Week 24 - Back on two wheels

The week started just as I hoped - I got my bike back. Greek import procedures proved be a bit of a song and dance but after a few hours running around the port (including a frustrating hour and a bit shuffling between four counters all to allow me to pay a 7 euro ($10) fee) I was allowed to ride it away. At  slightly over US$1000 for the bike and $300 for me that was an expensive few miles crossing the Mediterranean.

The very next morning it was back on the road again and the first stop was Meteora, which had been recommended to me by Megan. It's a place of high peaks beloved by climbers but noteworthy because monks and nuns of yore had chosen to build their monasteries and nunneries on top of many of the steepest and most defensible of them,  making for some spectacular (if strikingly impracticable) buildings.

If you look carefully at the centre of this picture you will spot an abandoned monastory - even the monks thought this one was a bit extreme

12,000 litre wine barrel- well you need something to keep you going when cut off in winter

Whilst in Meteora I managed to get the bike tyres changed as the pair that got me through Africa were not going to last the rest of the trip.

Unfortunately there was a sequel to this next day. ...

An uncanny similarity to what happened after the previous set was fitted in Cape Town - and both flats are not punctures but rather caused by errors by the tyre fitter. I think I'll go back to doing my own tyre fitting.

Come the end of the week I've moved countries again and headed into Turkey for a brief visit so I can attend the ANZAC Day Dawn Service at Gallipoli. Crossing the border proved a contrast after the last six months of experiences - suddenly it was all orderly lines and logical progression from one counter to another,  I rather missed the adrenalin rush of the african crossings where you wandered around trying to work out the systems with lots of locals guiding you,  smiling, talking (and sometimes trying to sell you something).

Turkey introduced itself with a wonderful experience on my first night,  I was sitting in a cafe, people watching and writing up my journal when a local approached me and with out much preamble said "I want to make you a gift" - and gave me this lovely leather covered note book.

The inscription he'd written in it really touched me "Whoever and wherever you are remember us". A beautiful generous gift given with no thought of a reciprocal offering - these are the things that make independent track so special and I'll remember long after I've forgotten details of the scenery and monuments.  Thank you Ojiwz.

Week 23 - Time to have a holiday

Well I'm bike-less in Greece and have done the tourist sights of Athens and Pireaus so what to do next? Easy take an island ferry trip, a great way to have a mini cruise. Eight hours from Piraeus to Santorini, passing almost continuously between islands and on a bright blue and very calm sea. Stops at four islands on the way, break any monotony and at each you look down on the archetypical Greek village, all white buildings and blue shutters, dazzlingly bright in the sunlight,  with crowds milling around the wharf and adjacent street. A marvelous tableau everyone of them.

I chose Santorini as my destination for a couple of days because it was lauded in the guide book as being the most spectacular of the islands in the Aegean as it forms part of the rim of a (currently) inactive volcano. It was probably because no dead volcano is ever going to impress me again after staring into the lava at Erta Ali, Ethiopia that I found that part part of the review was massive hype,  a cliff edge dropping to the sea is a cliff edge, irrespective as to whether it was ever part of a volcano. That aside the rest of the island was incredibly scenic and tourist focussed; I could see what draws the visitors to these islands.

Old man at the roadside selling coffee. We talked for awhile and he asked me"Are you rich?" - given all I've seen and done, and that I'm healthy and happy, there's only one possible answer to that "Very". It's easy to forget sometimes. 

With the lack of my own bike I hired this for a few days - good fun and prefect on the island roads.

Those who talk of Greek inefficiency have never seen one of these inter-island ferries dock. We come into the harbor at speed,  and at the last minute swing through 180 degrees, ship vibrating with thrusters at full power, to come round stern first to the quay. As we back  in the last few metres the ramps are coming down and hit the concrete simultaneously with the mooring lines being thrown. Within a minute people are being hustled off as are the vehicles. First vehicle off is the post office van which hastens away to grab the island mail and is back within a few moments. In those few moments all the new passengers and cars are boarded. Less than 5 minutes after we first arrived we are underway again. Repeated island after island. Impressive.

