Date: Fri, 25 May 2001 12:42:36 +0300
Reply-To: Stebbins <stebbins@AUCEGYPT.EDU>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Stebbins <stebbins@AUCEGYPT.EDU>
Organization: The American University in Cairo
Subject: Cairo Report: The Trip Home
Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
In four days we will be leaving Cairo to return to our home
in Halifax. The easy way to do it would be to ship the van
& we fly back to Halifax --- not my style. So, as I don’t
start teaching again until September, we have decided to
fulfill our desire to see as much as we can, by DRIVING from
Cairo to Amsterdam and shipping the van from there to
Halifax while we fly. Easy to type, more difficult to do.
Our itinerary calls for a May 29 Cairo departure and for us
to drive to the Sinai port of Nuweiba and take a car ferry
to Aqaba in southern Jordan. (It would be much easier and
cheaper if we could drive through 20 kms of Israel to
Jordan, but any evidence of travel to Israel would preclude
travel through Syria to get to Turkey ---aaraggg!). In
Jordan we plan on driving up through Wadi Rum (where
Lawrence of Arabia was filmed), on up to Petra, and several
other sites, past Amman up to Syria to see Palmyra and Krac
Des Chevaliers and others. Then into Turkey for a drive up
the southwest part of Turkey (Epheseus & Troy) with a detour
to Istanbul (where we can drive the van across the bridge
from Europe to Asia & back!!). Greece will get a lot of our
attention as there is just so much to see there (and if time
permits, we may try for a Greek island tour for a few
days). After Greece we will take the car ferry to Italy
and go north through Rome & the Tuscany region and on to
Switzerland, Austria, to the Czech Republic, Hungary,
Bulgaria, Germany and whatever else catches our fancy. We
have air tickets for August 7th from Amsterdam to Halifax.
We did bring our Canadian license plates, registration, and
van title with us, so that is not a problem. We have
purchased comprehensive international car insurance (called
a Green Card - about US$700 for 3 months) for the van and
have checked with customs of the various countries about
being able to drive through their country for a few days.
Syria is the only country that we’re are not 100% sure about
being able to get a temporary import permission, but we are
98% sure. So we hope that we will not be required to have a
Carnet de Passage en Douane for the van (a “carnet” is a
posted bond for the value of the van to insure export of the
van from any and each country – a passport for the van).
We expect to be on the road for about 9 or 10 weeks (end of
May to the first week of August) and cover about 8 to 10,000
kms, three continents (Africa, Asia, & Europe) and 13 or so
countries. En route, we hope to visit 4 more sites where
the 7 Wonders of the Ancient (European/Middle East) World
were located, raising our total to 6. Can you name them
all??? (see below for all 7).
From our past experience we are budgeting about US$100+/day
on average (inclusive of gas, camping, food, museums, sites
etc.). (Last August our 26 days in UK cost us about
CDN$200/day). Anyway, US$100/day times 70 days, will be
about US$7,000 for the trip and this does NOT include
shipping the van from Amsterdam to Halifax (another US$800)
or the airfare. Both the van shipment & airfare are being
reimbursed by the Am. U in Cairo as part of my contract. We
expect Jordan & Syria & Turkey to be much cheaper than
average, and for things to become more expensive as we head
through Greece & Italy, with prices again going up as we hit
Switzerland/Germany/Belgium. If we go through Eastern
Europe, prices will be cheaper than in Western Europe.
It will be very hot getting out of here, but we hope that it
will cool off a bit after we head north from Greece. The
van has new VW (orange) coolant, Mobile 1 synthetic oil, new
oil & fuel filters. I checked the timing and dwell
(Pertronix is still “spot-on” after 20,000 kms). I have an
extra alternator & belt, fuel pump, distributor, oil & gas
filters. For the humans, we have a thermometer, aspirin,
cold pills, diarrhea pills, band-aids & antiseptic ointment
and even hemorrhoid cream (we’ll be sitting for 10 weeks!!)
We have about 7 Lonely Planet books & lots of maps to cover
the whole route. Basically I drive and Pat is the “tour
guide”. As I was changing the oil yesterday, I noticed that
a bracket on the muffler had been pushed up into the
muffler, so I took off the muffler and had the bracket
welded back on. We thought that the van sounded a bit
“throaty”, better now.
I will be off the list (except for any HELP postings) for
the duration of the trip, but I’ll let you all know how the
trip went when we arrive “safe and sound” back in Halifax.
May the Vanagon gods smile on this trip. Malcolm & Pat
------------------------------
7 Wonders of the Ancient (European/Middle East) world:
1) Pyramids at Giza (the only surviving ‘wonder’) (Egypt)
2) Pharos at Alexandria (Lighthouse) (Egypt)
3) Temple of Artemis (Ephesus, Turkey)
4) Mausoleum of Helicarnassus (Turkey)
5) The Colossus of Rhodes (Greece, off Turkey coast)
6) The Statue of Zeus at Olympia (Greece)
7) Hanging Gardens of Babylon (Iraq)
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