1980 July 29th - December 12th, Nairobi, Kenya, Sudan, Egypt, Europe - Toronto

Dateline: December 12th 1980 20:00. Toronto, Canada

Our route: Khartoum to Alexandria - exclusively by trains, aircraft, ferries and Felluca

I am starting here: July 29th 1980

The airport check in area was chaos. But it probably always was even when we were not checking in

The life I was leaving behind. An Ex-Pat in Nairobi, fun, frolic, endless game parks and hot and cold running beautiful ladies (most recent being shown here, centre if you are wondering)

We had survived arriving in Juba (I stopped all my negatives 
being shipped into town!) and arrived at our 
Chevron sponsored hostel

We were leaving Nairobi after nearly 2 blissful years here together, over 2 for me and it was just the most wonderful thing, plus I was traveling with this fabulous, beautiful Canadian chick who appeared to enjoy my company


About 15 of our mates were there to wish us a fond farewell.

It was a good time to go.

Professionally, I needed to upgrade my skills

The Chevron Office/ Hostel

Typical street scene in Khartoum

I think this was one of the main streets

Anyone for pots and pans? 
Somewhere, you could find whatever you wanted

The place was so poorly run, but lovely people

I had had a fabulous time of being a white man in Kenya, a kind of middle manager with no staff, no responsibilities but a great salary and magnificent benefits, one of which was that beautiful young ladies seemed to want to live with me every so often

The Mahdi's Tomb, Omdurman

This one hadn't moved out, and was happy to tag along for the rides

I had been hired, more or less, straight off the bush track about 2 and a half years ago by a company called BML.

I loved Africa and told the managing director this was exactly where I wanted to be, showed them I was white, had a degree (actually, I don't think I did) and could do a pretty mean line in bullshitting, and got this ex-pat job on a 2 year contract which had expired in June.

But, my technological time was up and so was my contract. I probably could have extended my time in Nairobi for another two years,  but I was really way out of date, and probably unemployable elsewhere

Sheik, rattle and roll. Dervishes, suitably whirling

You an get a fabulous contract like I had, based on your experience, and ability to do the job in hand. The job in hand was a bit fuzzy, and at times, I had been everything from branch manager to in house newspaper editor, to football coach and inspirer, personnel manager, and educator trainer, technological evangelist. (see previous blog). All this when my real job boiled down to repairing glorified sewing machines

I hadn't really been of much use to the companies bottom line, probably quite the opposite, but that was their problem
Ilge had been living with me for nearly 2 years.

My companies expat package, was actually quite cheap for me being single, but the package included a flight back to the UK at the end of your contract for you and your family. There was also a clause that said I could ship my belongings back to UK, even though I had none when I arrived, the company brought out my gear from UK to make my life there even more enjoyable. But, before we gave up the house, it all went, shipped to UK

Street market, C1980, Khartoum

I chose simply 2 tickets to Khartoum, this being the gateway to the Nile, which is where I fancied going next


I had been living in Africa for 5 years by now, and had little information, or even interest in the outside world, except maybe for the top 20 UK hits (see previous blog)

So it was, that my mate from Nairobi, Alex, Ilge and the ever wonderful Richard, aka Junior, all hardened travelers and then some, had decided that our next adventure would be up the Nile.

Chevron, apologised, but needed our room for their staff. 
We decamped to the Khartoum club with 
reciprocal membership from Nairobi club. It was awfu

It helped that Richard had found a job in Sudan as a camp manager for Chevron, which was drilling for oil at the time way down south of Juba.

Peter, aka, Alex was on a sabbatical from a company called Comprite, and had to decide if he wanted a similar job in Florida

We were all young, and all had strong backs and enough ready cash to have a good time for up to a year

The pool was actually brown. Can't get good help here

So, Ilge & I flew out to Khartoum. It was a beautiful day, and I could follow the roads we had taken about a month ago on our trip to Turkana. Now I watched as it came into view, we flew over it, and I watched as it dropped by behind us.

I have never seen it since

We were picked up by a driver sent for us, and taken to Chevrons head office in Khartoum. Richard had of course organised all of this for everyone

Peter arrived a few days later.

