Dongola - Khartoum (10.049 km)

Domenica 23/12/2007 abbiamo fatto 500 km e siamo arrivati a Khartoum. La strada corre in mezzo al deserto Nubiano, ma e' completamente asfaltata. Scendendo verso sud abbiamo visto i primi cambiamenti del paesaggio circostante. Dalle distese infinite di sabbia gradualmente sono spuntati alcuni alberelli, poi qualche cespuglio ed infine abbiamo visto addirittura qualche ciuffo d'erba secca. Abbiamo avuto un po' di difficolta' a trovare benzina, ma alla fine siamo riusciti ad arrivare fino in fondo. A Khartoum abbiamo campeggiato al Blue Nile Sailin Club (N 15 36,267 E 32 31,745) un posto fantastico sulla riva del Nilo Azzurro con un'atmosfera incredibilmente rilassante. (Proprio quello che ci vuole dopo 5 giorni di deserto nubiano).
La vigilia di Natale siamo andati a mangiare all'albergo di Lapo che ha offerto la cena a Tom, Eke, Audrie, Robin e me.
Colonna sonora: "White Chritmas" Bing Crosby

23/12/2007. Nothing special really.we bolted down doing 550km in one day. arriving in khartoum in the evening. we cruised around some overly priced hotels eventually settling on the colonial styled Blue Nile sailing club (N 15 36,267 E 32 31,745) were we camped on some novelty grass and alongside the nile. it is a real chill out spot. weve been relaxing and reading books and getting ourselves in shape a bit. i cut my beard off and shaved my hair. i rather resemble a shaven rat now and my travel companions were a bit shocked. a side from looking 10 years younger i look about 10 kilos lighter as well. mmm... we spent christmas dinner with Lapo, Tom, Ekka and Audrey. Went to midnight mass at a catholic church. wonderful african music and vibrancy. great epxerience. Christmas in Khartoum, now we wont be forgetting that quickly. we did our ethiopian visas here, registered and tomorrow were off to ethiopia. where we are starting off our first leg of the Muti project. we should be entering the country on friday or saturday.

Bike Maintenance Dongola

This is what we do on our days off

Dopo 5 giorni nel deserto e due tempeste di sabbia abbiamo deciso di dare una controllatina alle moto. Le ruote posteriori hanno ormai raggiunto il loro limite e i filtri dell'aria sembrano due posacenere. Non potendo cambiare ne' le une ne' gli altri ci siamo limitati a pulire il meglio possibile i filtri dell'aria e pregare le gomme di resistere ancora per qualche chilometro. (Non gli abbiamo detto quanti perche' altrimenti si sarebbero suicidate facendo arakiri con qualche spina d'acacia).

After five days in the desert, a sand storm, corrugations and ditches to bury the dead, we thought we'd do a little maintence on the bikes. cleaned our air filters with some water and soap (i hear ducati screeching all the way from italy) and retightened all the nuts and bolts. just getting at the air filter was a 2 hour affair. all in all we did about 6 hours of work. and what a difference it made, our bikes could breath again. Dongola was a bit of a dump and i got attached by bed bugs. hai konna wan!

Wadi Alfa - Dongola (9.524 km)

our first night in...

going nowhere, fast.

dunes are only good for one thing: jumping.

its a long road

moments like this are when i feel most alive

the ferry to the west bank of the nile - after a long day of hard riding

where Lapos bike broke down. now you try walking outta that one!

bike porn

Miss december

what a wonderful family

the start of our first stage through the nubian desert

hard core (desert storm)

Miss January

Were in the Nubian desert, we got a full tank of gas, a pack of smokes, bald tyres, road bikes, its bright and were not wearing sunglasses.

it was a very big day for us. the Nubian desert immediatley conjurs up images of starvation, vast plains of aridness, lack of water and nasty nubian nutters bent on stealing spanky bright red Dukes from ignorant expats. i was really quite scared to be honest. the roads were tough. lots of sand and corrugations that shook our souls. i would run out of adjectives here to describe its beauty so i wont even start. those views etched themselves into my mind. it was hot, it was arid and it was hard riding there. we went very slowly (well i did anyway). our luggage is heavy and the bikes were taking a beating. you can feel them literally being shaken to pieces. 50km into the ride we find our travelling companion Lapo on the road with his beamer broken down. his voltage regulator had konked out. leaving him stranded in the middle of nowhere. luckily we were coming up from behind. otherwise it could have gotten rather nasty.

