OverlandSphere
Overland Travel, Expedition & Adventure Information for 4x4, motorcycle and truck overlanders
The sun was almost extinct as we climbed the steps in front of Berbera police station to find an old man in a wicker chair. Two armed men in dusty berets flanked the Police Chief but he himself displayed no military attire. He wore only a swathe of burgundy fabric, richly embroidered and firmly swept around his bent body.…
Ethiopia, the homeland of Haile Selassi, is the heartland of Rastafarianism. As such Addis Ababa it is still firmly in the thrall of the Reggae that Selassi brought back from his exile in Jamaica. Before Reggae however the music heritage lay in Jazz and Swing. In the first decades of the 20th century Addis moved to the sound of Abyssinian…
Africa has always been a dream destination, one for the bucket list. Romanticized in such movies as Out of Africa and I Dreamed of Africa, a land of adventure and amazement. A decade ago, the tour company I work for, Grand European Tours, first started selling a trip to South Africa and lucky us, we were one of the first…
Wadi Halfa is a Nubian town on the Sudanese shores of Lake Nasser. This huge man-made lake has divided the Nubian people and displaced them into southern Egypt and Northern Sudan. The deliberate inundation of the old city of Wadi Halfa is still a source of resentment and a favourite topic of nostalgic lamentation amongst the older tea drinkers of…
It transpires that Aswan is a tourist hotspot. We discovered this when we tried to buy a kofta roll and paid five times the going rate for it. People visit in order to cruise the Nile and visit the colossal tombs at Abu Simbel. We arrived however to catch the ferry to Sudan. For this reason Aswan is also a…
As we pulled our mud-caked vehicle alongside the twilight outline of the Flintstone’s Cave hostel in Goreme, Cappadocia we were greeted by welcoming staff and a few friendly Erasmus students. “Looks like you’ve had fun, what have you been up to?” one enquired. It would be a few days before the obscure images of the past 24 hours had cleared…
It was with a reluctant parting of eyelids and a woollen head that I surfaced. My slumber had been prematurely interrupted by shouted chants and sounds of a ruckus in the street below. I stumbled woodenly to the open window, squinting in the sharp morning sunlight. At length my eyes focussed on the Thessaloniki magistrate’s court not fifty yards away,…
Two things stood out from our brief visit to Albania, the cars on the road and their drivers. I read somewhere that in Albania 80% of cars are Mercedes. Although this seems ridiculous, our experience told us it couldn’t be far from the truth. This is apparently due to a large scale smuggling operation after the government collapsed in the…
I will have to continue this post as our only remaining Wallace has gone missing. He was last seen bartering with a wizened old man over the purchase of some antiquated padlocks. The price was settled at a bag of gold coin and Bas’ immortal soul. Bas certainly has an eye for a bargain. So with Bas otherwise engaged in…
If there is such a thing as simplicity in life, I have yet to find it. I had lamented over how previous life was filled to bursting with work, emails, social commitments, an over-stretched fleet of interests and ambitious future plans. “On this great journey we can live day to day, we can read books and write and develop new…
‘You’ll pretty much just need your flip flops and board shorts Guy’… This was the advice given to me from my brother, Sebastian, prior to joining the three intrepid doctors for the first several months of the trip through Europe and Turkey. For some reason these words have echoed in my mind, in between the shivers and teeth jitters, during…
I was astounded on first visiting the little boy’s room in Austria to find a toilet basin that appeared to have been installed backwards. Most Europeans are accustomed to a watery sink hole at the rear with a gentle, ergonomic upwards slope towards the rim at the front. However this new and alien specimen has its pool hard at the…
We left Bratislava across the Danube. I was excited to cross this great river that has always formed one of history’s most significant borders. Looking across the misty banks, I could picture anxious roman legionnaires at the limits of civilisation, surveying the dark, endless unknown from their walls. As we crossed over the space-age soviet bridge, I imagined we were…
Well what is there to say about Prague? I suppose most of what went on in Prague must inevitably stay in Prague. There was our first burglary, brilliant Belgians, pedunk-a-dunk, free beer and two midgets in a cage. The rest is unutterable. Weary, bleary eyed and slightly sheepish we left the capital of Czech and struck out towards Bratislava in…
“It was the best of times, it was the würst of times” Daniel Nuth That day we arrived in the city of Brugge in time for lunch and a wander around. The weather was melancholy, the indicators still didn’t work and the wobble we had noticed since replacing our transfer box was worryingly present. On the plus side, the architecture…
Our journey to Dover had two key stops: my parents’ house in Somerset and Dan’s father’s house in Maidenhead. Dan and I took our cars up to Somerset and waited for Rich who would drive up once the landy had passed its MOT. We had been frantically dashing around for the past week trying to get everything ready. We still…
After 24 hours in transit, I arrived in Cape Town to beautiful weather and an empty Prado car seat. Our first stop would be the Westin, courtesy of SPG, where we managed to get some gym, spa, and free champagne breakfasts in our systems before heading back to the hostel scene. After getting settled in at the Westin, we dined…
After 24 hours in transit, I arrived in Cape Town to beautiful weather and an empty Prado car seat. Our first stop would be the Westin, courtesy of SPG, where we managed to get some gym, spa, and free champagne breakfasts in our systems before heading back to the hostel scene. After getting settled in at the Westin, we dined…
(Andreea, am facut hikeurile astea cu tine in gand, daca ai sughitat intens timp de doua zile, iarta-ne, dar o vom mai face!) De cand am ajuns in surf house am cam pus castile in cui. Era timpul, ne-am zis, sa facem o schimbare de ritm. Cel mai fain lucru in Cape Town este muntele: in mai putin de jumatate…
Charl locuieste in Cape Town si este pasionat de motociclete. Am putea spune ca e un preot urban. Ne-a citit povestile pe advrider.com si ne-a invitat la pranz. Ce descoperire! In zilele urmatoare Charl avea sa devina o sursa de incredere pentru orientarea in Cape Town: contacte pentru a gasi cazare in casa de surferi, Trac Mac, chiar si un…
Cape Town 11- 21/03 Aveam o gramada de facut: pasapoartele nu mai aveau suficiente pagini libere, iar motocicleta avea nevoie de ceva piese. Intai am mers la Consulatul Romaniei si primirea a depasit toate asteptarile. Consulul, dl. Silviu Rogobete, a facut eforturi substantiale pentru a ne ajuta sa continuam turul, iar sotia a fost de asemenea o gazda perfecta. Poate…
Cape Town 11- 21/03 Ultima frontiera din prima jumatate a turului Africii s-a dovedit a fi si cea mai usor de trecut. Africa de vest era mult in urma, urmatoarea etapa urma sa fie traversarea subcontinetului sud-african si a coastei estice, zone fara probleme de tipul celor cu care ne confruntasem in Camerun sau RDC. Asfaltul incepea sa redevina regula,…
In curand, continuarea aventurii Into The World / Stay tuned for the continuation of Into The World…
Am ajuns in Cape Town la finalul unui maraton de 84 de ore si 1900 de kilometri, inceput in capitala Namibiei. Primii nomazi pe o motocicleta, veniti din Romania pana in Africa de Sud. O luna imensa, galbena, o naluca, peste un oras, peste doua oceane. Jumatatea, sau abia miezul unei aventuri care dureaza de noua luni, pe care am…
December 12th final loading Separation anxiety has set in as today Tin Can was delivered to the Melbourne shipping agents. Much though I would have liked to have supervised the loading into a container, I was not allowed due to Australia’s painful Health & Safety regulations. Just had to hand over the keys to an ethnic gentleman who said “she’ll…