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DAY 76. FRI 20/04. Sabratha to Leptus Magna. 246 kms. Total 17409 kms. Campsite near Leptus Magna N32 37.915 E14 17.380 Visited the ruins at Sabratha first thing in the morning after showering and checking out of the Hostel. Again there was an ATM machine there but neither of us could get money out of it. This is the sister city of the larger and more famous Roman ruins at Leptis Magna which we were to visit later. Both are World Heritage Sites. Although Sabratha is smaller we enjoyed the visit as it has a very well preserved and restored theatre. Also the location is right on the waters edge, with some of the ruins going right down into the sea which makes it quite scenic. While admiring the view looking the other way Rob almost knocked himself out by walking into the wall of a low archway and was sporting a large k*** and scab on his head for a few days and drawing strange looks from people. After leaving the site we ran into the manager of the youth hostel in town and were invited into a cafe' for coffee with him and a friend, both of whom were Moroccan but working in Libya. Again, as we were guests, they would not accept any payment for the coffees. Afterwards we continued east again via Tripoli and arrived at Leptis Magna (N32 37.953 E14 17.398) at about 4.30pm. As it was lunch time when we passed through Tripoli, we didn't stop but just took a drive along the harbour/waterfront area to get a bit of a feel for the place and tried again unsuccessfully to draw money from an ATM. Although the ruins only officially close at 5pm we were not allowed in as the ticket office staff said it was too late. Drove around for a bit afterwards debating what to do and eventually decided to camp the night and visit the ruins briefly early in the morning. Luckily there was a campsite near to the entrance which we reluctantly pulled into. It wasn't much of a campsite really, just the garden of a multistory building that someone had turned into a camp by building some outside toilets and showers. They wanted 15 LD a night but we bargained them down to 10 as it definitely wasn't worth the 15. Although in retrospect it was a good decision as this became our last campsite until Dahab, 5 nights later. Didn't get up to much just quick dinner and then bed in order to get up early the next morning.
DAY 77. SAT 21/04. Leptus Magna to Al Uqaylah. 602 kms. Total 18010. "Bushcamp" Police checkpoint. Up early and straight to visit Leptus Magna ruins, again smuggling in the camera to save the 1 LD. Also, once more, an out of order ATM! Huge site and really impressive baths, theatre and other large buildings. Could easily have spent a lot longer than we did walking around but we were eager to get going to cover some distance and also were starting to get "ruin fatigue" after weeks of Roman ruins through Tunisia and Libya and could only last just over an hour. The rest of the day was just spent driving and was pretty uneventful and boring until around 5 pm, about 150 kms past Surt when in the middle of nowhere we had our 1st real "breakdown". Inga was cruising along in 5th gear when suddenly we lost drive and had to pull over to inspect the damage. Rob immediately thought something in the transfer box had gone as it seemed to be all neutral and no drive no matter which gear you were in or low or high range. Got under the car to inspect further and rear drive/prop shaft was just spinning freely - not engaged in the diff which turned out to be a bit of a clue! Quite funny actually when Inga tried pulling up the handbrake nothing happened and we started rolling backwards as handbrake acts on the drive shaft! Immediately feared the worst as we were not close to any large cities if we needed help and we were now worried about missing Claire and Angiolo if we were seriously delayed. Luckily it didn't turn out to be as serious and we were able to repair and get going again. When Rob went round to inspect the troublesome rear left wheel he saw the half shaft had come out an inch or so through the hub drive member and end cap and disengaged from the diff. Believe this was due to irregular wearing of hub drive member "teeth" from driving with loose bearings/wheel hub (and/or some resulting problem in the diff itself?) By now a Good Samaritan had arrived and gone off to fetch a mechanic but by the time they came back we had pretty much sorted out the problem. Just had to remove the hub driving member and re-insert the half shaft. So the mechanic just stood around for a while before the Good Samaritan took him back again. We then got underway again, slowly at 1st just to check things out and drove about 50 kms to the next biggish town by which time it was now dark. Our Good Samaritan had caught up to us again and insisted on assisting us further. So we went off in search of mechanic to source a replacement part. At about 8 or 9 pm at night in the total darkness I thought we had no chance of finding a mechanic still working. He took us to a mechanics yard who had a few old landies lying around. The idea was to replace the hub drive member with one from one of the old landies but they were all old series landies and the part was not the same. So we took off ours from the front and swapped with the damaged one from the back (as front half shaft can not disengage from diff in same way rear had) Also fitted a metal end cap from a Series Landy instead of our plastic ones to keep the half shaft in. Bit of a bodge job with some sealing compound and we were away at 10 pm with all the friends and family from the yard waving us goodbye. They were also not looking for any payment for their assistance in true Libyan style. Said farewell and thanks to our helper and we were off east again. Drove for about an hour an a half as the road was OK before pulling over at a police check point and asking if we could sleep there. Of course, being Libya, it was no problem and they even offered us the use of their bathroom. Got to sleep in the back just before midnight. Long day!
