Africa begins - Egypt to Sudan

Egypt. Where do we begin?  It’s been a journey of ups and downs, wonders of the world, mob attacks, true Sahara with real Bedouin (desert people), temples, and swindlers of the highest degree… An experience to say the least.

So after much adou, we took a bus to Istanbul and caught our flight to Alexandria Egypt.  It should also be mentioned that the Africa lonely planet guide was left on the bus, being the 3^rd one we’ve gone through now. Proud to say it was a group effort as I put it in the upper luggage area where you can’t see it and Nate said he would grab everything there before departing the bus.  We arrived in Alexandria quite late and for once we prearranged a shuttle as the airport was quite far. We slept around one and woke up early the next day to start the process of importing the motorcycles. The hotel was nice and run down with an elevator that looked like it came right out of one of the “Saw” movies- chains and hooks and of course no door.  We discovered the staple food of our trip called fuul on the way to the shipping office. It is a fava bean similar to that of red beans. It’s 30 cents a sandwich and found almost everywhere since. Spice it up with some egg and we were cruising. 

We went to the shipping office, briefly met the nice lady we were in email contact with and proceeded to get yelled at by a large very angry Egyptian women who appeared at any moment ready to give Nate and I the smack down.  The importing process sucked.   We were required to find our own import “guy” a.k.a. a “Fixer” to actually come down to the docks and help us find the bikes, and The lady was surprisingly very unhelpful regarding this matter.  That night we met up with an Egyptian guy that was friends with my buddy Mahmoud that I met in Germany.  Norayr was his name and he was a totally awesome connect.  Over the ensuing days he made the never ending customs process much more bearable as he took us out almost every night and showed us the town.  We went to a cool bar named spitfire, we did a small house party overlooking the water with some fun guys like Egyptian Mike and Ramiiiiiiiiii. A very interesting group of Armenian Christians in a very Muslim Country. 

They also took us one day to the fish market where you can buy some very fresh and delicious fish, go three stalls over and they will cook them in whatever way you want and then take them home for a ridiculous feast, as you can see below. The guys were great….but Nate almost got run over by some punk kids on a bike with huge loudspeakers for music, going the wrong way down a one way street.

We price checked a few places for importing the bikes and found a pretty professional office that said they would take care of everything in 2 days for about $416.  They did a pretty good job compared to the horror stories you hear about Egyptian bureaucracies.  One guy told us he spent 3 weeks and a couple thousand dollars later he got his car out. We had to sit around for 3 days going from office to office, but our fixer did all the work. In the end it was 3 days and maybe $460, nothing a good book and well learned patience can’t take care of.  All in all, due to the problems with Syria we got a total unexpected cost of $3200 and we didn’t get to pass through Syria and more importantly spend much time in Jordan.  If that’s not a kick to the groin I don’t know what is!

So finally, bikes in hand, we had one more dinner with Norayr and Mike.  It was great meat selections, sauces, and some stuffed intestine.  Which was much better than I’ve had in Paris or Peru, but I wouldn’t buy the stuff on the street.  And on our way….

We decided to head west into some real Sahara dunes. We took the coast road and as usual left way later than we hoped.  We rode out in our first Egyptian traffic, which was bad, but nothing we hadn’t seen before.  Our thoughts were on the infamous Cairo traffic.  So as nightfall came we did as our idiotic selves usually do and continued to ride.  On par with all our travels so far, we somehow found the rain. And I’m not talking a sprinkle; it started dumping on us with likes of maybe Germany in winter. Don’t ask how, but the Gods must know our undecided travel plans because there should not been rain like this here.  The poor drainage was resulting in massive puddles everywhere so the ride was starting to get unmanageable.  We were miserable and wet, but little did we know what was in store for us…..

We were in the middle of nowhere and must have stopped ten times looking for a place to sleep, with an interlude leading to a huge hotel with a 30 minute side detour, that apparently did not allow for guests to sleep there.  There just aren’t any normal hotels in this area. Eventually we happened on a gas station asking the same question with the usual “There might be a hotel 10 km back or maybe 3 km forward.” response.  A guy took pity on us and led us inland to a very small, super-conservative village. We were brought in and everyone was friendly, but no hotels for sure.  After some time a guy called Said found us and brought us down a dark alley, opened up some gates and we were standing in front of a Bedouin mansion.  We parked the bikes, met the guys who lived there and they offered the warmest, friendliest welcome.  We happily agreed and it turned into one of the most genuinely radical parts of our whole trip.

