I’m Liking Libya…!!

Can't say I saw too many camels in Libya, but thanks for the warning...!!

Nice of them to put the word Reminder under the sign, but nobody's listening, Dudes...!!

Masoud and I had sat up until late, chatting about various topics that interested us both. Our beliefs, despite our differing religions were remarkably similar, our thoughts on Africa and the problems that existed on this great continent were also in agreement… He explained that North Africa is made up of many nations, and although the world saw them collectively as Arabs, this could not be further from the truth… Masoud himself is a Berber and Arabic is not his first language… There are also Bedouin, and Tauregs, who roam the Sahara, recognising no official boundaries… They are spread from the Atlantic coast in the west, right through to the Siwa Oasis in Egypt in the East…

Whenever we stopped for a break, there was always something to talk about, and the more time I spent with him, the more I enjoyed his company… I also found Libyans to be far more friendly than Egyptians were, and many a motorist would hoot in greeting when we overtook each other, or hang out of their windows and give me a big “thumbs up”… The longer I rode in Libya, the more I liked the country…

We left Ben Jawaad at a little after 8.00am, heading further west for the city of Al Khums, almost 500 kms away… With the Gulf of Sidra to the north of us, we barreled through Ras al Awaja and Siltar and then had a longish stop at the big police checkpoint at Sirte. Here they not only asked to see my passport for the first time, but also scrutinized the papers Masoud was carrying. Sirte is the “home town” of Muhammar Gaddafi, and he invites all visiting dignitaries here for their official meetings. The town is therefore more heavily guarded and controlled than most in Libya…

If you think our guys overloaded taxis, you have to see how they do things in Libya...!

It has also benefited from a huge water project known as “The Man Made River” by locals… Water has been piped from a massive underground lake deep under the Sahara Desert. A pipeline which is 4,5 metres in diameter, (large enough to ride a double-decker bus through!!) was laid from almost 2000 km away, right up to Sirte… The cost of this apparently ran to about 30 million dollars…!! I personally think that this money could have built many desalinization plants along the coast, and that the water lying under the Sahara should have been left there… Or, at the very least, it could be used for agricultural purposes and reduce Libya’s dependence on imported foodstuff… This project has only benefited a small percentage of Libya’s population of just 6 million people… I guess this is not the only country in the world whose presidents “home town” received special attention, nor will it be the last…

On the run in to Sirte, there was another change which I certainly welcomed… Road signs on the beautiful new highway were also in English!! I nearly fell off the bike when I saw the first sign for Tripoli and the towns beyond… This newly opened highway will eventually link Libya from Egypt in the East to Tunisia in the west. It is almost complete, and there are a few remaining sections where it is still under construction, but for the most part, riding on the highways of Libya, is a pleasure, considering the huge distances one need to cover between the major towns and cities…

The road turned north again, skirting the Gulf of Sirte until we reached the coast, and then swung west to the tiny town of Zlaten, where we refueled. At midday, we rode into the town of Khums, where the Roman ruins of Leptis Magna are situated… This was another place on my list of “must see”, during my ride through Africa, and I have covered our visit there in a separate posting…

Roadsigns in English were a welcome change...!!

I was now comfortable with riding such long distances, and the 250 odd kilometres we still had to ride to get to Zuara, seemed like a walk in the park, after the 500 we had already covered today… Traffic was now much heavier as we approached Tripoli, and despite the fact that we stayed on the main highway, we still had to contend with congestion on the outskirts of this big city, Libya’s capital…

Boatbuilders of Zuara. The village is well known for its fishing industry...

The landscape here was a lot greener, fields planted with maize and vegetables, trees and shrubs lining the roads… But we weren’t hanging about, and still traveling at high speed, we headed further west… In some of the built up areas, we buzzed along at 140 km/h, which I found rather nerve wracking, as all along this roads, pedestrians lined the pavements waiting for an opportunity to cross the road… I shudder to think how many of them are knocked down, when vehicles are flying by at these speeds…

Families pitch tents on the beach for privacy. These are dotted all along the coastline on the run in to Zuara...