We explored Khartoum until Richards contract expired

Nothing grand about Sudan. Very poor and very little traffic

My surviving memory, was living very well in the Chevron office (it was offices and hostel for moving managers), and drinking copious amounts of "Tang", an orange flavoured drink

It was very hot, but what did we care, this is adventure again after years off the road

Well, here is the transport system

We were waiting for Richard, probably for about a week. I remember that once he was back, the office was put to good use to get us tickets from Khartoum to Wadi Halfa, and also, thank god, berths on the ferry to Aswan.

Somehow, in the chaos of Sudan, everything worked, at least if you were looked after by a big multinational oil company

Khartoum was a lovely, if somewhat wild place, at least by Nairobi standards 

Happy, friendly people

We toured the streets and felt totally ignored, not in a mean way, just that we were part of the environment

On the Friday, we headed to Omdurman, accross the river to see the Mahdi's tomb, and watch a few Dervishes whirl about.

It was 1980, so I expect things have changed, but for a capital city, it was pretty backward, but we never, unlike other friends who had visited Sudan, never felt anything less than frienships, smiles and acceptance

Leaving Khartoum in "First Class"

Can you make it out? 
First class is definitely over rated

With Richards arrival and with tickets booked, before we left, we decided to go bowling can you believe. The luxury hotel in Khartoum not only had a 4 lane bowling alley in the basement, but also an incredibly upmarket hairdresser.

Well, we survived, 
but we were all pretty much immune to most food stuffs

We all had hair cuts, and to this day, we all think those haircuts were the best we (certainly me) ever had before or since.

So, armed with fresh haircuts, first class seats on the train, and cabins upon arrival in Wadi Halfa, we set out

The sun is going down as we head across the Nile bridge out of Khartoum.

We had a "First Class" compartment, but it was facing backwards, and was only 4 seats.

My beautiful companion modelling her coiff

It was dark, and as we were towards the end of the train, always full of dust, and as we were crossing the Nubian desert, really hot, all the time, even at night.

It was awful, even with a bottle of malt that I think Peter had brought.

Warm malt is not particularly enjoyable under these conditions either

Your correspondent modelling his

There was a "restaurant" car that occasionally brough tea along the train. I went up there at one stage to see what was for sale, only to turn back when I saw the water container, used for tea etc, suitably full of sand and sloshing all over the floor
We were lucky, the engine did not break down this time, they often do leaving passengers stranded.

We must have been on the train for two nights

There were no digital camera's helpfully recording the date and time, let alone the location, so I'm just remembering that it felt like a really long time

A typical station. There were many stops

There were many stations on the route, all had some form of mobile kitchen functionality, we pretty much kept our intake to eggs and the local flat bread which were available at every stop until we got right into the Nubian, then supplies tended to get fewer

 The Trans Nubian Desert Express. Well, this was all you had to get to Aswan with

You would think this guy would carry his donkey

Get out there and
support the family

 Ugh! I remember how little sleep we got

Richard enjoying being on the road/ rail again
He's brought his bicycle and he's off to Australia

This is the Nubian Desert.
Please make sure you take
all your carry on baggage with you

Early morning, still cool, but dirty

Finally, we arrive: Wadi Halfa

How dirty? God, disgusting
Character building dirty

Eventually, mid afternoon, we arrived at Wadi Halfa, the town at the head of the gorge that had become Lake Nasser

Welcome to Africa, Sudan style.
This is pretty much what we expected anyway

The train "station", for it was nothing of the sort, just a dusty plane with a railway track on it, was about 5Kms from the lake. There's lots of transport, like a few beaten up Toyota Land Cruisers, so we and Richards bike get to the ferry  to find out that they are actually expecting four first class passengers in their 2 first class cabins.

These are right at the top, the lower decks look like something out of a Japanese prison camp movie with Arab extras

If people need to get somewhere, anywhere in Africa,
there will be someone you can pay to get there

We watch all indulge in a shower and entertain the kitchen staff by actually eating their food.

Well, we are all young and this kind of travel is not unheard of, in fact, most of the time, we have been the extra's in a Japanese prisoner of war movie

Fully air conditioned. I have trouble believing that this backpack 
(Annie's old one actually) had everything for the two of us
Ah, no, I see from the pix from Greece, we must have had one each

Full of happy souls, praying. This was tied to the ferry and
was part of the transport process

Can't remember emigration, or even when the ferry finally left heading to Aswan.