DAY 78. SUN 22/04. Al Uqaylah to Shahat. 512 kms. Total 18522. "Bushcamp" Left the police checkpoint 1st thing and drove a few kays before stopping in the middle of no-where to make tea and coffee before continuing east towards Banghazi, a large modern city and capital of the east, which we reached at lunch time. We at last tracked down a working ATM here to draw some money as we were running low on funds that had changed at the border. Also hooked up with another good Samaritan/helper who took Rob to the black market to change a little bit of Tunisian Dinar we still had left over. So now we had enough money to get us into Egypt and didn't have to change any more euros or dollars. Also did a bit of grocery shopping and bought some meat from a butcher - beef we thought! But that evening as soon as we sat down to eat it we realized it was not beef, but camel! Quite good actually but very different to beef - at least we got to try it though, even if by accident! Headed for Shahat, near Greek ruins of Cyrene where we had a GPS point for a campsite at N32 49.290 E21 51.414. Didn't manage to find it though even though we drove right past it. (Did see a sign for it the next day on the way out so it IS there somewhere - near the entrance to Cyrene.) We ended up camping at the end of a dead end street, behind some buildings and next to a restaurant at the edge of the forest. We stopped there to ask some guy where we could camp and he said we could just camp there. Had a street light and toilets at the restaurant so was OK and even got to put up the tent. Spent most of the evening (and the following morning) chatting to this fellow who worked at the museum there from what we could gather (and watching videos clips on his mobile phone that he kept showing us) Couldn't really understand much of what was said but think he enjoyed the company. Had been quite a cold day so it was a very cool evening - even made some hot chocolate!
DAY 79. MON 23/04. Shahat to Egyptian Border (between Umsaad and As Sallam.) 439 kms. Total 18961 kms. "Bushcamp" Egyptian border Beautiful sunny morning when we woke up - very different to yesterday! Leaving Shalat we stopped for some lovely photos overlooking Cyrene ruins. Didn't actually enter the site itself but instead chose to head down the mountain to the coast to visit the ruins at Apollina (N32 54.114 E21 57.904) Parked in the harbour where some of the ruins can be seen partly in the sea and walked across to the main ruins down the coastline. Didn't even have to pay this time. Fairly "run of the mill" ruins except for the theatre which is worth seeing and quite a nice beach too for swimming (if the water wasn't so cold!) Carried on east towards Darnah along Libya's most beautiful stretch of coastline, stopping for lunch overlooking the Mediterranean. Fuelled up at Tobruk to make the most of Libya's exceptionally cheap diesel (about 6 pence per litre!) although Egypt is hardly any more expensive! Stopped at the traffic office in Um Saad to hand back our Libyan number plates and get back our 100 Libyan Dinar deposit. YAY! (Sorry forgot to make a WP but it is the building on the right close to the street just before the end of town on the main road through town. Otherwise just show someone the white paper for the 100 LD deposit that you got at the border and they will now what you are looking for and hopefully take you there - like we did!) Topped up our tank again just before the border. Had our carnets stamped out of Libya at N31 34.627 E25 04.173 (shed on the right) just before immigration check point at N31 34.604 E25 04.232 where you have your passports stamped out - of the "drive-thru" variety. Short section of no mans land before reaching the Egyptian side of the border. Had to show our passports to quite a few sometimes quite aggressive people - who knows who they were - before reaching the border proper! As it was now after 8pm border was fairly quite and only on skeleton crew, which I think turned out to be a good thing for us. Drove down to the large sheds on the