IN TO AFRICA: Days 1-5 of 273, 13-17NOV15, Truck 179km, Sydney AUSTRALIA to Chefchaouen MOROCCO (Country No 1)

PLACES VISITED: Luton UK (Outer London), Gibraltar UK, Fnideq MOROCCO, Chefchaouen MOROCCO.

OVERNIGHTS: Etihad A380-800, Luton UK, Gibraltar UK (2), Chefchaouen MOROCCO.

DAY 1, Fri 13NOV15. I could not believe my luck. Golfin’s are never lucky. There were two empty seats next to my window seat in row 79A on our huge Etihad A380-800 flying the next 14hrs from Sydney to Abu Dhabi leaving Friday 10pm! Magic! After a white wine on entry I flopped down and slept 10hrs! Best sleep ever in economy! We touched down on a clear 25C day at 5:30am into Abu Dhabi with only a 2.5hr layover before climbing into the same seat but on another Etihad A380 for the 8hr trip to London. Given it was a day flight, I watched two movies and downed a few Bloody Marys and got some brilliant views of Cairo, the place I expect to finish my epic safari in 9 months! I also saw clearly half of the island of Crete and all three Peloponnesian fingers of southern Greece.

DAY 2, Sat 14NOV15. It was 9C and raining when we landed at Heathrow at 1pm on Saturday. Not surprising. My passport stamp took 30min to get and in that time I was able to book and pay online on my Mac Air in the queue for my bus ticket from Heathrow to Luton Airport which departed at 3pm. The ride took 80min and it was 5pm and exactly 30hrs since leaving Sydney that I walked into the IBIS Hotel at Luton Airport where I was to stay overnight for my flight to Gibraltar at 4:40pm the next day. Luton is reasonably hilly and green and home to a number of factories making foodstuffs and even newspaper printing. It was a relaxing evening of a few calls to Australia followed by ales and Beef pie and the movie “Tomorrowland” brought to me by free streaming site "http://www.onlinehdmovies.org/“ which I use when I travel. Fell asleep several times and finally at 11:30pm.

DAY3, Sun 15NOV15, 15km. What a sleep! Like eating lamb on the spit at Easter. Very satisfying. Woke up to a dark cloudy day with lots of wind and sitting at 10C. After a huge, hot English brekkie I called home, did some paperwork and settled down to watch the rest of Tomorrowland. Left the hotel at 1pm and walked 10min to Luton airport. Met Chris Wrede, the co-founder of "Oasis Overland”, our adventure company and 8 of my 19 fellow travellers who had already turned up.

I asked Chris to tell us the story of "Oasis Overland” while we waited for the rest of our company and our flight. Chris first got the travel bug when he and a mate travelled through Africa and Europe at the age 18 back in the 70’s with plenty of incidents. Chris joined “African Trails”, a rival overland adventure outfit in 1992, running trips and doing some admin. It was not long until Steve, a co-worker got bored and approached Chris to start their own adventure company. This happened in 1997 and by April 1998 they ran their first trip in from Egypt to Turkey via Syria including Gallipoli. This was very successful and Africa started later that year and the rest is history. By the time 3pm rolled around, all 19 adventurers where present including me. We have 7 gals and 12 guys. In terms of where they live: 6 England, 5 USA, 3 Australia, 1 Canada, 1 Switzerland, 1 Brazil, 1 Portugal and 1 Japan.

There are 3 Kiwis but they all live abroad. The youngest in our group is 20 and the eldest 63. Most people are in their early thirties and had to quit their jobs to make the trip. The average age is around 40 and we have three retirees. Most of our party are seasoned travellers, most have seen parts of Africa before and some having done camping trips over several months. Only 10 of us are going all the way to Cairo with 1 finishing in Accra GHANA and the rest in Cape Town. Our 4:40pm flight to Gibraltar (pop 32,000) took 3hrs with low-cost carrier Monarch and surprisingly for this time of the year, it was full. We arrived at 8:40pm. The runway runs east-west behind the 400m peak of the Rock of Gibraltar and the plane twists and turns to literally land behind the rock. The main road that connects the Gibraltan peninsula to Spain crosses the only runway of Gibraltar airport!!! 

After customs we were met by our tour leader, Andrea Petic (Andi) who takes care of our daily itinerary, optional tours, organises VISAs and explains what we need to know about tents, cooking and travelling in our new home - an orange truck. Andi then walked us to our truck where we met her hubby and our driver Grant Hastie. Andi and Grant are in their early forties, both based in NZ and joined Oasis back in 1999 and this will be their 7th trip through Africa. Our truck is called the Maxter G300 and was made by Renault. It was purchased in 2005 and was formerly used by the British Army on the Falkland Islands where it did only 40,000km in 7yrs.