To briefly describe. Through all this dumpidity on our part we landed in a Saharan tribal home, of a very powerful Bedouin family which I believe controls the whole area where no cops even enter without permission from the families.  They took us in fed us their Bedouin style cuisine at all hours of the day and night, we slept and hung out on these Yemenis’ style cushions in the home. They showed a form of hospitality I would be hard pressed to see anywhere else. They took us out into the desert, made us unbelievable desert style food with fried lamb cooked with rice and spices, over hot coals in a huge pot. Using your hands to eat Nate and I had trouble keeping up with guys as our portion of the plate was still half full as they were licking their fingers.  We drank tea, played music, and spit some desert sand tails off roading on the bikes. It was a hard place to leave and thank so much to Al Salem, Said, Amer, Abdel, Manam, Mohammed, Basha and many more. I’m sure I did not spell the names correctly, but they are all definitely not forgotten.  

Upon leaving I dropped my spot device, which was our link to heli evac in case of an emergency. Oh well its gone now. Feeling recharged and contemplating generosity and the fact that the trip had truly set-off we loaded up with as much gas as we could fit and headed out into the desert.   Our goal was Siwa, Egypt, the desert oasis. On the way we passed maybe 300km with no gas stations in roughly the driest part of the earth and that’s right folks, Nate and I found the RAIN!!! It may have been a very short drizzle, but really. How does this stuff happen?  Halfway through we passed a dead camel on the side of the road… which had me wondering if this guy couldn’t make it how the hell are we gonna pull it off.  

So we arrived at a beautiful oasis. With dunes unrivaled, dates, and the famous Oracle temple where Alexander the great asked “will I rule the world?” and was told “Yes, but only for a short time”. 

We spent some time chillaxing. Riding the ridiculous dunes, which can be up to 100 meters / 300 ft, can and only be described in pictures. It really can only be described as Halawe / Beautiful. We found a freezing cold lake and jumped in only to switch to some nice hot springs later on in the day. Whoa, this was almost starting to feel like a vacation for once! Minus the fact that we can’t get our finances in order, things were looking up. 

In Siwa we met a cool American guy who had been working in Cairo who offered us up a place to crash when we went there. We finally got around to doing a lot of the electrical work that was needed on the bikes. The bikes have gone some 17000km / 12000mi on this trip so far and we’re still only ALMOST finished with all the modifications. But as we will describe later, we are beginning to get the minor issues from bike wear and tear and a self-inflicted electrical wound I created.

Other than that we battled mosquitoes one night as you can see from the picture. I think we killed about a thousand.  It actually was a good lesson because there is no malaria here, but it made us realize how unprepared we are for the malaria zone (most of Africa). So we put in an order to my loving mother for mosquito nets, spray, etc. plus a few goodies to be sent to Ethiopia as Sudan has no Post (or real Atm’s for that matter) but that’s for later.

So we wanted to ride the desert road that cuts through the “Western Sahara” (The name is derived from the fact the it is West of the Nile.) from Siwa to Cairo but it is very restricted in Egypt. You need a sponsor to travel with you through the really remote areas. We luckily found a tour guy who was taking an Asian crew in his land cruiser and said we could tag along for a small fee. And it was legitimate. The military made him take responsibility for our safety and prove he had a working SAT phone. Off we rode into the Sahara. We gave him all our gear so we could ride as fast as possible to hopefully reach Baharia before sundown. This worked out fine until he ditched us and we were without water, tools, tire changing gear, extra gas, permits to pass one of the umpteen military check points, and everything else vital to survival. We started to hit some deep sand and dropped the bikes more than once. I sadly broke one of my aluminum water boxes, but it was an idea, and maybe just a little too unprotected for the trip. The road was very difficult because it would be good road then rocky road, then good road then hard dirt, then bammm deep sand. If you’re going to fast you got no chance.  It really is like riding a wild horse.  We didn’t have the right tires for deep sand and we couldn’t lower the air pressure to much as the terrain ranged from rocky to sandy.  At one point Nate was in front, we hit a huge sand pit going to fast he got chucked. I was right behind and followed suit.  At this point we were just concentrating on survival.  We rushed to get the bikes up so minimal fuel is lost out of the overflows of the tanks.  But Nate and I were cool as ice, just calmly thinking about the next important move to get where we need to go. 