our first day we did a wopping 150km. i was so tired at the end of it i couldnt get to sleep, if that makes any sense. we were also brought into a home at the end of day, fed, given water and tea by the most generous people i think ive ever met. the old man saying to us how happy he was to have us there with him, just melted my heart. we left the next morning to another day of sand and corrugations. we had just refuelled and gotten water when this sand storm hit us. could'nt see a thing. the wind was blowing hard and we couldnt ride. so we hid behind a house in the middle of nowhere and waited it out for 3 hours. that day we only did about 100km i think that evening we slept on the banks of the nile in a fantastic bush camp. we watched the sun set over the great river and ate our dinner dosed with sand.

the next day we set off for dongola. it was the best day yet with our 60km of full on desert riding. no roads nothing. just following the gps tracks. wow... that was amazing. as far as you can see there is just sand. it is a liberating feeling to be there. you get the feeling that you must leave soon however. we weren't made to be there. the bikes handled beautifully!!! the glidede over the sand, better than all the other bikes. we nipped around the rocks, into ditches and floated over all the obstacles. everyone was suprised by us and Lapo (our veteran desert racer/crocodile dundee gzr) stopped and actually apologized to us for his previous diminuative remarks. we arrived at Akor and caught the ferry across to nile. watched the sun go down on the boat and then road a tricky section in the dark to Dongola. where we had our first shower in a week. now is'nt that nice.

Mercoledi 19/12/2007 siamo partiti da Wadi Alfa insieme a Tom Eke e Audrie (una coppia di canadesi su due BMW gs) ed abbiamo seguito la pista nel deserto che costeggia il Nilo, la stessa che aveva preso due ore prima Lapo, un ialiano su un'altra BMW.

E' stata una giornata indimenticabile. Man mano che ci addentravamo nel deserto nubiano l'emozione diventava sempre piu' grande. Per 100 km non abbiamo visto nient'altro che sabbia, rocce e 4 alberi d'acacia. Dopo 5 ore abbiamo raggiunto Lapo che si era dovuto fermare in mezzo al nulla per un problema alla moto, ma fortunatamente e' riuscito a ripartire insieme a noi.

Le multistrada continuano a comportarsi benissimo, forse anche meglio delle altre moto, ed io sono finalmente riusciuto a trovare il giusto feeling anche sulla sabbia profonda. Oggi ho fatto 10 km fuori pista ed e' stata un'esperienza indimenticabile. Quando si guida sulla sabbia pulita senza alcun segno lasciato da altri pneumatici e si vede scorrere sutto i piedi un mare di sabbia ondulato dal vento sembra quasi di volare!

Dopo 150 km abbiamo deciso di campeggiare e ci siamo fermati subito dopo un piccolo villaggio sulla sponda orientale del Nilo (N 20 50,288' E 30 32,819'). Non abbiamo avuto nemmeno il tempo di montare le tende che siamo stati invitati a mangiare a casa di una famiglia del villaggio. Ci hanno offerto il the, datteri, pane riso ed agnello in questa bellissima casa di fango con le pareti interne tinteggiate di blu. Il piu' anziano della famiglia ci ha detto che per lui era un onore ed era felice di averci ospiti a casa sua e ci ha invitato anche per l'indomani a colazione. Questo e' lo spirito della gente che vive nel deserto. In un ambiente cosi' ostile offrire ospitalita' diventa quasi questione di sopravvivenza.

Giovedi 20/12/2007 siamo riusciti a fare solo 100 km perche' ci siamo dovuti fermare due volte a causa di altrettante tempeste di sabbia. Alla sera ci siamo nuovamente accampati in un posto favoloso sulla riva del Nilo (N 20 20,933' E 30 30,955'). E' incredibile la differenza che c'e' tra i primi 50 metri che costeggiano il Nilo ed il resto del territorio. E' come vedere un atollo delle maldive su Marte.

Venerdi 21/12/2007 abbiamo fatto l'ultimo tratto di deserto nubiano (forse il piu' impegnativo). Dopo Delgo non esiste piu' una pista da seguire e ci si ritrova a navigare in un mare di sabbia seguendo i punti cardinali e le coordinate del gps. Arrivati ad Argo abbiamo attraversato il Nilo su una chiatta e dopo il tramonto abbiamo fatto l'ultimo tratto di "strada" fino a Dongola dove finalmente siamo riusciti a fare una doccia per la prima volta dopo una settimana. Che soddisfazione!

