We have our bikes! We have our bikes! We have our bikes!

Wow, what an intense 4 days. Ups and downs, back and forths, promises and slip-ups. We have journeyed into the black-hearted depths of Egyptian bureacracy and laughed in its face. It promptly laughed back, and made us wait four more days to get our motorcycles.

I will write a full discription of what we went through to get our bikes through customs and registered to ride in Egypt, but for now suffice it to say that it took four days, caused Jason and me to lose our cool at least three times between us, cost about $500 per bike, and is now over.

We boogied out of Cairo as quickly as possible this afternoon, and got as far south as possible. We decided to take the route along the Red Sea, as foreigners are not required to travel with an escort or in a convoy, as they are along the Nile. Tonight we're in a town called Zafarana. More later, but for now we have a very long day ahead of us to get to Aswan in time for our ferry.

Parting shot...

We're still in Cairo.

That should be enough to say it all, but it really isn't. Yes, the bikes arrived in Cairo last Thursday. Yes, we went through customs at the airport on Monday, and then on Tuesday. Yes, we took the motorcycles out of the EgyptAir Cargo compound on Tuesday afternoon. But no, we could not ride them yet. The bikes are currently sitting at Car Customs, awaiting Egyptian number plates and permission for us to ride them in Egypt. Yes, the timing is getting tight again for the ferry in Aswan. We will see. I'm refraining from typing any predictions for when we'll be on our way, since none of them have come true so far.

Yes, we're frustrated. No, we don't plan to return to Egypt. Ever.

Okay, enough of that. Later on I will post a more complete description of the process we're going through to get our bikes imported to Egypt, and I'll link to it here. It willl be a rivetting read, I promise you. ;-) On to the photos.

First, a few more from my party in Germany. We have a traditional birthday cake in my family, and my mom worked really hard to make sure I had one for my birthday celebrations in Germany. There were a few obstacles to overcome though...

And now some photos from diving in Dahab, on the Sinai Peninsula. Jason is an experienced diver (he's done his rescue diving course, for those of you who know what that is), so he did a series of fun dives. I'd never managed to get certified, so I did an Open Water Diver course. It was just me and the instructor, so we managed it in three days without any trouble.

Jason and I got to do two dives together though... one night dive on Saturday evening, then we rented an underwater camera for a fun dive on Sunday morning at a place called "the Islands"...

Parting shot...

The gods of shipping have defeated the gods of motorcycling. For the moment. We finally found our bikes, and got confirmation from a reliable source (i.e., not in Tunisia) for when they will arrive in Cairo. The bad news is that they didn't arrive until last night (Thursday) at 22:10. Even if we could have taken care of the customs stuff on Friday (weekend in Egypt), we would still be left with less than half a day to get ourselves and the motorcycles to Aswan to put them on the barge there (we will travel on a separate ferry that leaves every Monday). Cairo to Aswan (over 1000km) in half a day is simply not going to happen, which means that we will miss the ferry and have to wait for one week until the next ferry. sigh.

So life gave us lemons. We've at least found a way to keep ourselves distracted for a bit, but the calls to work to tell them we'd be one week late weren't exactly easy to make.

Hanging out in Cairo, I've started thinking more about the aspirations and professional plans of the people I see. My own thoughts on what I want to do have changed significantly over the course of my life, and I wonder if people who live and work in the developing world experience similar shifts. What sparked this was the man who opened and closed the driveway gate at the Ramsis Intercontinental Hotel in downtown Cairo. I assume he was hired as a guard for the hotel, but don't know how he got stuck as the gate operator, or even if it was a rotating position. As he opened and closed the gate though (every time a passenger car wanted to exit the driveway... about once every two minutes), he did it with hunched shoulders and relatively little enthusiasm. I don't blame him, really... it's not a fun thing to do after the first fifty times or so. But what are his prospects and does he have a plan for where he wants his career to go from there? Would I be able to maintain enthusiasm for such a monotonous job, if I felt there existed the chance for advancement? I really don't know, and am probably over-thinking things as usual, but I'm still curious.

On to the photos.

Parting shot...

There is something about this sort of travel that is meant to be challenging. We don't undertake this kind of trip because it's easy. We might fall into the trap of being overly optimistic at times, but the uncertainty and frustrations are a bit part of why it's an adventure.

Jason and I saw a lot of history in the past couple of days. The ruins of ancient Carthage and the Egyptian museum offered views of lots of Ye Olde Stuff, and brought up thoughts ranging from civilizations' focus on death to their lack of recognition that every civilization except the present one (or more, depending on how you look at it) has ended. In the times of the Pharaohs and Carthage, I have to imagine that travel was inherently an adventure... with trials and setbacks, and great relief when one finally arrived. Travel today is so accessible to so many, and can be so easy, that an adventure like ours must be sought out, and is the exception rather than the rule. I don't want to draw parallels between motorcycle travel and Carthaginian seafaring, but it's all part of the thought that taking on an adventure connects us just a bit more to the rest of the world, both past and present.

On to the photos.