Truth is, we were down deep kinda waiting for this type of opportunity to test ourselves and our survival strategies.  We figured the guy had robbed us of all of our stuff or something.  In the end we found him parked waiting for us and were kind of glad to have had kind of an alone feeling of survival out there in the Sahara.  We made it Bahariya which was the only gas for the 750km/500mi run as we decided to continue into the night to Cairo. We figured after the big desert leg of about 440km that there would be civilization. Nope. Not a thing on that road to Cairo. Just more desert. We pulled off somewhere, took a nap in the sand under the stars and got back on to finish the last few hours of the trip.  We got the chance to battle the Cairo traffic sometime around midnight.

We tried our best to battle our way to American Mike’s place.  The traffic was a whole new level of crazy. A minibus gave me a solid nudge against my surfboard.  I proceeded to yell at him in my best whitey Egyptian.  He did not even acknowledge my existence. Im sure a funny reprieve for Nate who was following me. We somehow got close and a taxi took us to meet him at a gas station.  I also got a flashing oil light which scared me, but we checked the oil level and no problem. We later found out it’s the same alarm when the cooling fan trips out due to being gunked up from the gnarly desert riding.  So we parked the bikes and took some time to enjoy beautiful….well smoggy beautiful revolutionary Cairo.

We stayed with 2 Americans, an Egyptian, and a French guy. Mike, Mike, Manu and cant remember the last guy’s name respectively.  All good guys.  Manu was a fixer for foreign journalists as things heated up. He had some really cool stories and knew where all the fun bars are.  Considering the heavy duty muslim piousness and his free time to go around, he was a very cool guy to get around the city with. Mike was also very cool, but pretty busy with work so we didn’t see him much.  We went around the city right about the time 70 people were killed in a football match.  Things were really starting to get crazy.  Tahrir square was quite intense and being at a bar nearby called hamirya felt a bit edgy.  With all the foreigners studying Arabic and journalist and open windows, it would probably be the first place on the list of jihadi acts. We also picked up the only copy of the Africa lonely planet guide book, home delivery baby!!

Egypt is quite a strict place in many respects. They have something I have never seen in my seven Islamic countries I have visited. Some very strict.  They pray 5 times a day in Islam, but the Egytians rub their forehead against the carpet to prove they are religious.  Making a mark and sometimes a pretty stark boil if you will. It can also be liberal, just depends on where you go I guess.

So we decided to leave Cairo on the Friday after the football match deaths as we thought it would be calmer outside the capital as everyday things were getting worse. We stopped by the Giza pyramids on the way out to minimize driving time in Cairo as well.  Pretty amazing stuff.  Again only pics can explain. Nate and I traded off visiting as we didn’t want to leave our gear unsupervised. My experience was typical Egyptian panhandling, but Nate and others we’ve later talked claim it as the worst affront to peaceful sightseeing known to man. They can be very pushy and slick, sometimes pretending to be police and taking your tickets and such.  But hey….it’s the pyramids right.  They sometimes say that it’s cause the bad tourist economy due to the revolution, but many people who have previously visited Egypt say it’s in their nature.

Nate:  Warning to anyone heading to the Giza Pyramids: get to know what the real police uniforms look like so you know who the fakes are.  These guys are the biggest scammers on earth.  But the Pyramids were really unbelievable.  To imagine people building these massive monuments now is amazing, but pulling it off 3000 years ago?… these guys must have known something we don’t know.   

So again getting started late we ended up riding at night.  We thought it would be safer than being in Cairo during the huge demonstration.  Little did we know what was in store.   We’ll try our best to explain what happened, but it all happened very fast.