Colonna sonora: "Dancing in the moonlight" King Harvest

Luxor - Wadi Halfa (9.042 km)

loading the dukes onto the ferry

robin's bike by the toilet. much to the joy of the bmw owners!

arriving in Sudan

Matteo trying to keep the bike upright

It was a wonderful morning. we started off at about 6:30. with aim to get to Luxor to see the ruins there. what a sight riding over the nile as the sun was rising. palm trees silhoutted in the morning sky. Luxor was wonderful. it must have been an incredible place once upon a time. still now you can get a glimpse of its grandeur. incredible engraving and reliefs. the place was the pearl of egypt. with every pharaoh adding on to its beauty. we arrived at Aswan in the evening and immediatly found Tom cruising around. we started finding out how the heck we can get the ferry across to Sudan. Note: every thing you do in africa is tough and difficult. every place has its own nonsensical system that changes daily. it is beaurocrosy at its best and we like to call it organized chaos. it is almost as if they are doing it for the first time. 'oh no, someone wants to catch a boat to sudan. what do we do?' so lots of patience and positive attituteds are needed. any way the vibe was this: ferry didnt have any space for our bikes. so we had to wangle them to get ours on. (there were already 4 bikes on the boat). so we sweet talked them into letting us go, and eventually they did. we stayed in a pretty decent hotel there that night and ate dinner with some goats on the street. the next morning we were running around like mad things trying to get our papers stamped, egyptian plates removed etc... we had a fixer help us. we had one hour to do everything and get to the ferry. absolute chaos. anyway we arrived 2 hours late but still in time. loaded the bikes on the boat with much screaming, flapping of chickens and pissing of goats. we then settled down do our daily dish of beans, a goolish substance called Foul (pronounced fuuul). the latter pronunciation describes it best though. the boat trip was great, with a sunset to remember and another dish of Foul to forget. the morning after we arrived at Wadi Halfa and the stranegst thing: street lights in the water. i didnt ask any questions and we proceeded to get our bikes off the boat and then another bout of organised chaos ensued. now Sudan is where the real deal starts - we aint in Kansas no more and our Dukes are looking really outta place here.

Domenica 16/12/2007 ci siamo svegliati prestissimo per andare ad Asswan (N 24 02,743' E 32 55,380') ed assicurarci il posto per le moto sulla barca che ogni lunedi attraversa il lago Nasser per andare in Sudan. Per fare piu' in fretta abbiamo cercato di evitare i posti di blocco, ma al terzo ci hanno fermato e ci hanno costretto a seguire il convoglio scortato dalla polizia. Arrivati ad Asswan abbiamo subito incontrato Tom che ci ha detto che dal momento che in questi giorni si festeggia il grande Eid (una delle feste islamiche piu' importanti) sulla barca non viene attaccata la chiatta per le macchine e quindi non c'era posto per le nostre moto. Nonostante cio' alla fine siamo riusciti a convincere il capitano della nave a farci mettere le moto nella toilette di seconda classe. L'indomani siamo arrivati al porto e prima di riuscire a caricare le moto sulla barca siamo stati travolti da una confusione esagerata tra urla, gente che spinge, gente che tira, animali ed enormi pacchi di ogni genere caricati alla rinfusa. Dopo 16 ore di navigazione siamo arrivati a Wadi Halfa (N 21 48,065' E 31 21,035'). Dopo aver sbrigato le pratiche doganali abbiamo campeggiato nel deserto a pochi chilometri a sud del paese, proprio sulla riva del lago Nasser (N 21 46,096' E 31 20,606') .

Colonna sonora: "Redemption song" Bob Marley

Hurghada - Luxor (8.746 km)

such a sweet and generous family

Valley of the kings

We left early that next morning. we were in a bit of a rush since Cairo to get down to the ferry which left the next monday. we really wanted to do Sudan with Tom from canada. and since our parts didnt arrive we took the oppurtunity. We started off quite early again and cruised off to Luxor to see the Valley of the Kings. a must see in Egypt. we arrived there at about 2pm. visited all the sites. incredible burial grounds. it was wonderful trying to decipher the book of the dead with all their hieroglyphics. saw tutenkamens chamber. where his corpse has recently been replaced there after spending many years in the egyptian museum.

on our way back we spent most of the way talking about how hard it was to open up to egyptians. as 99% of the time all they wanna do is sell you something. just then this guy cruised past and asked us if we wanted to go have dinner at his house. we said yes and went along. the food was fantastic! we sat in his little mud house with his cousins, mother, father, wife and child. it was a wonderful experience and we even named his cows for him. needless to say he took us to a hotel after, a relative.... were the prices were a little high... so we had some second thoughts about whether he received a commission or not. we'll never know. but it was wonderful all the same.

