The Dark Continent – At Last! (Jordan & Egypt)
12th – 23rd March
The last 10 days since we last wrote have all been about camping, relaxing, sunshine, sandstorms and people! Oh, of
course finally reaching Africa and the start of the ‘real trip’.
When we last left you we were about to feature in our very own ‘Indiana Jones’ scene and explore the famous ‘lost city’ of Petra, which we did both by night and then again the following day. What a fabulous place and we thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience, particularly the 2 km walk though the Siq by candle light, accompanied by a Bedouin flute…..very haunting! Clare also declined the assistance of a camel or donkey to climb the 810 steps up to the monastery, top girl! However, we decided the nigh
t and day visit were enough, though one could spend much longer exploring as it is a huge site - this move proved a crucial decision as a few days later a rare cold front hit the country and it snowed in Petra! As we were by now camping this would not have been met with approval (to bloody right it was cold enough all ready!)
Camping (finally) has dominated the last 10 days as we camped ‘wild’ (ie. in the desert illegally) in Petra and then the next 6 nights in Aquaba and Wadi Rum. We have felt far more comfortable and at home in our little tent on the roof than in the previous 3 months and Clares culinary skills are proving exceptional (vegetab
le surprise!!) At the Aquaba campsite we encountered our first ‘overlanders’ and that is no understatement! This bunch were in a variety of vehicles ranging from motor homes, Landrovers (like ours), to unimogs and Mercedes trucks and had been ‘on the road’ from anywhere to 2 to 6 years, putting our 3 months to shame! Most of them were German and kept themselves to themselves but we did spend a good deal of time chatting to Peter and Ann a South African couple (2 yrs) and the fantastic dreadlocked character ‘Mugi’ (6 yrs) who had endless stories of adventure and fun though was beginning to look a bit worse for wear!! (Can you pick out Graham in the pic above?)
We spent the time relaxing & re-organising, with the exception of an extremely windswept and sandy night in ‘Wadi Rum’, a spectacular nature reserve where we had to test both mine and Bulas sand driving skills, almost getting stuck a few times! Bulas contents were re-orangised; Clare did all our washing (by hand), sat in the sun and generally enjoyed doing nothing for the first time since we set off in January. I did take Clare snorkeling for her first time, as the reef and fish were fantastic, which went relatively well until Clare decided to inhale a bucketful of water through her nose…..end of this snorkel (it happens of the best of us!).
Having re-charged the batteries & got a bit of a tan it was time to make the crossing into Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula, something we had both been dreading as the border crossing is notoriously ‘difficult’. We caught the ferry at 12.00 on Sunday 18th January from Aquaba and negotiated the exit from Jordan with ease and were soon our way to Africa!! While boarding we had our first stroke of luck as we noticed an Overland truck also loading so introduced ourselves to the driver and tour leader, 2 Ausies who were very friendly and helpful. Entering Egypt and Nuweiba lived up to its reputation and sparing you the details will summarize by saying 3 hours after first docking, a lot of running around like a headless chicken and £70 poorer from bribes and ‘charges’, we finally drove Bula onto African soil – we had made it!
We spent our first two nights in the hippie / diver town of Asilah near Dahab which was a wonderful spot full of open air bars and restaurants lining a small bay and full of young laid back divers and back packers, we fitted in perfectly! We could have easily have spent longer here and also visited more of the Sinai sights but were eager to hook up with Steve and Jill Beaumont, friends from the UK who were in their newly built villa in El Gouna on the Red Sea coast until the 22n March. This involved our longest drive to date, 500 miles and 11 hours – through mainly desert and our first proper sand storm where we quickly discovered Bula, particularly Clare’s door, is not properly sealed and Clare soon disappeared under an inch of sand. Also as a result of this sand storm we did not see the Suez canal as we entered the tunnel virtually blind; however on exiting it was clearer and we were now on the African continent proper and our African trip was about to begin!
We are now in El Gou
na, a fabulous 5 star resort on the Red Sea coast, staying, thanks to the massive generousity of Steve and Jill in their Villa. We had a wonderful few days with them before they sadly flew back to chilly England, but I must say they have picked a great spot and when the Villa is finished it will be paradise. Anyone fancying a few weeks away from blighty in the Sun, either for golf or general relaxation would do well to contact Steve about renting the villa (stevebeaumontshiprightofsibson.co.uk ). We plan to ‘abuse Steve and Jills generosity for a few more days, as having all the home comforts – comfortable bed, hot showers, sit on toilets etc is just too good to be true and we are due to meet John and Jan Madigan further down the coast in a weeks time when it will be back to camping. 
All in all a great 10 days as it has been warmer and sunnier, we have met some great people and with the camping we finally feel the adventure has started, enhanced by the fact that we are actually in Africa, which so far has been anything but ‘dark’ though we know we have all that to come as we head further south into Sudan and Ethiopia!!!