We were on this desert rode in between towns and off in the distance we could see a bonfire in the rode.  We pulled up a bit closer to get an idea of what we were dealing with and it became obvious the fire was too big and there were way too many people in the way too crash through the road block.  So we decided to try to off-rode around it for a minute and then try get back on the road and haul ass.  It didn’t work as well as we planned.  Just after we get off rode we pass by a guy who starts yelling, but we keep going. We get past the bonfire and realize A) The sand on the side of the rode is prohibitively thick keeping us from going very fast and B) There were miles of trucks parked snugged up together with no room to get back on the road.  So we just keep sand riding.  People keep yelling and it sounds like the numbers are growing.  Guys start peeling off the road at us as we move forward. It’s dark and the sand is very soft and very difficult to maneuver in.  We went a good 200m/220yards and they just kept yelling and racing after us eventually peeling off the road in front of us…looking very angry and determined with big sticks. So we stopped.  We were like “Hey, we are peaceful tourist just trying to get through.  As we met them they calmed down a bit, but only the first five or so that came along.  But then it was 10 and then 15 and then 20. Always the new guys were more and more angry.  They were surrounding us with one guy grabbing hold of Nate’s brake lever (Who he affectionately refers to as the brake-lever bastard) so when he tried to creep forward he just dug his tire deeper into the sand. They almost toppled his bike over with the surge, which would be very bad at this point.  One guy started screaming and threw a beer bottle at Nate’s face.  It shattered, luckly, mostly on the mask, but also cut his nose and nailed his eyelid. We tried to stay calm and tell them everything’s cool (we didn’t want a mob frenzy which is what it was turning into).   A guy we made friends with starting screaming at him and fighting.  The guys on my side yelled get outta her right now go go go! 

Nate:  It started occurring to me that this was really gonna go down.  No get-out-of-jail-free card.  We were really gonna get stomped here, in the desert.  So I knocked brake-lever bastard over and gunned it, somehow creped out of the sand pit I was in and crashed through the guys in my way.  We both took a few shots on the way out, but that’s what helmets are made for.

Rien: I followed suit with a few stick bashing and some big rocks to the back also pulling away. Mind you this was a matter of a few moments.  All in all we got away with a few minor scratches, and we try not to think about how easy it would have been to drop the bikes. Right now things are crazy in Egypt and being alone in the desert surrounded by a disgruntled mob….Well I would prefer not to think about it. No police, no rules for sure.  Note: We have also met many many very good Egyptians and don’t feel this sad incident describes the people as a whole. We wish the country the best of luck at pushing through these difficult times.

Only a few km away was a police station. We were very scared and didn’t want to stop as they could blame us, arrest us or anything, saying the incident was our fault. They stopped us, saw the blood running down Nate’s face and dragged us inside. They were very nice took a report and got him medical attention.  They decide to give us a police escort all the way to luxor, which in the current state we very happily excepted. 

Nate:  I was sure they were going to accuse us of making trouble and toss us in the pen.  But when they heard our story they called in some bigwig official with a dozen bars on his uniform and the greatest comb over of all time and it was all gravy from there.  Six guys with AK’s escorted us for the next 3 days.    

Rien:  So we rode alongside the Nile from here on out.  It was much slower going and would have been impossible to navigate alone. We got to where we were only 90km/60mi from the pretty safe town of Luxor and were stuck at a police station waiting for the ok to go. I’m not sure if it was police permission or permission from the bedouin’s, but we were waiting for a long time and very tired. The most tiring part is since it was different police every 30-60km you had to start all over pretending to be happy and nice. At some point exhaustion from the attack, stress, riding with no brakes, just all of it wears. But we couldn’t stop and we couldn’t stop smiling. The guys at the last station were especially weird asking if we wanted Viagra and making some sexual innuendoes.

Nate:  This last escort of cops were some creepers!  And they started getting way to curious about the value of our bikes and all of our gear… and how much money we had… and where we kept it.  I was convinced they were going to try to roll us in next rural stretch.  So back into survival mode expecting fight or flight.  Nothing ended up coming of it, but my adrenalin didn’t slow down for a week.     

Rien:  Hamdallah, we finally left, did the 90km run and safely pulled into Luxor. We picked the best budget pick on the lonely planet guide (first time ever I think). We wanted a bit of comfort and at 8 bucks a night who cares. We spent the next three days contemplating what happened, discussing life in its entirety, and just being there in that moment. Humbling experience for sure. 

Luxor is the very famous Nile City in Upper Egypt even though it’s in the south. This is due to the Nile flowing north to Lower Egypt and Cairo. It is where all the great Pharonic civilizations where and some of the most ridiculous temples I have ever seen. The real Hieroglyphics and all. From hait… to the valley of the kings which housed all the famous pharaohs. In Cairo I saw the huge treasures found for a minor pharaoh that ruled a couple of years. I took up the whole second floor of the huge museum. I can only imagine what treasure once lay in the tombs of one of the great pharaohs like Ramessey the great. I almost see a similarity where the Greeks and the Romans must have bit the style of the Egyptians to make these great columns.  Luxor was very Historical, but very touristy and highest I have ever seen on the harassment list. Many people do the resort jump from the red sea, but hey its got the history. And as annoying as it is, brothers gotta make tat-dolla yo!!!

