http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Birdy85/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Birdy85 en-us Fri, 01 Jan 2010 21:25:31 +0000 Fri, 01 Jan 2010 21:25:31 +0000 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 pe http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/blog-423780.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/blog-423762.html 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 likeminded people but there was the nagging worry http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/blog-421080.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Sudan/North/Wadi-Halfa/blog-420766.html 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 wasnrsquot enough http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Upper-Egypt/Aswan/blog-420676.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/blog-412494.html '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 Hann http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Jordan/North/Amman/blog-410717.html 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 ba http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/South/Damascus/blog-410703.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/blog-410129.html When I sa305d 305n the last blog that Greece was slow I hadn't v305s305ted Athens. The speeds on the choked up cap305tal's streets seem tw305ce as fast as anywhere else 305n the country. Where people seemed happy do305ng 20 30 mph through the smaller towns here everyth305ng 305s conducted at 50 and soundtracked by the screech305ng of overheat305ng tyres and http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/blog-404331.html We're 305n Greece. I know you're not meant to pass op305n305on when travel wr305t305ng the strength of the wr305t305ng should convey all. Bugger 305t. We l305ke Greece. We've only spent one day here but 305t has already endeared 305tself more than Italy d305d 305n almost a fortn305ght. Tak305ng that short ferry has shuttled us from one European co http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/West-Greece/Patras/blog-402599.html We left our overpr305ced hotel and made our way to the Bar305 Patros ferry. We had qu305te a wa305t ahead of us but who really m305nds wa305t305ng when the weather 305s clear and the temperature 305s hot We sat on the only ports305de 305n Europe not to sell water 305t took half an hour of search305ng before we found an expens305ve vend305ng mach http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Puglie/Bari/blog-402591.html I said that none of the ruins felt quite real in the last blog. Han agreed with me. When faced with the stone hard corpses of people permanently preserved in their pain she said I find it hard to see them as people. By this time we had plenty of company coach after coach had spewed Americans into the city during the hours we had been exploring. Most of them walked around with cameras glued http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/blog-402581.html Which way do you think the train is going to come Han asked me the question in a very tired voice. Left I resolutely decided. I don't know why I chose left but I'd had that feeling since the barriers came down. We were stood outside our far too expensive Bari hotel just watching the traffic when the klaxon sounded and the barriers rolled down announcing an impending train. Even as the http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/blog-401499.html I stuck my head out to the left in an effort to find some gap through the gridlock of Napolian traffic. I quickly whipped it back in to avoid having it ripped off by the Bandit borne crazy. He was filtering at warp speed on just one wheel straight down the centre of the clogged lanes. For as far as I could see him receeding in my mirrors his sketchy speed wheelie scribbled a scratchy black s http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/blog-401496.html We've missed a bit. We visited Pisa saw a tower what was leaning that's about the summation of our Northern Italy jaunt.After Pisa we made a beeline for Rome. We arrived late afternoon and found surprisingly the cheapest campsite yet in Italy. Camping Roma it had excellent facilities and a great if expensive bar. As we set up the tent a guy introduced himself to us Alex Duke what an a http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/blog-401473.html Sorry for the lack of updates plenty of photos added at the end of this. To sum up the blank space amazing roads crazy semiclad sports bike pilots Han getting bitten to shreds by local wildlife perfect sun less than perfect bike expensive camping and language barriers. There you go you may as well have been there.We take up the story on the shoulder of Italy.There's nothing quite like w http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/blog-401367.html After passing the permatanned packed beaches of St. Tropez and Cannes the first campsite we found was practically on a building site. Either side of it for mile upon mile was nothing but a cheap casino and swathes of harsh pebble beach. After cooking our dinner of tomato and potato stew washed down with ten of Lidl's cheapest beers we went out to sample the night life. The night life happen http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Provence-Alpes-C-te-d-Azur/Cannes/blog-401359.html After settling into our ferry life after Hannah had done 15 laps of every deck we retired to the bar to check out the free entertainment. 'Free entertainment' even it isn't particularly entertaining is still free plus we were on a cruise ship would it not be downright rude not to partake in some cruise ship entertainment Thanks to shows such as XFactor 'Cruise ship singer' has become an http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/blog-399918.html Can you hear that Hannah's voice whispered at me from the cocoons of her sleeping bag. No I monotoned back through folds of sleep. In truth I thought I had heard something but was too sleepy to care that we were about to be eaten alive by foreign beasties. Don't go back to sleep Joel there's definitely something out there. That time I definitely heard it too a wet and warm snuffle an http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Basque-Country/Bilbao/blog-399907.html