Those who do talk of inefficiency are probably more thinking of the public service. The only experience I've had of them had been the staff at the monuments and here they appear to deserve the reputation. Lots standing around nominally "guarding" whilst in reality chatting doing virtually nothing -  where everywhere there's jobs obviously needing to be done,  mainly cutting the grass which was threatening to engulf some sights. I only hope the Customs service is better organised when it comes to collecting the bike or I could be in for a long day.

I had hopes the bike would arrive Friday morning and be able to clear customs that day, as it was the ship was delayed to the evening and customs don't work the weekend, so the earliest I'll now see it is Monday. Facing another weekend in Piraeus I did the sensible thing jumped another ferry and went out to another island. Life is tough.

On the way back from the island I spotted a Liberty Ship! (I suggest non boat enthusiasts stop reading now,  I'm going to get boring). Turns out Piraeus hosts one of only three left in the world. For those who don't know what they are, they were the ship that in many ways saved Europe during WWII. Nearly three thousand were built to a standard design using mass production techniques by eighteen  companies in the USA as quick replacements for losses to the U-boats in the Atlantic. Designed to have a life of only a few trips many survived the war and became the backbone of the post war merchant navy - most were scraped by the seventies (I can just remember one coming into Swansea about then - probably pointed out by Dad who I believe did some of his early sea time on one). The most amazing thing about them was, because of strict standardisation and application of mass production thinking,  the speed at which they were built; the record was a shade under 5 days and the one in the photos below apparently took a comparatively long 12 days from start of assembly to delivery! There's lots of info on the net if you want to know more.

Having seen it I of course had to go and have a closer look. Turns out its a museum. Restored in 2008 its open to the public in a very low key way,  no signage other than a piece of paper at the bottom of the accommodation ladder, and when you walk up your greeted by the friendly guard dog, eventually someone appears who you have to convince your a genuine interested visitor, then he simply turns on the lights and let's you walk around. Very Greek but a wonderful experience.

Leaving the ship I unfortunately saw the result of a more modern conflict, this refugee camp full of Syrians escaping from that conflict. A sharp reminder of the how quickly ones comfortable life could change.

Hopefully next week normal service will be resumed and I'll be able to report from on the road again. 

Week 22 - Farewell to Africa

Farewell - my final sight of Africa, leaving Cairo airport

Well I've crossed off one major item on my bucket list.

After 152 days, 26,000 kms and 13 memorable countries I've traversed Africa's Eastern side from "Cape Town to Cairo". It's been a marvelous trip and shown me beautiful sights. More importantly I've met wonderful people who despite suffering enormous poverty, corrupt governments, hugely unequal wealth distribution plus a mix of ethnic and religious tensions have always given me a wave, a smile, friendship and help when I've needed it. Africa you've lived up to my dreams - I'll be back.

Me leaving Egypt was easy but there is a huge amount of bureaucracy for the bike to join me. I opted for the cowards way of dealing with it, namely paying the shipping agent to do it. The fee initially seemed large ($400) but exposure to the first stages convinced me it was money well spent - first they had to take me down to immigration to get me registered as a temporary resident (not certain why, but apparently essential), this involved lots of queuing (Arab style, ie elbows out, no quarter given) at two different counters, detailed discussion and some shouting in Arabic at each and a final signature by the"chief",  then we were off to the other side of town to visit the local court to get official Arabic translations of a power of attorney to the shipping company to do the rest of the process on my behalf. That took the best part of a day, I couldn't even imagine how long it would have taken if I'd tried to save a few dollars and do it by myself.

Despite fears on my part that there might be a hiccup all apparently went well at the port and the bike left on schedule. Unfortunately it didn't leave for the right destination - instead of coming direct to Greece the Ro-ro ship is taking it via Israel and Turkey. Who's fault? Nobody owns up and it doesn't really matter but a promised 3 day delivery trip has turned into a 10 day one.

I've spent the first few days of waiting wandering around Piraeus and Athens initially suffering culture shock - mentally I thought Greece would simply be a small step up from Egypt in its "westernisation" but it's not, it feels a huge jump (which probably shows how acclimatized I've become in Africa to that continents way of doing things). Things which struck me immediately included the traffic, (both that it obeyed the road rules (red traffic lights now mean stop and one way streets are what the name implies - I hadn't realised how much I've got used to both just being suggestions rather than absolute rules, I'm going to have to change my riding style again) and there are no animals and limited pedestrians wandering down the middle of the road), the vast array of processed foods for sale instead of everything you need being made (and frequently in the case of meat,  slaughtered and butchered) right in front of you, the change of shops from predominantly those either selling locally made items or repairing items to those selling manufactured items and in fact the whole movement of people at from business right on the streets to business all being in shops.

