From the sea to the desert

Yasser took us on a 2 hour trip around Cairo as he tried to find the quickest way out through the weekend traffic all with the same intentions.

We saw many other parts of Cairo we had missed before, it turns out some off it is a lot nicer. Before the revolution apparently the rubbish wasn’t such a problem and traffic was better controlled by the police who have vanished now.

2 hours later up good highway towards Alexandria and then Marina slightly to the west, left us in refreshingly cooler air flowing in of the med.

Marina is a different world of gated communities set by the sea and artificial lakes. Here the well to do of Egypt come to relax in the clean well maintained beaches and the vast choice of western restaurants and coffee shops. Big American pickup trucks tear around and there are countless speed boats burning fuel. Everyone dressed in shorts, t-shirts and bikinis its definitely a million miles away from the rest of Egypt we have seen.

So a couple of days relaxing here were very plesant and refreshing change of pace from cairo. Yassers family made us very welcome with some big feasts, the evenings spent relaxing in the open air coffe shops with the smell of various shisha until the early hours.

Back to Cairo and after another night we had enough and finally headed out for the desert, the bit I had been looking forward to!

First desert camp

Another feast

 Following the loop west out of cario we spent the first night camped hidden between some rocky outcrops in the black desert I think. The silence was encompassing. A large moon rose and left the night almost as well lit as day.

Back on the tarmac we headed to the white desert and then turned off the road for a couple of days driving through the windblown rocks and shifting sands.
Finding the oasis here was perfect, they appeared from a distance as couple of palm trees isolated in a sea of sand and rock, just they way you see it in the movies.

Wind hewn rock of the white desert

Whilst our route wasnt hundreds of miles into a sea of sand it was still remote enough and we didnt see another livign thing other than a dung beetle and of course the flies which apear from nowhere. Of course I had skimped on a guide and whilst attempting to get back onto the tar we overshot our intended route and had to exit through the rocky plateau, using the large sand dunes that had formed over some areas to make our way up.

There were of course trace of older tracks in the harder areas leading to the sand but so i was sure there would be some way out. But of course they could have been made by lighter 4x4s for fun or experinced dessert guides. Still the heavy defender with mud tyres (everyone says the worst for sand) made it over only having to take a few runs in some places where we bogged down.

Stuck in soft sand, it had to happen eventually

Dropping the tyre pressures meant we got over most stuff with ease, i was pleased, it thought she might struggle a lot more. Im sure i will get well and truly stuck somewhere now.

Up

Down

After messing about off road in the desert we returned to the highway, a helpfull man in Farafra got us more Deisel with no queuing from the "emergency" supply, its cost us twice as much but at £0.20 GBP we are still happy at how cheap it was and definately worth it not to wait hours.

The tar highway that leads through the desert is constantly being overrun by the sands blowing across the road, also annoyingly in your face meaning a hot drive with the window up.

Stopping for the night in we met a family of farmers who treated us to much tea and a good meal. The follwing morning we decided to join what looked like a short queue for fuel, 2.5 hours later we got away after much pushing shoving and fights to get to the pumps. Paid the going rate though of £0.11 GBP per litre.


A message from Tadhg and Bob the Irish lads informed us they were still waiting for the ferry to sudan, it now being 7 days late, we diverted from our planned stop in luxour hoping to catch this one with them as we didnt fancy staying around for the 2nd revolution which was planned for the 30th. A late nigt drive with all the perils of unlit cars, bikes, donkeys and pedestrians ensued and the many unmarked speed humps which have probably done more wear than offroading has!

A aircon hotel awaited which was heaven. Much rushing about the next day to get visas etc... ensued.
We were hoping to get the sat barge for our car, we neednt have worried. Its Sun now and there is still no confirmed departure date, in fact it looks more likely our fixer will be able to organise the road permit and we will go that way on Tue hopefully.

It has given us a chance to have a few beers with some other overlanders heading north. A norwegian couple and another brit. Neither had had a speedy transit across lake nasser though.

The Irish and us have moved to a cheaper apartment overlooking the nile near the Aswan dam. Its away from the city center which we though may be wise as today is the day for the new revolution. Already there have been clashes and deaths in Cairo, Alexandria and Port Said. We are hoping all will remain calm here until we depart.

It has character including the extension lead with two wires you just ram into the plug socket! Safe.

Drive like an Egyptian

Finally out of port said taking a little less than 2 days from getting of the ferry. Our fixer Eslam seem to be worth his fee making  the process very easy, apart from 1 morning with a couple of trips to a shipping company office and a few hours waiting in a cafe with wifi where he picked up the bill we didnt have to do much (he covered most of our taxis to) And due to our taxi getting lost on the final day we missed handing over our keys for a customs inspection so no one ever checked inside, i had read some people had every last bit inventoried down to the linen. £3000 egyptian for anyone who is intrested although we went with a couple of other cars for a "better" price. That was everyting only $15 paid on the boat for a visa was extra.

