Trip from South Africa to Egypt - and beyond?

Detailed Journal

Kassala (Sudan) to White River (South Africa)

Wednesday 7 January 2004

The bus left at 07h00, and the mechanic got me there on time. We had parked the Landrover outside the police station (it was two blocks away from the garage). The bus trip was really very comfortable since they have modern air-conditioned coaches for the inter-city routes, cruising along at 120 km/h - so the 700 km trip took about 8 hours (allowing for stops, lunch, and the very slow traffic in Khartoum).

Since I was not sure how long I was going to be in Khartoum, and it is not the city I would have chosen to stay in if I had the choice, I ended up at the Hilton Hotel because at least it had good food and satellite TV - even if there was no alcohol. The only problem was that Sudan no longer accepts credit cards or travellers cheques (due to the US of course), so I had to use cash.

Thursday 8 January 2004

The first thing was to go to the Ethiopian Embassy to try and get a visa to return to Ethiopia - at this point I knew there was no point trying to continue with the trip - there was something SERIOUSLY wrong with the Landrover, and I would not have confidence in it any more.

The Ethiopian Embassy opened at 10h00, and they said the visa would probably be ready by Sunday (Friday and Saturdays being the weekend in Muslim countries). However, they said they would try for the afternoon. With that, I then headed to Khartoum North to try and find the official Landrover dealer. After some difficulty - Sudan does not have any telephone directory! - I tracked down En Neidi Motors - but they did not have the spare part. They reckoned that they could get me one - in at least 3 weeks.

So after that my taxi driver took me to various other garages that might have second-hand units, but again we had no luck. However, the last one we met said that he could have it re-welded and ground. With no other alternative open, I decided to go with that - at a cost of US$ 200.

Once that was arranged - it would only be ready on Saturday afternoon - I returned to the Ethiopian Embassy to see if the visa would be ready. At 16h00 they handed it over - very efficient.

Friday 9 January 2004

A Friday in Khartoum is one of the most boring places on earth. Nothing happens. It was a day of waiting and reading - although since I was travelling by bus I only had a couple of novels - and couldn't even update the website on the laptop (internet connections in Sudan are very slow, so I left the laptop hidden in the Landrover).

Saturday 10 January 2004

There was nothing to do on Saturday morning but wait, and I reached the garage by 14h00. It was 15h00 before the part was ready, and it looked OK, but there was just no way of knowing if the shaft was straight or not. Once we had fitted all the bearings and the synchromesh for the 5th gear (we had to use a 3rd/4th gear one as the best alternative) I went off to buy the ticket for the bus - which would leave at 07h00. Since the fare was relatively cheap (about $5) I bought two tickets so I would have enough leg-room - which proved a sensible plan.

Sunday 11 January 2004

The bus trip back to Kassala was uneventful, and I was able to get the parts to the mechanic just after 14h00. We got the gearbox reassembled that afternoon, and half fitted into the Landrover.

I again stayed the night with the mechanic's father's house.

Monday 12 January 2004

We spent almost the whole morning working on the gearbox, because once it was fitted everything seemed fine - except we couldn't get the vehicle out of low ratio! Despite all our efforts, it was something we just couldn't manage, so in the end I decided it was best to try and get to a proper garage where I could fix the gearbox properly - I was in no doubt that this was just a temporary fix.

It took 6 hours to travel the 200 km from Kassala to Gedaref, and the gearbox seemed to be going fine - just with the normal transfer gearbox whine (which could have been masking a multitude of sins!).

I stayed the night at the same hotel as before, and got an early night's sleep - it would be a long day's driving the next day.

Tuesday 13 January 2004

Waking up early, I set off at 05h00 - two hours before sunrise. Luckily I had kept the recent tracks on the GPS, so I could follow the right track out of town onto the main road. I settled down to the long drive cruising along at a very sedate 30 km/h. After 4 hours I had covered about 120 km and had another 60km to go to reach the border at Metema when the gearbox started making new noises - and within minutes had ground to a halt.

This time, the input shaft was clearly not at fault - the engine would run OK, but would stall immediately when I lifted the clutch - even if both gearboxes were in neutral. Clearly the gearbox had again failed - probably due to the poor alignment of the welded shaft.