Alexandria, Egypt  tram - I was told the oldest had been in service since 1910 (and some of them looked like this was true)

Pireaus, Greece - but will it last as long? 

Piraeus is the main port for the country and for the inter-island ferries so there's plenty of ships and boats to gawk at whist waiting for the bike. It also seems to be where the rich keep their super yachts.

150 metres or more in length and a paint finish you can see your face in (imagine how nerve racking that must make mooring it)

Not as flash - but a ton more class

And if you prefer sail. 

As well as the monied few, Piraeus is like most port cities filled with plenty of people doing it much tougher and there is still lots of life on the streets even if it is not as dimmable add I've been used to. There is also the extra dimension that it hosts refugee camps for displaced Syrians - something that is not universally popular with the locals. Probably about time I start catching up with European politics,  something I've been ignoring for 6 months.

Demonstrations, both pro and anti appear to be a near daily occurrence. Fortunately all noise and no violence - but there are always a lot of well armed police between the sides just in case. 

A half hour up the metro track from Pireaus is Athens so I've been getting a bit more culture.  It wasn't planned but I've realised that doing the trip from south to north had been a good choice as I feel I'm moving through the time-line of civilisations history; the birth and expansion of modern man out of Ethiopia, our spread north and development through Sudan, Egypt and now Greece and soon with the modern history Europe to come.

The Parthenon - Memories return, I previously visited here in 1983 whilst hitching on my way to Australia. 

Light relief - changing the guards at the Parliament (surely the inspiration for Monty Pythons "Ministry of Funny Walks "

Week 21 - The end is nigh

Unfortunately my self congratulations of last week on a successful border crossing into Egypt proved a little premature - an email from the shipping agent I'm to use to get the bike out of Egypt and back to Europe told me I'd failed to get an important piece of paper at one of the towns near the border and without it the bike won't be leaving. The easiest solution was go back and get it, so one thousand kilometres later.....

...... I had the above. Only a very creative bureaucracy could dream up a system where you need to get a piece of paper saying you've got no outstanding traffic fines from the Traffic Court closest to your place of entry, before allowing you to drive the length of the country to your port of departure. Bizarre.

Saw a lot of this view in my doubling back - fortunately for me most of the ride was (relatively) fast desert road

Having my ego fed - waved down by a group of cars so the passengers could have their photo taken with me

 Whilt back at Aswan getting the missing bit of paper I went to see one of the tourist sites I'd missed first time through, the quarries where the stone for many temple statues was mined. More impressive than it sounds as it contained this unfinished obelisk.

Your having a bad day at work when three quarters of the way through shaping up a 44 metre obelisk it develops a crack. Ah well just leave it where it is and start another one. 

Onwards again we made it to Cairo a city which I had been in some trepidation of as the traffic has a fearsome reputation. All I can say whoever thinks it's bad hasn't tried Kampala. It's fast, it's noisy, but it sort of obeys the rules we're used to, and most importantly everyone keeps their sense of humour and even the craziest driving just raises a shrug of the shoulder and another blast of the horn.

Also having a bad day - just lost his load on the middle of a three lane road

At the end of the day tourists like me only come to Cairo for one reason the Great Pyramids of Giza, and like the rest of Egypts antiquities they didn't disappoint. It doesn't matter how many photos you have seen of them, how many statistics you have read they are still awe inspiringly massive.

Playing the tourist - Lawrence of Arabia I'm not. 

Obligatory photo to prove I and bike were really there. 

Look carefully and you can see people in the foreground.

The playwright Alan Bennett said of the Sphynx "like many TV stars its smaller than expected".  I have to agree,  but it doesn't help that the viewing area puts you up high alongside it,  if you were down between the paws you might think differently. The poor thing is also badly eroded and had been patch repaired by the Romens onwards and some of those were not done well.