Sabato 15/12/2007 siamo andati a Luxor (N 25 43,140' E 32 39,256'). Alla valle dei re abbiamo conosciuto Kaled, un ragazzo del posto che ci ha invitato a cena nella sua casa di fango dove vive insieme alla sua famiglia, due mucche e tre galline. La mamma Fatima ha perparato la cena per tutti cucinando degli ottimi e gustosissimi piatti.

Colonna sonora: "The man in me" Bob Dylan

Cairo - Hurghada (8.253 km)

Well we started off our day by being invited on an enduro tour with the local biker guys from mohammed's shop (our mechanic there). 30 guys escorted us out of the city! what a way to leave Cairo. about 5 km's out of the city one of my straps busted loose and got wrapped around my rear wheel, in the disc and in the pad. ripping out one of my break pads and blocking the rear wheel for about a quarter of a second. enought to bottom out my rear shock and send me popping along the road. it was a big scare. especially at 120km an hour. a big reminder that everything is to be looked over carefully. even if they're only the straps.

there were long straight roads riding down to the coast, we were reminising about the italian roads with them, much to their envy. we arrived to the red sea which is a wonderful sight. the water is so crystal clear and blue. we sat down to a fine lunch with the guys and ate the best seafood on this trip so far. we then pushed on to Hugarda that afternoon with full bellies. arriving at yet another egyptian Rimini. not such a nice place. so we planned on leaving the next morning early.

Venerdi 14/12/2007 siamo partiti dal Cairo insieme a Mustafa ed altri 30 motociclisti. A meta' strada ci siamo fermati mezz'ora per permettere ad alcuni di recitare la preghiera del venerdi (la piu' importante della settimana). Verso l'una siamo arrivati sul Mar Rosso, giusto in tempo per fermarci a mangiare in un bellissimo ristorante sul mare da dove si potevano ammirare i mille colori che riflette l'acqua cristallina di questo mare.
Uno dei ragazzi, venendo a sapere che non avevo fatto in tempo a comprare un paio di guanti leggeri per il deserto, mi ha regalato i suoi e non ha voluto nemmeno che gli offrissi il pranzo. Tutta questa generosita' mi fa sentire un po' in colpa, mi sembra sempre di ricevere piu' di quanto io riesca a dare.
Dopo pranzo ci siamo separati. Loro sono tornati al Cairo e noi abbiamo proseguito lungo la costa fino ad Hurghada (N 27 13,720' E 33 50,380').

Colonna sonora: "Gimme some lovin'" The Blues Brothers

Bike Maintenance Cairo

I pezzi di ricambio per la moto non sono arrivati al Cairo ed alla fine ci siamo dovuti arrangiare da soli. Per fortuna abbiamo trovato Mohammed che a quanto si dice in giro e' il piu' bravo meccanico di tutto l'Egitto. (Anche se non aveva mai visto una Ducati prima d'ora). Siamo stati nella sua officina a lavorare sulle moto ascoltando i commenti di un paio di suoi amici che hanno subito diramato la notizia e nel giro di tre ore tutti i motociclisti del Cairo sono passati da li'.
Abbiamo cambiato il filtro dell'aria (con l'inquinamento che c'e' qui bisognerebbe cambiarne uno al giorno) il filtro dell'olio, le candele e le pastiglie dei freni. Le ruote non le abbiamo trovate e quindi dovremo attraversare il deserto nubiano con le ruote posteriori completamente consumate.
Sulla mia moto abbiamo anche sostituito la leva della frizione che si era rotta nel deserto di Wadi-Rum.
Alla fine Mohammed ha e' stato degno della sua fama. E' rimasto con noi in officina fino alle due di notte ed insieme agli altri motociclisti a cercato di aiutarci in tutti i modi. Grazie di cuore!
Colonna sonora: "Let's spend the night together" David Bowie

