Friday, April 29, 2011

Verona, Italy

Larry & Sharon arrived in Verona, Italy. They went via Venice and on to Austria tomorrow (Saturday).
They bumped into an Italian guy that they met in Tanzania and he was of tremendous help! They had lunch at his house and he will ride with them tomorrow.



Saturday, April 23, 2011

Other travellers

Still sitting in Alexandria, and sampling local restuarants etc. Lots of good food to be had, there must be over 100 places to eat withing 500 m of us, although we only have a light breakfast, and then dinner, as we dont want to find the weight we have lost!!! We leave for Venice tom, and have booked a few days at a Ski resort in Austria, trying to find a bit of late season skiing.  Pitztal is where we will head, if we dont freeze the ....... off, or manage the snow and ice.  Talk about extremes!! From there to Switzerland, Germany, Holland, Sweden etc.

We have been trying to catch up on info from some of the other travellers that we have met along the way. 
Bob and Sheila, the British couple on motorbikes have reached Nairobi, but have had a tough time, with accidents, spills, rain etc.  http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/oldfield/
Three farmers and a greek should be riding the Marsabit road now, hope they ok!!! http://threefarmersandagreek.wordpress.com/
Debbie and Matt are in the desert somewhere on their bicycles  http://ontheroadwithatoad.blogspot.com/
Ven and Anita are in Kenya  http://www.movinghouse.ws/
Rory and Lucy flew home for a few days,fromKenya, also had Marsabit problems.  http://www.thevanplan.com/thevanplan/

So, some reading for those of you with lots of time!!!

Friday, April 22, 2011

Need to know

The Do’s and Don’t’s, now that Phase one – Africa -  is done!!!  This list is what we have found on our trip.
Items essential, or used regularly, wouldn’t do without
Intercom system – Sena Sh 10, Excellent, good value, performed flawlessly
Rechargeable Led camp light, a bit heavy, but have only needed to charge once, great light output etc.
Cell phone, Sat phone not necessary, buy local simcards, I think only once during entire trip no coverage
Laptop or notebook, used all the time, with maps, internet etc.
GPS – buy good quality.  Try for as many maps as possible. T4A very outdated!!!  Lots of new roads, hotels etc.  Egypt particularly bad, cell phone has much better city maps!
Tent – not to small, take gear inside for rain or security.  Check Vango Hurricane 200 or 300
Decent pillows!!  We took a good one, cut in half and made pillow cases.
Groundsheet for tent.
Our  self inflating mattresses leaked, first Ascent, bought cheap inflatable in Nairobi. Sent ATG stretches home, damaging tent floor, not couple friendly
Zip together sleeping bags for when cold
Small cooler bag, for water and drinks, daily.  Try to Freeze water at night, lasted the whole day. 
Credit cards – Use everywhere at ATM’s, except Sudan.
Small collapsible bucket, clothes washing etc.
Kindle E Book, can load hundreds of books to read.
Roc Straps
Dry bags, bags connection – we used 2 large, for tents, sleeping bags, inners for suits, rain gear etc.
Business cards for swapping info.
Small notebook for taking down info from other overlanders etc
Best quality riding gear and boots.  Sharon would have had broken knee if not.  BMW Ralley suit.
Tea, coffee, mugs.
Sharp knife
Leatherman
Suncream and sunglasses, with spare set.
Buff,  helped a lot in the heat and wind.
Small day pack – should be a backpack for carrying clothes to and from bikes and putting your shopping in
Electrical adaptor – 2 prong

Items only used occasionally
Medical kit –but might have needed it more
Multi fuel stove – Ours poor quality, leaks, and constantly blocks.  Buy Primus or MSR
Pots and cooking gear – very limited place to carry extra food, meat, or perishables
Camp chairs – normally somewhere to sit
Binoculars
Music
Dry food – Oats, cup of snack, game colddrink etc.
Mozzie repellant.  We didn’t take any anti malaria tabs.
Invertor, better to buy adaptors

Items never used
Spare tubes, and puncture repair. Who Knows???
Most tools ????
Extra fuel bladders – not needed, seldom no fuel, refill regularly
Small axe
Small spade
Pepper spray – glad we had no use for this
Portable shower
Portable sink
Tie Down straps – who knows???
Extra shoes, all we have used is riding boots or crocs (sandles)

Should have Taken
Lonely planet or Bradt guides. Online version for kindle available.
Pair of padded cycling shorts??