The temple guards weren't very excited about me climbing on top of the temple.  Gotta respect a man with a machine gun. 

The Nile

We finally decided our little break was over and headed south to the city of Aswan where we could figure out how to cross over into Sudan. We have a nice ride along the Nile, but can’t shake that eerie feeling that every group of guys at a coffee shop is a mob in waiting. Pretty nice local lunch on the road and then we make it. We wander the city looking for a place, and as always hiding the bikes is the number one concern.  We found a dilapidated shack in an alley next to a hotel so we parked the bikes in there and covered them with a bunch of lumber camo style. We find out a 13-hour ferry is the only way to Wadi Halfa, Sudan so we had a few days to kill before we had to catch it

We decided to take a bus to abu simbel as you can’t drive and even this takes place in a caravan. It is very far south but the best temple I have seen yet with 30m/90ft statues and very cool looking.  Other than that not much to do in aswan, but wait for the ferry and enjoy a few beers as Sudan brings Sharia law which means no alcohol. We were very lucky as some had to wait 2 weeks to ferry their vehicles across because A) the ferry was full and B) cause the vehicle barge hit something. We waited 3 days only.

Nate:  What’s cool about this ferry is it’s the ONLY way for an overlander travelling Africa to head south from North Africa.  So when we arrived Sunday morning to get the bikes through customs we were met by a tanked-out safari land cruiser driven by a pair of guys from the Czech Republic.  Then another tanked-out cruiser from Germany rolled up.  Then a vehicle I’ve never seen pulled up.  It was the size of a garbage truck, wheels as big as my bike and two red crosses on the sides.  When it parked on the side of the street (and really it took up more like the whole street) and the passenger door opened I was expecting Vin Diesel to pop out.  Much to my surprise a petite, freckled little Swiss girl sprung out.  It was a cheerful Swiss couple rolling through the Dark Continent in this tank.  So we got a much needed chance to talk with like-minded souls about routes, malaria, bad fuel, bandits, useless GPS’, Sharia ’a law and… the Congo….     

The ferry was an experience and a half. Due to sanctions Sudan has no bank ATM’s for foreigners. We are a bit blessed since the Marco Polo days of travel and you get pretty used to having an ATM somewhere in the country.  So the morning of departure from Egypt, I stayed behind to get one more draw when the banks opened up while Nate and The Aussie Jack head to the ferry to fight for a little campsite space on the ship’s deck.        

I show up a couple hours later, weave through a mess of people carrying refrigerator size packages and get on the ferry. The boys handled it and barricaded off an area. As it turns out we landed in the white corner if you will. Nate stole a blanket from one of the cabins to set up for some shade and we sat around for the whole day, hiding from the sun, until finally leaving around 5 at night. We don’t actually know how they crammed so much and so many on that boat, but it was an honorable entrance into what many consider the true beginning of the African continent. The bathrooms were, well no description needed and the food prison like, but the air of freedom and a ride down the Nile into Sudan made all things more vivid. We slept on deck and I awoke to a beautiful sunrise that in a moment gave rise to some meaning of this journey.We fight through the crowds (not easy with a surfboard), disembark, and proceed to battle for a spot on one of the transporters. Like out of a movie Nate and I end up corralled in a huge cattle like truck trying to not get buried under the weight of piling up packages and people. Three transports later and a slick trick of “I am white and don’t understand” we slide through customs with ease and have entered dusty Sudan. From moment One we noticed a distinct difference from the Sudanese and their Egyptian counterparts. Not a single person wanted tips or an unfair price. Unbelievable!!!

We scramble for a “hotel” (Nate:  but not like any hotel you’ve seen in the Western World.  Just a pad on some dirt.) and set camp to wait for the moto’s to show up. It is quite the congregation of people who headed North from South Africa and South from North Africa. A good exchange of info and a lot of anticipation for the future.

Uh Oh, we have a problem. We noticed that our oh so vital Carnet (passport for the bike) was crossed out for Sudan, the last major stopping block for South Africa. We kept our mouths shut went with a collection of overlanders and the paperwork went through. What a relief. We met up with many cool peeps, but ended up caravanning with 2 Czech guys David and Daniel and they picked up a straggler named Said ( Yemeni living in Ethiopia) acting as kind of a guide, translator, and crazy man. 