The last 10 days since we last wrote have all been about camping, relaxing, sunshine, sandstorms and people! Oh, of
course finally reaching Africa and the start of the ‘real trip’.When we last left you we were about to feature in our very own ‘Indiana Jones’ scene and explore the famous ‘lost city’ of Petra, which we did both by night and then again the following day. What a fabulous place and we thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience, particularly the 2 km walk though the Siq by candle light, accompanied by a Bedouin flute…..very haunting! Clare also declined the assistance of a camel or donkey to climb the 810 steps up to the monastery, top girl! However, we decided the nigh
t and day visit were enough, though one could spend much longer exploring as it is a huge site - this move proved a crucial decision as a few days later a rare cold front hit the country and it snowed in Petra! As we were by now camping this would not have been met with approval (to bloody right it was cold enough all ready!) Camping (finally) has dominated the last 10 days as we camped ‘wild’ (ie. in the desert illegally) in Petra and then the next 6 nights in Aquaba and Wadi Rum. We have felt far more comfortable and at home in our little tent on the roof than in the previous 3 months and Clares culinary skills are proving exceptional (vegetab
le surprise!!) At the Aquaba campsite we encountered our first ‘overlanders’ and that is no understatement! This bunch were in a variety of vehicles ranging from motor homes, Landrovers (like ours), to unimogs and Mercedes trucks and had been ‘on the road’ from anywhere to 2 to 6 years, putting our 3 months to shame! Most of them were German and kept themselves to themselves but we did spend a good deal of time chatting to Peter and Ann a South African couple (2 yrs) and the fantastic dreadlocked character ‘Mugi’ (6 yrs) who had endless stories of adventure and fun though was beginning to look a bit worse for wear!! (Can you pick out Graham in the pic above?)
We spent the time relaxing & re-organising, with the exception of an extremely windswept and sandy night in ‘Wadi Rum’, a spectacular nature reserve where we had to test both mine and Bulas sand driving skills, almost getting stuck a few times! Bulas contents were re-orangised; Clare did all our washing (by hand), sat in the sun and generally enjoyed doing nothing for the first time since we set off in January. I did take Clare snorkeling for her first time, as the reef and fish were fantastic, which went relatively well until Clare decided to inhale a bucketful of water through her nose…..end of this snorkel (it happens of the best of us!).
Having re-charged the batteries & got a bit of a tan it was time to make the crossing into Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula, something we had both been dreading as the border crossing is notoriously ‘difficult’. We caught the ferry at 12.00 on Sunday 18th January from Aquaba and negotiated the exit from Jordan with ease and were soon our way to Africa!! While boarding we had our first stroke of luck as we noticed an Overland truck also loading so introduced ourselves to the driver and tour leader, 2 Ausies who were very friendly and helpful. Entering Egypt and Nuweiba lived up to its reputation and sparing you the details will summarize by saying 3 hours after first docking, a lot of running around like a headless chicken and £70 poorer from bribes and ‘charges’, we finally drove Bula onto African soil – we had made it!
We spent our first two nights in the hippie / diver town of Asilah near Dahab which was a wonderful spot full of open air bars and restaurants lining a small bay and full of young laid back divers and back packers, we fitted in perfectly! We could have easily have spent longer here and also visited more of the Sinai sights but were eager to hook up with Steve and Jill Beaumont, friends from the UK who were in their newly built villa in El Gouna on the Red Sea coast until the 22n March. This involved our longest drive to date, 500 miles and 11 hours – through mainly desert and our first proper sand storm where we quickly discovered Bula, particularly Clare’s door, is not properly sealed and Clare soon disappeared under an inch of sand. Also as a result of this sand storm we did not see the Suez canal as we entered the tunnel virtually blind; however on exiting it was clearer and we were now on the African continent proper and our African trip was about to begin!We are now in El Gou
na, a fabulous 5 star resort on the Red Sea coast, staying, thanks to the massive generousity of Steve and Jill in their Villa. We had a wonderful few days with them before they sadly flew back to chilly England, but I must say they have picked a great spot and when the Villa is finished it will be paradise. Anyone fancying a few weeks away from blighty in the Sun, either for golf or general relaxation would do well to contact Steve about renting the villa (stevebeaumontshiprightofsibson.co.uk ). We plan to ‘abuse Steve and Jills generosity for a few more days, as having all the home comforts – comfortable bed, hot showers, sit on toilets etc is just too good to be true and we are due to meet John and Jan Madigan further down the coast in a weeks time when it will be back to camping. 
All in all a great 10 days as it has been warmer and sunnier, we have met some great people and with the camping we finally feel the adventure has started, enhanced by the fact that we are actually in Africa, which so far has been anything but ‘dark’ though we know we have all that to come as we head further south into Sudan and Ethiopia!!!
posted by Clare & Graham at 4:11 pm
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