Clothes list
Two or three sets max, with extra underwear.
3 pairs riding socks
Warm top for cool days
Long sleeve shirt and 3 quarter pants for Sudan – bad to expose knees or shoulders, especially ladies

Tips
Use your Carnet for all countries, even if not compulsory, much easier than the Temp import permits, and cheaper.
Local food is fine
Travel desert sections, Masabit in a group.
Beware of stone throwing in Ethiopia especially! Back person always gets the stones.
Stop and talk to other overlanders, lots of info to be swapped.
New tar road from Marsabit to Moyale under construction, means entire trip can be done on tar soon.
Apparently roads from Sudan to Egypt are opening, if not open already.  This means that you can miss the fun of the Wadi Halfa ferry!!!!!  From Port Sudan up the Red Sea to Egypt apparently already being used.

Tyre Pics after nearly 18000 km

 650 back
 650 back
 1150 back
 1150 back
 650 front
1150 front

Thursday, April 21, 2011

21 April 2011

21 April 2011
Larry and I had to appear in court today!!  All fine, no fines and we were issued with a clearance but the only problem is we leave 3 days after the clearance so just hope they will accept it otherwise we don’t get out of Egypt.  We were told to go to the main police station and when we got there we found that it had been burnt down during the recent revolution!!  A very kind gentleman came up to us and told us we need to go to another police station, did we know where this place and the next place was….. No so he offered to get a taxi for us, please following me, which we did and he walked out into the middle of four lanes of traffic and stopped a taxi in the middle of the road and told him where to take us and we still have no idea where it is but managed to get some of the paper work done!!
Just about no tourists in Alex and restaurants all empty.  While we were shopping for air tickets to get home there is a travel warning for Egypt on most of the sites we visited.  We heard that some protestors had damaged the railway line between Luxor and Cairo so unrest has not finished here yet.  Prices to ship our bikes home seems to be about GBP600 and a one way ticket home costs about the same as a return ticket, about R6000 each!

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Pics Cairo and Alexandria

 The parking spot that we were eventually given, just in front of the pyramids.

 The horse drawn cart was the best option because we could not walk around in the heat in our riding clothes.

 On going work on all the places that we have visited in Egypt.

Early morning view from our window before the traffic really starts.  Looking north, heading to Europe.
 Bikes parked in the foyer of the building.  Look at the old lift, apparently it does still work but we have not seen any evidence of that!  Larry's bike stand is on the gentle persuader that was used to open the doors. (below)

Narrow little streets - traffic has no rules in Egypt, unless you are a tourist.

