Snap back to reality

how strange it is to think that 5 months ago we set off from Truro to head into the big wide world and take our chances in Africa.... we have now come full circle and are back in Truro!....

let me tell you the final chapter of our African Adventure...i believe we left off in Luxor....

on the 21st March we were up before the sun to head off on the long drive to Cairo we set off at 5am we followed the Nile for a while...(crocidile)....then drove to the coast and followed the Red sea road all the way up till Cairo the scenery en route is bizarre huge luxury resorts next to huge construction projects...(seemingly abandoned)...next to tumble down shanty towns next to huge resorts etc despite the fact that its coming into holiday season in Egypt the coast was deserted with a few lonely fishermen the only souls we saw as we cruised by...we arrived into Cairo about 6pm but it took over an hour to drive through the hectic traffic to our hotel...not helped by the fact that it seemed to be tucked away in a maze of tiny little streets we had a bit of time to sort our stuff out and clear the truck before we headed out for a final meal...it was at the top end of the price scale but the food was AMAZEMENT we went to a little Lebanese place me and LP shared 4 appetisers which turned out to be far more food then was required (but it did provide us with a meal the next day also!) after the meal we headed to the hotel where we watched a slide show of photos from the entire trip which was hilarious and stirred up memories..... South Africa seemed so long ago! the next day we headed off to see the Egyptian Museum and also the mighty pyramids at Giza we had a mini bus and a guide for the day which was great Waleed is an Egyptologist and really knows his stuff at the museum he showed us around for a few hours telling us the history and setting the scene for the pyramids in the afternoon as we were driving there we could see them from ages away its really quite bizarre as they are almost swallowed into the city just a patch of desert surrounded by city we started off at the GREAT pyramid this one is missing its top it used to be tipped with gold but this has long since vanished we struggled to find a place to stand where you could fit the whole thing into a photo and also tried to avoid all the touts who rather then hassling seem to hustle one guy gave LP stuff to hold then took the camera from around his neck took a photo then demanded baksheesh for it LP offered him an E£1 in the spirit of get this man away from me and he wouldn't take it he kept demanding E£10 so we walked away and he got nothing....we got back in the mini bus and drove around the side of the pyramids to a point where you can see all three at once and get a crazy photos pretending to hold them...very cheesy but cool....(don't judge me ha ha)....then we went to the third and smallest pyramid which still retains some of the granite casing that originally covered it now its just on the bottom few tiers we even went inside...its quite creepy in a way we were the only people in there its the kind of place that if you were even just a tiny bit claustrophobic you would freak out!...the ceiling is super low to walk in you have to bend double as you walk down the stairs and although it is all lit up you cant actually see the bottom it just goes on and on and on until you get to the bottom...then you can stand up but only for a moment as you then have to duck under a stone beam and walk bent over through a tunnel then you get to a room where you can stand there are more stairs going down and then more again until you reach a room divided into little sections the whole thing is completely empty and free of decoration its all just bare stone walls but it is amazing i felt like an explorer...(you have to pretend not to see the air conditioning unit and the lights and stuff)...when we came out we took a look at the middle pyramid this one still has a white limestone casing but only right at the top as it was stripped away in the search for the entrance...that night we said our first goodbyes....the next day we got to hang out with sister wife Teri and Old Williams...(they were split from the group after visa issues for Sudan)...we met outside the Egyptian museum where like something out if a movie we ran to each other with open arms...much to the amusement of a group of Egyptian students who filmed it on their cellphones and then interviewed us on the Egyptian revolution and on the state of countries in the middle east...it was all pretty surreal...our day went coffee lunch coffee all the while chatting away filling each other in on the last few weeks since we last saw each other!....Next day was sad goodbyes first of all Sam and Lynley in the morning then after spending the day together in Alexandria we said goodbye to Mark and Teri, Sue and Dave and Zan....the next few days it was just me and LP in Cairo we went to the Islamic quarter to the mosques, the bazaar and to Al-azar park a beautiful spot of green away from the hustle and bustle of the city, we went to the Coptic quarter and visited the hanging church and the indoor overpriced souk and other then that we just hung out eating a load of falafal then our flight was cancelled and we had the option of staying another day or leaving early we chose to leave early as we already had our train booked and it lost us less money...So early on Monday morning we got up and sped to the airport arriving there in about 10Min's...(that's with the taxi driver doing an insane 140km an hour right behind a bus and weaving in and out of the traffic!)...we boarded our BA flight and realised why our original flight was cancelled...there was no passangers! the plane wasn't even at 50% capacity! we arrived into London where we chilled out at Hazes flat... (thanks heaps!)... and went out for a gorgeous meal... (thanks heaps again!)...the next day...(that's yesterday)...we met up with Dave and Sue and picnicked in St James park...(and yes the picnic was from waitrose)...where we got attacked by pelicans... in the afternoon we said our final goodbyes to Sue and Dave and headed to paddington to catch our train to Truro so here we are full circle its been a crazy, amazing wonderful challenging brilliant fun five months lets hope the next 5 will be as exciting!.....