Up in First, we were having a great time just feeling clean.

No air conditioning, even if there ever had been, in this environment, hundreds, maybe thousands of kilometres from anyone who could fix one meant it would never be viable anyway.

This is probably second class
Third is below decks

We had a much better version of cooling, through a trap door above the bridge to the big flat roof


We spend a lot of out 36 hour trip up here, even at night

About half way down the lake (about 300Kms), we pass the other ferry heading north.

Horror! We must look like that

The sun sets and we know that we will pass Abu Simbel at night

Our cook. I think he was just there for us

See how my new haircut handle
the windswept look

I certainly don't remember
anyone else on our deck

Peter, relaxing, or contemplating his future?

A howling 25 knot wind help
keep 38C temperature under control

This was our future for the foreseeable next 2 days
Worked for me! We shared 2 books as I remember, Taipan and Shogun. 
I was last in line, so got chunks of Shogun, usually by chapter as the last person read it
Typically, it blew away in the wind as I read it

Approaching aswan High Dam

Aswan disembarkation with bicycle

AH!. I think this displays our total baggage
Travelling light

View from the bar deck of the Oberoi Hotel, Aswan

Aswan is lovely.

From our hotel which had a beer garden at the back
The Oberoi is the one with the tower

We check into a pretty decent place that has a beer garden behind it, and is right on the banks of the Nile.

We make directly for the Aswan Oberoi, across the river.

We have beers, or GnT's and Ilge has a Singapore Sling

Elephantine Island
Full of locals, not many tourists

I don't think it was a real one, but the view is fabulous and the place is almost empty, at least on the bar deck anyway

From the Mausoleum grounds, with view

The HRH AK final resting place

Clean, adventuring, not worried about, well, anything. The world is out there to be used

After a week or so "roughing" it, Aswan is an oasis.

What're you lookin' at Jamiel?

The Aga Khans Mausoleum, Elephantine Island, Philea, Feluccas and of course, Abu Simbel

I have wanted to visit since I saw efforts to save it made back in the 1960's

There's only one way to get there, fly

Every day, there is a flight in the morning, a 737 full of people (about 150 - 200) get off, they wander around in a big lump, then head back 3 hours later on the same plane

What magic stuff this place has to offer

Not for me.

In 1980, there was only one row of Feluccas on the bank
Apparently, huge numbers now

   



























We fly up to Abu Simbel, and stay for a night at the local hotel (they dreadfully over charge for the fish! Watch out).

Every day, a few people do this.

After the plane leaves with 95% of the inbound passengers, we have the place entirely to ourselve

Inside the temple.
Various supplicants

It's big isn't it. 
Incredibly spectacular to actually sit here

4 statues of Ramses the great at various 
times of his career  
The missus is the tiny one near the door 

Ramses victory at the battle of Kaddish (1274BE)
These were the collateral damage to Kaddish

Time to roam around for hours and watch the sunset.

There is literally no one else except a guide or two

We take our time, slowly heading into the inner sanctum.

This is where Ramses is sitting with three "other" gods: Ra-Horakhty, Amun and Ptah. 

Twice a year, originally October 22 and February 22, sunlight shines into the inner sanctuary and lights up three statues seated on a bench, including one of the pharaoh. Ptah, being god of darkness, never gets any sunlight.

We were told by out guide, that the engineers who reconstructed the site, got it wrong by one day, but I can't find anything to confirm that

Unfortunately, Alex didn't bring his flas, or it had run out, so he rolled off a whole roll of film using my flash, and gave it back pretty well dead. Consequently, I only got a few half arsed photos of the inner reaches of the temple

We are up at dawn next day, and do the same, also, totally on our own. We have the entire sites to ourselves.

Our guide book. Well before Lonely Planet. 