19 April 2011

19 April 2011
We left the Red Sea resort of Coral Beach Resort and headed up the coast and the half built shells of buildings just got worse and worse, hundreds of half completed buildings with nothing happening and lots of the hotels that are complete and have been operating are closed, there are just not enough tourists coming into Egypt at the moment.  The desert as far as you can see has been used as a builders dumping site.  On the whole not impressed with the area, the sea is fantastic for snorkeling and diving and the resorts are nice inside but no-one has considered any environmental impact on the desert and surrounding areas.  We landed up at a small Motel at a tiny village called Zafarga, very basic and relatively cheap.  They had to clean the room and change sheets before we could even move in and this was at 4.30pm.  Rooms appeared only to be cleaned once they have a booking!
The next morning we were up early to try and cross the desert before heat started but we had to work on African time, the office where some of the biking gear was stored was still locked and they had to find the owner, once that was sorted out we then had to start the whole process again to get the back gate opened so that we could get the bikes out.  So we set off for Cairo, across the desert at about 9.30. 
The freeway was great, huge well maintained, 6 lane highway, and we managed to keep up a nice speed as it was just about empty.  We spent most of the time riding next to each other as there is plenty of room for other cars to pass us.  When we existed the freeway it was a completely different story, roads badly marked, road works and traffic like you won’t believe.  Have always heard that Cairo traffic was the worst in the world and yes it is! 
After making one or two wrong turns we managed to find our way to the Giza Pyramids and because we were out of the ordinary, arriving on two motorbikes and not with a tour bus, they had no idea what or where we must park.  So in the 40 degree heat the tourist police made us move from that parking to the next and when we parked, no we must move again  and the touts all shouting at you and eventually I said to Larry that we had seen the pyramids and that we could leave right now, the whole experience was very unpleasant with prices being quoted for a carriage ride and just getting more and more expensive, eventually they relented and allowed us to park in the parking lot and get a carriage ride around the complex, unfortunately  what was not told to us that we had to pay for the carriage ride(just too hot to walk around in riding gear) entrance fee and then we had to pay the guide who took us around, well I am afraid he was the last in the que and we had paid far too much already and the guide lost out as we had not agreed to pay him.  And it got very unpleasant when he started demanding that we tip him, never again!  Egypt really needs to sort the tourism out as they have so much going for them.  Stop the touts and control the general population to stop shouting at you all the time.
We decided that there was nothing in the whole of Cairo that we really wanted to see and we would head for Alexandria and get our booking done for the ferry.  Unfortunately the freeway between Cairo and Alexandria is still under construction and so the trip was fairly slow and we rode through a sand storm, eventually we arrived in Alexandria at about 4.30pm and rush hour traffic!!  This was the worst traffic that we have been in and one of the worst aspects was that we could not get out of the traffic, the GPS had no idea where we were and we were riding around until about 8pm looking for a hotel, big issue is to get the motorbikes off the street, we just could not leave them outside in a city like this.  At one stage we landed up in a small back street driving on the tram lines (all the traffic drives on the tram lines) with cars on both sides and once or twice both Larry and I were pushed onto the actual track and on two wheels it becomes very dangerous and then the tram came up behind me and didn’t seem to even slow down, luckily the traffic started to move again.  Lots of hooting and sirens and generally a very noisy place.  We eventually found a place, reasonable price and clean and we can park the bikes in the foyer.  The entrance has two large very high wooden doors which needed some gentle persuasion to get them both open and bring the bikes in.
We hope to get the ferry booked and then we have to go to traffic court to get a clearance certificate to say that we have had no fines while in Egypt.  We also have Arabic number plates on the back on front of the bikes!

Red Sea Pics

 View from our bedroom window - most resorts don't have a beach! Snorkelling and scuba was great in the bay in front of us.  New resort can see the palms are still wrapped up and instant lawn!  The resort was mainly for German tourist and they spent the whole day baking in the sun and that night many of them looked like a boiled lobster.

 Bikes had pride of place in front of the hotel - parked on the fancy marble tiles!

Monday, April 18, 2011

18 April 2011

Sharon & Larry passed through Cairo and the pyramids at Giza. Extremely commercialised with all the locals pestering them.
They travelled through to Alexandria, were it's cooler, but traffic hectic! Ferry leaves on Sunday only, but they still have paperwork to sort out. From here it's on to ITALY!!!

Friday, April 15, 2011

15 April 2011

15 April 2011
We left Marsa Alam on Wednesday morning for a very slow drive up the coast, we still have a few days to waste as our Schengen Visa is only valid from 25 April and we will catch the ferry from Alexandria to Venice on 24 April.  Quseir is about 130km from Marsa Allem and we stopped to see if we could find a nice hotel for a reasonable price, after having stopped and not being happy with the prices quoted we decided to carry on and then hit the jackpot!  We are staying at the Coral-Sun-Beach Resort (have a look at the website www.coral-sun-beach-resort.com )just outside of Safaga and it has been really great and we get three meals a day, a very big change for us.  Most of the time when we have been riding hard we only manage to stop for a very light snack round lunch time, but this has had the benefit of weight loss!!!!.
Lots to do at the resort but we are not great people to be entertained and so this afternoon went and hired snorkeling gear and went just off the resort beach, lots of reef and tropical fish, we had had a cold front passing us and so the wind has been blowing and the visablitity has not been great, but a lot better than we are used to at home.  Tomorrow we have booked to scuba dive, it will be a shore dive, I haven’t dived for years so hope I cope with it!! 
From here we will move up the coast, maybe with one more stop, and hopefully see the Pyramids and Sphinx, and then to Alexandria.  So, not much news right now, as we are treating ourselves to a break, and having a good rest.
We will have to have bikes serviced again soon, and will need new tyres, as these sets will have done about 18000 km, not bad for one set, with no punctures, touch wood!!!!  Soon we will have to start looking at options for shipping bikes and selves home!!!
We believe that Leigh, our granddaughter, had a wonderful 1st birthday party.  Happy birthday Leigh for the 14th!  Sorry we missed it.  That is one of the problems with a trip like this that so much happens while we are away.


Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Pics

 Temple of Karnak



 Balloons just starting to lift off the ground.

 Valley of the Kings
 The Nile in the distance
 Temple near Valley of the Kings
 We landed in the desert
 Riding in the desert, the weather was very cool and pleasant - we have really been very lucky!
 Hotel in Marsa Allum
 Ring Ting dug a hole in the sand and did not want to leave, we had to dig her out!
The crystal clear waters of the Red Sea.

12 April 2011

12 April 2011
We had a very pleasant wedding anniversary, celebrated it in Luxor.  Rode the 230 km to Luxor, then we spend the afternoon wondering around the Karnak Temple, this was really interesting with constant work still on going connecting the Karnak Temple to the Luxor Temple.  Had dinner at a nice Italian place, with the two swiss guys,  then took a horse carriage home!   The city of Luxor is very tourist orientated and the locals pester you all the time and they are really feeling the pinch at the moment with the political unrest the bulk of the tour companies have stopped booking Egypt. 
The next morning we were up very early, 4am and we were collected at 4.20 for our balloon trip, this was an extremely well run professional operation.  The balloons were just starting to rise into the early morning light as we arrived there.  There were seven balloons in all and we were the first ones to become air bourne and we drifted over the valley of the Kings and the temples in the valley.  The tombs were very clear from the air.   This was our first time in a balloon, and it was great to be in the air again, even if a lot slower than we normally fly!!!
We then got chatting to a British couple, who are heading South, on bicycles!!
11 April.  We set of South down the Nile again, so that we could take the lowest route to the Red sea, from the town of Idfu.   A huge contrast, riding down the lush, fertile, green Nile, for 110 km, then Eastwards into the rock desert for 220 km!!!  Very dry, hostile, and not somewhere to live!!!  Arrived at Marsa Alum on the coast at about mid-day, and rode around looking for somewhere to stay.  There is a nice guest house and dive centre, called Villa Riff, run be a German woman. Very friendly, with lots of advice and info – but unfortunately full – with a group of tourists’ expected.  It seems all the business here is sold as packages in Europe, by the various tour companies.  She showed us to a hotel, very nice, with a big room, and a stove!!  So, first thing was to cook ourselves some home cooked food, so set off into the village, and stocked up!!  Back at the hotel, all ready to cook, turned the stove on, wouldn’t work???  Huh??  No sorry, we only turn the stove on if you stay for more than 10 days!!!! So, back to restaurant food!!!   Very frustrating.
This morning we hired some snorkeling equipment, and took Ring ting about 5 km down the coast, to a little bay.  The snorkeling is fantastic, with really good reef and coral structure, and amazing fish life, even a turtle, and some potato bass!  It seems that we will enjoy our 10 days on the red sea!!!  There is a huge contrast between the ugly coast line and the unbelievable scenery under the water.

