2.Egypt(Cairo-Cape Town)

                                              "CAIRO TO CAPE TOWN"

My paraplegic dad, my brother and I drove 21000km down the East coast of Africa. Our journey started in December 2008. Our vehicle was shipped to Port Said in Egypt a month before we flew from OR Tambo to Cairo.  My dad planned our trip this way round so we do the most difficult first and then we do the long drive "Home". This is our journey..

Land Rover still in container

We tried to do the scenic route and at times we had to "bend the rules a little". I believe fear is one of your closest friends. It tells you when you are leaving your comfort zone or when you are doing something stupid. My mind was running between these two options on our journey! When we needed many injections to prevent us from getting seriously ill, I knew. Three "boertjies"(Afrikaans for farmers) driving through Africa on our own, no second vehicle, no winch, no fridge and very limited off-road experience. This spells "ADVENTURE"! But we have to move off the beaten track to experience something new. Growth only happens outside your comfort zone. And who knows, you might feel alive again! 


"Following straight lines shortens distances, and also life" Antonio Porchia (Dare to be different!)

Our once missing Landy

EGYPT 

My dad broke the news in March 2008 that we are leaving on this trip of a lifetime. We might never have this opportunity again. All three of us with the time and the health to do it. There is something extraordinary that happens if someone looks you in the eyes with a grin and say "lets do it".. We all say we would love to do all these wonderful things but we have grown content with our lame excuses. If you put your dreams on the backseat for too long you will forget that you ever had that dream. And in time it becomes like a can of cold drink that rolled off the seat underneath your chair. You are in a hurry now and have too many other things to do, you'll take it out when you have the time.. And one day you sit in the dusty recesses of your mind, "cleaning out your car", you find this can of cold drink from long ago and cant imagine that once upon a time you were so thirsty for it. Now you have grown old or your health is not what it used to be.. The can of cold drink becomes someone else's and you are jealous of the story they can tell and what they experienced.. It could have been yours.  If you make excuses too many times, you WILL start to believe yourself.

Egypt must be one of the most unique places Ive been in all my life. There are no Egyptians left. Where did this once magnificent culture with long eye-lashes like camels disappear to? Now there is only a culture that took it over and left their mark of dilapidated buildings and over active military. You can have pride in what is yours, and in Africa its the same as long as you dont have to get up from under the tree to maintain it.

Our journey turned into an Adventure the first day we put foot on sand. We confirmed that our vehicle is in Port Said harbor before leaving South Africa. After assurance that our vehicle is there, we flew to Cairo. Ive never seen people drive like this! Three lanes of road, four lanes of cars! As we approached the clearing agent we realized that business is done differently here. As we sat down in the clearing agent's office we received an interesting cup of coffee with "plants" in! It is called Turkish Coffee. We quickly figured out its better to drink through your teeth. The second problem was getting the plants out of our teeth!

Turkish Coffee

Our clearing agent made us go warm under the collar when we realized what our agent is trying to explain through his broken English with lots of "gggg" sounds. "What did you say" came the words from my dad. "Aiowa, your car is in Italy.. "WHAT!?" was the only word I could utter. Utter, because I was not speaking.. Uttering happens when you try to speak and laugh at the same time and are unsure if you should even dare say it. He was sorry. Very sorry. And he will not be able to help us any further. They FORGOT to take our container with the car off the ship!

Flabbergasted the three of us went looking for a place to stay. The first hotel is about $60 per person, but just 30m down the street you find another hotel called Dela Post. Here it is $10 for the three of us per night! And they say we get a room with a view! We soon found out the view is looking at old people in the next building and the rubble that builds up in-between. 

Lifts in some buildings in Egypt only stop on every second floor. And what made it worst is that the door was too narrow for my dad's wheelchair to fit through. The only solution was to carry my dad inside and let him sit on the floor, while one of us stayed with him, the other carried the wheelchair to the floor where the lift can stop. A couple of times someone stopped the lift to also get in and when the doors opened and they saw my dad sitting on the floor with a smile, they thought he was drunk and alcohol is not quite allowed in Egypt. When my dad and the wheelchair is reconciled we still needed to go down a floor to get to the floor we need to be!

The next day we were hopelessly looking for any English speaking person that could help us in our dilemma. That evening we met the most amazing Egyptian man called Luca. He introduced us to his family and in the next two weeks we grew very close to them. We spent as much time with them as possible. They introduced us to local customs and food. We saw the backstreets that very few foreigners see. And we did the touristy places like Giza with the pyramids and the Sphinx.

Pyramids of Giza in background

And as it worked out, Luca is a freight forwarder! He started to phone around and booked our Landy on the next ship back to Egypt. We waited a couple of days and then the procedures became painful. Little did we know getting our car back in Egypt is the least of our problems. We did not know Port Said is a Free Trade Zone and everything imported into Port Said are not allowed to leave permanently. We will need authorization from many high ranking officials including the General in Cairo, the head of police to the container depot and everyone in-between. Little did I know that I will gather just over 250 signatures and stamps in the next few days! This include a couple of trips to Cairo which is 3 hours away.. with a taxi.. because we don't have a car yet.

