New, better blog

If you think that was a trip, you should take a look at this new blog. Its got a map and everything!

http://www.blogabond.com/balkanadventure

The Photo Montage

Its been one hell of a trip and i'm so happy that mattie and Jared gave me a call on that fateful christmas day! Thanks guys! Also thank you to everyone that has given us feedback on the blog, its been awesome hearing from all of you! Mattie and I are now in Belgrade on our way to Holland, and Jared is struggling to get a schengen visa in London.

Enjoy the pics, its been real!

(feel free to add in your own cheesy montage sountrack, push play now)

Oh... Just checked what this looks like when its published and saw that the captions are squashed... badly. Sorry about that, Blogger doesnt seem to encourage photo posts, and the post looks amazing in the edit screen (which for some reason is different to the final post) anyway, I'm not re-editing the whole post...

The sun rising over the makgadigadi salt pans... note the 2 ton hilux slowly sinking in the foreground

Soaked after Victoria Falls

Jared not too staked at his recent appointment as luggage handler
Jared - Malawi 2007
Matt and Jared - Malawi 2007
Riders of the storm soaking up some rays on Paje beach
hot
Tending to Stanley in Southern Kenya

Lank antisocial train journey to Mombasa

Close up of Mattie wearing a hat with a wide angle lens
Close up of tourists wearing hats with a wide angle lens (cue music)

The epic second ever international stone skipping contest 2007 Lamu archipelago
Mattie takes the lead, Andi the adjudicator watching on
This is the beach from hell, dont be fooled, if you see this place, run!
Our tame accountant, running the numbers
Enjoying Hells gate before we crashed and the shit hit the fan

mustafa's gorge

Majesty
Jared
Ken dealing with Autoritei
The overlander to pride rock

Equator
Me and my buddy
Waiting patiently for a lift
Spreading crazy eights throughout africa
View of the convoy from our truck

Truck drive through Chalbi Desert... to Ethiopia
Debre Zeit camp site with Esther
Coldest morning of his life
Nick checking out our route plans though the window (The were stalking us)

A pit stop in Ethiopia

lalibella church

Mattie in a prayer hole... It worked

St George's

Priest

Ouzzo

Essie doing the tourist thing in Lalibella
Mattie and jared paying for their sins

lalibella Church, chipped out of a mountain
Gonder castle - 2007
Sudan, the start of the desert camping trip

Jared riding to the piramids of Meru
Mattie
Pd
The Piramids of meru - The Sudan


Our camp site

The sun rose, and out of nowhere arrived this salesman and his donkey... amazing
Jared couldnt handle the majesty so his nose started to bleed

A bit of a stroll to the Royal enclosure
Hot
Nubian Express

Mattie attempting to look comfortable, simply to piss off those around him

Dirty, dirty man
Wadi-Halfa, good to walk again after 40 hours of train
Nick and Sam...

Good times

Mattie and the Felucca captain (The Boss)
Hats
Egypts finest whisky and Gin (John Warder and Gordoon's)
Our R6 pp/night accomodation in Aswan
Chilling out on the Felucca on our way to Komombo

The white symbolises purity and rebirth, while the egyptian cotton is a symbol of Egypt

The trio at the Sphinx
Mattie

The Album Cover...

Look at that purity

Jared... aka Ginger spice

We could hardly keep the groupies off us... so inevitably there had to be a picture... she likes mattie the most
Pd and jared
Pd and Mattie
Jared and mattie

All for one...

The end.

The fat lady has sung...

Note: I am off to Alexandria in an hour or so, leaving Pd and Matt to put up a post on the Egypt section of our journey a bit later. This post is just a bit of a goodbye from the three of us before we part ways.

This trip had very mild beginnings. Matt and I were determined to take a year off and explore Europe, but just the thought of taking a boring old plane was very unappealing. And so we had to come up with some alternative. We spent a week or so in Cape Town jumping from one idea to the next, everything from digging for oil in Edmonton, Canada to jumping on a yacht for a 4 month sail to Tahiti. Nothing though seemed like the big thing we were looking for. That was until on Christmas day at the Breede River the idea of driving as far north as possible dawned on us. We knew that Pd was also considering a year off and so immediately phoned him, inviting him on this epic voyage. He accepted our offer on the spot.