It was excellent and we learn an 

amazing amount from it

There is no office for the airline, but the bush telegraph lets us know that there is another plane coming today, I believe a Sunday, Egypt Air is sending a plane just for about 20 of us

Spot the tourists. 
Ours, without the rabble

We have the place to ourselves.
This in front of the temple

The statues at the bottom of the temple

Apparently, the battle was a "draw"
But that wasn't going to stop him winning

Ramses smiting the Hittites

Temple of Hathor, and Nefertari,his wife
The Pharaohs identified status by height
Nefetari is just above his knee

The sacred inner sanctum
Ptah, Ramses, Ra-Horakhty and Amun
With Ptah on the right, never to be enlightened

View from close to the lake

Perspective. Figures by the door

Back at Aswan, I am sated.

That was it, I had no other requirements for this trip

However, it gets even better.

Our try it out marketing ploy on Miky

Philea. Once again, no one around here

Philae is beneath the High Dam, so it is safe
from the floods affecting Abu Simbel

A felucca captain approaches us (several do actually) but this one offers us a free trip to Philea with the option of a 3 night cruise down the Nile if it works out

The (now) Missus. So incredibly photogenic, especially on the Nile, heading across to Philea

We head off for an afternoon trip to Philea, and after some negotiations with the captain over the price (of course), we are booked for out trip (with food and drinks included - very essential)

We find a bottle of Gin somewhere, but all the captain can find for us is coke.

UGH!

Add to that is the fact that a lot of the food is in fact watermelon

UGH!

The unfinished Obelisk. Gives you a really good insight
into what these squaddies had to do to earn their crust

Our bread supply

The morning we are leaving, there's time for the unfinished Obelisk. You can see where these peasants/ slaves had chipped away at this huge piece of granite, still anchored to the rock by the base (it's flat and the piece is being hewn out of the granite rock beneath your feet. Anyone who's tried to break up a piece of concrete with a sledge hammer had it real easy when you compare that to the tools (let alone dreadful food) these poor masonry squaddies had to deal with

Your correspondent modelling the latest in underwear

Richard negotiating for his freight

This is the temple to Sobek,
the crocodile god

We cast off into the Nile early afternoon.

Richard has stowed his bike under our communal bed and we settle down on our trip North.

The Felucca has full sails up, but we are only heading a few miles North today, and finally tie up on an Island, probably about 3 hours from Aswan

We have dinner.

Teeth are brushed in the Nile (no sewage outlets here), but we have seen a few on the way down. We (probably) ablute on the island,
It's a big river.

We settle down for the evening.

About 4:00AM, well before dawn, we wake up as the captain casts off from our moorings.

It takes about an hour or so till we tie up directly outside Kom Ombo.

I don't even think the ticket office was even open yet

As the sun comes up, we get some incredible views of the temple of Sobek, the Crocodile god

Kom Ombo, early morning
Again, all our own
We left, after about 2+ hours just as the rush arrived

 Kom Ombo, but it got better. 
We moored on the river nearby

There's some beautiful papyrus columns, some unbelievable still vaguely painted walls, and of course, wall and column carvings

It was ancient, and it had not been too well maintained, so we were only there until maybe 9:00 when a bus load of tourists arrived.

We smiled to each other and headed back to breakfast on the boat

We gently glide down the Nile.

There is a hold full of water melons and coke. Both of which I detest.

I overcome my loathing of the watermelons (basically sweet cucumbers - UGH!) but have trouble with the cokes

This was another Felucca trip heading to Luxor. 
These guys on board, being a collection, not a group, 
chose the "Non Food" option. 
They were all starving when we met them as we were having lunch

Interspersed with breakfast, lunch and dinner, jumping into the Nile, lounging and lazing on the deck as the Felucca ticked and tacked downstream, mostly hiding in the shade of the sail.

We were all by this time, incredibly tanned, so any extra sunlight was not unwelcomed anyway

Next morning, its Edfu.

This is really quite a recent addition being Ptolemaic, as in an offshoot of Alexander the Greats general who like the lifestyle.

This was about 300BE - 30 BE, and was the last of the great dynastic empires ending with Cleopatra.

We again had the place to ourselves and got some amazing shots and insights

Of course, back in 1980, there were few or even no limits on where you could go, tickets, if there were any, we cheap or non existent

Hah! This is for city slickers. Not for hardened backpackers

That night, we stop at Esna, our captain forbits Ilge to leave the boat. The 3 of us wander around but feel an aggressive current around us that was very unusual for an Aram community. We head back and know why it was a men only night out


It really was an amazing, exclusive never to be repeated trip.

