tales east africa

We went to a strange area in Western Cape called the wine lands. The farmers grow grapes, white ones, red ones. Wonderful, tasty, sweet grapes.

In Laufenburg we opened the entrance door of our apartment just to discover that it was not any warmer than our house in Maseru during the winter months: 9 degrees.

On this route u cross a really great number of countries u wouldn’t have heard about a few years ago. This implies lots of border crossings and intense socializing with locals hanging around at the border posts.

Currently we crossed 14 countries and 13 borders. Time for some remarks on bureaucracy and hassle when moving from 1 place to another.

Tomorrow we should leave Egypt to sail to Turkey. Our fixer was not present; but he sent us 2 sub-fixers, Ahmed and Ibrahim.

Spirits rose as we were to board the ferry. There are rumours that the ferry, built for approx. 200 people, normally takes an average of 500 and still is running.

In Karthoum we had a 1st contact on the phone with our fixer in Wadi Halfa.

Nightlife in Wadi Halfa was definitely not that confusing: just listening to the television placed in the middle of the open floor and trying to sleep.

We explored the market and the most important buildings of the proud capital of the non-existing state of Somaliland. Amongst others the hero’s monument: an emergency landed MIG 21 airplane the former dictator Sidi Barre sent to Hargeysa to bombard the secessionist Somalilandies.

We arrived at the border to Somaliland – at a first glance the village looked like other small towns at borders: more plastic bags in the scrub than inhabitants and goats.