We're in Cairo. Our bikes are still in Paris. Now they're supposed to arrive tonight (instead of last night). At least we have internet in our room. Looks like I'll have a chance to see the Pyramids on this trip after all. The adventure continues...

Parting shot...

The thought occurred to me today that I haven't described much in my blog besides the logistics that Jason and I are going through to make this trip happen. My mind has also been mostly focused on those things for the past three weeks or so. I hope to have a bit more time to reflect on the people and places we visit after this next spurt of crazy logistics (see the photo captions for details), but here's a little start...

What is it with the fleece-like blankets and crossing borders? The bus from the border between China and Nepal back to Kathmandu was stuffed to the gills with DVD players and these gaudy-colored blankets. I saw the same thing on the ferry crossing from Italy to Tunisia. Most of the cars on the ship (some with French plates, some with what I have to assume are Tunisian plates) were stuffed and stacked with everything from bedframes to mopeds, and these blankets again! I understand that everyone needs a blanket now and again, but are the ugly, cheap ones from China really so desired that people will cross borders to get them? As far as cost-savings-per-volume, I have to believe there's something of greater value that families could stuff into that last 1/2 square meter of their Ford Escort station wagon. But, then again, that's just me.

Tunisia itself seems to be quite a friendly place. We've been hit by at least three minor scams (only one of them successful), but in all the people here are quite helpful. Tunis itself is quite clean in the new part of town. We'll visit the old town (the "Medina") tomorrow. Women and men in Tunisia are equal on paper (right to vote, etc.), and it seems many in the younger generation are quite westernized. There remains an undertone of traditional conservatism though... one sees it in the way older women dress, but also in the number of women who are out in public, particularly in the evenings. It's quite unfortunate that Jason and I won't get to spend more time here, but our schedule calls. At least we'll get to play tourist for a bit tomorrow.

On to the photos.

Parting shot...

This one has to be short, but as a very quick update, it looks like we've found a way to avoid Libya! We've given up on getting visas for Libya, and instead are going to ship our bikes by plane from Tunis (where we are now) to Cairo, and continue our ride from there. It feels great to have a plan again.

Now if you'll excuse me, we each have a full tank of gas that we have to burn off before we can submit our bikes for shipping. Time to go see some of Tunisia! :-)

Parting shot...

It's been over three months since we applied for our visas to Libya. The people in the Libyan Embassy in Addis are deflecting our calls and telling us to call back later. I spoke with the Ambassador once, but he has proven to be as ineffective as his staff. And his staff won't let us talk to him again. The Libyan Consulate General in Tunisia has a nicer receptionist, but her shortage of English and our shortage of Arabic mean that we have to talk with someone else who is less sympathetic and mysteriously almost never in the office. The three travel agents to respond to our initial requests (out of the 20 or so that we contacted) also stopped replying. The latest we have from them is that a visa for Jason would take 10 days, and one for me would take 20.

This is frustrating.

We're still on the ferry (which is running late), but are looking into other options... most likely flying our bikes from Tunis or Frankfurt to Cairo and continuing from there. Stay tuned for whatever comes next.

Alright, whining post is over. On to a few more photos from the trip prep, time in Munich and my birthday party in spitzingsee.

Parting shot...

After a hectic, over-committed and somewhat stressful couple of weeks, Jason and I finally left Munich on our Munich-Addis-By-Bike (MABB) trip yesterday. Thank you to everyone who helped out during the final weeks of preparation, whether it was helping us find spare tires in Munich (thanks, Marcus!), taking over party operations, or simply putting up with me being too wrapped up in trip preparations to focus on being with friends I hadn't seen in a while.

Around 8 hours later than planned, we rolled out of Munich on Tuesday. First south to Garmisch, over the Fernpass, then through Austria and into Italy via Timmelsjoch. A night in the uppermost hotel on the Italian side was exactly what we needed.

Wednesday was another stressful one. If you ever need to find an internet cafe with skype in any small city in Italy, don't bother. We found both of them, and skype didn't work well anyway. Jason running out of gas while we waited in line for the wrong ferry in Genoa was another mini-adventure (I managed to get to a gas station on the fumes left in my tank, and filled up an empty Pepsi bottle with enough fuel to get Jason's bike onto the ferry). The day wasn't a total loss though, as we managed to get our tax refund forms stamped before getting on a ferry to Tunisia (where we are now).

Alright, enough babbling... on to the photos.

Parting shot...

My name is Mark. I was born near Chicago, have lived in the US, Germany and Nepal, and am starting a new job and a new adventure in Ethiopia. This site is a way for me to keep friends and family updated on my progress, share some pictures, and perhaps offer a bit of reflection along the way. Please look around, and enjoy the ride!

Herumwandernder Cavetroll... heisse Mark. Ich habe in den USA, Deutschland und Nepal gewohnt, und jetzt geht es weiter nach Äthiopien. Mit diesem Website halte ich meine Familien- und Freundeskreise informiert über wie es mir in meinen Abenteuern geht. Schau mal 'rum, und viel Spass dabei!

-Mark, September 2008