On the third (forth) day, Luxor comes into view.

We are done and regretfully say goodby to the crew.

It was hot, but too hot and we just jumped in

The crew adjusting the reefing knots

  

We had three glorious days of this

The Nile worked because there
were Southerly winds, and a
Northerly current of the Nile

How else do you follow
2 years of skiving in an Ex-Pat job

Probably the most celebrated photo of our entire trip up the Nile. Thanks Peter

Temple of Horus

I'm surprised I could find the energy
to take photo's it was so hot

Remember what I said about food?
I never did find out if the folks in
Felucca behind us survived

Edfu, The Temple of Horus with tourists (again, we were them)

No, we did not bring a tripod, so someone had to take the shot

The sacred Barque of Horus

One of the pillars

I was amazed that this shot
was so perfect

The cook hard at preparing the recent catch

What a trip! What amazing memories

All tied up and we're in Luxor

Richard enjoying a beer

Ever hopeful buggy transport
Now here in Luxor, there were tourists

"Fabulous" is a really overused word, but this Felucca trip was far more than that.

The view from our (cheap) hotel

Luxor Temple
There's lots of it
Several millennia of it actually

Luxor: we find a decent hotel and wander around, especially the Winter Palace Hotel where we luxuriate in the incredible luxury and cool lounge

Karnak, millenia of it all around you

There's a Son et Lumiere here, but English is 2 days away

The main centre of the
original temple

The temple was built by various
Pharaohs over the millennia

Some ancient puritans didn't like the implications
of this pre Viagra message and tried to expunge it

I sit in one of the huge leather chairs, having a cup of tea overlooking the river about 50 metres away thinking about all the previous occupants of this chair

It's getting late, so we leave Karnak for a full day's expedition tomorrow

The Valley of the Kings. The far mountain is where
Horus hung out

Just as well, it's massive, like on a scale of dozens of pharaohs, most of which extended the place and left huge areas to glorify themselves. We spend a glorious day (with lots of tourists) exploring everywhere

The paintings inside the tombs were incredible

We actually translated some
of these

Yes, it was searing hot. We negotiated with the taxi driver
that we could stay "as long as we liked" We did

 The ceiling of Ramses II. At least the tomb robbers didn't take this
The tomb was about 10 x 25 x 6 metres. Imagine that amount of treasure

 Hi Anubis. Are you going to eat my heart today?

 Ramses wearing the split
crown of Egypt

 I saw a ripped version of this in the British Museum in
2008I think they tomb robbed it

 A typical tomb entrance

 Heading off to the Valley of the Queens, with apprentice guides in tow

 Osiris, King of the afterlife

 There was huge amounts of these. Just beautiful

Hot and dusty, but an incredible
experience

 This tomb was way up a hill
One of the most ancient, about
13th? Dynasty

 Horus at work 

 Thoth having a busy day

The Colossus of Memnon. 
Massive, Ancient, almost forgotten

Over the hill into the Valley of the Nobles

Where most of the local villagers live,
Al Asasif, just down from the Valley of The Nobles

Al Asasif. Home to all the current Tomb Robbers

Tomb of Ramose. Tombs of the Nobles

Incredibly beautiful. Relief in the tomb of Ramose. Tombs of the Nobles

Beauty is truly ageless. Incredibly beautiful about 2000 years old. Relief in the tomb of Ramose.

Such a delicate touch. Just magnificent as art, about 2000 years ago, it must have been really revolutionary

Sweet Queen Hatshepsut's

Obelisk

Another truly astounding day (you notice I ran out of superlatives a long time ago?) beginning in the valley of the Kings, then Queens, then Nobles. We also get to visit Tutankhamun's tomb.

It's really tiny, maybe 3 x 3 metres. Just remember how much stash was found in it then compare it with Ramses tomb which was about 12 x 25 metres. They were all stacked to the ceiling with all the necessities of the afterlife, like gold.

The taxi driver foolishly said we could stay as long as we like.

We did, and guess what? Yep, zero tourists from aout 1PM on.

It was getting on for sunset when we got back to the bank and discovered a lone beer seller remaining.