Cairo

note that black cloud in the background

I had many pre-conceptions of Cairo before arriving. non of them were right, apart from the pollution or the black cloud as they so ominously call it. it is a wonderful city. today i think i truly came to grips with it. the people are wonderful and vibrant and the history fascinating. the ancient egyptians used to worship two gods, Horus (the god of order) and Set (the god of chaos). when shown together they symbolized a balance of the orders. modern day cairo is exactly that, a balance between anarchy and order. there is no order to cairo's traffic, yet when placed together it becomes one flowing organism. when broken down and isolated into smaller fragments one would see anarchy, yet viewing the greater whole, one would see order. this strange balance is replicated in everything that cairo does.

Il Cairo e' una citta' affascinante. Ricca di storia e di cultura, ma estremamente caotica e disordinata. Ci vogliono almeno 2 o 3 giorni per riuscire a capire come muoversi in mezzo al traffico ed ai cairoti. Solo allora si riesce ad apprezzare quello che l'Egitto e' in grado di offrire.

Lungo le strade della citta' e soprattutto nei luoghi turistici si viene letteralmente assaliti da persone di ogni tipo che cercano con ogni mezzo di ottenere qualcosa da te. Diventa veramente difficile distinguere i semplici procacciatori d'affari da chi invece cerca di stabilire un rapporto in modo del tutto disinteressato.

Colonna sonora: "Everybody's talkin' at me" Harry Nilsson

Ras Mohammed - Cairo (7.928 km)

Sabato 08/12/2007 abbiamo attraversato tutto il Sinai da sud a nord e dopo aver passato il tunnel sotto il canale di Suez siamo arrivati al Cairo (N 29 58,510 E 31 08,261).
Il traffico del Cairo e' terrificante. I semafori vengono considerati dai Cairoti come semplice elemento d'arredo urbano. Una volta entrati nel flusso caotico e sovraffollato che scorre per le vie del Cairo non si puo' piu' tornare indietro e non rimane altro che cavalcare l'onda col coltello tra i denti ed i riflessi pronti per schivare tutto cio' che puo' spuntare all'improvviso: macchine impazzite, pedoni con istinto suicida ed animali di ogni genere. La nota positiva e' che qui in Egitto con meno di 2 euro si fa il pieno di benzina!
Colonna sonora: "Crosstown traffic" Jimi Hendrix

Aqaba - Ras Mohammed (7.123 km)

some very strange and wonderful architectural pieces on entering the reserve

long straight roads with lots of sand.... where my office job?

africa! (well according to the egyptian border officials africa starts in sudan)

entering egypt has been our biggest headache ever since we started thinking of doing this trip. its the hardest country to enter into with a bike in the world. we got off the boat at nuweiba after dropping 150 usd on the ride. we were in a big group, 6 of us. so we got some attention. it all happened pretty quickly actually. 5 hours we were done. we got our new number plates (in arabic) and we were off! some folks went on to cairo under an armed escort and the rest of us just cruised on down to sharma sheik and ras mohammed. the sinai is just beautiful! large desert spaces mixed with some dramatic rocky mountains... its a dreamy landscape. the roads are just wonderful and the views are to die for. loads of security check points. the monitored everything about us. knew us when we arrived and even told us to slow down! total control. sharma sheik was a weird place. europe in egypt. with loads of russians cruising around. was like being in a film set. ras mohammed was just great. we slept in some bedouin tents on the coast of red sea. matteo had a desert fox enter his tent and i watched the most beautiful sunrise ive seen in years that morning. that next day we drove 700km to cairo. a long push but we made it. spent 3 hours driving around the city which is just absolute chaos. got hit on the leg at 40km/h by a taxi. no damage but it shook me. there are no rules here and nobody gives way to nothing. we subsequently booked into our hotel. 300 metres from the giza pyramids and the sphinx. what a view from my balcony i tell ya! did a lot of the tourist stuff, organized our visas (on which i could write a book about) sorted our bikes out with mohammed, bought new knobbly tyres and tomorrow were off for aswan and our ferry to sudan. that leaves monday morning. so we got a lot of ground to cover from now until then. 1000km.