right over the inspection ramps - no-one inspected our car. Found out we had missed the immigration hangar and did a u'ey and drove back to get stamped in. (Would normally be 1st hangar/building on the left after last kiosk style checkpoint) Drove back past the inspection ramps to N31 34.343 E25 05.148 where outside under the last large shed some guy took Rob's passport and did a brief check on carnet (called Triptique in Egypt) and chassis number. He kept the passport but gave carnet back and luckily allowed us to drive to the traffic office (N31 34.251 E25 05.342) to have vehicle engine number and chassis number rubbings taken and form filled out to check against the carnet. But 1st had to change money to pay for car clearance charges. The little bank at the customs building (last building on the left) only changes euro and dollars, so we had to change our Libyan Dinars at a small telephone office back opposite the immigration hall, sort of on the black market. Got about 6.9 Egyptian Pounds to the euro: a bit less than the bank rate of around 7.3 but had no other choice. This done it was back to the traffic office. At least we now know where the engine number is, as up till now no-one has ever needed to see it. Had a vague idea where it was but had never actually seen it for ourselves but luckily they managed to find it after a bit of a search. Now got this form copied at the traffic office as well as carnet and passport to take back to "Triptique Man." But as Rob's passport was still with the 1st guy just got copies of the rest done. Now went back to the "1st Carnet check man" showed him the form confirming chassis and engine number and he gave back Rob's passport and told us to go see the main "Triptique Man" in his office next to the customs hall. Showed him all the documents we had and he sent Rob back to the traffic office to get more copies (2 of each) done as well as Rob's passport. Luckily we were just driving between the 2 places all the time. These forms they placed in 2 separate folders to be taken back to "Triptique Man" (cost 25 EP for all the copies.) "Triptique Man" checked all the forms and then sent Rob to the cashier outside next to the bank to pay 510(?) EP for the carnet. Came back with receipts to show "Triptique Man" and then got sent back to traffic office with some forms/receipts for almost the final time. Paid insurance at small office next to the traffic office, 40 EP for 3 months and then 40 plus 10 EP, inside the traffic office, for Egyptian license plates and credit card license. Then went back to Triptique man in his office for final time to at last collect completed, stamped carnet. Then on the way out stopped at traffic office for final time briefly just to collect the credit card license. Finally, at about 11.30 pm we were done. A lot of going backwards and forwards, about 625 EP (that I can remember) poorer off, but at least we were done. All in all had not been too bad but probably would have taken longer if it was busier during the day. Parked up just past the traffic police building for a quick snack and then went to bed in the back.
LIBYA COST SUMMARY:
CAMPING: 10 LD per night
DIESEL: 0.15 LD/l - as cheap as it gets in Africa! About 6 p a litre/ 9 euro cents/l, roughly 5 euros for an average tank!
FOOD: small supermarkets, butchers etc available in big cities. Reasonably cheap, can get all the essentials, luxuries and more. (No beer)
ATMS: quite a few e.g. at border and tourist sites are unreliable. We only managed to withdraw at an ATM in Benghazi.
OVERALL:
Hospitality, helpfulness, generosity and general friendliness of the Libyan people exceeds all expectations. They really do go out of their way to help you expecting nothing in return and as a guest you often find people paying for things on your behalf and they will not take no for an answer as they feel it is their duty. Has to be experienced to be believed and leaves a lasting impression which will make any trip here a pleasurable experience.
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