This, along with the ber in Bulawayo a few years back, made it into my top 5 best beers ever list 

Eventually, the Son et lumiere is in English

Ramses statues all over
This one was outside the local museum

Karnak entrance prior to the Son et Lumiere 

Ramses with Nefertari (at knee height)
in Karnak Temple

"Sweet Queen Hatshepsut"
Still echoes through my head when I see this

The Son et lumiere show comes to an end

We wait for the door to open for the Son et Lumiere at Karnak.

Because the site was so huge, we went to places we hadn't been to during the day and watched as the history of the temple was explained and highlighted as the centuries went past

Obviously a great event to remember, and we all enjoyed it

Next day or two (?) and we head off to the local museum, book a train to Cairo and take in some swimming pool or other while finishing off the books we were sharing

This, Luxor is the place I finally fell in love with my girlfriend
Note bronzed Greek God look on all said Greek Gods

We are up very early to catch the 4:30AM train to Cairo.

We have decent seats in air conditioned carriage, but Alex gets to sit next to a guy who has put his dead chickens in the rack above him, so there's a lot of shouting about dripping chickens

We arrive with no plans, and our taxi driver takes us to his cousins run down hotel

We take a taxi at the Cairo train station, and he takes
us to his cousins hotel
I guess it was as good as any, but it was terrible
The honking never stopped. It was a pit

Oh well

Cairo is not only a mess, but a noisy, dirty mess complete with donkey carts, and cars and trucks  honking 24 hours a day

Next day it's the Pyramids. A full day. We clamber over them, no restrictions. Clamber through them, right into the previous occupants rooms. They are huge. Just make sure you have a reliable light in there

A tour of Cairo

The sphinx. 
Napoleons gunners used it for target practice

We hang around for the Son et Lumiere for the Pyramids.

There are a lot of old Pyramids
plus a lot of  excavations

There's far less material here, a couple of Pyramids and the Sphinx 

I would probably prefer Aida to this

The Pyramids, of course, Ilge must try the camel

The only truly fabulous thing about Cairo (at this time anyway), was the central Museum.

The official Egyptian Museum.

Just (wait for it), INCREDIBLE.

Many aspects of everything Pharaonic here.

Halls of  sarcophagi, mummies, (including Ramses and Tutankhamun (as in Tut Ankh Amun - work it out), papyrus rolls, cartouches, architecture from across the ages and all manner of stelae and statues. Floors of it

It was also huge. Maybe 100 metres square on 3 floors.

Everyone else has had enough by around 4PM, but I notice there are steps downstirs to the basement.

Oh WOW!

Cheap shot as the sun goes down

What a treasure trove down here. Hardly anything marks, just piles and piles and piles (sometimes literally) of ancient treasure.

I gorge and by closing time, I'm ready to leave Egypt and all aspects ancient

We wait for the Son et Lumiere here too
Karnak was easily the best

I guess there was a reason
to take this

We take the local train to Alexandria.
There's a ferry to Greece. We had no idea, but it makes
for an easy exit

Alexandria, look familiar?

The view from the ferry heading to Greece.
We are done with Africa for a while

And that's it.

We are stamped out of Egypt.

Once again, I am sated in ways that I had never even imagined existed. I have experienced one of the greatest ancient civilisations as closely as I ever could have been, and very grateful that it had happened

Did I use the word "magnificent"?

I was so

Route: Heraklion, Greece to London

Happy days in Heraklion, Greece,  soon to end.

Knossos, celebrated as an ancient civilisation
I guess it was, at least they gave us "Western Civilisation"

We arrive in Heraklion, totally wiped out. It was a rough crossing, and we hardly got any sleep, so when someone met us at the dock and offered us a room, we were ready.

It was some way from the arrivals, but it worked for a few days to get our brains fixed up

At some point, we all head off to Knossos, the startling recently discovered, or at least opened to the public

Art, western style. By definition I guess

Yes, ancient Greek culture, but after a month of ancient Egypt, I for one am pretty unimpressed.

I've been to Greece many years back, and Ilge lived with some guy here even farther back than that, so we are both Hellenic savvy

But none of us were ready for our dinner that evening

We were still 4 of us, and just dropped into a taverna up the road.

