http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/DestinationAlgeria/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from DestinationAlgeria en-us Sun, 29 Nov 2009 04:52:17 +0000 Sun, 29 Nov 2009 04:52:17 +0000 My travels have come to an end. I had intended to stop over in the US and bike my way from San Francisco to LA but no. Firstly my account balance said Na not really going to happen then secondly joyful US policy because my NL passport was issued in NZ while I'm not a NZ citizen it means that I need a visa and a 2 week waiting time in the Netherlands didn't look all to good. So now I've got http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Hessen/Frankfurt/blog-217923.html My muddy old bike was still muddy and oldlooking when it arrived at Amsterdam airport. Austrian Air treated it a bit better than Royal Air Morocco did which was a relief. My sister Rose was waiting for me at the airport we then jumped on the good old Dutch train system bike bags tent and all and headed north. We spent a day with family in Zwolle and then went up to Friesland where we stayed w http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Netherlands/Limburg/Maastricht/blog-217152.html We left Istanbul early in the morning and took a 5hr bus to Eceabat. A tour guide picked us up and we set off on a PACKAGE TOUR. Kees was over the moon at having reached the highest echalon of travelers. It was a fantastic and often somber experience. We visited the museum what amazed me most was all the bullets which they had found which had hit one another in mid air. Can you imagine the i http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Gallipoli/blog-213887.html not D The 30hour train ride from Aleppo clearly did save us time as biking would have taken slightly longer but it was a bit of a long long long haul. We had a sleeper cabin to ourselves which was pretty good and the scenery of northwest Syria and southern Turkey was pretty amazing. We had a few complications with the Syrian train staff concerning food and money but we got there in the end. Wh http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Istanbul/blog-212834.html Dan says... This trip started out with a lovely little jaunt down Beirut's equivalent of state highway one. The open road driving here is the undisputed worse either of us has seen. If a car is passing a car which is already passing another car and the only option for this first car is to drive on the extreme wrong side of the road to get past both cars at once even if there is another car com http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Lebanon/Tripoli/blog-212580.html We advise against nonessential and tourist travel to Lebanon as there is high risk to your safety in most parts of the country. We advise against all travel to southern Lebanon south of Litani River as there is an extreme risk to your safety in this area. MFAT warningAfter having been to Lebanon I thought I may as well check out the NZ government's travel warnings. Well after reading that j http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Syria/South/Damascus/blog-212433.html How I found Kees...I spent a day checking out Jerusalem then caught a bus to Tel Aviv on the way who should I see biking along the road but Kees in his bright green Makarewa Tshirt. But the bus driver wouldn't stop. When I arrived in the city I had a feed then biked back to the motorway found myself a comfy spot near the on ramp to the city and kicked back reading for a couple of hours. By t http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Israel/Tel-Aviv-District/Tel-Aviv/blog-210157.html K So what do you know my bike again was going nowhere. I needed a new tube but Camp Kalia at Israel's Dead Sea did not sell them funnily enough. So I had no choice but to hitchhike to Jerusalem with my bike. Eventually three Israeli girls in their 4WD stopped I threw the bike on the back and was the way to Jerusalem AlQuds Yerushalyim whatever you want to call it. They dropped me of http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Israel/Jerusalem-District/Jerusalem/blog-208283.html KFrom Petra I rode first steep up then more up and a little more up then it finally leveled out a bit and I found a castle to explore. Can't remember its name but it was a castle and it was free entry. Following this was the usual hills goats sheppards camps and rocks more hills and rocks if anything. So anyway I was heading for Dana I know some of you will find that funny. Dana is an http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Jordan/North/Amman/blog-205835.html I've been active enough I landed at Cairo Airport late one night and tried to bike into the city 30 odd kms away and despite plenty of local 'help' I got horribly lost and ended up throwing my bike on the roof of a cab they have racks and sharing a ramadan snack with a cab driver who dropped me down town amongst the mayhem a couple of days in Cairo doing the sights and I joined up