Egypt our last country booooooooooo!!!

so we have arrived in Egypt our 15th country in 5 months and the last on our epic adventure booooooooo!!! after spending about 17 hours on the ferry from Wadi Halfa it was quite fun the boat claims to have a capacity of 600 people and thats how many are crammed on at times but looking at it i think its more like a capacity of 300! luckily for us not many people are going ointo Egypt they are all heading out back to Sudan mostly from Libiya so we only had to squeeze in with about a hundred or so passengers we boarded and almost immdiatly got served dinner which i took one lookmat and ran away (taking my orange with me) we camped out on deck in the fresh air all snuggled up in our sleeping bags (except LP in his 2 season who was just a tad cold in the night) around 10pm we sailed past Abu Simbil which was all lit up and looked spectacular unfortunately we didnt manage to get a photo by the time we grabbed the camera it was to late! after that we settled down to sleep...in the middle of the night i woke up chocking on fumes it seems a tiny hole in the wall by my head was some sort of exhaust so after poisining myself for a while i decided to put my head at the other end this worked in that i didn't die of fumes poising but i was no longer sheltered from the wind and so had a bright pink wind burnt face for a few days! any who next morning we woke up and chilled on deck until we arrived by which time there was almost no shade nd the sun was intense we had to wait on board for ages whilst our passports were taken to be checked through immigration eventually we were on our way in a bus to our hotel (the truck goes on a car ferry so we are without it until about Sunday) so anywho in Aswan we checked out the Nubian museum well worth a look especially the section about moving all the tombs and temples to escape the rising waters of lake Nasser (we have seen the temple of Isis in Madrid that was moved from here) we also went to see the unfinished obelisk very cool but not worth the E£30 entrance fee! and we walked through the Fatimid cemetery unlike any cemetry we have ever seen its very cool but there is absolutly no logic or order to where graves are! in the afternoon we checked out the souk and got a things (including a new bag to carry home all our new stuff haha) the rest of the time in Aswan we spent wandering along the Nile and eating frigging cheap and tasty falafal! then we bused it to Luxor yesterday we went to Karnak temple in the morning spending hours just wandering around the site feeling absolutely in awe of it all! after a long lunch in the shade we went to the souk and got some saffron and indigo...the indigo mostly because i cant understand how washing white clothes with blue powder makes them whiter so i have to try it! then at sunset we went to Luxor temple we missed the good light by a matter of minutes but it did look really impressive all lit up in the dark! tomorrow we head for Cairo and then back to London in about a week....my how time flies by!!!!.....

so after 4 days she still had not showered but did she smell....no ....well proberly best not to get to close!