Friday, April 8, 2011

7 April

7 April 2011
We spent the early part of the morning having my bike repaired again!  Another of the pannier brackets / attachment points needed welding.  The rest of the morning was spent around the hotel waiting to be called by Mazaar for the ferry.  Eventually at about 3pm we were told that we could start getting our things packed and head for the ferry terminal.  Larry and I had packed things so that we would be able to take a small bag plus sleeping bags into the cabin with us and so we set off with the bikes piled very high to the ferry.  Once we arrived there Mazaar was like an old mother hen with his brood of European chickens (about 12 people) and our path was really made smooth all the through the customs and immigrations.  The three bikes were rushed off to the ferry and we managed to get out back pack and sleeping bags into our air-conditioned cabin which was right at the end of the passage.  We had to wait for all the passengers to board before we could even consider loading the bikes.  Loading the ferry is basically done by who ever brought the goods to the ferry and we were horrified to see that the loading ‘ramp’ into the ferry was a number of wooden pallets as steps and then onto a small barge and then down two steps into the ferry, Yves bike and my bike no problem but Larry’s bike another story.  With the help of Yves, Mazaar and another Swiss guy we managed to get all three bikes onto the barge.  In the meantime the other passengers had been putting all the bigger luggage into the passage area that had been set aside for the bikes.  The loading of the passengers and goods was total chaos with lots of shouting and pushing and shoving but eventually it was done and we could get the bikes onto the ferry at about 6.30pm.  But we were told once the ferry was under way we would have to move the bikes so that the two bigger bikes were in the door way where we had boarded and Yves was in the passage.  After the sunset prayers the ferry eventually started to move at about 8pm and we went down to the bikes to do the shuffle!!  Luckily we found the captain there as the local women had set up a souk (market) around and on top of the bikes and he got them to pack up and move while we moved the bikes around.
Everyone coming from the north had warned us of how terrible the ferry crossing is, one ferry had about 2000 people on it when it is only rated to carry 500!!  Sudanese refugees are streaming back from Libya in huge numbers but we were lucky that we were heading in the opposite direction and we only had about 250 people on the ferry but even so the next morning the toilets where absolutely disgusting.  Other than that our cabin was habitable and comfortable and we managed to get a few hours sleep.  We were due to reach Aswan by 12noon (now back on Central African Time) and Larry was called up to the bridge and handed a cell phone where the next fixer, Kamal, was waiting to talk to him, he told us that the traffic offices closed at 2pm and would only open again on Saturday as Friday it the religious day in Egypt but that he had started the process for us already.  We managed to speak to the Captain and he agreed that we must get the bikes off before any of the passengers.  Once we had docked the Egyptian immigration and customs officials come on board and no-one may get off the ferry until they are satisfied that everyone’s passport is in order, I was standing alongside the bikes when an official came up to me and introduced himself as the Traffic Court Official and that if we could get out passports stamped we could get the bikes off and start the process, Larry rushed upstairs got the stamps and we moved the bikes out (just one step this time) and Kamal started the process of getting the paperwork sorted out, we eventually got out there at about 4.30pm with our set of really tatty number plates that cost us LP40 (about R50) and we left for the hotel in Aswan.  I am sure without a fixer it would have taken at least three days to clear the bikes. 
Egypt is much more advanced than Sudan and the hotel vastly better and restaurants that serve food that we recognize and can eat!  The people constantly hassle you with whatever they are selling and become quite aggressive and angry if you don’t buy anything from them!  You have to bargain for most things, even down to a coke or a bottle of water!!  Very alien to us.
The traffic moves at a much faster pace than in the East African countries and no-one uses headlights and we are constantly being told that we have our headlights on and we can’t turn them off!!  So I am sure there is going to be lots of fun ahead of us!
We are heading to Luxor tomorrow and then onto the Red Sea for some diving and hopefully we will bypass Cairo and then to Alexandria and onto Venice.  Aswan has lots of tourists and they seem to be coming back.  We watched a march or protest ofsome sort past the hotel twice today but everything seems to be perfectly calm in Egypt. We are staying at a hotel called Hator, on the banks of the Nile, with a nice view, and a rooftop pool!  About R120 per night.
Tomorrow, 9 April, we will have been married for 28 years!!!!

Egypt Pics

 Wadi Halfa, not as bad as we'd expected
 The Ferry from Wadi - Aswan, about 350 km, 18 hours, also not as bad as expected, but we were travelling north.  Southbound is bad, with all the refugees
 The wooden pallets that we had to take the bikes up.

 Our Tiny cabin, first class!!!
 Toilets, still clean at this stage
 Rooftop veiw from hotel Hator, on the Nile in Aswan, with Feluccas

