Arabia to Africa

South Africa!!

2010-01-26T05:51:00.000-08:00

whew! finally on internet!
well so much has happened! after amazing Malawi and an incredible new year in a luxurious mansion in vilanculos in moz, we headed down to Barra lodge in Inyambane in southern mozambique- spotted a WHALE SHARK! yay!!!! then crossed over the border to southafrica.
it was such a joy to be on beautiful roads where the fuel stations are full and the shops well stocked and everything is signposted! especially after the roads of mozambique- sopme goos some bad some merely potholes.
we headed to the Sabi river valley where we took a hpot air balloon ride over the river at 5 am- thanks to balloons over africa! what an amazing experience- to watch the sun rose from 400m above the trees.
then we headed onto to skyway trails- africa's longest cable slide- 1.2 km through the trees of hazy view split over 9 slides! fast and adrenaline packed!
then onwards to joburg where we encountered some incredible street kids involved in a project called 'i was shot in joburg'. an amazing photogarpher Bernard gave 15 homeless kids disposable cameras to use around hillbrow then picked the best ones to exhibit. now he's hooked and they have a permanent project set up!
all the footage will be used in our 'cutting the red ribbon' documentary.
then onwards to Durban to spend time with the family- sadly it is pouring with rain so not much to film at the moment but the sun will come out on saturday so here's hoping ;-)
we're geeting a proper website designed at the moment so will keep ya posted on the updates.
for the moment thoug- lots of love and will catch up from capetown (hopefully it won't be too rainy!)
xxx

2010-01-10T07:01:00.000-08:00

malawi pics

2010-01-10T06:43:00.000-08:00

2010-01-07T02:46:00.000-08:00

so we're in mozambique now after travelling though stuning lake malawi! sorry about the sporadic updates! the internet had been super super slow! malawi was incredibly relaxed and peaceful we went diving in 2 m visibility ;-( and saw what looked like huge plumes of smoke which turned out to be lake flies mating! after spending an orphans christmas with new friends, visiting library centres and children's homes we headed over to vilanculos mozambique for a party new year!
now we're in barra looking for whale sharks! sorry for the shortness of the update!

tanzania!!!!

2009-12-22T03:22:00.003-08:00

Hello again Arabia to Africa followers! When we last touched base with you we were in Southern Kenya, loathe to leave the smiling faces, sunny weather and seafood! But leave we did.
On the way to the Tanzanian border we wandered accidentally into a tiny one horse town (or donkey for that matter) called Shimoni- the last vestige of civilization before the unknown of Tanzania. It’s a tiny sleepy fishing village with mangrove swamps, beautiful sunsets and great seafood- which martin and I caught ourselves on our newly acquired fishing rods.
So content to leave Kenya behind us we headed across the Lunga Lunga border without a hitch! So far Tanzania was a pleasant surprise!
Within half an hour we realized that all was no as smooth as we’d thought.
First we got stopped at a police roadblock for not having a working fire extinguisher in the car (one of course could be purchased for a fee from the cops) then 2 km down the road we got stopped and fined for not having a sticker that told the cops we had a fire extinguisher in the car, then 20 km further on we got fined for driving 10km over the 30km an hour town speed limit while leaving the very outskirts of town. Then again 20km later for not having our reflective triangle on display. Hmmm one day budget gone on cop fees. Irritated by the veiled corruption of the Tanzanian police force we headed in our yellow Nissan Xterra into Dar es Salam ‘City of peace’ and the cultural capital of Tanzania. We found an incredibly cheap, vibing backpackers lodge called Q bar and promptly fell to talking to the various waiters, expats and local Tanzanians. It turns out everyone in Dar knows everyone so within 5 minutes we had the phone number of friends we’d last seen in Zimbabwe now living in Dar and our night was filed with jazz music, drinks and dancing, Tanzania wasn’t so bad after all!
The next day we tried to get our Xterra onto a ferry to Zanzibar but it turns out a one way trip with a car will set you back 500usd! S we decided to leave Roxy the Nissan on the mainland and head over the Zanzibar armed with backpacks, the canon and jack slung around our necks and our snorkeling equipment and bundled onto the busy 2 hour express ferry.
Zanzibar is one of my favourite places on earth. It was one of the first ports of call on the slave route so the history of the island is a heady mix of Arabia and Africa with a distinctly Omani feel to it as the Sultan of Oman fell in love with the place and built palaces and bath houses for his and his many wives pleasure and turned it into the capital of Oman.
We wandered into the Africa House Hotel which is pretty much where every tourist in old stone town ends up to watch the sun setting over the azure waters, and ,if you’re lucky just as the sun hits the water, a traditional dhow will drift by to add a bit of culture to your postcard pics. Martin of course is over the moon as he films what we plan will by the end sequence for the TV series on our JVC prod camera. We fall in love with the traditional rooms, the friendly staff and the owner Denise and her pet monkey so decided to base ourselves at Africa house for the next couple of days and completely by coincidence there happens to be an HIV and AIDS fundraiser fashion show happening the next night at the hotel- perfect footage for our documentary’ cutting the red ribbon’. It’s all going according to plan!
The next day we clip the Sennheiser radio mike to our unsuspecting spice tour guide, Jackson as he takes us around various farms growing everything from nutmeg to cloves on the compulsory ‘Zanzibar Spice tour.’ My highlight was the charismatic coconut tree climber who insisted on serenading us for the benefit of the canon 5d as he collected coconuts from the highest point of the tree, performing almost trapeze like stunts as he sang! We’ll have that footage in the next webisode which I’m currently editing on the Mac so stay tuned to arabiatoafrica.blogspot.com!
The rest of Tanzania was a blur of Giant Aldabra tortoises on Prisoner Island, Lions at Selous Game reserve, (the largest in Africa and the place where Courtney Selous, the famous hunter, and Martins’ Great Granddad, was killed in ww1) Jacky Selous, Martin’s mum came to visit us as well which was a welcome and much needed bit of tlc from family, then onwards through Malawi to get to Mozambique for New Year! Merry Christmas, happy New Year and we’ll see you on the road next year!

