LIBYA

At the border we were meeting our Libyan guide at 9am. We got to the Tunisia side around 8 and were in and out of there in 1.5 hours. Lots of waiting but fairly straight forward. Alladin, our guide, then met us and took over organising the carnet, insurance and number plates for Libya.

The first stop through the border was to Sabratha, one of the three famous Roman ruins in Libya. This is also the official reason why they say we need a quide through Libya as they want to protect the ruins from tourists taking pieces. We however were not your typical tourist to Libya as Alladin found out fairly quickly when we were more interested in finding a beach than seeing another ancient ruin!

We had a guide through Sabratha who was very informative although at $10 for his services you would hope he would be! He continued to speak in terms of Roman gods and architecture which was way above our knowledge so we just smiled and nodded and asked questions about the sewage systems! It turns out most of the tourists to Libya are Italian and have a keen interest and knowledge of the Roman times.

Woo Hoo Hotel for the night - We stayed at a lovely place in the heart of Tripoli and had our first road food in the form of a very spicy chicken kebab- we survived!! 

The next day was to Leptis Magna – the most famous of all the Roman ruins in Libya. An incredible vast city that has stood the test of time. We decided to wander through on our own despite the encouragement to have a guide with us – Alladin worked his magic and we got through without someone to hold our hands.

After a short experience of history and culture we wanted to hit the beach again! We found a great little spot past a dead goat, a dead camel and years worth of rubbish to a little bay with less rubbish. We were amazed the amount of rubbish through the desert and on all of the potentially world class white sandy beaches. The rubbish collection stopped in Libya around 10 years ago and since then it is dumped by the locals wherever they see fit.

Tourism is not something the Libyan’s need as the country is very rich in oil. The tourism industry is purely run through the private sector. Cleaning up the beaches for the tourists is obviously not high on Caddafi’s priority list. Such a shame as there is so much potential.

A big driving day 800 Kms to Benghazi where the elusive Carnet will hopefully arrive! Lots of exciting things to look at like sand and the odd bush makes eye spy quite a short game! A universal joint was found for Jim and a mechanic down the road fitted it for us. Then… back to the beach! We found a camping spot (after digging Jim out of the sand!) only to be moved on when Alladin’s boss decided it wasn’t safe for us to camp there. Apparently it is a hang out area for the illegal whisky drinking louts of Libya! A little further down the road we found another, more beautiful beach to finally set up camp (after digging Jim out of the sand again!).

The carnet arrived at the DHL office in Benghazi the same time as we did. Another expensive sigh of relief and we were on the road to Cyrene, another Roman ruin and then on to Tobruk. A wrong turn by Jim and Deb’s separated the trucks for an hour, a panicked Aladdin thought he had lost his first tourists! But a bit of help from a friendly man in a garage, whose mate lived in Portsmouth, got us back in touch again.

The border crossing was fairly easy, gave back the plates at the town before and Alladin arranged the paperwork. A very quick exit by Alladin and we were ready to tackle Egypt!