Hello from Sudan a country which is friggin beautiful with the most wonderful people i dont have a single complaint thats right not even the fact that i have not bathed in comming up 5 days upsets me!..(ok i may have cheated and had a whores bath with some baby wipes...but LP did it to!)...we arrived across the border from Ethiopia in wha has to be one of longest crossings amazing since we actually already had our visas...(plus im pretty sure the last man we had to see just wanted to show off his MASSIVE tv)...so we crossed over and drove for a while then left the road and camped in the desert under the stars...(in our tent)..the only thing tat made it better was the mac and cheese we dined on! next day we arrived into Khartoum where we pitched our tents in the grounds of the blue Nile sailing club oh so very posh except it wast really...but the grass was spongy the view ove rthe river was great and there was a little man a blender an ice machine and a whole pile of mangos hello fresh juice...will you be my best friend(insert question mark here this bizzare keyboard doesnt seem to have one...) so anywho Khartoum exploring was pretty much limited to where we could go on foot so it was the money changer the internet cafe(which im actually fairly certain was a computer school and they just let us in to be kind...internet ran like a dream and only cost 1 pound and thats a Sudan pound baby!)...then the supermarket the post office a spot of Shwarma for lunch then back to the sialing club for juice...in the afternoon cooled down we headed to the Ethnology museum which was quite cool small and only took about 20mins to see but we lingered in the air conditioned bliss.... that night we had a BBQ and a few...cups of tea....what else would we drink....theres no way a cold beer is worth 40 lashes...(insert any alcoholic drink for beer)...after leaving Khartoum we have spent the last 3 days driving a bit seeing a few sights bush camping and continuing on first sights we saw were some ruins at Naqa we looked from a distence as it was an unplanned site and the entrance fee was a bit much we then drove onto musawwarat but we never made it as we got stuck in the sand three times so in the end decided to camp and go see the ruins in the morning the campsite again was in the desert sleeping on the nice soft sand..(in our tent)...the next morning we were up bright and brezzy and drove a whole 5 mins to Musawwarat first off we looked at the lion temple which was reconstructed in 1960 so you can actually see what it looked like back in the day then we walked around the great enclosure which is all ruins some stuff is is kept in a little museum to keep it safe from the elements this is the only stuff that has information but the ruins are still breath taking after a few hours walking around we hopped on the truck and drove to Meroe this is Sudans biggest tourist stop and yet we had the whole place to ourselves it was wonderful at tis site only the recontructed pyrimids still have there tops as back in the day some jerk off treasure hunter went looking for treasure he knocked the tops off every one and only hit the jack pot once....we spent ages here taking in the desert the pryrimds the camals eveything several times we stopped and just sat in the sand and looked and were lucky enough to disover a nest way up top the back of one of the pryrimis with a baby eagle insde just watching us watching it!... we drove just round behind a sand dune and camped up for the night we spent some time chasing a huge camal spider...(which is actually not a spider its a solifugae)..... we went to bed and the wind died down we then made a huge mistake by leaving our tent open with just the misquito ets closed we woke up at 1.30am in the middle of a sand storm we were covered in sand sleeping bags full the works...not a pleasent sleep i assure you... next day we drove to Jebel barkal the holy mountain there are also some really well preserved pyrimids here and also the largest kushite temple in Sudan...in ruins of course.... we stopped ate some lunch the set about scrambling for the top where we posed for a bunch of pctures and took in a birds eye veiw of the ruins the scennery was amazing from that height especially the change in enviromet from the blue of the nile to the lush green of the date palms to the aburbt start of the desert rather spectacuklar really....we slid down a sand side which was so hot i had to sit on my bum and slide...it was that or cry the sand was so hot it was rather fun but my pants did fill with sand!....next day we drove and drove and drove some more but it wasnt a bad day as the wind was strong so it never got to hot...this morning we drove about an hour to Wadi Halfa where we were told the ferry was leaving in the afternoon so we rushed about getting the stuff we would need for about three days as the truck goes seperatly alll that rushing and it turns out the ferry actually goes on ednesday like we thought so after internetting and what have you we will drive back to the desert and camp.... (the hotels here are not to awesome)...so another day without a shower....See you in Egypt! .....

once again i say sorry for the spelling....