Mercoledi 05/12/2007 siamo finalmente arrivati in Africa! (anche se alcuni dicono che l'Africa inizia dopo il canale di Suez). Abbiamo passato mezza giornata alla frontiera in balia della pessima burocrazia egiziana. (Resa ancora piu' complicata dagli innumerevoli funzionari alla caccia di bakshees). Alle sette di sera siamo riusciti a passare con una patente egiziana, una targa per la moto in arabo e 200 euro in meno nel portafoglio.
Giovedi 06/12/2007 ci siamo spostati verso sud. La prima notte abbiamo dormito a Na'Ama Bay (N 27 54,766' E 34 19,789), mentre venerdi 07/12/2007 siamo andati a Ras Mohammed (N 27 47,345 E 34 13,174').
Li ho dormito in riva al mare in una tenda abbandonata che viene saltuariamente utilizzata dai beduini. Quella notte ho anche fatto il primo incontro di questo viaggio con un animale selvatico: proprio mentre stavo per andare a dormire ho visto due occhi illuminati dalla mia torcia uscire furtivamente dalla tenda; ho seguito questi due puntini luminosi fin sulla cima della duna di sabbia chiedendomi che cosa ci facesse un gatto nel bel mezzo del deserto, ma all'improvviso il contrasto del cielo stellato ha delineato perfettamente il contorno del corpo di una bellissima volpe del deserto che con la coda misurava piu' di un metro di lunghezza. E' stato davvero emozionante. Quella notte mi sono anche chiesto cosa provero' tra qualche settimana quando, nel bel mezzo della savana, la luce della mia torcia illuminera' due occhi spuntare dal buio.

Colonna sonora: "Louie, Louie" The Kingsmen

Petra - Aqaba (6.875 km)

yeah... lifes tough

its hard work riding in sand

its hard to describe the beauty here... but i think you get the idea. wadi rum desert.

Well we left petra in the morning around 9. drive through on the kings road to wadi. now wadi is a desert with beautiful red sand with red rocks. its a reserve so we had to pay to get in. a real one horse town and we arrived to chaos and our other biker friends running around..we asked what the deal was and they told us to find fuel and water quickly. were leaving in 30min for the desert! so we did. fuel from jerry cans and boom, i find myself looking straight into my first desert crossing. it was daunting and i was scared. having never ridden on sand before. sand is mighty tricky and the bike just goes everywhere. its like riding on jelly laced with oil. the place was just mind blowingly beautiful out there. ive never seen anything like it. it literally took my breath away. my first 600m i came off twice, and hard. i thought i was going to pass out from exhaustion. it was tough, much tougher than i thought. i let my tyre pressure down some more and then we kicked off! it all came to me for the next 40 km. and i only fell down twice in the last stage. so we made it.. our first desert crossing. sudan is going to be 100 times harder. having to cover 700km of sand with our luggage.

Martedi 04/12/2007 abbiamo raggiunto Michael, Werner, Tom e George che avevano campeggiato nella riserva di Wadi-Rum. Dopo aver comprato un po' di benzina da un beduino siamo entrati tutti e 6 nel deserto. George ha bucato la ruota anteriore dopo pochi chilometri ed e' dovuto tornare indietro, mentre noi 5 abbiamo fatto una cinquantina di chilometri in mezzo a dune e formazioni rocciose che per l'aspetto ricordano quelle che si vedono nei film di John Ford.

Questa per me e' stata una giornata speciale perche' abbiamo provato per la prima volta le moto nel deserto e perche' , nonostante qualche linea di febbre, mi sono divertito tantissimo.

Le multistrada se la sono cavata bene e, benche' montassero una ruota anteriore da 17", hanno tenuto il passo di moto attrezzate appositamente per il deserto e sono arrivate ad Aqaba (N 29 31,576' E 34 59,730') tutte intere (a parte la leva della frizione).

Colonna sonora: "Green onions" Booker T. & The MG's

Dead Sea - Petra (6.686 km)

no really its not a film set

indiana jones

treasure hunters

note the dirty white t-shirt.... yuk

endless views

Domenica 2/12/2007 abbiamo percorso tutta la Kings Highway fino a Petra (N 30 19,118' E 35 28,960'). Purtroppo c'e' stata nebbia per tutto il giorno e non abbiamo visto praticamente nulla. (Il panorama deve essere stato veramente bello!) La temperatura e' tornata sotto lo zero ed io mi sono preso la febbre proprio il giorno prima di entrare nel deserto. Domani sara' dura..., ma non vedo l'ora di attraversare le mitiche dune di sabbia!

