To the north

| Leonie | AFRICA, Ethiopia | 2 Reacties (Comments)

Ethiopisch HooglandBefore we go further south, we drive to the north of Ethiopia for a tour around the beautiful Ethiopian Highlands. First to Gonder, a medium-sized provincial town north of Gorgora. There we can withdraw money, buy motor insurance and hopefully get internet access. At Tim and Kim we could not access to the Internet, but the blog could use an update and we would like to read some emails. After Gonder we drive on towards the Siemien Mountains and the rock churches in the Tigray province. Lees meer (Read more)

See you, North Africa

| Leonie | AFRICA, Ethiopia, Sudan | 6 Reacties (Comments)

Tot ziens, Noord-Afrika- 1With a visa for Ethiopia in our pocket we leave Khartoum and head for the border. It is about 600km to the border town of Metema. South of Khartoum there are no places of interest that we want to visit, so we plan to ride two full days. If we then camp just before the border on the second day, we can arrive there early to complete all the formalities so we still have sufficient time to ride to the first campsite in Ethiopia. Lees meer (Read more)

Chat in Khartoum

| Leonie | AFRICA, Sudan | 9 Reacties (Comments)

Kletsen in Khartoum 19After we have admired the pyramids, we drive to the centre of Karima where we find the hotel that was recommended to us by Volker and Mülle. We can park our motorbikes in the courtyard of the hotel. After two days of bush camping it is great to have a shower (even if it is a cold shower) and sit on a normal toilet. The remainder of the afternoon we do some work on the blog, filter some water and wash clothes. Only when the sun is set we venture out to the main square of Karima to eat in one of the local restaurants. Lees meer (Read more)

Great, Sudan!

| Leonie | AFRICA, Sudan | 9 Reacties (Comments)

Leuk hoor, Sudan!! 1Once on the dock, we drag our luggage to the direction of the Sudanese customs. Mazar, our fixer on the Sudanese side, had already informed us that he would wait for us there. It is warm and the bags seem even more heavy than they already were. Sweaty and with a red hot face we arrive at customs.
There we meet Mazar, a young, busy guy with a cheerful face and a contagious laugh. He wears neat trousers, black shoes and a blue shirt. He welcomes us to Sudan, puts our passports in his briefcase and asks us to follow him. Then it suddenly goes very quick. Before we know it our luggage is checked, we have a stamp in our passports and we sit in the back off an old Landrover pickup that brings us to a hotel. Lees meer (Read more)

An adventure in itself

| Leonie | AFRICA, Egypt, Sudan | 10 Reacties (Comments)

Een avontuur op zich 16After a fun week in Aswan we leave for Sudan on Sunday. We will follow our bikes to Sudan where they have arrived on Friday (hopefully). We look forward to seeing our red and white mopeds against in Wadi Halfa!. But it will still take some time, because we first have to take a trip with the ferry from Egypt to Sudan of about 17 hours!

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Waiting for the ferry

| Leonie | AFRICA, Egypt | 2 Reacties (Comments)

Wachten op de boot in Aswan 17To go to Sudan from Egypt we have to take the ferry that runs between Aswan in Egypt and Wadi Halfa in Sudan. The boat runs on Lake Nasser, an artificial lake in the Nile that arose when they built a large dam in the 60s in Aswan. There are two land borders through which you can travel on a road from one country to another, but for unknown reasons those borders are not yet in use. Well, you could use the landborder, but only if you have received prior permission pay € 3,000 per vehicle. In that case we prefer to boat! Although that is also easier said than done. Lees meer (Read more)

Ancient Egypt

| Leonie | AFRICA, Egypt | 8 Reacties (Comments)

Het oude Egypte 21We leave Temple Dush and drive back to the main road through the village of Baris. At the police checkpoint at the intersection we are kindly greeted. They had already recorded information about us when we passed there the night before, so after we have confirmed that we will directly go to Luxor today, they wave us through. It is Friday, the rest day for Muslims, and therefore very quiet on the road. Apart from a number of trucks we see almost no other traffic. The town of Baghdad is the last oasis on the route and after the police checkpoint there, we do not pass any other villages or checkpoints any more. On both sides of the road we only see a golden sand sea. There is a strong wind and we can only just keep our light motorbikes straight. Lees meer (Read more)