Migraine by the campfire
25.1.2004 | West Libya - Ljubljana, Slovenia
Our travelers are in the desert 50 meters from the Algerian border having great time and preparing their dinner on the fire beneath the clear sky. During the day they entered Algeria, also got stuck in the sand but no problems there. Their guide Hakim is great, Tilen is enjoying total silence and observing Orion on the sky and Peter… he has a migraine. (by Rok)
Hail, wind and green security
24.1.2004 | Tripoli, Libya
We were woken up in the morning (on a flat airbed, of course) by tremendous wind that was beating Partner's windows and roof with huge raindrops, followed by hail. But Tripoli skies cleared up soon and with Salah we visited the Great Jamahiriya Museum. Fantastic! Antiquity is especially well covered and presented (what hasn't been looted is here now), as well as prehistory with wall paintings from Akakus mountains in deep Libyan Desert (where we're going to be in a couple of days). The guide was nicely escorting us up and down Tripoli downtown, during our "free time" he was taking care that nothing unpleasant occurs to us… But we could still visit one place all by ourselves!
African beauty
23.1.2004 | Tripoli, Libya
Libya is fantastically beautiful! Today we visited the Greco-roman city of Leptis Magna, to where we made a "short excursion" only 130 kilometres from Tarabulus. I have already seen many roman ruins but none of them can compete in beauty, splendour, expansion and preservation of Leptis Magna. Simply enchanting. I am sure that even those not interested in antiquity would be touched by it. It by far overwhelms even the sites of Cyrene and Appolonia in eastern Libya, but even more promising seems to be the site of Sabratha, west of Tripoli, which is waiting for us at the end of our visit to Libya.
I can hardly believe
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.
On the border
20.1.2004 | Ljubljana, Slovenia
Desert ship with its passengers is at the Egyptian border with Libya, waiting for a guide. They cannot arrange entrance documentation and enter the country without him. At the moment there are also some problems with the cell phone. Tilen cannot make calls to Libya, while he can stil call his friends in Slovenia. (by Rok)