bright yellow and green sulphur lakes.

Accessing the place takes a lot, a lot of hassle and bribing. Due to the fact that the conflict-border with Eritrea is near, the area is full of armed military and people that call themselves soldiers. The rule is that you should bring at least one local guide and two policemen in your car for protection. And this is only the first part of the journey. Later “un-uniformed soldiers” demand you to take  another guide plus 5 soldiers, as you are coming close to the actual border when attempting the walk up the volcano Erta Ale. In the third area when you want to come close to the sulphur lakes the real soldiers present themselves, wearing real uniforms and carrying even bigger guns.

Our car has two seats in the front, nothing in the back. This does not mean you cannot visit, no, you have to gently pay-off the guys who are not able to get into or on top of your car. So if you pay everything suddenly becomes safe… ! hmm. We started with one very small 45-kg Afar guy called Ali sitting next to us in our two-seat cabin (and asking for food and for water all the time to wash his feet before praying). Later we had to add another bigger guy, bringing the group to 4 people on our two-person seats. Add 50 degrees Celsius, thick dust and very bumpy terrain (no roads here) and you understand it was a cosy party.

But it’s all worth it; standing on the crater side of a 100 by 60 meter boiling and exploding lava lake makes an impressive and even scary experience. We climbed the volcano in the late evening and slept on the top under the nightly stars, listening to the sounds of the lava.

Sudan

Sudan has recently, after the referendum, been split into two countries (North and South), the north being the developed Arabic Islamic part and the south the mainly Christian farmers and poor part. There is still a lot of discussion around the oil fields that lay just over the border in south Sudan. To complete the mess, in the western region Darfur there is a long tribal war still being fought. Enough reasons for us to only visit north Sudan with its capital Khartoum.

Sudan in a nut-shell: desert landscapes, lush green villages along the Nile river, ancient sites (like the Meroe pyramids and underground tombs), tea, dates and shisha, the most friendly people and nearly zero tourists. You can sleep anywhere in the desert; you drive until the end of the day and steer your car into the desert, drive a few kilometres over soft sand and rocks and find yourself in the ultimate loneliness of the Sudanese lands away from the Nile.

Hospitality is possibly a word invented by the Sudanese. Imagine asking directions to a stranger and being asked into his house or shop for a cup of tea, or an offer to share his meal with you. After an hour of drinking his tea the man leaves his shop to join you to the place you were looking for. No hands asking for money, no obligations… or people you have not exchanged a word with who pay for your coffee in a bar and wish you welcome… just friendliness for the traveller/stranger. No exceptions; we met them everywhere.

Ferry to Egypt

If you want to get into Egypt from Sudan you need to take…. a ferry for 280 km over lake Nasser to Aswan. No possibilities to legally cross the border over land. It used to be too dangerous, but nowadays the local authorities simply keep it closed to earn some extra money from the ferry. Crossing with a car and two people costs about 480 US dollar. People go with the big boat, your car goes one day later on a smaller barge. You spend 18 hours on the boat with if you are unlucky 600 other African people and a few thousand kilos of fresh fish (luckily for us the boat was nearly empty).

Unfortunately in Aswan, Egypt we had to wait for our car for 4 days; Friday is the Arabic Sunday, and the Saturday after was an election day where the Egyptian customs did not work. So we had to take an obligatory rest in Aswan, fortunately together with our fellow-travellers and new friends from Australia/Germany (Tom, Lara and Lenny), Luxembourg (George and Conny) and France (Eric and Michel).

Driving up north along the Nile we visited the area of Luxor; the famous temples of Karnak and temple of Queen Hatsjepsoet (see picture below), and the Valley of the Kings. After this cultural chapter we again drove into our favourite surrounding; the western and White Desert.

So after 28 pita-breads with falafel and nightly Shisha (water-pipe) sessions in Aswan and Luxor we drove from oasis to oasis and finally into the surreal White Desert area. At 4 o’clock at night we explored the place using the light of the moon and stars until the sun came up. Again no other people around and a cold but extremely beautiful place.

The Cairo pyramids is our final destination on the African continent. Here we had to open and drink our bottle of “Cape-to-Cairo” red wine.

A few days ago we crossed into the Sinai via the heavily guarded tunnel below the Suez channel. Goodbye Africa.

Sinai, or more precise mount Sinai is the place where Moses received the ten commandments from God. On a small stroll near the place we decided to walk up the mountain. Because we chose a non-regular time for this we were on the mountain alone (normally you share this experience with dozens other people).

At this moment we are snorkelling and Kite-surfing in Dahab on the Aqaba Gulf’s coast. Next we will be crossing the Gulf into Jordan and then Syria. Due to unrest in the larger cities in these countries we probably have to avoid them. Especially Amman and Damascus.

One small month left before we arrive in Utrecht for Koninginnedag!