Before I could tow the vehicle I would have to remove the prop shafts - which took quite a time as none of the bolts wanted to come undone - but some easing oil eventually persuaded them to come loose - but not before I had broken one of the spanners. Luckily, I had an adjustable wrench as well, so I was able to free the prop shafts OK.

Once that was done, a passing tractor agreed to tow me the 30 km to the border for about $60, which was not too unreasonable - but took another couple of hours.

By now it was about 13h00, and I got through all the border procedures easily and relatively quickly (about 30 minutes) while my vehicle remained in Sudan. I knew it would be hard to get a tow to the next customs post, but from there on, there was quite a serious traffic flow to Gonder. After about half-an-hour I persuaded a truck to tow me the next 35 km - but at a high price of about $100.

Anyway, by 15h00 I was at the next town, where the customs post is located. Here I got everything sorted out with customs, and they said it should be easy to get the vehicle towed the 225 km to Gonder - but I would rather have the vehicle loaded onto the truck - that long a tow in the dust would not do the differentials any good - I wasn't able to seal them properly.

Within minutes we had an offer of a tow for about $130, but after some haggling I got an offer of a lift on a truck for $200, which seemed much better value. However, the truck first needed to unload, and would then come back to tow me to the loading point. Well that was at 15h30. The truck only returned at 21h00 - well after sunset, and we then drove down to the local loading point, where we pushed the Landrover onto the back of the truck - quite an effort since the rear wheels only just fitted in, and I had to climb out the window to get out of the vehicle (someone had to be in it to steer and brake). Then we drove into town so we could see properly to tie it in firmly. That took another hour and we ended up using two of my tow ropes as well - just in case. Sometime that evening I stubbed my little toe very badly.

Finally by 23h00 we were ready, and returned to the customs post, where we spent the night - I was able to share a room with one of the customs people - not comfortable, but at least a chance to get some sleep.

Wednesday 14 January 2004

However, the truckers had different ideas, and at 04h00 I was woken up and told we were leaving! Actually, it is often easier to drive on dirt roads at night since you can see the bumps in the headlights. (but if you don't know the road reasonably well, it can also be very dangerous). By now my toe really hurt, and when it got lighter I could see that I had broken it quite badly. However, from my rudimentary medical knowledge I was pretty sure that there was no point in doing anything so long as it didn't get infected. It was certainly quite colourful - and painful.

The truck was quite powerful, but given the load, we only averaged between 20 and 40 km/h over most of the road, which was quite twisty and then had to face the long climb up to Gonder (from about 700 metres to 2 000 metres). However, by 10h00, we reached Gonder, and tried a couple of garages who said they couldn't help. Finally we found one who said yes, they could fix it, and if the parts needed weren't available, they would fly them up from Addis. So we went off to unload the Landrover (quite an exercise in itself) and then got towed back to the garage.

By the late afternoon we had removed the gearbox and opened it up. As suspected, the main shaft must have been slightly bent because the fourth gear was totally melted - although we had put in 5 litres of oil in Kassala, there was now none left. This time, the repairs would be more extensive, and I suspected it might be easier to buy a complete new gearbox. Anyway, the mechanic said he would see what was available in Gonder, and then get back to me when he located the parts as to the cost.

I finally reached the Goha Hotel (which looked to be the closest on the map) at 18h00 - and luckily they had a room - I knew that with the main Ethiopian religious holiday of Epiphany approaching, this could be a problem.

Thursday 15 January 2004

There was nothing to do for the day until the mechanic could see if he could find the parts - and at what price. I heard nothing at all during the day, and wasn't able to walk too far with my toe.

Friday 16 January 2004

In the morning I decided to walk down to the garage. While my map was correct that the hotel was very close to the garage, it didn't fully indicate that while it was only about 50 m away horizontally, it was at least 200 metres higher up. The road down was about 3 kilometres, and very steep. There was another hotel nearer the garage, but since it was called the Semen Park Hotel - I thought perhaps I was better off where I was. (The nearby Simien Mountains are a major attraction, and converting the Amharic into English always leads to many versions of spelling - but this one seemed particularly unfortunate).