From the start this trip has been an adventure bar none. We have experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Okay, I'm being a little dramatic here but I'm sure you all understand. The trip has actually been a lot easier than we imagined. We have dealt with some tricky situations yes, but nothing has stood in our way. This was also due to the fact that the three of us are quite a formidable team.

And now the sad bit, after 3 months of some of the greatest experiences of our lives, we have to part ways. Pd and Matt, both on their EU & Irish passports which I'm jealous of, are flying to Athens on Wednesday and heading up through eastern Europe towards Holland. They have this wicked route planned out and are basically just going to party their way up further north for a couple of weeks. I'm heading to France in 3 weeks to join my pops at Le Mans (Can I get a hell yeah?) and need to go to London to sort out a visa and what not. I should be flying out in the next couple of days after checking out the north coast of Egypt a bit.

But do not worry, the three of us are reuniting in the near future, at the Roskilde festival in Denmark early July. Some hella wicked bands are showing their stuff and we are looking forward to another few nights in our dear tent, Vivica A. Fox. And so, if there are any of you keen to join us for this weekend of absolute insanity then please feel free. Vivica has a big enough booty to fit them all. (Kiki is already got his place booked, we expect a lot more of you to join him.)

And so with that, we bid you all adieu. Thank you for reading this blog and for all of the humourous comments. We have had a tremendous trip and sincerely appreciate all the support from you guys.

Hugs and kisses,
Matt, Pd & Jasper

Beardless update

Part 1:

From the beginning the competition to grow the best beard between Cape Town and Cairo has been fierce. It's been a bloody battle in which many a good man was lost. I could go on describing the brutal war in detail, but I won't.

It is now up to you, our faithful blog-followers, to cast your votes in the finale! And remember, always vote with your heart, not your head.




Part 2:

Once we visited the pyramids we went straight to the barbershop and shaved off the scraggly hairs that adorned our handsome faces. The cut-throat master of the north had his splendid way with us and for that we are thankful. And so here we are, clean shaven and ready for Europe!

In the nature of some more good friendly competition, we are also keen for votes to be cast for the sexiest clean-shaven one out of the three of us.

This is it...

Pd and I have just ran from the train station to announce some groundbreaking news. After much struggle we have secured a trio of last minute FIRST CLASS train tickets and will arrive in Cairo, our raison d'etre if you will, in time for breakfast.

Next time you hear from us, our journey (for the meantime) shall be complete. Holy shit.

The Sudan

Ever since i started thinking of this little trip, Sudan has been the great big question mark in my mind. No one i knew had been there really, and all i ever heard were news report about war and warnings from concerned parents. But as we started getting closer and speaking to people who had come down from there, we kept on hearing the same stories of amazing generosity and the most genuinely friendly people in the world.

So we got our visas, eventually and when we crossed the border at Gallabat and breathed in the crisp, clean (albeit hot) Sudanese air, we knew we were in for something special. We took a taxi to Gadaref and stayed the night, and in the morning went looking for a bus to Khartoum. Arriving at the station, note after three days of travelling and in the same clothes, we were greeted by a plethora of luxury coaches, and boarding one after a little price haggle, we actually felt too dirty to be on it. Air conditioned, big comfortable seats, all occupied by smart families off to Khartoum for some weekend shopping. We were used to the filth of Ethipopian busses where i had no problems throwing a bottle or paper on the floor, now we were tainting this small piece of heaven with our mere presence. But we were okay with it. They even gave out cooldrinks just as the heat reached its zenith at midday. And the music, oh the music!! It didnt sound like it was made by a drunk 11 year old with a Fischer Price My First Recording Studio (as in Ethiopia), but you could actually listen to it without your head exploding after 2 minutes. This bus really set the tone for Sudan, a place we came to love.

Our glorious pink bus!


Oh ja, that morning, back in Gedaref, we were walking to find the bus station along some small back road, and were passed by a convoy of three land cruiser bakkies with about 10 soldiers on the back of each, and a roof mounted gattling gun. It was sort of a wake up call for us. After that though we didnt see much of a military presence, except for passport checkpoints outside cities, the whole country just seems to be getting on with whatever they're doing.

