NorthCape-SouthCape:
060117
Light charter with a clown team
Today and parts of tomorrow we travel by boat between Aswan and Wadi
Halfa. Overland between Egypt and Sudan is not legally possible, as
no border station allows traffic.
The strange loading techniques on African trucks never stop to surprise
me.
I asked Lukas Lundin if he had ever been on a charter trip and of
course he hadn’t. For those of you who don’t know him,
it wouldn’t work. He lives at a pace of about 200, so I thought
he should have a light charter experience.The boat we are taking to
Wadi Halfa is crowded with mostly Sudanese people who have worked
in Libya or Egypt a while. To be honest, it is rather dirty and eating
on the boat is impossible for somebody from the clean wilderness in
the North. It will be Coca-cola and water.
Our freeze-dried food is with the pickups and the bikes on another
boat, more like a barge. We almost lost one car when Stefan drove
it onboard. A circus of a thousand people shouting at each other,
luckily with everybody knowing exactly what was to be done.
The barge will arrive one day after we arrive so I guess Lukas will
climb the walls those 24 hours of stillness. Sit here and think of
the verbal high points from the trip so far. It’s funny, but
so much happens, you only remember half of it. One of Ian’s
best comments was when he lost the keys to his bike. We are very similar
in this, when it comes to hiding something in a safe place. Ian had
put the key in a side pocket of his tank bag and had forgotten about
it. After a while I suggested the tank bag and he found it, with the
words: “I’m too smart for my own good!” Lukas’
best so far was when a German asked if we were BMW works team and
Lukas answered: ”No, we are BMW’s clown team”.
We met the Swedish couple Henrik and Anna-Karin near Aswan. They are
adventure tourists on a low budget and the philosophy to let it take
the time it takes. They started October 17 from Sweden and I seem
to remember they came from somewhere near Norrköping. They ride
more or less the same route as we do, but at another pace. And will
be in Cape Town end of May, early June.
I have brought 300 servings of freeze-dried food and now Ian and Lukas
have tried my kitchen. Ian asked for the menu when I was serving the
food. I will print one so he can choose from Spaghetti Bolognese,
Spaghetti Vegitara, beef stew with rice, chicken with rice and sweet-sour
sauce and chicken with curry. Instant coffee is dessert, possibly
with peeled sugar cane on the side.
/PG
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High
Performance Riding
www.pgdakar.com |
Per-Gunnar
Lundmark
Fjällbonäs 15
933 91 Arvidsjaur |
Per-Gunnar
Lundmark
Eva.PG.Lundmark@swipnet.se
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Updated
2006-01-19
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