The mechanic had still heard nothing, so I returned back to the hotel. Later that evening (about 19h00) the mechanic returned and said they had found the parts, but that they - and the air freight would cost about US $ 3 000. This was far more than I expected, but there was really no choice. Trying to arrange for them to get from South Africa to Gonder would have taken weeks - if I had been in Addis Ababa it would have been different, but I was still a long way from there.

Saturday 17 January 2004

Now there was nothing to do but wait. The hotel warned me that they were fully booked for the following night, and they were unable to find any hotel accommodation at all. However, they did have some tents available, so I would be able to camp.

Sunday 18 January 2004

Another day of waiting - and I slept in the tent.

Monday 19 January 2004

To my amazement, the first people I met in the morning are Julian and Tessa Ogilvie-Thompson! Somehow they were not the type of people I would expect to meet on a tour in Ethiopia. However, now that Julian has retired from most of his positions, they decided to join up with some friends and visit Ethiopia. We had a brief chat before they had to rush off to catch a plane to Lalibela.

However, a couple of hours later they were back - the plane had mechanical problems and the flight was cancelled. Perhaps I wasn't the only one having bad luck.

Today was Epiphany, the major holiday in the Ethiopian religious calendar - and for Gonder it involved a huge procession from the town centre for 5 km to a large rock pool, where all children born in the previous year were baptized. The town was very dusty. Gonder Castle was a fabulous sight in the distance (photo).

That evening, the mechanic arrived with the parts, so at least there was some progress.

Tuesday 20 January 2004

Julian and Tessa left in the morning - their plane now seemed to be OK. I didn't think that they would finish work on the Landrover that day, so didn't bother to go down to the garage. However, at 21h00 that evening they drove up in the Landrover. The only minor problem was that they had quite easily circumvented the immobilizer - which I didn't expect them to do - but it seemed that this was by luck and not design (it is actually easy to start the engine without the immobilizer key if you know the trick). However, the test drive showed that everything was working fine.

I didn't bother with much bird-watching while at Gonder, although I recorded a few species.

Wednesday 21 January 2004

In the morning I walked down to the garage and we did further testing and checking, and everything worked, with the slight problem of the transfer gearbox lever working the opposite to that which it should - but I was pretty certain that this was simply the rather complex lever system being incorrectly attached rather than a fundamental problem.

At about 10h00 I set off for Bahir Dar, which I expected to take about 4 hours for the 160 km, as the road was bad, and I didn't want to shake up the gearbox unnecessarily. However, it took about 30 minutes to get out of Gonder as there were still all sorts of groups dancing in the road - the Epiphany celebrations were still in full swing.

Along the road the brakes started squealing terribly, which was awkward since I didn't want to brake using the engine (through the gearbox of course) and I couldn't fix the problem on the mountain roads. However, it was possible to just drive slowly and I was able to reach Bahir Dar by 16h00. I found a garage and we put the vehicle over a pit so we could check all the gearbox oil levels, and also fix the rear brakes.

The oil levels were all OK, but the left rear brake pads had literally fallen off - the retaining pins had failed (as had previously happened in Somaliland on the right-hand side). Clearly something was fundamentally wrong with the rear axle - nothing seemed to be working.

Thursday 22 January 2004

Leaving Bahir Dar at 07h00 I continued the trip south to Addis Ababa. There were still religious groups - and more dancing - always in the middle of the road of course. There was a problem starting the vehicle as one battery had failed - and the batteries were not connected up properly in Gonder. Unfortunately I couldn't work out to rewire them so that the dual battery system would work properly. As a precaution, I reduced the load to the remaining battery by switching off the freezer. The other obvious problem was that there was definitely an oil leak - a pool of oil was under the vehicle.

After a couple of hours a strange whine started - and it took me several minutes to track it down - it was the radio, which I thought was off, but had somehow got onto medium wave - which picked up the engine sound. Panic over.

Without any further problems I arrive at the Hilton in Addis Ababa just before sunset (about 18h30) - to find that they have increased their prices for the Executive rooms - so I stayed in the cheaper one.

