Final Post - Out of Africa, into Europe!

I am comfortably arrived in Europe. I’m Couchsurfing with a very nice young couple, Begum and Arno, in a Frankfurt suburb and have met Silke and Olli, biker friends of Theo whom I met on the ride in Tierra del Fuego a couple of years ago. Silke and Olli have arranged for Dieter to pick up the box my bike will (I hope) arrive in Germany in and take it to a proper mechanic around the corner from their home for putting together and servicing so I can go for a ride.

It is nice to be out of Cairo and into Europe. Cairo left a bad taste of bureaucracy and incompetence run rampant, not to mention the unbelievable city traffic. It was not the way I would like to have finished my trip Up Africa – I should have gone directly home from Dongola, Sudan where everyone is calm and as sweet as apple pie. But, the unbelievable (literally) difficulties of getting out of Africa will fade with time.

I liked the Egyptians I met. I loved the way seemingly all Egyptian men shout and come almost to blows with each other constantly only to cool it with a smile and hug, or a calm “Asalaam Alecum” in the end. Life is frustrating in the big city and it seems like everyone has a very short fuse and needs to blow up at least once every 5 minutes.

The Revolution is the main topic of conversation for everyone and not just in Tahrir Square – taxi drivers, young people, bar tender in the hotel, guys hanging out at tea shops, … of course, I didn’t talk to any women, but I’d bet that’s what they like to discuss among themselves as well. Everyone seems to want Mubarak to go to jail – and maybe he will. His unseemly wealth accumulation has convicted him as much as anything and he has become the goat for all that has not gone right in Egypt for the last 40 years.

Personally, I think that the baksheesh demanding petty bureaucrats of the Car Customs Department in Cairo are the main culprits and should all be sent to jail (or perhaps just shot), if not for demanding a few Egyptians Pounds “under the table” for every signature and stamp that their jobs entail, then for being cowards when it comes to signing or stamping because “something could go wrong” and they would be left holding the “bag of shite” – better to stay out of it by not putting your name on anything, but take the money anyway!

I thought that the Sudanese border Customs people took the cake when it came to bureaucratic process, but they were all nice and made no effort to extort money from me – there were just a lot of people involved in filling out papers - in duplicate - and stamping and signing and looking closely at the numbers stamped on the bike etc.

The Egyptians though have the whole thing down to a science of complexity, obfuscation, and avoidance of personal responsibility. I advise you not to take your vehicle with you when you go to see the Pyramids and Temples or to ride a boat down the Nile; bringing your own vehicle could turn you into a frustrated and angry old man who just wants to get back to where things are orderly and efficient and pretty much, in fact, as they seem to be on the surface. I like Germany.

I hope my bike actually arrives here in a couple of days on a British Airways Cargo flight from Cairo -- although, I won't be at all surprised if it never leaves Egypt.

Africa has been a great and good adventure. People are pretty much the same everywhere - and almost all of them are very nice, very friendly, and would make good neighbors.

Still, I’ll like being home again in just a few more days; where should I go next time? Turkey? Russia? Back to Scotland? Vietnam?

Update from Cairo, Egypt

July 8, 2011

I arrived in Cairo a couple of days ago and am now comfortably esconsed in the very old colonial times Windsor Hotel in all of its faded elegance of 1899. Near enough to the Cairo Museum to walk tomorrow when it opens again following todays demonstrations of "renewed revolution".

I am trying to find a way out of Africa into Germany - or anywhere in the European Union. All ferries from anywhere in Africa are "discontinued until further notice" because of the widespread unrest -- not a lot of people eager to travel back and forth to Tunisia, Israel, Syria, or Egypt, I guess. Just me and a few others who want to start heading south or finish heading north on their African Adventure Tours.

So, this is my last update -- unless something dramatic happens ....

While in Dongola, Sudan, Kathy and I "adopted" another son - and his family. It's a short story, but interesting. His name in Sudan, where he and his family have lived for several years building a new business for tourists, is Isa. He's 41 years old and has a wife, Eman, and three boys: Soul, Sem, and Nuri respectfully aged 13, 12, and almost 11. They were all born in Korea, but now reside in Sudan.

We exectued a Certificate of Adoption and all signed it along with our mutal Nubian friend, Abdul Saleem. We celebrated with dinner out -- not nearly as good as what Eman makes at home!

Isa, me, Soul, Sem, and Nuri

Family compound from Guest House side - nearly finished building

Soul, me, Nuri, Sem, and Eman

Getting to Dongola was a difficult road for me with wrong turn from Khartoum to dehydration, heat exhaustion, fainting and bashing my head on concrete floor - luckily, nice hard head. But, Iman fed me and gave me lemon (lime actually) juice and I have finally fully recovered my electrolite balance, I think. These are a fabulous addition to the family. Hope you all get to meet them someday.

From Dongola to Wadi Halfa was hot but easy day trip. With help of great "fixer", I got bike on barge and me on boat to Aswan and met three new friends on the 18 hour ride down the Nile to Aswan Dam. Off loading the bike turned out to be a bit much. It was on a barge with no ramp so had to be up against a reasonably level dock, but it wasn't. After much what sounded like Arabic cussing and pointing of fingers at the other guys for not thinking ahead, the captain came on board the self-propelled barge and moved it out, around, and after moving the ship we 500 people arrived on, and another barge and pushing another ship around sideways, he got it to the concrete ramp sideways at just about the right level and off the bike came! Cost me 100 Egyptian Pounds in Baksish for the crew of people it took to do all that -- about $16 US.

Then up the ramp to customs - lots of paperwork and nitpicking about mistake on the Carnet de Passage and it all ended with me paying another 4,000 EPs to get the bike into Egypt legally. So, down the Nile (north to Cairo) with a stop in Luxor and another at the Red Sea following along with my new friends (Riko and Rika and Lyla the Tanzanian - now German dog - and "Max" from Korea) in thier Toyota Land Cruizer. We played Canasta every night and had a good time together - Rika made me mashed potatoes one night after I had been whining about all the potatoes in Egypt and not a mashed one anywhere to be had. They were very good!

We all visited Temples at Luxor (formerly Thiebes), Karnak, and Philea

Max, me, and Rika ordering dinner beside the Nile at Aswan, Egypt

Riko, me, Max, and Lyla at the Red Sea

We all arrived in Cairo still together and seperated at the Pyramids, me going to a hotel to try and sort out how to get the bike out of Africa and into the European Union and them all going back to the Red Sea to Scub and Nnorkel dive and then see if they can drive out thru Syria and Turkey.

Closer to the Pyramids; and to the hasseling. There are not enough tourists to get into the pockets of so everyone must sell YOU, YOU, YOU some service or souvenir to make a living. It is annoying and sad.

Giza Pyramids - must be Cairo finally. Ready to go home....