We reached Zuara ten hours and 745 kms after setting out from Ben Jawaad earlier that morning… I had been on the road for 24 hours out of the last 48, and was feeling the effects of riding over 1800 kms in temperatures of over 40° for the past two days… We stopped at a little beach side restaurant, where Dire Straits was blasting from the speakers of an old hi-fi set…!! It was a great bit of music to arrive to, and we sat drinking juice and eating a burger while we cooled down… The sparkling turquoise sea was less than a hundred metres from where we sat, and I longed to take off my kit and lie in the cool water…

Masoud and Asem join me at the beachfront diner in Zuara...

Cold fruit juices got me rehydrated after the 750 km run from Ben Jawaad...

A short while later we were joined by Asem bin Khalifa, who heads Medusa Tours in Libya. He had done a tremendous job in getting my visa sorted out in such a short space of time, this despite it being the holiday season in Libya, when very few tourists brave the head of the desert, and as a result, the visa section of the Libyan Government are for all intents and purposes, “closed for business”… Asem had just returned from the beach, sand still coating his legs, and wore a straw Fedora, to protect his head from the sun… He was full of smiles and looked pleased to see me… We hit it off immediately, and within minutes were laughing and joking about my “hot ride” and the peculiarities of Libyan society… Asem lives in Germany for part of the year, and returns to Libya during the tourist season to manage all the tours which he arranges.

As a tourist destination, obviously Libya still has a long way to go… Hotels need to be built, and more needs to be made of its archeological richness, much like its neighbours, Egypt and Tunisia have done… It has a coastline with hundreds of kilometres of pristine white beaches and the turquoise waters of the Mediterranean lapping gently at its edges…

Most tourists come to Libya from Europe, (Germany, Austria and Italy being the main supporters…) and spend their time deep in the deserts of the Sahara, visiting hidden oases, and riding among the rocky outcrops of the Stone Desert… Here only the best equipped 4 x 4’s and Overland trucks can cope with the shifting sands and the dunes that rise up to over 200 metres off the desert floor… Asem, with his many experienced guides such as Masoud, runs a very successful operation, specializing in these Desert Safaris, some of which can last for up to three weeks…

I was invited to spend the night at Asem’s house and gratefully accepted his invitation. He showed me a slide presentation of a few of his desert safaris and after seeing the beautiful scenes on his computer screen, I decided that one day I too would take a trip through the southern deserts of Libya… Maybe gather up a few mates that would be prepared to brave the high temperatures and rough camping for a week or two… Believe me, it would be an experience that you would never forget…

The countryside between Zuara and the Tunisian Border...

Over a tasty kebab dinner at a restaurant close to his home, Asem casually mentioned that he was actually an Astrophysicist, and worked with groups in Germany, who studied man’s effect on the environment!! I was astounded at this piece of news…!! I had never been in the same room as an astrophysicist, let alone shared a meal with one in Libya, of all places…!! In my book, he ranked right up there with “rocket scientist”!! We discussed the “State of the Planet”,  and he later put forward his theory that the Earth cannot continue to protect itself from man and his shenanigans forever, and that in his view, a cataclysmic “natural event” will take place, that will change the planet forever… A sobering thought… I just hoped it wouldn’t happen in the next few years and put an end to my ride…!!

It was after midnight when I finally got to sleep, having spent the last hour or two with Asem and Masoud, planning my ride through Tunisia with the help of Google Earth and my own Map Source program… I wished that I could have spent more time with these two great guys, who after barely a few days, I felt as though I had known for a long time… Asem went out of his way to make me as comfortable as possible, and surprised me the next morning, by saying that I could pay for the visas and guide when I got into Europe… He did not want me running out of the Foreign Currency that I had while I was still in Africa… I was astounded by the trust and faith he had placed in me… It gave me that “warm fuzzy feeling”… Great guy is Asem, and I highly recommend him and his company to anybody who wants to see the beauty of the Sahara, and experience the friendliness of the Libyan people… You can visit his website here…

©GBWT 2010