We all head south and stop a couple hundred Km’s south of Wadi Halfa at a small farm along the Nile. The kindness of the Sudanese is beginning to become very evident as the family invites us in and feeds us all on good will. Nate and I decide to do the very stupid thing of jumping in the Nile for a swim. Later learning all the wonderful diseases and animals that happily await to claim victims. No incidents and a cool experience later we continue south.  

The people of Sudan can't get enough American professional wrestling.    

Nate:  This area is serious scorched Earth terrain.  It’s like being on Mars when you get away from the Nile.  Just charred mountains sweeping down to orange deserts.  And it’s really kinda beautiful.  An awesome experience for me on my 31^st birthday.  

Shamanologue:

Crossing the desert my gas gauge has been blinking “E” for an uncomfortable while now.  I’m sure Rien is out too.  Finally I see it: off in the bright, sandy distance, an oven-sized, half rusted metal box with a block hose nailed to the side.  Gas station!  Game on!  Roll up to the crusty box turn off my bike and wait for the attendant.  Off a ways away I spy a tall black man with a white turban and robe heading towards me.  But something’s wrong with his gate.  As he gets a little closer I see this towering guy is riding a midget donkey (well, in comparison to him).  This guy’s feet are actually dragging in the sand while the midget animal’s midget legs are moving a 1000 mph.  He moseys up to me with a huge, Sudanese smile and says, “I’ll trade you the burrow for the bike straight across.” (My translation of his Arabic.).  “Sounds like a plan my man.”  So I toss him the keys, jump on my new ride – no gas necessary – and ride off into the sunset.  End of story. 

Rien:  After riding through moon like desert and passing a few gold mining camps we stop for gas. The attendant makes us stop for lunch and will take nothing in return. A good recharge, as far as food, and also for the soul as well. We make it to Khartoum at night and Nate’s bike starts severely overheating.  We have to stop to let it cool down and instantly lose the Czech guys in all the dark, dusty traffic. Luckily we had the phone number of a guy we were to stay with from my good friend in Jordan, Saed. So we somehow traverse the city find the area and call up Rami our Sudanese connect. He picks us up and takes us to his wonderful home.

What a guy, what a family is all we can say. There really isn’t an easy way to describe our stay with Rami and his family. We ate like kings and lived the life of two pampered children for a few days. This family redefined kindness to strangers.  So giving, in fact, that it hurt inside.  To think how people like this family are so truly giving and here I am in my selfish existence. Not even knowing the definition of true giving until we met them. In the end the stay was too short, but upon the leaving the Fakhouri family offered us a large sum of money to continue on our journey. 

How could we accept so lavish a gift when the kindness was already so overwhelming? They would not accept no for an answer so the solution was to donate the money to an orphanage we were planning on doing some charity work for in Kenya.  And then we decided why not extend the opportunity to anyone else out there who might be inclined to donate.  The orphanage is run by a friend of a friend from California and we’ll personally be working there for a while and make sure the money goes to the right place.  Every dollar will go to the kids.  That said there is a tab at the top of the website with more information regarding donating to the orphanage.  You can see their website at rrop.com 

So it turned out my bike overheated due to sand blowing into my radiator and clogging up my radiator fan.  So we had to disassemble the bikes and clean em out a bit during our lush little vacation with the Fakhouri.   

After that we bee-lined it for the border.  The hazy, dusty horizon started showing signs of life.  Twisted shrubs started popping up here and there.  Soon we were in a little shrub forest though the environment was still not that suitable for life.  I started seeing dead camels on the side of the rode and by the end I counted over a hundred.  Rien and I worked out a perfect arrangement with the Czech guys.  While caravanning we’d let them ride the bikes for a couple hours in the middle of the day’s journey while we enjoyed the creature comforts of driving the Land Cruiser.  Man it’s relaxing riding on four wheels.  And they love it because it’s the perfect little streak of motocross adventure in the middle of the day.  We made it to the border by night fall, got the Carnet exit stamp but the Ethiopian border was closed. Sleeping under the stars, contemplating all that had occurred in the last days, is a fitting way to close.  See you next time when the adventures of mystical, wonderful, Ethiopia are explored.