Colonna sonora: "Comfortably Numb" Pink Floyd

Sunday 2/12/2007 (N 30 19,118' E 35 28,960'). We took the king's highway to Petra. it was so incredibly cold. We went from -400 metres under the sea (dead sea's sea level believe it or not) to 1650 metres above. big change in temprature. one of the best roads ive ridden (seem to be saying that a lot lately) with incredible views once again. tom was saying afterwards that he was admiring the way the ducatis went into the curves, saying that they were so graceful. it was a hard day. at one stage we had 10 metres of visibilty in the fog. it was cold, we did a lot of km's and we were happy to get into our hotel room at the end of the night. a big pizza and a couple of beers helped wash away the cold from our blood. the next morning we visited petra. which is just breathtaking. every person must see this place in their life time. a 6 hour walk we decided to take some donkeys up to the monastry. which was bloody funny. i thought they were going to peg on us. strong little buggers and so sweet. they took us right to the top and me and matteo were laughing all the way up.

Damascus - Dead Sea (6.291 km)

6 travellers going around the world on different missions

our first camp. on the shores of the dead sea. -400 metres under sea level.

our descent to the dead sea from Amman

cruising in jordan.

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Well we hooked up with 4 other bikers. so now were 6. 2 guys from australia and malaysia. they travelled 25.000 km's in 8 weeks! through pakistan! with a 40% chance of getting hijacked. (86% of percentages are made up mind you). chris nearly died from altitude sickness and the stories go on and on. amazing guys. we walked damascus flat in 3 hours and hit the bar in true biker style. and got horrificly drunk in an arab country. after all, we are infidels to do in a righteously bodacious joint like siria. next morning we cruised through to the dead sea. a long slow cruise with george and tom. stopping often. taking it easy. we camped freely with the bedouins of the region near the shores of the dead sea. ah... so great to camp out in the open. and for free! woke up to a little kid on donkey staring at us and asking us wether we could swap his donkey with our dukes. mmmmmm it was tough, and that donkey looked mighty fine... but we decided to keep our signoritas instead.

Venerdi 30/11/2007 siamo entrati in Giordania. Ad Amman ci siamo separati e Robin ed io abbiamo proseguito per il Mar Morto (N 31 45,869' E 35 35,232') insieme a Tom e George con cui ci siamo accampati per la notte. Il giorno dopo abbiamo ritrovato in spiaggia Michael e Werner che ci hanno raccontato di essere stati ospitati da un Giordano che gli ha lasciato la casa a disposizione. Naturalmente la sera stessa ci siamo trasferiti tutti in questa casa con vista mare, terrazzo e piscina con annessa sorgente termale naturale.

Colonna sonora: "Mad about you" Sting

Palmyra - Damascus (5.993 km)

arriving in damascus

on the road from palmyra to damascus

um... which way...

easy riders

damascus side alley... what a wonderful place. lawrence of arabia used to hang here.

yeah ok, were in damascus

Thursday 29/11/2007 (N 33 30,554' E 36 17,730") Syria just has this amazing ability to resemble a post holocaust planet. in other words, mad max wouldnt seem so mad here. burnt out gas stations and burning tyres on the road. truth is, these people are amazing. they've been so hospitable and friendly here. its been a wonderful surprise. we built some crash bars in a small town. they were too heavy and mine subsequently snapped my 8mm bolt off. the bolt that also keeps my ewgine protected! so i have to drill it out now. couple of trusty cable ties and ill deal with it in cairo. travelled to damascus with michael and werner. found george by chance as always.. on the road without previous plans. in a city of 2 million people we always seem to bump into each other. next stop mmmmmm dont know... a yes... Jordan.

Giovedi 29/11/2007 siamo andati a Damasco (N 33 30,554' E 36 17,730") seguendo la strada che costeggia il confine con l'Iraq. Li' abbiamo ritrovato per caso George e con lui altri tre motociclisti. Ora in tutto siamo in 8, da 8 paesi diversi e ciascuno con le proprie storie da raccontare. Werner (Germania) e Michael (USA) vanno a Dubai attraverso l'Etiopia. Chris (Francia) e Kevin (Australia) arrivano dalla Thailandia e ancora non sanno bene dove andare. Tom (Canada) e George (UK) fanno quasi il nostro stesso percorso fino a Citta' del Capo, ma con tempi diversi.

Colonna sonora: "L'era del cinghiale bianco" Franco Battiato