kenya!!!!!

2009-12-13T04:55:00.003-08:00

Hello followers of Arabia to Africa!

We lefts you last time as we headed towards Nairobi and then onwards to the fantastic pristine beaches of East Kenya!

After spending an incredible couple of days at lake naivasha at Simba lodges we drove through thick heavy raindrops into the bustling metropolis that is Nairobi, Kenya’s capital city.

Again the guidebooks have it wrong. You might have heard warnings about Nairobi being full of beggars and thieves ready to rob you at knifepoint at nay corner, darkened alleyways and grimy dirty streets. As we approached the capital, I could feel martin tense beside me as we readied ourselves for the Nairobi crime onslaught. Nothing happened. The streets were clean, well lit and beggar free! Nairobi had definitely cleaned itself up since I last visited 15 years ago! It was a lovely surprise! The only down side is the driving- the roads are jam packed with CRAZY drivers who think the colour of a traffic light is mood lighting and stopping is optional. Frazzled from avoiding countless accidents we pulled our bright yellow Nissan xterra into Dt DOBIE the Nissan dealer and fantastic service garage in Nairobi. After leaving the cars for a couple of days with them to give our xterra some tender loving care we headed back into the car armed with our jvc pro hd camera and got some city footage!

Driving to Mombasa on the coast was a breeze with our serviced xterra purring like a kitten! Mombasa is Kenya’s 2^nd largest city and is actually an island on the coast connected by bridges to the main land. It’s a bustling hectic vibrant place with hundreds of budget places to stay. We felt a bit overwhelmed with al the people and the lack of space so headed northwards up the coast to Watamu, to the ocean sports hotel that has a campsite behind it.

If you’re looking for a quick escape and some very friendly colonials then watamu is THE place in Kenya. The beaches are white sand, the diving and snorkeling is amazing and the atmosphere exudes Kenyan hospitality. We stayed 3 nights in our icon tent popped open on the top our the car dealing with mosquitoes and monkeys in the stiflingly humid heat while martin snapped pictures of stars on the canon 5d.

We’d arrived in paradise.

We honestly had to force ourselves to leave and sullenly drove through the Italian colony of Malindi- full of aging mafia men and there leather weather beaten wives to lamu island.

To get to the Lamu archipelago we had to say goodbye to Roxy the Nissan at the port and ushered hurriedly by 10 opportunistic Kenya’s, known as beach boys onto an outrageously expensive speedboat. We discovered later that the beach boys had completely fleeced us and there was a far cheaper ferry we could’ve taken such is life. Lamu is very similar to Zanzibar- the island is largely Muslim and we happened to arrive over Eid so the call to prayer echoed through the tiny narrow streets and as lovely as it wad, kept us awake all night. Lamu is a quaint character filled island lovely to head to for a weekend of dhow cruising, fishing or snorkeling. We managed to get ourselves onto a sunset dhow cruise with promise dhow tours. Sarah (a Belgian lady who had recently converted to Islam) took us out for a tour of the islands. Riding on a dhow is not for the faint hearted as whenever the wind changes the large sail tilts the boat until you feel like it might capsize. We never did and martin and I grappled to hold onto the jvc and canon cameras as Sarah told us about the history of the company easily over the breeze thanks to the sennheiser mike we’d attached to her abaya.