After the delights of port said, im sure there must be something?  We headed down to cairo hoping the motorway would get us there in 2/3 hours. Somehow even though the toll was only £0.40 stirling I feel robbed, it was hardly an expressway and took a while to adjust to the oncoming trucks using the wrong side, often without lights.

The fuel is cheap here at £1.10  Egyptian or £0.11 Stirling. However most fuel stations didnt have any as we had heard in advance, so as soon as we found one we filled up. With only a 45 min wait, not bad as I had heard of it being hours.

Cairo ring road at night, mental, leading our little convoy of brits, irish and dutch. 6 lanes in 3 all intermingling often without lights and masive horn usage. We found the safest place was in the what in the uk would be the fast lane (often the slowest here) preferably behind a semi or bus to clear the way for you. And a few plies of rubble scattered about to swerve around. Finally found the campsite we were heading for down many potholed, rubble strewn and unpaved dirt streets in neighbourhoods you wernt quite sure about. But it turned out to be a little haven of coolness and cleanliness from the heat, dirt and rubbish outside. And the pool was most welcome!
A great rooftop terrace as well for night views of the pyramids.

Last few days we have battled with cairos traffic from downtown to the pyramids. Ticking of the excellent museum, pyramids/sphyinx and a letter of invitation from the uk embassy for the Sudanese visa. The actual visa we will try and get in aswan as apparently $50 cheaper per person than cairo. Although some people have reported issues getting it. Hopefully no round trip to cairo from aswan.

We are now just waiting to meet Yasser one of Elenas freinds who has invited us up to the coast at alexandria for a couple of days. So we will put visiting the desert on hold and head north again. He is driving so it should be relaxing.......hopefully.

Now just once mord across cairo to meet him.

Egypt and Africa at last

Finally in the port now with a Dutch guy too.

Sat the 15th saw us finally arrive in Port Said. We had "booked" on a ferry for the tue 11th however tue came and went along with wed and finally after doing the ritual of calling Remon travel each morning at 9 then calling back a few more times, we were told on Thurs that it was sailing at last!
Got into the port at 11:00 did paper work, customs etc.. and waited until 22:00 to board then spent the night onboard in port with the ship finally sailing at 07:00 on Fri. We finally got off Sat about 18:00.
Now (Mon) sitting in a cafe waiting for the word our cars have cleared customs and have the Egyptian number plates, hopefully today.

Lena ops to walk

The extra time in Turkey meant we had time to explore a bit more around Iskundrun and met up with two Irish lads who were waiting for the same boat. Sat nav engaged we went and explored/got lost in the mountains above. One of the dead ends furnished us with fruit from some nice locals and a confusing map drawn in the dirt on the bonnet.
Setting off again we started down a track (listed as a proper road on the sat nav) which lead into a beautiful gorge with a nice chance for a refreshing dip. As the track continued it became steadily worse and bore less signs of being traveled, eventually showing none. However now some 2 hours down the "road" we determined to press on, starting with clearing rocks that had fallen down onto the narrow track blasted out of the vertical rock. Later a complete landslip blocked the way and the shovels were broken out and the talk that it must get better from here. 30 mins of filling in and digging out produced enough of a path for a hairy bump over the remains and we were on our way again.

Thanks to Bob who cleared the lions shares of rocks

Strangely passengers from each vehicle had elected to walk the last hour or so of slow progress. Thankfully this was the worst bit and we shortly came onto a better track and not long after a large waterpipe overflowing down the hill provided much needed refreshment. I think had we approached the track from the other way we should have soon turned back but from the direction we came we had gone so far and it showed so little left on the sat nav we had pushed on. Along with the fact there was no room to turn around on the track in all but a few places!

Much needed dip

Still it was a diffrent way to spend the day and yeiled some of the most spectacular scenery.














Now we sit in the heat, dirt and smells of port said waiting for the next leg.

Baklava

We just fell in love with this Turkish nut and honey dessert. We don't just buy one or two pieces, we buy 1-2 kg!!!! In Iskenderun there is a baklava shop, they sell only baklava, all sorts of sizes, shapes and nut filling. We bought 500 grams for our ferry crossing tomorrow. It is 32 lira for a walnut filling (for 1 kg), or 35 lira if it is a pistachios filling . A guy at the shop kindly gave us pistachios baklava each, so we could just taste how good it was ( and it was bloody delicious). he did not force us to buy it. He also said we would not get fat eating baklava ;))) which was a lie i think :))

Waiting for the Ferry

 Before leaving Anamur we had the privilege to witness a sea turtle come up to lay its eggs. Later we found out some people had come here especially to witness it. We were told it was the time of year by our castle freinds and on the off chance stayed up and were lucky enough to see one.
The following day we stopped in agin on the castle guys and following more tea eventually managed to pay our fee for visiting yesterday and headed down the road.

Stopped in at some caves but they wernt all that great but for 3 TL you coulnt complain. Got to practice some low light shooting with mixed results.