The truck was especially modified to carry 24 passengers and their packs plus food, water, tents, camp seats and all cooking and eating utensils. It has a huge 10 litre, 6 cylinder engine and pumps out 300HP hence the name. It is painted bright orange and looks like a big USA school bus on steroids! The layout is clever since all seats face one another with no windows behind you so that you can take photos anytime by turning around and kneeling on your seat. Our first campsite was called “La Casita” located 15km east of Gibraltar along the Spanish Mediterranean coast. It was equipped with a huge toilet and shower block and even had recharging stations and wi-fi, all on concrete pillars outside!!! Our tents were already set up and quite spacious. They are fairly new and sized for three persons. My tent mate is Christopher Phelps from the USA. Born in Seattle, age 32 and now living on a 1000 acre farm with his girlfriend, 1hr North-East of Houston Texas. he was originally a plumber but now a quantity surveyor, estimating materials and costs for huge infrastructure projects in Iraq and Afghanistan in the past and now on Oil Rigs!!!

Chris is an experienced traveller and on the second night ended up setting up his own hammock between two trees, complete with rain cover! This means that I get a tent of my own from now on! Unreal except for when I have to set it up and pull it down!!! It was 10pm by the time we all settled into our tents and we were desperate for an evening drink, cheese/salami/olives and conversation. We gathered around the truck and talked and drank our way to 1am.

My initial impression is that we have a good group that will connect well and be prepared to help each other out.

DAY 4, Mon 16NOV15, 32km. Most of us were up by 8am. First light is late at 7:30am. Despite a very damp night, I slept very well on my self-inflating mat and kept warm in my -10C rated sleeping bag. My main bag fit easily by my side and everything inside is easily accessible since all items are in line and all clothes are rolled up and side-by-side in a single layer. You just pull out what you need and replace it with a rolled up version of what you do not need. Maureen pioneered this method and it works very well.

All the electronics are in my 40L day pack next to my head and also easily accessed. After a stand-up brekkie we all gathered into the truck for our trip de-brief held by Andi. She explained life on a truck and in a tent and how things would run. We will all be organised into 6 groups and take turns shopping, cooking and cleaning, three meals at a time on rotation. Each tent pair is responsible for pitching and de-pitching their tents. There is a big safe on the truck where we keep all our cash and passports.

The set up is really very good and efficient. By 10am we were off to Gibraltar to see the Rock and town. I was last in Gibraltar with Paul Pappas in 2006 filming “In Search of Eurotrash”. Having seen all the sites I decided to run up to the top of the rock and back down through the town using my GoPro for photos and film (the bendy photos in this blog). We parked the truck on the Spanish side and walked through customs, across the runway and through the main town to the bottom of the cable car. I started my run from there and it took me 30min to do the 4.65km to the top sitting at 372m. It was tough. I made a stop at the top to GoPro the monkeys - they had never seen one and kept slapping it - cannot wait to see the result on film! I ran back to the truck making a stop in the central Piazza to interview some school kids. 

After running across the runway I arrived back at the truck at 2:30pm after 12km of running. Fifteen minutes later we set out for a huge Carrefour Supermarket where we all stocked up for the next month through Morocco and Western Sahara. I bought 10L of cask wine (for easy and safe storage), cheese, olives, toilet paper and wet-ones for those days where we will have no showers. Tonight, Andi and Grant cooked us up a mountain of corn chips with minced meat, tons of shredded English cheddar and chillies. That evening I learned many interesting things about my fellow travellers over several metal cups of cask wine. Like Yuki from Japan who had previously travelled by himself using public buses from Cape Town to Cairo in just 3 months. Yuki is studying tourism at Uni and what better place to practice than here!!! Also, Daniel from El Paso Texas who has rejected life in the USA and has been teaching history in a private international America school in Cairo for the last 3 years. Co-incidently, Englishwoman Victoria who has been in Melbourne for the last 6 years also spent a year working in Cairo as a scuba-diving instructor. Wild stuff. I hope to learn more about my companions as time goes on.

DAY 5, Tue 17NOV15, 132km. Today was Africa day. Finally. After our first attempt at dismantling our tents (I had to get some help since I am now a single tenter) we were on the road at 7:45am. Our 32km Mediterranean crossing from Algeciras SPAIN to Ceuta, a territory of Spain since 1640 on the African continent, took only 50min of actual sailing on the huge ferry “Avemar Dos” built in 2005. Ceuta is only 20 sq km and the Moroccan border was only a 15min drive away.

