During our travels, we’ve met some fantastic people, and thoroughly enjoyed getting to know them a bit more. They include:
Patrick and Petra, who were on the Ferry to Tunisia for a 3 week holiday of adventure in the sand with their newly purchased vehicle
Grit and Matthais, who were also on the ferry, and are taking 5 months to do a similar trip to ours in a gigantic land-eating, ex-Swedish army ‘tank’
Abdullah, our guide in Libya, along with the guide we had in the fantastic Roman ruins of Leptis Magna. We sampled the delights of his dates and Laban while he experienced our culinary expertise (or not!) in pasta with tuna in tomato sauce
The mad Libyan, who was trying to invite us to eat at his house, but Abdullah was having none of it! He loved Glyn’s sheepskin, and although the policeman at this checkpoint prevented him from sitting on Cathy’s bike, he managed to get a leg over on Glyn’s without anyone looking until it was too late. Classic!
Luke and Guido, the two dutch bikers, otherwise known as ‘the boys’
Gavin and Catkin Barlett, the New Zealand and Brit couple on their way down under in a Camel Trophy support vehicle landrover
The Frenchies, as they became called by the above, this family of four consists of JF, Estelle, Jeremy and Hugo
Louis, the dutch Land Cruiser traveller, who looked like Father Christmas on his holidays, and always made us laugh by referring to our bikes as “motorbikels”
Desi, the helpful receptionist in Gonder who showed us around and helped in all sorts of ways. Mad about Arsenal, as is most of Ethiopia, he says that football is more precious to him than life itself!
Jean and Lucas, the Dutch/Belgian couple who we met in Gonder, and whose misfortune it was to run over a child in Ethiopia
Sam, the mad but very funny Irishman, on his way home for Christmas but now not likely to make it, so he’ll wait out the UK winter and arrive a lot later in 2008
Tsega, otherwise known as Gigi, who owns and runs the most fantastic pizza joint, Effoi Pizza, in Addis Ababa
Isaac and Mohammed, the truck driver and his helper, who came to our rescue north of Marsabit with their empty truck.
Dereck, a fellow biker and Jungle Junction fantatic who has been travelling the world for, oh, he can’t remember how long – four years probably! Full of mad stories, and a highly entertaining character.
Luis, the Spaniard, whose devotion to BMW superceeds anything I’ve seen to date. He loves his bikes, and we had a ball with him and Derek in and around Nairobi.
Chloe and Roger, another Jungle Junction connection. They have driven up from Cape Town as far as Kenya and are now going to explore the country before flying back to the UK for Christmas.
Exaud Nassary, our very friendly and competent driver on the Ngorongoro safari. He was so good at game spotting, he’d pull up the car, swing round in his seat, and spot a crested eagle on a bush 50 metres away. How he ever saw it, I will never know.
Claudia, Thomas and little Leon; who we first met in Lusaka and then bumped into again in Livingstone, at the campsite that they’d recommended. Having already ridden on bikes for 8 months from Kenya to Cape Town five years ago, Claudia and Thomas then decided to travel through Africa via the west coast route. They’d been on the go for a year when we met them.
Heidi and Craig. We first crossed paths when we crossed over the Luangwa River suspension bridge. But we only properly met whilst at Cholwe Adventures campsite in Livingstone. They were from South Africa and were taking the opportunity to check out the rest of southern Africa, travelling by camper van and having a whale of a time.