ATTENTION!! We moved our block

We moved our blog to http://www.worldtravelshop.biz/crossing-africa because of different features:

This blog is NOT continued!!!!

Alexandra + Eric

4.December 2009: Visit at the Medina

After a few days of relaxing at the campsite we decided to visit the medina. Meanwhile the other companion travellers had also arrived. Achim and Ingrid with their truck and Renate with her husband Joachim (Roger could not come) in a Land cruiser. Renate made the tour guide, we and Guido joined her. The commuter train brought us to the centre. First we visited the market halls where fruit and vegetables were offered. A huge selection of different goods were available. Oranges, apples, pears, peaches and dates and this in December. After the market halls we got into the Souk. Amazing to watch the life there. Shop after shop, offering useful things and souvenirs as well. While we were walking around a guy joined us. He promised the ultimate sights which nobody has seen so far. We knew it was a trap but joined the adventure. The guy was running with us from building to building from sight to sight and we could hardly follow him. We did not agree on a price before which turned out to be a mistake. He promised an extraordinary view and guided us through a carpet shop ( no he did not want us to buy a carpet) on the top floor, from there we really had a good view over Tunis. But when it came to bargaining the guy demanded a very high price. To make it short we lost, although we did not pay the demanded sum, but nevertheless it was too much. The lession is: Never start a trip without negotiating the details before!

29.November 2009: Arrival in Tunis

At 9 p.m we arrived at the harbour of Tunis. The sailing was quiet and we were on board with Heidi and Guido, and another couple Ursl and Hans both from Germany. All of them were also expierenced travellers and so we were telling travel stories and had great fun. When we arrived in Tunis we had to get through customs first, which was a little bit tricky because there are so many helpers around. It is hard to distinguish who is a helper and who is a customs officer. No one is wearing a uniform and you can not tell who is who. One of them brought us some forms demanding we had to pay 10 Euros for processing. We fell into the trap, paid, and realized we could have managed this by ourselves. Anyway if you arrive from Europe you would never expect having people within the custom boundaries, that are not officials. We learned our lecture. We have expierenced this on other borders as well, but there is no strict rule on hiring a helper or not, at some borders they are really quite helpful and save you a lot of time.

When we had passed the immigration we had to get to the agreed campsite where we should met with the other travellers. They were expected to come some days after us. Although we had the name of the site and some vague GPS coordinates it was rather difficult to find it. I was the only one who had the Garmin already in use I had to lead the group of a total of three vehicles through Tunis to the campsite which was about 30 km far from Tunis. As the coverage of tracks4africa is not 80%, Northern Africa is really not well covered, it was really not easy to find it, it was very similar to the wanderings of Odysseus.We finally arrived somewhere past midnight and spent the night in a courtyard where we until now do not know, if it was a school or a military camp, anyway the guard let us in. In the morning we realized that we missed the campsite only by a few hundred metres. Me culpa, but non of our companion travellers complained.

Campsite close to Tunis. Heidi and Guido relaxing, our car in the background.

November 2009

Now it was clear that we join the group and we had still 28 days time. Visas had to be made at least for Libya, Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia, from Kenya on we would get it at the border. For Sudan we had to get an invitation letter, for Libya a tour guide, you were not allowed to travel through Libya without a guide and finally we had to get a carnet de passage for our car and last but not least we had to make our camper van "Africa fit". We were both still working, so our time was limited to organize everthing. During the day we were working, during the night we were building a lot of things into the car, we mounted a very basic shower and toilet, yes, by that time we thought we would need it, admittedly we still enjoy our toilet on some occasions although it is used only as an emercency device. You know things might happen very fast! Despite we had a lot to prepare , my wife insisted that I should visit the dentist to polish my teeth what I unluckily did a few days before departure. Finally we were in such a hectic that we just threw our things into the car which was packed with tons of dog food and we left for the dentist because after my first appointment, one of my teeth started to hurt. So there were about 2000km to drive to Palermo, Sicily, where our ferry would disembark on 29th of November in the morning. In the evening of 27th we went straight to the dentist. He diagnosed that the tooth had to come out, which he did at 8 p.m. Full with medicine we started at around 10 p.m direction Palermo. So in total we had about 34 hours for over 2000 km. Which means, we had to start right after the dentist and drive during the night and the following day. To make it short: We managed it and arrived in the late evening in Palermo. Embarkation was in the very early morning. Luckily we met with Heidi and Guido in Palermo, Heidi is a dentist by profession and she had a look at the big gap in my mounth. Everything all right, she said, after a few days she would take out this ugly tasting piece of cloth. We spent the evening with them in their VW and drank a lot of wine! (Only to kill the pain).

Next morning we started early to the harbour - Now the trip could start.

       In the harbour of Palermo on 29th of November 2009

  

We linked our video trailer on you tube

Watch our video trailer about our journey !!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZ_4jHqF7O4

Oktober 2009

Now we were rather busy. We did not have a suitable car, but we got some advice on how to improve our camper van. We had to rise the ground clearance, which we managed by changing suspensions. And finally we got the good news that Alexandra would get off for six month, unpaid of course. October was really busy with preparations, modifications on our van and getting things in the right dirrections. Only two month time ahead of us. Meanwhile it was clear we will be a group of  5 cars, the guides Renate and Joachim (Land Cruiser), Heidi and Guide (VW Synchro) Ursl and Hans (Mercedes Sprinter 4x4), Achim and Ingrid (4x4 truck), and ourselves. We had a meeting in Germany where we met each other for the first time and had a lot of fun, seened the group fits together. Start will be on 29th of November.

September 2009 - How everything started

In September 2009 we visited a caravan show in Germany. We were looking for camping gear as we have travelled with our Citroen Campervan already for quite a while. At a multimedia show we learned about Seabridge a travel agency specialized in organizing self driven motorhome tours through the world. Alexandra was immediately excited and so was I and we asked for a brochure. I was not really fond of driving to China what we saw at the show, my big dream was always to cross Africa. We were lucky and met Renate and Roger, the tour guides for a trip through Africa. Our concern was our car and the trip should already start end of November 2009. Roger told us what would be necessary and that he thinks that with our car it could be managed, because we would travel in a group and would get assistance, when we get stuck or have problems. Now our heads were full of ideas and we planned to go to a Seabridge meeting, where we would meet other people who might have interest in that trip. One big problem we still had. Alexandra was working, and she had to get off for 5 month, which we were not sure she would get. I was self-employed which makes things easier. And there was our dog Tara, who must come with us. We were not sure if we could take her across all these borders. I had her from a puppy and she was used to travelling as I produce travel documentaries - so that would be no problem for the dog.

Our Plan

WE HAVE MOVED OUT BLOG TO: http://alexerictravelling.wordpress.com/
We, that's me Eric, my wife Alexandra and our female dog Tara wanted to cross Africa in 5 months.The idea was to start in Tunis and travel through East Africa down to Cape Town. In Cape Town we wanted to ship the car back home (Austria) and fly home returning to regular life. But it happened quite differently as we had originally planned. We are still on tour after 18 months and are not sure when we will be back. Why do we start a blog now? First people asked us to write down our story and second we will continue to travel. For how long we do not know, time will show.