The change of people, environment and smells as we drove through the border was like chalk and cheese. The border was chaos. We arrived there around 10am and it took nearly 2 hrs to get through. Some dodgy looking guys hid behind our truck to pass contraband from one side of the border to the other. We even saw border police beating up some people with batons. We sat looked up in our truck watching the chaos and listening to all the shouting and honking horns. Welcome to Morocco! Shortly after the border we stopped in Fnideq to change money and have our first walk around.

I explored the Medina (market) and stopped to have a cafe au lait (1.10AUD) in front of the main mosque. The Moroccan currency is the “dirham” (Dh), one AUD buys 6 of them. The French occupied Morocco in 1912 and most people still speak French. Morocco (Pop 33m, Capital RABAT) is descended from the Phoenicians around 800BC. It was occupied by the Romans in the 4th Century and achieved independence from France in 1956. It became Muslim in 829 and since then ruled by Monarchs. The predominant ethnicity is “the Berbers” who have an Arabic dialect of their own. Morocco made some economic gains when it took over the former country of Western Sahara in 1973 to exploit its phosphorus. Nearly 60% of the population lives in the main cities and apparently the median age is only 25yrs and falling! Our campsite in Chefchaouen (Pop 50,000) is only 80km from Fnideq but took just on 3hrs due to our ascent into the Atlas Mountains. Our camping site was called “Azilan”, high above the town of Chefchaouen and well-equipped with not just one but two wi-fi routers covering all external tents!!! Hot showers cost 1.6AUD.

I went for a run down into the old town which comprises a myriad of narrow, steep, cobbled streets surrounded by ornate Andalusian stye buildings mostly painted in a light sky blue, just like the houses on the Greek islands. I had to swerve and weave my way through countless people. I am told that the weather is unseasonaly warm so everyone was out. Women clad in colourful hijab, mother and daughters or old women holding hands and men in “jellabas” or flowing cloaks, many with pointed hoods almost ku-klux-clan style! Children were everywhere, playing soccer on small plateaus since the village is literally built on the side of a steep mountain and covers 350m elevation from top to bottom. Tonight I was on dinner duty with Dan, David and Chris. Luckily we did not have to shop since we were on the road all day but we managed to cook a storm: chunks of chicken breast marinated in spices and added to a stew of zucchini, mushroom, tomato and capsicums all washed down with Rose. What a feast. Our cook group called “The Monkeys” (I selected the name in honour of Tarzan’s chimp “Cheetah”) certainly raised the bar. We cooked over an open fire and later used it to engage in extensive conversation until midnight. The first night in Africa was a blast!

As I reflect on this blog, I cannot believe just what it took to get “in to Africa” from Sydney: 5 days and 2 countries over an estimated 19,000km. We are here. In Africa. The clock is running and the epic begins...

PS: The “curly” or “bent” or wide-angled photos were taken with my GoPro Hero4 Session.

CRUISY LAUNCH: Day 0 of 273, 7NOV15, Sydney AUSTRALIA.

What a night! What a launch!

“Ungowa Africa 2016” is officially LAUNCHED. How? By 86 die-hard fans doing the “dag dance” aboard the Vagabond Princess on the evening of 7 November 2015. This gala event involving dinner, drinks, show and dancing on Sydney Harbour from 7:30pm to 11:30pm on Saturday 7 November 2015 celebrated the 50th birthday (3 November 2015) of John Golfin hidden behind the colossal launch of John’s once-in-lifetime epic safari through all of Africa for 9 months starting in Chefchaouen Morocco on 13 November 2015 and ending in Cairo Egypt on 12 August 2015. The evening got off to a late start due to audio-visual technical difficulties but boy, did it catch up and end well. John “Attenboroughopoulos” Golfin welcomed aboard each person sporting a Hollywood style photo at the entry - all these photos and photos from the rest of the night can be found at dropbox for download (see bottom of this post).

After several rounds of open bar bubbly, cocktails, spirits, beer and wine, our guests enjoyed a sumptuous seafood, meat and pasta buffet with most people picking the upright baked salmon and the mushroom penne as their favourites. At the tale-end of dinner, Attenboroughopoulos burst onto the stage in his main character of John “Cheetah” Golfin dressed as a native in leopard skins and sporting adornments of a witch doctor. After a cultural feast of dancing, a comprehensive program unfolded starting with the premiere of “THE TEASER” of “Ungowa Africa 2016 - The Movie” which will be made after the epic trip. A “teaser” as opposed to a “trailer” is made up of improvised or borrowed video and audio clips that SUGGEST what the real film might look like whereas a “trailer” summarises a movie that has already been shot using video and audio from the actual movie footage.