Friday 23 January 2004

In the morning I drive down to the Landrover Dealer - Great Lakes - to have the vehicle serviced and checked over. The previous day I had noticed a definite lack of power in the engine, so we checked that first - the compression test was fine, but we found that 3 of the plugs had failed - not that that had affected the power, only the starting (which was still perfect - so long as the battery worked), but as aa precaution we changed all four plugs. Apart from that everything seemed to be fine. However, although the main gearbox oil was OK, the transfer gearbox need quite a bit of oil, as did the rear differential. They really battled to open the main gearbox oil filler cap, and I should have paid more attention, because it was to cause problems later.

By mid-day I was back at the Hilton.

Saturday 24 January 2004

Leaving just after sunrise, I drove south to Moyale, experiencing no problems, except that the loss of power was still evident - we had found nothing to really cause it. While checking the vehicle, I noticed that the rear left tyre was looking a bit worn, and as this tyre had failed before, I decided to keep an eye on it in future.

I stayed at the local government hotel (which I have stayed in many times before) but managed to get bitten by a wasp that was hidden under the sheets - very painful at the time, but no lasting damage.

Sunday 25 January 2004

The hotel was just a few hundred metres from the border, so I was ready to cross at sunrise. However, I had forgotten it was a Sunday, so the border only opened at 09h00. Even then, the customs official was late, so I only left Ethiopia at about 09h30. To make up for it, the Kenyans were very efficient and I had passed through their side within 10 minutes.

Even though I was already nearly one and a half hours later than I intended, I still took it fairly slow on the road to Marsabit, and had no problems, reaching there by 14h30. I checked the vehicle again, but could see nothing, except the rear left rear tyre was looking slightly worse.

The next 150 km of road were quite good (which meant one could cruise along at about 50 km/h) but after 150 km, the rear left tyre was badly deflated. On checking it, it was totally shredded - just as had happened before - there was no rubber left right down to the steel webbing. I changed it over for one of the spares, and continued.

However, the failure of this tyre again confirmed that there was something fundamentally wrong - and that it was not a new phenomenon - I had shredded the previous tyre on almost exactly the same road (previously in Addis Ababa), and almost exactly a year earlier. Although I could not pinpoint a reason, there must be something seriously wrong with the rear axle.

After this, I was able to continue, but after another 80 km (about 20 km before I reached the tar, the front right shock mounting starts to fail. This was really strange as the shock absorber itself was fine, it was just the mounting onto the chassis had started to break loose. However, it kept in place until I reached the tar. Unfortunately, the tar wasn't as smooth as one would like, and however slowly I took the speed-bumps (and in Kenya they are really nasty), the mounting broke loose, making a horrible noise as I passed over the bumps. However, there were only about 20 kilometres to go before I reached Naro Moru, where I stayed at the River Lodge but which I only reached at 21h00 since I was having to drive so slowly due to the failed mounting.

Monday 26 January 2004

The River Lodge had a very pleasant garden, with lots of birds, and after about an hour I was rewarded by a Red-fronted Parrot - the real reason I had wanted to stay here. Having seen that, there was no real reason to remain, so I went into town to try and get the shock absorber fixed. However, although we could remove the mounting, there were no spares available in Naro Moru, so I would have to drive without the right front shock absorber. Although I tried to check the main gearbox oil, the plug had jammed, so I had to hope it was OK.

On entering Nairobi I found a spares place which had lots of spares for Landrovers (used), and I was able to buy a new mount, which was fitted there. However, they did not have a radiator reservoir - which had been damaged when the mounting failed - but this was not critical since it was only the mounting that had broken - some string held it in place quite adequately.

At this point I made a serious mistake. I could have taken a reasonable tar road back to Tanzania, but decided that I wanted to spend a bit of time bird-watching, so took the main Mombasa road, and would then pass through Tsavo National Park and the Taita Hills. At first the tar road was OK, but then I hit major diversions as they were still rebuilding the roads after the 1999 (I think it was) floods. These corrugated roads almost immediately caused my rear shock absorbers to fail! After quite an effort I managed to remove one, so it wouldn't damage the mountings, but the other one (rear right) I simply couldn't loosen at all - the retaining nut was absolutely stuck. After several hours I reached the northern end of Tsavo Park at Mtito Andrei, where the road was recently repaired, and I was able to speed up a bit, and reached Voi at sunset - so decided to stay in a local hotel.