The local taverna a few meters from our cottage

I knew that I had to hold my nose and get back into the Retsina mode, and had been pursuing this for an hour or so.

I will never forget this evening for many reasons

The owner of the taverna came to talk to us. He starts in Greek with typical welcomes, but then tries "Sind Sie Deutsch"?

I use my fluent German to say "Nine, nine"

This is the table where Peter convinced me to try olives
Never looked back

I go around us and introduce us as nationalities

"British, Canadian, American, British"

Suddenly, utter delight fills his face and he orders a full bottle of Ouzo from the back.

We start toasting to all manner of international fraternities, us being the 3 major powers who liberated the Greeks from the Germans

Still with fabulous haircuts, we enjoy whats left of
our ever dwindling break from the future

He had obviously set up the first question as an introduction to bring them in, as during the course of the rest of the evening he not only filled endless glasses, soon to be thrown and smashed in the fireplace, or anywhere actually as he explained how many of his friends had been torchered and killed by the Nazi's, and he showed us the marks of his torture.

He explained with the help of a chair, how his legs were put on a chair and wires across his legs with weights on either side, for hours or days, eating into his tibias. 

Our view from the kitchen in our cottage

He shows us the damage.

There's still obvious marks remaining. We have no reason to doubt him

What Germans would fell, we did not ask, but this was at least one way he was able to say thank you to the armies and nations that eventually rescued him from his torcherers

Ilge and Junior left earlier, but Peter and I stayed well after the universe began swimming out of control.

We danced a lot too

Our own version of Halcyon Days. The simple life

I still remember staggering from lamp post to lamp post trying to get back, while Peter and I tried to work out whether the time in Florida was 5 hours ahead, or 5 hours behind, and whether he should call his potential employer to clarify some aspects of their offer

Incredibly pissed as we were, neither of us could work it out

Eventually, we staggered back to our lodgings where I managed to break the bed by ripping out the bottom frame in my frenzy of excitement. It woke up most of the house.

As pissed as I am, I'm rather embarrassed.

The house owner comes and fixes it. I'm very apologetic. "Happens a lot" he said

At this stage, Richard leaves to pursue, or more realistically continue, his world tour

The soon to end days of easy living, easy life vacationing. 
Eventually, real life and real facts will need to be faced

Us? We are happy to ignore the reality of the world. We have no idea that while we were protected from all manner of ugly economics in the rest of the world in an ex pat contract in Nairobi, we are still happily blissfully unaware of the dire conditions facing my future career

Ios. A real party island

That was still some months later.

I think Peter found us the cottage, right on the Med.

It's all here
Lots of foreigners. Ugh!

I could not have imagined a better one. Where it was, I no longer have any idea, except it was a few Km's out of Heraklion, but it was, apart from the rooftop water reservoir that fed out water needs for showering, tooth brushing and drinking etc, where we discovered a decomposing rat and cat that had chased it into the water reservoir and couldn't get out (yes really), perfect

We stay, probably 5 days as the summer wanes into September

Just more holiday snaps really

Peter has made his decision and starts to work out how he's going to get to London to get his Visa, back to Nairobi to finalise his job there and propose to Shemine (who he tells me he is missing), back to UK to see his mother, then finally onto Florida for his future career. He expects to be there before Christmas

It all begins to wind down from here

OK, it's great if you are here for a bender or a stag party

We all book a ferry to Athens, but as passengers, we can get off at any island.

I still regret not getting off at Santorini, (it looked like a dreadful climb up the mountain), but we waited till Ios. Probably the worst choice of our trip. We get off, Peter stays on board. He's on his way

Ios is full of obnoxious tourists

It's all here on Ios
Lots of foreigners. Ugh!

We last about 5 - 6 days (it's really expensive here, then it too begins to loose it's shine, and we strike out for Athens where we stay in a hostel for a week or so

Once we got to Athens, we just did tourist stuff
and worked out where to go.

Looks like I finally get the tent out
We hang out near Athens, Junior arrives

For Ilge's 30th birthday. 27th September, 1980

We do the sights. St Peters Basilica,
Rome

We find a cheap backpackers bus trip that gets us to Rome, via the ferry at Patras and Brindisi.