The “trailer” is due in September 2016 ahead of the release of the blockbuster “Ungowa Africa 2016 - The Movie” in late 2016 or early 2017. The next feature was a look at a huge map of the entire African continent that showed the route that the Ungowa safari would be taking through 28 countries and over 48,000km - the equivalent of the length of the earth’s equator!!! In all these kilometres, Ungowa will visit some 84 cities and towns and 140 places of interest (or sites) such as waterfalls, ruins, mountains, lakes. In total, some 20 major National Parks will be visited and camped in. Approximately 80% of the trip will be spent in tents (twin share in a three-person tent), 15% in log cabins and 5% in 2-3 Star Hotels in the capitals or large cities. The key differentiator of this trip is that it will be an “outback” trip spending most of its time in isolated landscapes and very close-up with the wild animals and indigenous tribes. Golfco Pictures will introduce some new features such as GoPro shots from John “Cheetah” Golfin’s head of animals chasing him and give the indigenous a chance to interview us.

There are twenty safari members travelling together for the first 5 months from Cheos in Morocco to Cape Town in South Africa where 10 will leave and 10 new people will join for the next 4 months to Cairo in Egypt. Safari members will erect their own tents and take turns cooking using local produce. Given our tents will be in the wild we cannot take with us any aromatics such as perfume, underarm, hairspray (oh no!!!) etc. All our clothes must dry inside our tents at night otherwise the animals will take them! For this reason most of our clothes are nylon and spandex based for quick washing and drying and low weight. Another logistical challenge is the absence of power, internet and telcos. In the first 3 months we will only see these things every 10 days on average. Later they should increase to every 5 days and then to 3 and then go back to 10. For this reason, many of us are equipped with solar batteries and we will also take turns plugging into the truck’s 3 cigarette lighters only while it is moving (and regenerating). We also expect to get bogged on many occasions given the areas around the equator are very tropical with heaps of monsoon-like downpours that will cause our huge truck to become bogged. Back to the cruise. Following the run-down against the map, John “Cheetah” Golfin presented the Ungowa blog and the Mercy Australia website and thanked many for their donations in lieu of gifts.

A special presentation followed in which John “The Greek” Golfin presented his mother Vivien, her sister Georgina and to their children: Nicholas Golfin, Joanne Mayson and Stephen Mayson a framed photo of “Three Greek Sisters”. This photo shows the reunion of Georgina, Vivien and Eleni on the island of Poros in Greece on 14 October 2015, the day of Eleni’s 81st birthday. Joanne Mayson and John Golfin travelled to Greece from 3 October 2015 to 2 November 2015 with the prime objective of this reunion and this photo captures it and therefore the purpose of the trip. Joanne, John, Vivien and Georgina also travelled to Akrata, Patra and Athens to visit relatives with John and Vivien also spending time in Istanbul and Gallipoli. The highlight was a 20 minute audience with His Holiness Bartholomeus I, Patriarch of Constantinople. The formal program then ended with an acknowledgement of our interstate travellers and the presentation of the birthday cake bearing the image of the invite. John “Cheetah” Golfin then led all gusts in a toast and dag dance to mark the official launch of “Ungowa Africa 2016” and the dancing that was to take place on the boat. Tracks featured heavily from the 1980’s with plenty of Abba, Eurotrash and Boogieland. The night ended with cake, cheese plates and fruit and plenty more open bar drinkies. By the time we all disembarked at 11:30pm at Cockle Bay it truly felt like we all had been to Africa and back!!! UNGOWA CHEETAH UNGOWA!!!

PS: “Ungowa” was used by Hollywood in the long-running series “Tarzan” starring Johnny Weissmuller (ex Olympic swimmer). It is believed that the word is from the Swahili language and means “Hello, Goodbye and Lets Go” however Tarzan used it as a “one word language” and would often say “Ungowa, cheetah, ungowa” to get cheetah to do everything from rescuing Jane to making a dry martini!!!!

TEASER: https://vimeo.com/145309721

 

 

DROP BOX: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/w9n6srsndiko9rz/AACZ2mzKv_MwEoBTrVsB4PxKa?oref=e