Further on there was a public beach / camping area. We stopped up and got chatting over some tea with a couple and decided to stay, especially as it was free camping but still with toilets and showers.
Admittedly not the cleanest of places but ok. There were a lot of turkish people about many families enjoying the beach and looked like a reasonably nice if not very public spot. I only got concered later when our new freinds whilst saying it was "no problem" to camp here as they were then informed us he had a gun and a knife in case there were any problems! Hmmm

Being right in a town later on some of the local boy racers turned up and a few more male groups nut it seemed fine really although the guy did say Lena should go with his wife to the toilets for security.

A good evening ensued and the spirits flowd with another family joining us. As I crawled up into the roof tent I was to tired and a touch drunk to worry about the nearby sound of gun fire that had broken out. Im sure it was playfull and hopefully not in this direction.

The locals told us a story about the above castle, apparently it was built by a king/lord/rich man for his daughter who had been bitten by a snake. So here they could not reach her. However he was later gotten by a snake hiding in his grapes. I think that was the jist of it.

The next day (Sun) we made for Iskanderun with the hope of going down early mon morning to ensure a place on wed ferry. Spent sun eve in the lovely Orient Campsite about 30/40 mins past Iskanderun. It has a nice refreshing pool and has lots of trees and palms giving it a cool garden feel. A very laind back dutch/turkish guy runs it. Worth the 30 TL. A family picnicing there fed us with fish, bread and salad and fresh fruit for dessert. So there was no need to do anything else other than open another cold one!

We now find ourselfs with tickets for the ferry (delayed from sun) which will hopefully sail tomorrow. We have to call and check at 9 but if its on we should be in Egypt by wed eve hopefully.

Mamure Castle

 Ended today on a proper campsite right next to this brilliant castle. We wandered down the beach and then entered through a hole in the wall. After 45 mins or so of wandering about we came across the "official entrance" and met two lovely guys. The gardener & ticket man who proceeded to insist we fill in the visitors book despite the fact we hadnt paid as we had no  money on us and made us mint tea (2 cups) and then gave us info on the castle and the turtles which come up the beach this time of year to lay eggs. Brilliant this has to be the best attraction yet for kindness of the people and the castle itself should not be missed if if your ever near it is huge and you can wander freely in and out the walls and up all the towers, through the corridors. The health and safety department clearly havent been here yet, great!

There are a load of fresh water turtles who live in the moat around it and seemed to be fond of strawberries

This mornigs camp view

Wash time for the Landy

Castle on our beach

Castle keepers making us feel very welcome and giving

 

 

 Elena some roses

Turkish trucks and buses are very fond of these chariot style wheel ripper bits. Dont cut them up in traffic!

6th June Day 21

Nicest thing today has to be the shoe shine guy in a small town buying us tea as we were looking lost. So very kind I felt inept in my language skills that I couldnt even provide much conversation in return. Otherwise we have rolled down the mountains past another much more beautiful lake Burdur I think, almost to the coast heading back inland as we bounced of Antalya not wishing to face the tourist masses.
Confied in the car this eve by a swarm of flies/bugs who arrived at dusk :(

In pictures today - the view from the campsite, lake burdur, the river we have followed up this eve and discovering you can buy tyres in Tescos here.

Basmakci

Spent the yesterday eve in a campsite by pamukkale with a german couple who had cycled to beijing which always make me feel ive cheated by driving. Good stories though.
Spent an hour or so baking in the reflected sun wandering up the terraces. The bounus being the water is flowing down so it cools you go, but after a while it does feel as if major sunstroke is on the way so we retired to the landy. Should have got up earlier (lena)
Started off for a place called Kanyon which is a senic canyon I think about 280 kms ESE. However about an hour later we turned of at Cardak and took the senic route to the south of lake Acigol. Which I recomend its well very senic and you get the road to your self.
The lake dries up a lot in the summer so we took the chance to drive across the lake bed.
Then turned south and despite the lack of any indicated roads on our maps/gps I had faith we could cut over the mountain somewhere to another lake at Burdur Golu.
So after avoiding quite a few tortoises (we love them they are cool) we ended up half way in Basmakci, stopping for some  fruit n veg, 2 big bags 1 of oranges and the other tomatos, cucumbers & peppers all 4 lira! Then we enquired if ok to camp and were directed to follow 2 kids on a scooter who took us to a spectacular spot up in the hills. Cue tea with shepards and then more nice kids arrive and take us on a senic tour featuring edible leaves, roman artifacts and places they dig for gold! Wheres my shovel?

Later the scooter reappeared with fresh pancakes from their mother. Best campsite yet! Thanks guys.
Ill see what pics I can get up on my poor 3g singal. Need to use all the data up before tomorrow though as they will lock my turksh sim. U have to register them here within a week for 140 lira ! (Not happeing)  That's after u pay for the sim and data.  Most expensive data yet!