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 of there was all a hilly, rough, hot, rocky not to mention desolate road with plenty of trucks heading to Amman from the port. Every third truck or [View Full Entry]

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(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 (6-6) 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 Sheikh, which basically went through the Sinai desert and looked rather unexciting, the odd bit of coast looked nice but apart from that... so no biking. Sharm El Sheikh is a [View Full Entry]

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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't interested in taking bikes, and since it was about 10 at night and Rome itself was about 30mins away, by train, I found myself sleeping on yet another marble floor. This time at the [View Full Entry]

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(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 coast; follow the signs; ask. Well no. Getting out of Alexandria'sd chaos was a nightmare. The roads were super busy, [View Full Entry]

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(kees) So 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 airport, no kisses or drunkenness but general enthusiasm; security seemed more interested in my bike than security. So that was that. I got [View Full Entry]

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(kees) Total 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 they said No sorry, you have to obtain it from your home country and then come back. Well no. Plan B to [View Full Entry]

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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 sponge cakes and dry biscuits, which Kees rudely decided to throw up later in the night, we headed down to the shore for a [View Full Entry]

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(Kees) So 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 frustrated with it; so could just imagine myself when a real breakdown comes along. So we were on our way going up a [View Full Entry]

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(Dan) OK 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 there was no energy left in my body, rarely have I felt much worse. The day dawned hot and feverish, and as the sun rose I returned [View Full Entry]

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(Kees) Our 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 conservative and dry Morocco and the major hustle of bustle of Tangier, with hasslers left right and centre, didn't actually turn out that way. The city was a bit of a [View Full Entry]

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