Egypt 
08-01-2007
We're home! We made it...
After a terribly long day hasseling with customs, bribing them etc etc Alex could finally park the Land Rover in a container and seal it today. After all this was arranged, we went for an excellent sushi-dinner and after that we head for the airport. We bought the tickets to Amsterdam and now we're back home! It feels great to be back, although it is a bit cold...
We had a truly fantastic time in Africa, and we want to thanks everybody who helped us to realize this dream.

06-01-2007
Well, we're still in Alexandria. But we've had some progress. Our guy in Aswan managed to get the documents on wednesday and sent them to Alex by DHL. Unfortunately, this took more time than we had expected. Today (saturday) we got a phone call that the DHL pouch arrived at CMA, so we're good to go. But, going to the port today will not work, because tomorrow is a day off. So monday mornig at 9:30, it's gonna happen: we're going to the port. And hopefully, if all goes well, the car should be in a container safely by the end of the day. Please keep your fingers crossed a little longer. Thanks!
O, what we do here? Well, we watch a lot (no really, A LOT) of movies. Walk around, drink beer, sleep, eat, hang around in the library etc etc. We've kind of seen Alexandria by now... Hope for the best!

31-12-2006
HiHi! We made it! We're in Alexandria right now.
Of course this is good news, but unfortunately we are having some trouble. Let me sum up the last few days.
On monday we visited the temples and tombs in Luxor with a guide. This was beatiful and a welcome change from all the driving. Tuesday morning we left for the North in the convoy. Driving in the convoy was boring again. At the 5-min stop we tried to drive on, but the guys did not like this at all, so we stuck with the convoy. We we're set free from the convoy in Safaga, at the Red Sea. Along this strech of coast, there is nothing but luxury resorts. So we decided to drive on. The road was excellent so we went fast. We decided to drive on to Cairo. And we arrived on 7:00 pm! We felt very glorious and started to search for the campsite. Unfortunately, this was not very easy. And, when we finally arrived, it wasn't very nice. But we met a German guy on a bike, so we had dinner with him and finished all our canned food.
The next day we left for Alexandria and after a short stop atthe mall we went straight to the shipping agency (CMA). The guys are very helpfull, but we had to come back the next day. So we did, and then we got some bad news: Apparently, the traffic police in Aswan gave us the wrong plates. They registered the car as a 'temporary imort' (or something), which had to be 'carnet-plates'. We don't really understand... What we do know, is that to export the car the customs in the port needs a 'record-sheet', stating we have no fines that need to be payed. Here comes the fun part: since we entered in Aswan, the file of our car is there. And here in Alexandria, they can not see into that file, not even by telefhone. So we have to go back to Aswan!!!!
Luckily for us, a guy from CMA was going to Aswan that night. So he took with him our carnet, my passport, the car license and some money (maybe he has to pay a fine for us). He will go to the Aswan traffic police on tuesday. So we are waiting for tuesday, hopefully it will work. After which he will DHL everything back to us and we can put the car in the container...
So we're just waiting and hoping. There is not a whole lot to do here, and the weather is terrible. To be honest, we just want to go home...
So everybody please pray for us, we'll keep you posted!

25-12-2006
Hi There! It's me, Pietje. I am now also in the civilised world, after a very special experience. After Leen left on the ferry last wednesday, I had no idea what to do. It was 2 PM and there is really nothing in Wadi Halfa to do. So I had dinner at the restaurant (yeah, right) at 4 PM after reading my book. At 5 I went to Mazar's house for some tea, which was nice. Then at about 5.30, the sun was starting to set. So I got in the car and head into the desert all by myself. In the desert it is so extremely silent, it almost hurts. I did feel a bit lonely, though. After doing everything together for more than 100 days, it's weird to sit in the desert all by yourself with a glass of highly illegal whiskey. Luckily I had some company. As I sat there, a desert fox walked by. He looked at me, I lookad at him. We sat there watching eachother for about a minute, the he wandered off... That night was my first no-so-cold night in the desert, because I could use both sleeping bags!

The next day I met Mazar and arranged the last things for the transport. At about 12 we drove the car onto the boat (which was fun) and we left at 1 PM. At that time I got a call from Leen. He had arrived...
The cargo boat was special. The crew was Egyptian, so that was interesting. But only 2 of the 8 guys spoke a little bit of English. The guys were friendly and gave me food and tea. But the boat was very very dirty, especially the WC, eeew. I sat in the steering house for a few hours. Later we had dinner and after that I was told to go sleep ("you sleep"), it was 7 o'clock. So I put up the tent and slept.

When we woke up, I saw about 4 other cargo boats from the same company. I thought they had joined to spend the night, but apparently, one of the boats had made a little navigational error and got stuck! So the other boats had joined to pull it out. Of course this happened Africa-style, which was hilarious! The rest of the day I sat in the sun and read a book. We arrived at Aswan when the sun set, we spent one more night outside the port. The next morning we arrived in the port and drove the car onto the docks quickly. Directly after that, the o-so friendly crew wanted money ("Alex, where is my tips?")

Then came the next challenge: Egyptian customs...
The carnet was stamped quite quickly, BUT, we needed Egyptian number plates. And to get those, you need to go to the traffic police, the insurance, back to the traffic police, back to insurance, back to the car for inspection, back to the traffic police etc etc.. It was terrible, it took us 2 hours to find the traffic police in the first place! Luckily we found 'our guy' Mr Mahmoud Idress. He found us and helped us together with his 'driver' Mr Haggag. The hotel we stayed in was just what I needed. I had not showered in a week! I was extremely dirty. And the beers were fantastic!
The next day (sunday) we finally had the plates and could take the car out of the customs lock-up. Haggag escorted us directly to the meeting point for the convoy to Luxor. And then, Mr Haggag wanted money too. We thought we would give him 100 pounds (18 USD). But no no no, Mr Haggag wanted 400!! After some hasseling he left with the 100 pounds, but he was not happy.

A 1:30 the convoy left for Luxor. Driving in convoy is boring but quick. We checked in to Happy Land Hotel and went for our chrismas eve dinner, which was Shish Kebab. We also had too much Heinekens... We will stay in Luxor on Monday and go see the temples...