Some sort of march happening below us

5 April

5 April 2011 – Wadi Halfa
We are now in a small local hotel, in Wadi Halfa.  Everybody said it would be terrible, but then, they were going South!!!  So far, not bad!!  Amazing how your standards change!
Khartoum to Atbara, en route we stopped off at the pyramids at Merowe, huge and most of them in amazingly good condition.  Some of the entrance tombs have been restored and it was fascinating to walk around that area, it was unbelievably hot and we managed to get under a reed carport and have our lunch which was a roll and a cooldrink, within minutes the roll was dried out almost like a rusk!  In Atbara we again stayed in a local hotel, the Nile Hotel basic but clean for a change with hot water!!  We were also served a local meal which was a quarter roasted chicken each, omelet, with a salad, rice and noodles in a oily sauce and chick pea soup and bread, with an orange for dessert.  Yves who is still travelling with us decided that he could not afford the hotel so he went to the local filling station and spent the night on the petrol attendants bed! 
The next morning we met up with Yves at the filling station and set off for Merowe and Karima, Yves ran out of petrol about 3km from the filling station and we had to siphon some from Larry’s bike.  The temperature was already at about 45 degrees and getting hotter, we had decided to see Jebel Baikal, lots of pyramids but the condition was not great.  We went back into town and found the one and only supermarket and bought lots of frozen water, cooldrinks, chocolates and some bread and after hanging around the shop for a few minutes Yves got us all invited the owners home to have a rest and get out of the heat.  They could not have been kinder, we were given their beds to lie down on and offered tea or coffee and Yves managed to have a bucket shower.  At 5pm we left the house and went back to the shop to say goodbye to our new friends and stock up on some more water.  We had decided to camp wild in the desert and so we drove for about 50km into the desert and found a spot to get off the road and not tackle too much sand.  Along this stretch of road there were a few abandoned villages and some very recently built houses and we found one of these buildings to spend the night.  By this stage the wind was blowing and we had to cook our supper in the building – we had spaghetti and meatballs and sweet corn all mixed in one pot with lots of bread and a tin of peaches for pud!
After a very pleasant night in the desert we packed and got ready to leave, we were ready and waiting for Yves when the wind started to blow really strongly and we got a glimpse of the desert’s moods, one minute fairly calm and the next wild.  We rode for about 20 minutes in a very strong sand storm and suddenly come out of that into the bright sunlight, when you are in the storm the sun is completely blocked out and there appears to be a huge black cloud over the whole world!  We rode in and out of the sand storms for the next 120km until we reached Dongola. After breakfast at the local supermarket we set off for Abri. While sitting on the veranda eating, we saw 3 trucks piled very high, with baggage and about 100 people on each. Refugees from Libya!!! Once we got there we had a look at the hotel there and standards have dropped but not that low!  So we decided to spend another night camping in the desert, the only problem is the desert is not sand but jagged black rock, not inflatable mattress friendly and so Larry picked a spot alongside the Nile where there is a drop off point for fish.  We camped under the palm trees and this was much better than camping in the open and the howling gale!  Next morning we were up before any of the locals had surfaced and heading for Wadi Halfa and the ferry.  The weather was cool and pleasant for riding, with a slight headwind, nothing like the heat that had been predicted, very lucky!!
5 April Wadi Halfa
Within minutes of arriving in Wadi Halfa our tout, Mazaar found us looking for the ferry booking office.  We went and had a small glass of tea with him and discussed the procedure for getting onto the ferry, not a simple task.  We had been warned about Mazaar and Larry was determined not to be ripped off by him and told him so in no uncertain terms.  We seem to have everything straightened out in that regard.  We eventually booked into the Kiloprata Hotel in town at a cost of SP15 (about R30), just two beds in a bare room and two shower/toilets for the ladies and same for the gents, no water in the basins so very basic!  But better than other places we have had to stay.
Yesterday afternoon at 15.30 Mazaar’s uncle Magda arrived at the hotel to tell us that the three motorbikes and us could get onto the ferry that same afternoon, we had 30 minutes to get ready, after rushing around like blue tailed flies we were packed and ready to go and we set off for the ferry in convoy with Madzar leading the way and smoothing the path in front for us.  We arrived at the ferry terminal and there were lots of people milling about and we were shuffled from pillar to post getting carnet stamped and waiting for the immigration official to stamp our passports when a very loud announcement came over the PA system and people started existing the building.  Magdi came over and told us sorry the ferry is not sailing with passengers!!  So back to the hotel, we were in luck and our bedroom was still available but other bedrooms  had already been hired out to other people!!  There is a large group of Europeans all hanging around the hotel waiting to get onto the ferry, also a few overlanders heading South, waiting for their vehicles to be off loaded.   I can’t wait for the chaos again in the ferry terminal!! 
We have just received the very sad news that our friend, Jack Pearson, passed away last night, our thoughts are with his family.
So, with a bit of luck, we will leave Sudan this pm, and head for Aswan, Egypt, and a break on the Red Sea.  We will try to catch the Ferry from Egypt to Venice on the 24 April, a 3 day trip.  In time for some late season Ski-ing in Italy????

More pics

 Guess where we are???????????????????
 Resting at shopkeepers house, very hot, glad for the kindness and shade!!!
 The 2 kind shopkeepers
 Shade at their house, bikes safely in the yard
 Evening camping the desert - known as wild camping by all the overlanders
 Sunrise in the desert
 Refugees from Libya

 Yves found a razor, and took the opportunity to remove some fluff
 Spot the Croc????????
 Rock deserts