The Coliseum, Rome

 Pieta: Vatican City, St. Peter's Basilica, Rome

It's not exactly luxurious or enjoyable, but we get there.

I suffer a total meltdown trying to get into the Rome subway. I just can't work out the process.

Ilge watches me, totally passive as I sink into a screaming wreck.

I should have taken more notice

Rome, The Vatican, Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel.

For some reason, I've changed to B&W negatives. I've no idea why, maybe I've run out. Who knows

David at thew Uffizi, Florence

Moses at the church
of San Pietro, Rome 

We head north and enjoy Florence, camped way out of town because even in October, it's still packed and do a pile of renaissance art till it starts to come out of my ears

Basel where Erwin, my mate from South Africa has moved back to, is next. We somehow manage to locate him and stay for a week or so, on the floor as I remember.

The enclosed bridge in Florence

We did a lot of high culture
Florence

Across Europe, heading for UK, but first, I need a fix of the Petit Louvre and Paris.

All of Europe is grey and ever increasingly, miserable

Florence Cathedral

I assume I've kept in touch with people, especially the one's I'm hoping to freeload off of, by letters or postcards, this way, people are expecting us, but have little idea if or when

After Paris, we head back, finally to the UK.

We arrive at my mate Newts in London.

I have developed an attachment to these
Paris, our final vacation spot

He's in the middle of not just renovation strife, but also domestic strife too. Big Time. We are interlopers and intruders, but we stay with him, and maybe even borrow his car. Somehow we got around, and I expect that was the way.

Ilge and I do a grand tour of southern UK, seeing my friends, but also several of her ex lovers.

Meeting one these supercilious losers, suddenly realising from the conversation exactly how he fitted into her life, I feel my heart breaking

There's no empathy here

After about a month, I'm finally convinced that there is nothing here for me in UK. Certainly no future career.

I apply for a US Visa, and after arguing and cajoling the immigration guy at the US embassy, get a visa, then a ticket to Boston. It's still wonderful Freddy Laker - 99 Sterling one way.

We leave UK and not known to us, we arrive in the middle of Thanksgiving day. As we are just surprising them, no one's home for ages.

Somehow, we get us, Dickie and all our masses of detritus into his little beetle

Freeloading with Sarah and Dick only takes a few days. We catch up, but I think they are happy to see us leave. I am absolutely gob smacked with Boston as KI walk around Cambridge and downtown. To me, it's amazingly futuristic and obviously very wealthy.  The buildings, the glass, the sheer height and power of these office buildings. Well, I've been living in Africa for 5 years
After the misery of London and UK in general, I love it and what it represents. I'm already hooked on the US

We have brought all of the gear shipped from Kenya as part of the ex-pat exit routine with us, and after a few days with Sarah, on to Toronto.

The airline into Toronto misplaces it all, but it's on the front porch early am. Freezing in the minus temperatures of early December in Toronto

We walk into the Koplimae home as a complete surprise about 9PM. Her dad is soaking his feet in a basin of hot water, watching the weather.

It looks grim, again.

I've made my decisions, it's not as if these decisions are necessarily life threatening, or even life changing. But, I have zero idea what I want to do, or even whether I want to be here or even if I'm capable of getting back into the job market..

Ilge heads off looking for work and finds it easily enough as a registered nurse. In the evenings, we go out, and after the subtle censorship of Africa, and the grey, desperately depressing future possibilities of UK, I'm delighted to find the Toronto of Canada is pretty loose, like Rocky Horror plays uncensored, and the final clincher was in a bar, just down the road near the subway station as we have a drink.

There's a Friday night drinking session going on, maybe an after office piss up.

The amazing thing to me, was one of the drunken guys taking one of the ladies high heeled shoes and filling it with champagne of some sort. He drinks it and takes someones sock, sticks it in the shoe and pours more champagne into it, takes out the sock, wrings it out into his glass, and drinks that

I feel at home at last.

Not to last though. The worst ever is yet to come

We get here finally. Christmas 1980, Toronto. 
I have exposed myself by my own design and requirements to the truth. I don't want it any other way. Inside, I'm totally dead. 
Disgusted and betrayed by people I trusted and loved, never to recover