Yeah thats right...im so special people build roads right in front of me...

so quite a bit has happened since i last bloged and i know you are all on the edge of your seats to know what my title is about but im sorry your just gonna have to wait till i get to that part of the story...

im gonna do this as quick as i can because there is no garentee it will work =( day 2 in Addis was spent at the national museum (the funniest part was when we down in the basement section the part documenting evolution and there was an absolute nutter of a women marching her son around preaching about how it was all lies i especially liked the part where she screamed "how can this be true? how? how? the earth is not millions of years old...THE BIBLE TELLS US SO!!!!" she also pointed at me and said i look like a monkey but thats irrelevent...) next we went to the thnological museum where we had a guide who took us round and showed us all things Ethiopian its housed in the old palace of halie salassie on the uni grounds and we even got to see his bedroom!!! he is my favourite Ethiopian emperor (i got a coin with his face on it oh yeah!) finally to end the day we went to the holy trinity cathedral where we saw the tomb of halie sallasie pretty friggin epic!

next day we drove so nothing to report we arrived in Bahair Dar on the edge of lake Tana where we spent 2 nights the first day we went to the nile river falls somwhat less impressive after the construction of a hyroelctric station but still pretty freacking awesome! we walked for about 2 hours up and down and around the falls and climbed right down to feel the spray of the falls the next day we went out on the lake to visit monistries we went to three but only went inside 2 which were stunning painted all over in Ethiopian style kinda cartoony but amazing bible sceens my favourite was the cannibal eating a man!...

sorry im moving so fast but to continue on we left lake tana and went to Lailibella another days drive away we only spent one day there but by gosh it was AMAZEMENT we were lucky to be there on a sunday and so saw all the church goers in their white dresses robes and scarves we even went to mass at St Georges the most famous of all the rock hewn churches it didnt matter that we didnt understand anything...(to be fair though noone really does as mass is said in Geez and everyone speacks Amharic... kinda like latin to the roman catholics...) it was such an experience in the morning we visited 7 churches then in the afternoon a further 4 and a monks viallage what a great place! (my time is about to run out so i cant tell you more about this brilliant place sorry)...

back on the road we drove to Mekele where we didnt really spend any time as we spent the day driving about 3 hours to a church in the middle of nowhere where i had a paddy and refused to go in...(details are not important here lets just say I WAS IN THNE RIGHT and move on haha) luckily for us a local guy visting his family from uni in Addis took us to his house for a coffee ceremony which even i took part in yes thats right i drunk coffee but only one cup LP had 3...its a big deal here in Ethiopia starting with the beans being roasted the smoke is then wafted over everyone before the process is continued its beautiful stuff which even i enjoyed...just not enough to drink more then one cup.... we stayed there for several hours and i got my hair braided in the ethiopian style of 5 french plaits and i was tought how to weave...LP would have been tought how to plow the feild but its not the right season... it was by far one of the best experiences of the whole trip....

from Mekele we drove to Axum where we visted the Steale feilds the queens of Sheebas bath and her palace and a stone the Ethiopian equvialant of the rosseta stone...

next up Gondor whaich took 2 hidous days to drive to and is where you learn about the roads basically we were driving along when a man jumped out with a red flag and we had to stop we got out and walked around the corner to see a man in bulldozer clearing landslide he was literally building the road before our eyes quite atonishing really and friggin scary when you take into account we were above 2000m with a sheer drop to the side argghhhh we waited whilst he cleared the road drove around the corner and where met with the same problem! luckily it only happened twice and for any futrure travellers to Ethiopia the roads will be brilliant!
our days in Gondor are being spent chillaxing which is well needed after so many long days in the truck tonight we will have a party to farewell 2 fellow travellers who cant get into Sudan so leave us to fly straight to Egypt which makes me a very sad panda....

on that note i must leave you i have heard rumours sudanese internet is AMAZING so will fill you all in then....

PS sorry for the spelling spell check no worky for me....