The end

22 may   Goodbyes are not always fun. After 3 weeks of biking and trouble shooting our voyage had come to a end. For medical reasons Mike could not enter Libya at the right moment and I had obligations at work the 23th of may. which gave us a timing problem.  So quite early in our trip we had to adjust our objective the tour around the Mediterranean into a roundtrip of Tunisia and Algeria. Disappointing, but that’s life! The bright side was as I already said, it slowed down the pace of the trip and let us enjoy even more Tunisia and Algeria.

And….I think I can safely say that close to nothing went as planned. It may sound strange but I like that in a voyage. (braking an drive chain and have to repair it, a ferry that not sails and to find an alternative, etc….)   

sorry, back to the point.

So a firm handshake and a look of understanding and we started our bikes for the last time this trip. Me back to Pledeliac and Mike to Voorschoten. I had 4 hours up ahead on country roads with a pit stop/lunch in Rennes, Place de la Bretagne on one of my favourite terraces. Oysters and salad for lunch, in Brittany you have to love seafood. And I drove the last 70 km to Pledeliac.

It was good to be back home. The family was happy to see me, oufff. A quick shower and of to St Brieuc for the “art rock” festival for a beer and some music. 

Alger to home.

I’m a bit late with this entry, but once at home you have other occupations.

19 May.   We left Alger four hours late for unknown reasons. This meant that we hung around from 10 am to 5 pm in the customs area. The start was good, we did the motorbike manoeuvre to get first in line. We had the usual 5 different custom controls. There was one highlight though. There was a officer with a small handheld device for explosives detection. Mike’s medication triggered the device. they stored the medication away from the luggage and checked again. I saw the antenna of the detector point strait at the medication, Impressive.

The customs guys were friendly, a lot of football talk, we met a fellow biker that was on family visit and we got first on the boat.

The crossing was fun, the waves were 2 meters high, made us think about the time we worked off-shore.

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20 May.   We arrived on schedule in Marseille. The captain must have used the turbo to make up for the lost time. After a quick encounter with the French customs. Almost got strip-searched by 4 female customs officers. But one was from Brittany, she did a good word for me.

We ended up that day in the Ardèche. I can’t remember the name of the village but there was not much to it anyway. The Ardèche is for sure motorbike country. I liked the roads in the mountains and landscape is beautiful. 

21 May.     Our objective for the day was Tours. When we got up the sun was shining and the temperature was already above 20°C. Great Weather, even Mike decided to dress for summer. As you know by now that is a reference!! But once on the bike climbing in to the mountains the temperature dropped to 10°. Had to close the ventilation again. My rally2 jacket was a good investment. From 0° in the rain in Burgos to 35° in the  Tunisian dessert I never felt extremely cold or hot.

We camped at Chenonceau, close to the famous castle build over the river. Beautiful architecture, and building it in the river must have been a challenge. And if you need to work on the adrenaline I recommend the boat tour that passes underneath the castle. It is like rafting with a “bateau mouche".

We had our last dinner together in style in some fancy hotel, abused on the wine and finished the evening with the instant pina colada that Mike had forgotten about during the whole trip. £%¨:!!!%

 

TIZZI OUZOU to ALGER

 

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We took the coastal road to ALGIERS. It was in a very bad condition and the first 30 km was more an off road stage. Driving was fun but we had army roadblocks every 5 km, we did not make any progress.

After the lunch in a beach restaurant with delicious fresh seafood, we decided to go to ALGIERS via the main '4 lane road.

We checked in to a hotel and took a taxi to the city to buy our tickets for the ferry. Just in time, all offices in ALGIERS close at 4.30 pm.

We visited the kasba. I didn't  like it, it was filthy and nothing much interesting to see. And the place didn’t give a safe feeling

Money problems again, even in ALGIERS no distributors for mastercard or VISA. Tomorrow we have to negotiate to pay the hotel in EUROS.

ABS saved my life

Yesterday the quality of the roads were not very good. A lot of bumps, ruts and the roads were very slippery. I drove behind a car that braked suddenly very hard to spare his suspension and to avoid a bump. Although I was 50 metres behind him I had to throw in the emergency brakes.  And then I had this magic feeling and realisation that the front wheel ABS intervened. Expensive option but  it pays itself back.

Kabyli mountains

Today our goal was TIZI OUZOU. We want to get close to Alger for the boat of Wednesday. As you maybe have notices we have again changed our plans. For several reasons we have abandoned the big tour around the Mediterranean and we have concentrated our visit to Tunisia and Algeria. Good decision, it slowed down the pace, made our trip more relaxed and most of all we discovered Algeria. A country that initially we wanted to pass-through as quickly as possible.

At a police roadblock we discussed a bit with the officers. I wanted to take a picture of them but they refused. Michael made a bargain; He let one of the officers drive a little tour on his bike in exchange for a photograph.

We made also a little navigational mistake. Instead of the “route national” through the KABYLI mountains we took a local road that ended up in a sort of donkey trail. We found sheep and cows on our route and a steering fault would be lethal.

When we got back on the normal roads high up in the mountains we found a couples of army roadblocks. These were the serious stuff, machine guns, armour, bullet proof vests, etc.. Still very friendly but serious. We discussed with a soldier, it was difficult to make him smile. When we asked him to show us what his hometown was we notices that he could not read the map! 

Lovers lane

Oh I forgot. Yesterday we stopped for a drink in the countryside. We took a unused parallel road. And what did we see to our surprise… 2 cars with couples in them getting dressed as fast as they could. In Algeria…..shame on them their honour is at stake. :-)

SOUK AHBAS to SETIF

This mornings mission was to get some local money and do our blog update. So we   went into town to find a bank, not just a bank, the central bank. The only bank authorised to change money. Changed my last euros, they will last us one  day or so. In SOUK credit cards re not accepted not even in banks.  We found a internet cafe as you maybe have noticed. This morning was a success.

Cleaned out our hotel room and back on the bikes. A long day up ahead, 300 km in the mountains. And on top of that at every city you have  a police roadblock with nice police officers that stops us for a passport control and most of all a chat. Where do you come from. Nice bike, how much do they cost. Who is going to win the world cup football etc.. Take us 15 to 30 minutes every time.

The people in the north east of Algeria are modest and very very friendly. They are interested in where you come from, what you do etc.. This afternoon we talked to the waiters in the small restaurant we ate. (on the menu chicken, suppa and salad) There was a student working 1 week to make some money to buy new football shoes. Nice guy we talked about football. Can you imagine me and Mike giving our opinion on football?!?!?!? These guys knew the Dutch team better than we do. It was big fun

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When we arrived in SETIF we promised ourselves a decent hotel. But there was a little problem….. money, again. We did not want to spend our last money on the hotel without to know for sure to find a working money distributor. The hotel owner thought that there was a functional distributor  at the airport. He organised somebody with a motorbike to show us the way. Unfortunate the airport was closed but after a bit of discussion and persuasion they opened the gates and let us in. 

We’re Ok money wise, checked in the hotel, ate dinner, lets go to sleep.