There are many conspiracies of who shot off the Sphinx nose during target practise

Its amazing how fast you figure out the system. Let me explain. You enter an office with 6 tables with uniformed officers behind them. Then you push through the crowd to try to get to the first officer that is closest to the door. You then get a form that needs to be signed by all five the other officers. One at a time. After every one signature you have to return to the officer at the door to sign next to the first officer's signature. You are not allowed to move in the logic circle and let the officer at the door just sign next to every person at the end. One at a time. Then as you approach the first officer's desk he has a little box on his table which you need to put his bribe in! Every officer has a box! When I explained I do not pay bribes I turned invisible. BUT! You quickly see that everyone is very status orientated and that you can play it! I went outside and bought a bag of Nougat's. When I returned to the officer's desk I greeted him in the basic Arabic I have learnt to this point. This drew the attention of the whole office. Western guy speaks Arabic!? Then I switched to English and said I want to give him this nougat as a gift and put it in his box. He still looked confused. Then I made a huge scene pretending as if he does not know how to open this nougat and offered my help off course!  I opened the nougat up and told him how easy it is to open and how fantastic it tastes! Everyone burst out laughing, which led to him grabbing my paper and signing it to get rid of me! Then my paper flew around the room at the speed of light and was waiting for me at the door! Signed and ready! This was office number 1.

Many offices later, I went to the container yard to fetch our car. This is after spending a whole day to get clearance to enter the yard. Frustrated out of my mind at this moment I got to the last office to get four signatures. I got in a queue outside the office, saw it was not moving after 15 minutes and walked to the front. As I went into the office, the officer in charge got up and left to fetch himself some tea. I sat down at his desk and asked the other guys why nothing is happening? They just smiled as I told the queue to stack their paper in front of me. I took out the stamp and stamped all of them and then showed the other officers how simple it is to stamp. Within 5 minutes everything was done and the officer returned with his tea. He walked in with a frown on his face and as the other officers explained what had happened his face turned friendly and said to me (Still sitting behind his desk), "I brought you tea"!! We all laughed and they explained that if they finish their work too quick they'll have nothing else to do and then someone would give them more work!

One of many Mosques

You get used to people asking for tips after they gave you directions or picked up the papers they bumped out of your hands. The next moment Ill remember for the rest of my life. We walked to the container with our car in. There was a large group of people walking with us, including the guy that went looking for the container on his bicycle. As we approached and identified our container, two guys walk forward. The one holds the seal while the other cuts it. Then the next two come and unlock the doors. Then the next two opens the doors and the rest take out the car and the damaged tent next to it. As we are about to leave all ten of them come forward to demand their tips! I think you could hear me laughing a mile away! 

Alexandria Library

Fort Qaitbey

It never felt so good to drive in your own car. We were smiling after we put the roof-top tent on and pushed started our car with the dead battery! When our Landy was moving we found driving it Cairo is a bigger challenge than thought initially. In Cairo I was driving in my lane, minding my own business, when a bus driver decided it wants to be in my lane. I kept 30cm between my mirror and the bus and eventually drive into the car on the other side. As I bumped the much smaller car, he got a freight, looked back at me and kept driving as if nothing had happened. Later the night as we were looking for a campsite close to Giza we were driving on a quiet highway. Just a few seconds after I passed a speed indication of 120km/h I fortunately turned on the Landy's brights to find that they built a wall across the highway!! No reflector boards or pre-warnings! I turned the Landy slightly and we got to a stand still a couple of meters off the highway. That night we slept like logs! After seeing one of the world wonders, the pyramids, we decided to visit Alexandria to see the castle and the museum and afterwards stay out of the big cities for a little peace and quiet. Never knew Ill appreciate the quietness of the desert so much. It was beautiful.
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Lunch next to road

"Bushcamp"

No hotel or lodge can compare to a bushcamp in unknown area, with a fire and coffee and stories.. Our car was rigged for camping anywhere.We drove down to the Aswan dam to load our car on the barge. You are not allowed to drive to Sudan. The previous vehicle that crossed was shot to pieces and the people escorted back to Luxor. So we decided the barge is adventurous enough.. After visiting Karnak and Luxor temples we drove over the Aswan dam wall. 

Camping with other foreigners

More foreigners

We met up with a couple of other foreigners from all over the world at the campsite. They are all going to see Mr. Sala the next day, so that night we made a huge campfire and sat around it, listening to all the stories of our fellow travelers. The next morning Mr.Sala broke the news that the festive season has started and that the barge will not run for the next four days. We used this opportunity to get to know the South of Egypt with two Swiss travelers, as we found it more spectacular than the touristy North. Here you will be amazed by the size of their accomplishments and the Art and Engineering behind them. We visited Abu Simbol and slept in the surrounding deserts. Foreigners are not allowed to travel outside a convoy, but we found that if you time it right you can turn out of the convoy inside one of the small towns we drove through. Then when its quiet you can drive off into the sunset and camp in a "deserted desert".

Abu Simbol

Abu Simbol

Inside Abu Simbol

Karnak Temple

Visiting Karnak, Luxor and Abu Simbol temples and the pyramids make you feel small. Seeing the light shows are a must! You cant imagine the feeling of standing among these ancient temples that took so many years to build. Few of the people that helped build them ever saw them finish. Courage cant exist without fear. One needs to feel that one's life has meaning, that something that stirs enthusiasm and makes your heart go larger. We need to find these worthy purposes..

Luxor temple at night

Luxor temple

 The South of Egypt is a lot less Touristy. Especially off the beaten track. We found more temples, pyramids which can be entered, broken down vehicles and unbelievable sunsets. Most the temples and statues are still fallen over and not yet restored. Egypt only recently realized the potential profits that can be made from tourism. Almost too late! They started using the stones from the temples to produce cement! This is why some temples cant be restored completely! And as soon as it looks like something, a ticket office will be built!

Once upon a time  Land Rover

Egyptian Desert sunset

Statue at unrestored temples

Hieroglyphics on deserted temples

I dont want to walk into whoever lay here

Every time I asked myself if there was more to life, I found there was. But some times I forget to remind myself to ask this question. You don't know if life is waiting around the next corner and where you are now, is only the beginning..

"Life is like a coin. You can spend it any way you wish, but you can only spend it once" Lillian Dickson