Tuesday 27 January 2004

Here was where I was to pay for the decision to take this route. The road from Voi to Taveta in Tanzania was not great (equally - even in a car it was quite drivable as it was just my vehicle was not in good shape by now). Anyway, the 100 km took 3 hours, and I wasn't able to take the side road to Taita Hills - an area I will have to come back to later - it holds some of the rarest birds anywhere in Africa. To make up for this to some extent, I got an absolutely fabulous view of Mt Kilimanjaro without any clouds - just the heat haze (photo).

Once I reached Taveta, there is a good tar road from there back to South Africa, so most of my problems should be over. At the first major garage I can find I stop to check the gearbox oil and see if we can remove the right rear shock absorber. However, another problem occurs - the bonnet catch breaks. It then takes us 2 hours just open the bonnet! Having finally done that, all the engine oils are OK, but we can't open the gearbox oil cap at all, nor can we remove the shock absorber - it really is stuck. So not a very successful garage stop - we did manage to top up the transfer gearbox oil, which was slightly low.

I was then able to continue to Mikumi where I stayed at the Genesis Hotel (the recently privatized Mikumi Lodge where I planned to stay was closed (no reason given - it was totally abandoned). Once at the hotel I was able to watch South Africa win its first match of the African Nations Cup - although the original plan was that I was to be in Tunisia around this time to watch it in person!

Wednesday 28 January 2004

First thing was to find a garage where we could check the main gearbox oil - but there was just no way that the filler cap would come loose. After two hours we gave up, and so I continued hoping all would be OK - the transfer gearbox and rear differential were fine - although the seal on the left rear axle had failed, so it sprayed oil all over the wheel - but this had no practical effect other than looking nasty.

After travelling about 200 km, there is a terrible noise from the gearbox - and no power. After a bit of checking underneath the vehicle and trying various combinations of gears, I found that the rear prop shaft was still working - so long as I had it in diff-lock. This was identical to the problem I had suffered in Sudan the previous year - except there the prop shaft itself had broken. Yet again it pointed to this being an old and very fundamental problem with the vehicle - the two failures I had had on the previous trip had re-occurred.

This failure also occurred on a tar road, so I now had fairly good reason to suspect that something in the differential had failed. If somehow the differential had broken below the gear lever where the indicator light worked, then it might be possible for the diff-lock to be in operation when I was not aware of it. If this was engaged for long periods on tar it could well cause a gearbox failure (or two- or even three!) as well as cause one of the rear tyres to be stripped. Whether this was actually possible I wasn't too sure. The vehicle didn't behave as if the differential was locked.

Anyway, I was able to continue very slowly at first, until it seemed to be working fine, at which point I was able to increase my speed to about 80 km/h or so. 4th gear remained rather noisy, so I avoided it as much as possible, and managed to reach Mbeya by 16h30 - and continued on for a further 20 km followed by 8 km of dirt road, which since it had just rained was very slippery (with only one wheel working), but finally got to the Utengule Country Hotel for night.

This is a lovely hotel located on a coffee estate, and with a very pleasant swimming pool - the first time I had actually had a swim since leaving Mozambique.

Once there I discovered that I had managed to collect two nasty blisters on my knees (one on each leg) caused by some sort of insect bite. However, in the end they healed OK - partly because I had the right ointment (having suffered from these on a previous trip - when they had become badly infected).

The evening was spent watching South Africa losing badly in its second soccer match.

Thursday 29 January 2004

After a leisurely start, I drove back into town and found a Landrover garage. They couldn't open the gearbox filler cap, so had to spend some time removing all the cab interior so they could grind off the edge of the filler cap - and then fit a new plug. However, we modified it so that it took a normal spanner - the original Landrover one required a very strange six-sided Allen key to open it - and I suppose the garage in Ethiopia didn't have the right spanner, and so damaged the plug when tightening so no-one else could re-open it. Anyway, the main gearbox was empty of oil, but curiously the transfer gearbox was fine - and that was where the breakage had occurred.

