Libya to Egypt

We left Leptis and began the long trip towards Egypt. Ali our escort told us we could get to Aydabiya in a day easily, we disagreed but it seemed we had no option but try. We arrived in the dark around 9pm and the last couple of hours of driving was a mixture of good road and horrendous road works. To add to this we had seen about 10 dead camels by the road and at night they are very hard to see. Here we met up with the French family we had met earlier as our escort wanted us to all travel together as he was unfamiliar with Eastern Libya. Again this appeared not to be optional. Robert Natalie Lisa and Anouk are lovely so we didn't really mind at all. It gave us a chance to talk to other people and feel closer to home.

Over the next few days we visited Benghazi (not worth it), Tukrah - an old Greek Necropolis and church and Italian fort right on the beach, Cyrene - the greek Roman city set on the edge of a Cliff overlooking the plains and sea below and Apollonia another Greek / Roman city actually half underwater now and largely falling into the sea but in the most picturesque setting possible. It was here that our patience with Ali began to run out. Everyone you meet travelling in Libya say the same things about their escorts. They try to control you all the time, they don't want you talking to locals and they want you to do exactly what they say at all times. This includes what time you get up, how long you spend at a site, where you camp and they even try to tell you what to take photos of. They also appear frightened of stepping out of line with the Police (possibly understandably in Libya) so they will try to stop you doing anything not on your program. The way to deal with this we found was to simply accept somethings that we could not change then ignore the escort when he talked about time related issues. Getting Jon up early is difficult enough for Linda so poor Ali had no chance and as for spending only 45 minutes at a site - we hadn't driven 7000 kms for that!

Just after visiting the Knightsbridge Commonwealth war cemetery which is on the site of much of the fighting during the seige of Tobruk we were overtaken by a lorry going at what must have been in excess of 80mph. He misjudged his line and smashed into our mirror making a noise like a shell going off. He stopped and the Police arrived and after examining the damage - he lost all of his mirrors, we have just had the main mirror glass cracked and a bit of the plastic surround broken - decided to not take the Police up on their offer to charge him. So we shook hands and continued on our way.

Our last stop in Libya was Tobruk where we had a nice farewell meal with our French friends and visited the war cemeteries (which must be the best kept things in Libya).

We arrived at the border with Egypt around 4pm thinking it may take between 5 and 12 hours to cross. 2.5 hours later we were through what appeared to be organised chaos. At the border we had met 3 other British motorhomes doing a similar trip to ourselves. These 3 turned out to be part of The Silk Route Club, a small group of highly adventurous motorhomers who have toured virtually all over the world. In fact their web site has been part of the inspiration for us actually coming here! We ended up spending the night with them and Jon fell out of the van (sadly not due to us getting a drink) and badly sprained his foot. Fortunately it was his left and Taffy being automatic he does not need it to drive. He is unable to walk at the moment but we have again bumped into our French friends who are doctors and have very kindly made him a strap for it.

We are now plotted up for the next two nights next to the sea at Cleopatras beach and hope to visit Rommels beach and museum when Jon can hop in the nearby town of Marsa Matruh.
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