Birdy85
Joel Burdall Joined: April 19th 2009
Logged in: September 29th 2009
Logged in: September 29th 2009
Travel Blog Posts
We had a long day to get to Khartoum, 350 miles of straight, featureless (and petrol free) black top to the capital. We woke early, to get on the road before sun got too fierce. We filled our petrol tank, and every water bottle that we had with us, and stored them on Donkey's roof. If it hadn't been for the kind presence of A and A, it would have been a nightmare, strapping that many bottles of petrol, plus water to Harri. There is very little to report on the road. We took it in fifty kilometre stretches, pulling in for a stretch and a drink after each section, breaking it down into nice bitesize chunks to digest easily. The riding was so easy, so boring, stick into top gear and switch the brain into ... read more
Paradise?
We breakfasted on fried eggs and bread, again courtesy of Andrew and Angela, we could get used to this having a support crew lark. We must be turning into a right pair of Ewan and Charlies. What are we going to do when we go our seperate ways? How will we cope without having the luxury of someone travelling with us who actually prepared properly to do this trip? It was to be a short day, only 180k on good roads to Abu Dom. The day's travelling passed in the blink of an eye, after the shocking roads of the previous two days, and by early afternoon, we were making camp. Our camp was an earthly paradise, only metres from the Nile, with powder fine sands, fringed with tall palms. The first thing we wanted to ... read more
Desert road
For the first time since leaving home over three months and seven thousand miles ago, we had ourselves a convoy. Yeehaw! As we left Wadi Halfa, Alex led in his Toyota, followed by Donkey, as Andrew and Angela had affectionately christened their Rover, with us, the tail end charlies bringing up the rear on Harri. It felt good to be travelling with like-minded people, but there was the nagging worry that we would not be quick enough, or able enough off road, and would end up being a burden on the others. Worries put to one side, we buzzed off into the Sudanese desert. Goodbye, maa salaama, good riddance, Wadi Halfa. The pleasure was all yours. The first thing that strikes you as you leave Halfa is just how different the country is to Egypt, the ... read more
Ferry arrival
I've been in Arab countries long enough to know that their time is not always quite the same as Western time. Egyptian time can be even less reliable than general Arab time. An Egyptian ten minutes may not be 600 seconds, it is only a vague indication that something may be happening at some point in the future (an sha allah caveated) can last a very long while. So I'm really not too surprised that the ten minutes that we had to wait to pick our bikes up from the ferry has now bled into a four hour sit down. At 1130 we were told that the barge with our vehicles on was almost at the port. The ferry from Aswan is too packed with people and hand luggage to carry vehicles, so they have to ... read more
Port
I left Hannah looking very red and flustered at the gangplank of the ship. All we wanted to do was board the bloody thing and find somewhere to sit down, just anywhere to collapse in the blistering sun, waiting to set sail for Sudan. Instead, the policeman guarding the door insisted that the 6 hours that I had been running around collecting paperwork from various offices just wasn’t enough - I had one last piece that I needed to complete the collection. Hannah was wilting, but I had no choice but to leave her looking after our luggage while I went back to collect the ‘tasjil,’ which apparently was another essential form which nobody tells you about until after you need it. It took the best part of half hour to wait in an Egyptian non-queue ... read more
Wide Open Desert
Ain't being on the road great? Being on the road you invite disaster to happen to you, and it's always from these bad things that the really good ones happen. Bad thing = lost sump plug. Good thing = saviour by guardian angel. We left Sinai early (by our standards) hoping to make it to Cairo by mid afternoon. We left with good advice from our new best friend. Our new best friend tripped over to us just as we were planning to leave the campsite, and introduced himself as Calvin. He was the walking embodiment of a scarecrow, slam a stick up him and jam him in a field, and he would have been right at home. Long lank hair, floppy hat, rag and bone limbs, he wouldn't have been out of place on a ... read more
Crazy cat stealing bastard had the camera
'That little twat stole my fucking cat.' Hannah was outraged. I had spent the previous hour playing at being a human ping pong ball, batted from desk to desk in Jordanian customs. I'd had to buy dinar from a policeman when I found all the money changers were closed, I'd had to wait in line behind two dozen chained convicts, and now I had to fetch Han in to prove I wasn't people smuggling. But Hannah had bigger problems. 'It was probably the best pet out of all of them we have found on our travels. Even better than the dog I had in Bodrum. He loved me as much as I loved him - he was just so strong and assertive. I would have even given him a cheese puff. We just didn't have enough ... read more
Damascus by night
I must have some kind of illness, a very odd illness, one that drags me back to Iraq like some kind of migratory bird each year. Each year for my birthday I gravitate this way. My first waking memory as a 23 year old was soundtracked by the end of the world crashes of a massive mortar attack. 'Whooomph, bang!' The first salvo woke me up as it barreled in, splitting the air and popping like a TNT balloon. I curled foetal and tried to pretend that the explosions were only an extension of my brain sapping hangover. I opened my eyes as I tried to shrink into nothingness and somehow avoid the instant roulette death of falling mortars. With flinching and puffy eyes I saw the Iranian helmet in bed with me. Hazy memories flooded ... read more
Picture 046
Sorry, there's a big gap from Greece to Syria, I'll try and fill in the blanks soon. I think I am going to have to put Han down, it's the most humane thing to do. You can't go yanking pretty little English roses out of their fertile soil and then dumping them in hot and dusty sandpits - they wilt. We have booked into a Homs hotel for a couple of days, to let her recover. It's no hardship, the room is comfortable, the beds beat sleeping on the ground,, and the air conditioning is a breath of...erm, fresh air, compared to waking up in an early morning tent sauna. We don't have a sea to jump in first thing in the morning, or inquisitve strays for Han to adopt, but we do have a full ... read more
When I saıd ın the last blog that Greece was slow I hadn't vısıted Athens. The speeds on the choked up capıtal's streets seem twıce as fast as anywhere else ın the country. Where people seemed happy doıng 20 - 30 mph through the smaller towns, here everythıng ıs conducted at 50 and soundtracked by the screechıng of overheatıng tyres and brakes. I spent two hours rıdıng around the cıty and I feel lucky we survıved. Everybody ıs doıng theır own thıng, trapped together on the same roads, goıng sımılar ways ın the same spaces, all wıth the same sweet oblıvıousness to anyone elses exıstence. There ıs none of the murderous agressıon of Italıan roads, just a blıssful lack of awareness. They are completely dıfferent hazards, but each completely as, erm... hazardous as each other. One ... read more