They didn't try to repair the gearbox breakage - I simply couldn't afford to repair it - the cost of a reconditioned gearbox was going to be around $ 1000 - which was about all the money I had left by now.

By 14h00 I was back at the hotel, and able to relax at last.

Friday 30 January 2004

I left the hotel soon after sunrise (07h00), and drove south. The border crossing was easy enough, although I had to pay for my visa since the border post at Taveta was so relaxed they didn't bother to check whether I even had a visa. It was - of course - here that I discovered that my last US $ 100 note was a forgery! Since I had carefully checked all notes I received in South Africa, this forgery must have come from the 10 I got in the UK - where they clearly don't bother to scan the notes before issuing them - and I just assumed they would have. Anyway, this left me with a shortage of usable money - I had plenty of travellers cheques, but they are of little use since I wouldn't reach any bank in Zambia that could handle them (the closest being Lusaka) before the week-end. In theory I had enough small change to make it, but I might have to spend an extra day in Zambia to wait for the banks to open.

The only saving grace was that I had a full tank (in fact 2) of fuel, so I could easily reach Lusaka - and then I just needed to fill once there to reach South Africa (in case there was no fuel available in Zimbabwe).

I reached the Forest Inn an hour before sunset - this being one of my favourite camping / hotel stops en route. Luckily, they accepted Rands (I still had some), and afterwards I was able to find someone who was prepared to change travellers cheques for me, so I change $200. Now I was basically OK to get back to SA - so long as nothing else failed!

Saturday 31 January 2004

I leave at 07h00 (now 06h00 - the time changed between Tanzania and Zambia) and reach Lusaka - but after 11h00 so all the banks were closed, so was unable to change more money. I got the gearbox oil checked again, and add another 2 litres - a bad sign, but there is nothing further I can do. As I left Lusaka I stopped to change my last Shillings into US $ so I could pay the necessary fees at the Zimbabwe border.

Only a few kilometres later I got caught in a speed trap - doing 69 in 65 zone - but was let off because I had no Shillings! A lucky one that.

On reaching the border I was able to cross quickly, having just enough US dollars ($25) for the carbon tax and insurance.

I was then able to continue to the Orange Motel at Chinhoyi, which is my usual stop-off point on my way north (or south). They accepted my last few US dollars, some Zimbabwe dollars I still had (almost worthless) and some Zimbabwe Dollars I had purchased in Zambia - at first I couldn't believe the new currency since it was unlike anything I had seen before - very basic, with minimal security features, and a VERY short life-span - no notes were valid beyond June 2004, and one of them was only valid until 31 January 2004 - so I made sure I used that one immediately! These were for Z$10 000, Z$20 000 and even Z$ 50 000 - on my last visit in January 2003, the largest denomination was Z$ 500.

Having said that, petrol and diesel were now freely available, and quite a lot of crops had been planted, so the hotel was full of locals, and there seemed to be a real feeling of optimism, so perhaps things are getting back on track there. However, the hotel seemed a bit more run down than before, although still perfectly habitable.

Sunday 1 February 2004

I left at 06h30 and drove straight south, reaching the South African border at 14h00. Getting through was very quick even on the South African side where I was a little worried as the only papers I left with were handed back as I left Mozambique for Malawi (although I had taken the precaution of having the official at the border stamp a spare set of documents - just in case). However, they didn't want to see anything other than my passport and let me though in minutes.

Since I hadn't checked the gearbox oil that day, I didn't want to drive too far, and stayed the night in the Cloud's End Motel in the Soutpansberg mountains.

Monday 2 February 2004

In the morning I phoned through to my insurance broker to add back the Landrover to the insurance (they don't insure vehicles outside South Africa) and also to the Estate Agent in White River to ask her to find somewhere for me to stay the night.

Having checked the gearbox oil (it needed another 2 litres), I reached White River at 15h30 and managed to find Cheryl (the Estate Agent). The house that she thought was available had been let the previous day, so the next best was a cottage that was "almost" finished next to the house of my friends Jackie & Guy Arkell, so I ended up renting that for a month or two while I found my house.

So I managed to get back OK, and that ends the story !!! Not a successful trip, but then not a total failure either - my experiences especially in Somaliland certainly made the trip worth the effort.