with another http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/blog-208260.html Jordan ah the hilly rough hot rocky desolate country which is kind of stuck amongst Israel Palestine Saudi Arabia Syria and Iraq. Poor old place has plenty to deal with along its borders. Jordan has many goats deserts and some ruins. I spent the first night in Aqaba in the Gulf of Aqaba but got out of there ASAP as it's all a bit too westernised for my liking. The motorway scenery out o http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Jordan/South/Petra/blog-204580.html K Sinai.....Ramadan one of five of the Islamic pillars of faith. The celebrations started back when I was in Suez. The pillar involves fasting no consuming anything including water or have sex between sunrise and sunset 66 everyday for an entire month Luckily shops and cafes are still open and in the tourist areas eating in public causes no problems. I took a bus from Suez to Sharm El S http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Sinai/Dahab/blog-202631.html So I escaped to Rome. And this time I didn't even get my passport stamped on arrival just a big smile and away you go Oh the contrast Royal Air Maroc had helpfully completely flattened my tires totally unnecessary to do that hell the pressure differential isn't that great fellas Since Kees had our only pump this posed the first problem. Unfortunately the 'convenient' airport buses weren' http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Rome/blog-201720.html K The morning before leaving Alexandria I failed to find a map but I was going to bike nonetheless. NO map but YES bike ride. So I used my hopeless guide book map to guide me from central Alexandria to Port Said it all seemed to follow the coast and of course all would be signposted in English and I could ask any old Joe on the side of the road which way to go so no problem right Follow the c http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Lower-Egypt/Suez/blog-201147.html keesSo it was a slow exit out of the chaos and fumes of Casablanca. Then hurray for 50mins down the N11 motorway. Upon arrival I had a very friendly encounter with the Moroccan security one was drunk and the other two not doing a lot either. When asked where I cycled from I told them Rabat they were all pretty enthused and the drunk guard kissed me on the forehead It was much the same in the http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Lower-Egypt/Cairo/blog-200068.html The lake to Fes..Dan.OK I just have to say camping at the lake was great mate. The thing was massive and in a dry desert like Morocco even more appealing than a nice lake in NZ. There were dead fish each about a metre in length scattered around the shore line but the local campers who aside from being high on hashish seemed very reliable assured us it was safe to swim. So after dinner of s http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Morocco/Mekn-s-Tafilalet/Todra-Gorge/blog-197454.html keesTotal disaster. Rocked on up to the Algerian Cosulate in Oudja I mean why else would you come here first we said Hi Salam polite as possible Can we get a visa for Algeria we were told that it is possible from Oudja. We knew that it was going to be a No but decided to come here anyway. They gave us a few moments then asked where we were from we responded politely again but then th http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Morocco/F-s-Boulemane/Fes/blog-197456.html KeesSo stage three of our bike tour has begun. Dan started feeling better after his Mad Camp Souira disease and I was keen to press on from Marrakesh. For him it was either bus it and meet me at the next town or ignore the stomach and come climb the mountain with me like a real friend would do. He opted for the latter. Lucky too as I can hardly get beyond fixing a puncture without getting frust http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Morocco/Souss-Massa-Dra-/Mount-Toubkal/blog-194878.html DanOK so its the first night at the lovely Souira campground and at about 2am I wake up and somethings not quite right.. and so began my night outdoors. There were packs of dogs roaming through the campground foraging through whatever they could find and at one stage I lay down next to what must have been a red ant colony cause within seconds the were everywhere. Yet I couldn't have cared less http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Morocco/Marrakech-Tensift-El-Haouz/Marrakech/blog-192718.html KeesOur arrival the African continent was surprisingly problem free. Riding bikes off the ferry was smooth. We had our pp's stamped in the boat at the back who knows why maybe part of King Mohammad VI's liberal reform package and by passed all the security a whole lot of cars then rode through the gates and into the chaos and mess of Tangier so no worries. Our expectations of conserva http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Morocco/Grand-Casablanca/Casablanca/blog-192429.html