The puppy stayed in Egypt because we only managed to give her anti-parasite vaccination (they didn't have rabies) and we couldn't get any kind of documentation for her. Later on we would surely face serious problems at Italian border where they practically turn your car upside-down if you're coming from where we are. I'm full of advices about not turning the natural flow of things and rescuing lost lives, and finally I myself fall in that kind of trap (Don't imitate me, listen to me!). We hope that the people with whom we left the puppy are nice and that she'll have a nice life (as far as an animal in Egypt can have one). She at least got out of the desert, she has been vaccinated and fed (although I know this is just an apology for myself).
We haven't been attracted by what we saw in Libya up to the vicinity of Tarabulus (Tripoli), but here we finally breathe in. We spent three hours driving through a heavy sandstorm with strong head-wind. The visibility was so bad at times that I had to almost completely stop. Due to the strong wind our fuel tank was empty already after 460 instead of 800 to 900 kilometres. Libyan license plate was so polished by the sand that the numbers are practically invisible.
We are fascinated by Tripoli! A well organized, big, clear and breathing coastal city, and the people are very friendly in comparison to the soldiers at innumerous check-points who were acting extremely bureaucratic and unpleasant. Peter is even more touched as his grandfather was wearing Italian uniform in Tarabulus during WWII.
In the next days we'll go to the desert; first some 600 kilometres away to Ghadames, a town close to Algerian border, and later a few thousands of kilometers further, till the very south of the Great Jamahiriya, where we plan to "dig ourselves" in the sand for a couple of days. Distances here are completely incomparable with what we know in Europe. 1.700 kilometres in two days is nothing bad, right? At day, at night, in rain, in wind, with long lights in the face,… Here you simply drive and hope that parallel to the car that is coming towards you with long lights in rainy night there is (an empty) road.
A small crisis has reached us so we're listening even to Julio Iglesias and his "La Carretera" (can you imagine state of our hearts?!), even though "la carretera NO estaba mojada," and "la aguja NO marcaba 140" but only 90 kph.
Below you can enjoy a couple of "Tripoli at night" photos from one hour ago, and, of course, our friend Moamer, the Great leader of the Revolution, who's hanging off everything actually.
P.S.: Any mail will be welcome! The envelope is here on the bottom.
22.1.2004 | Tripoli, Libya
WE GOT IN! I actually haven't realized yet that we succeeded in the most uncertain, questionable, but key part of the journey – Peter and I have entered Libya! We spent 14 hours of our lives at the border, but it paid off. Guide Saleh came from Tripoli to the Egyptian border with delay because the bus broke down several times. But he finally came! In three and a half hours all the border procedures were cleared and we went further 3 hours of driving into the interior of the country. We were all extremely tired, Saleh, for instance, hadn't slept for more than 36 hours! Last two days were tough, I drove 1.700 kilometres, but we also had a bad sleep; Saleh's tent was being shaken by a horrible wind, and Peter and me were trying to sleep in the shaking car on our empty airbed (they ran out of stock at Carrefour so we couldn't replace it even with the bill I had found), while feeling every and each piece of luggage underneath us. Tonight we'll have some repairing job again.