So we were in Khartoum for about a bit less than a week, camping at the Blue Nile Sailing Club, along with about 6 other overland bikers and drivers on their way to Cape Town. Its a really nice spot, right on the Blue Nile (where we periodically soothed our scorched bodies after kilometers of walking). The walking was due to the fact that we couldnt work out the public transport system, and taxis were really expensive, along with most other things in the city. This meant we also drank litres of cooldrinks, which are in abundance, i think we tried about 7 flavours of Fanta, and theres hundreds of other makes too, Stim Apple deserves a mention here, im looking into an import license. We were overwhelmed, but made the best of it. It was also around this time we discovered frozen Fanta, an accidental drink was left in the deepfreeze at our local juice spot and we pounced on it. We lived off them after that, searching the city for the solid icy joy in those bottles. One drink, perhaps the only one absent in Sudan, is alcohol, not a drop. At first i thought this a ridiculous idea, not being able to suck down a cool draught in the heat of the afternoon, but after a bit of thinking i began to realize the method in this madness. To have a hangover, even just the slightest hint of one, in that heat (which was as high as 54 at midday and dropped to a cool 35 by nightfall!!) would be a fate worse than death, so by removing the temptation of alcohol all together, the government is actually doing the population a huge favour, and saving them from themselves... In a way.

On Saturday afternoon we decided that we had been useless tourists, only having wandered the streets for days (Pd and i did actually go to the Ethnological Museum once, but that was only because they had an especially cold looking water cooler), so decided to hop on a bus and head out to Meroe, where there are some 72 pyramids in the middle of the desert somewhere. We were supposed to get permits for this, but didnt have the time to wait, as we had tickets for the Monday train. After about three hours the bus ground to a halt, and the conductor motioned for us to get out. We werent even sure that this was the right place, its not really a big tourist attraction, nothing really is in Sudan. But we stepped out into the endless, steamy, vast expanse of sand, 10 litres of water, 9 oranges, 3 grapefruit and our tent, Vivica A Fox, in hand, and the bus drove away. It was a good feeling, just us 3 and some ancient pyramids. A friendly Nubian on a camel approached over the dune, and offered us a ride, so we took turns all the way from the road for about 100m, then we were just saying goodbye and thank you, he holds out his hand and asks for ten Sudanese pounds, sneaky bastard, it was fun though and worth it. It seems though as if even out there tourism is taking hold. After wandering around the first cluster of pyramids, which are much smaller and pointier than the egyptian ones, looking at the carvings inside the entrances and taking nice cliched pyramid pictures (to follow) we set up camp the required 100m away and went to sleep under the stars. It was spectacular. The next morning we hitched a ride back to Khartoum with a trucker.




We took the train on Monday to Wadi Halfa, a 36 hour, 3rd class nightmare through the Nubian Desert. The less said about this the better, really it hurts me to relive it. The first 5 hours were fine, the three of us and one other bloke on hard wooden benches, enjoying the view along the Nile, when suddenly at a stop our little section of third class was invaded by cute looking, wide eyed little girl, her baby sister, mother, 7 aunts and delusional blind grandmother. So now there were 15 people in the space set out for 8, and it was starting to get hot. When the little girl started hitting Pd, we realized that the frozen hibiscus tea ice lollies we'd just given her were a big mistake, we bacame her 'friends' and gave her energy she really didnt need. I managed to snatch a few interrupted hours of sleep, but upon waking at about 4, i saw a look of pure malice in Pd's red sleep-deprived eyes, thats when i decided to give up my window seat. The rest of the ride was, to put it nicely, crap. I would do everything in my power not to do it again, the best part was arriving in Wadi Halfa, a tiny dusty border town where we slept the night before boarding the ferry to Aswan, from where i am writing this.

The devil child (while we were still friends)




Jared fell asleep next to the window and woke up looking like this


The ferry was a much better experience overall, air conditioned during the day, and for the night we set up Vivica on the deck and slept in amongst most of the other male passengers on board. We also saw the four huge statues of Rameses II at Abu Simbel, now im not much of an Egyptologist but they impressed me, even from the boat through binoculars. That man really had something to prove, theyre massive.
Tomorrow we leave on a felucca for a few days down to a place called Kom Ombo (?), then to Luxor for a bit, followed by a short train to Cairo. Man it seems so close.

If you read this now, check back in a day or two because iv got some wicked pictures to add.

Beard update

Same competition. Same rules. Way more h a r d c o r e beards. (Sorry about spacing, Net Nanny 5.0 blocks out bad words. But I fooled it, hahahaha.)