After a couple of days we were united with Roxy and are now headed down the coast towards Tanzania! I’ve just finished edited the latest article and webisode on the apple mac so check our arabiatafrica.blogspot.com to see our first footage of KENYA!

See you on the road.

2009-12-13T04:53:00.000-08:00

2009-12-09T09:18:00.000-08:00

Kenya continued

2009-11-22T21:33:00.000-08:00

So the last time we touched in with you all we were stressfully sorting out our bright yellow Nissan xterra and given it a total African makeover. Well geared up with the hardest core tires known to man, a temporary plastic rear windscreen- to cover the gaping hole created from a shepherd boy who threw a stone at the car and a full tank of gas we headed towards Kenya on the worst roads known to man.
Kenya is a stunning country with fascinating tribes people, beautiful jewelry and enough animals to make the most cynical tourist smile. English is widely spoken which is a huge relief after the language barriers and strange looks we received in the villages of Ethiopia.
From Moyale- the border town between Ethiopia and northern Kenya, the hazardous ‘road’ is basically a series of boulders, sharp rocks and corrugated soil that destroys vehicles! On top of that- we were warned by other over Landers that bandits were rife in the region and would lie in wait on the dangerous bends of the road, hijack the slower vehicles and often execute or torture the drivers if they weren’t cooperative.
Because of the sudden 2-day torrential downpour that hit Kenya as we were navigating this treacherous area (driving at 20 km per hour for 14 hours a day- just to give you an idea how terrible this road is) the bandits were safely tucked away in warm dry villages and we were left alone.
Frazzled and very sick of Kenyan roads, we pulled into our first national park- Samburu buffalo springs.
Kenyan national parks have gone up in price recently and a 24 hour stretch in a park will set you back 60 USD and a vehicle about 15 dollars per day- so if you’re a couple spending 2 days game viewing- you’re looking at almost 300 usd. Not great for budget travelers!
Because the national park was waterlogged, camping with our fabulous icon tent was out of the question (especially as it costs extra to have a ranger stay with you to protect against buffalo and straying elephant) so we discovered ‘samburu simba’ lodge- a stunning new safari lodge overlooking a panoramic mountain vista and a watering hole with resident crocodiles. We stayed a couple of days filming the animals gathering for evening sundowners on the JVC prohd camera with Martin happily snapping stills on the brand new canon 5d.
We were then joined by Rob and Lisa- a couple of friends from dubai who’d booked a Kenya Safari Experience coinciding with out travels. They also very kindly brought a brand new xterra rear window and shocks, perfect for the roads of Kenya thanks to Monal Zidane at Nissan Middle East! So our xterra was back on track and we were ready to safari!
Let me say again- Kenya is not cheap. We are ploughing through our budget and a week in the national parks will cost you in total about 2000 usd, but the game viewing experience is unlike anything else I’ve ever experienced.
After leaving the fabulous samburu simba lodge we headed to lake nakuru, famous for flamingos, rhino and pretty much every animal you could wish to see on safari. We saw leopard lazily perched in overhanging trees, lions mating, a solitary rhino, buffalo, elephant, giraffe- you get the idea. It feels almost contrived that all of the big five are within a 30 min drive of the park entrance but I’m not complaining
Now we’re off towards lake navaisha to see the spots where the film ’out of Africa’ was shot on location and then have a well deserved relax at lake navaisha simba lodge on the shoreline. Then onwards to masai mara!
We crossed over the equator yesterday and had a fantastic guide/con artist show us the different direction that water flows in the northern and southern hemisphere. Even if it is a hoax it’s still pretty amazing to see a matchstick floating and turning in one direction on the northern side of the equator line and then turn the other way in the southern hemisphere.
So far all our equipment has stood the African test- the webisodes are being edited as I write this on the Apple Macbook, the sennheiser microphones have been brilliant for far away testimonials and interviews and the jvc camera (used by journalists in Afghanistan and Iraq) has survived a couple of accidental knocks and bangs with no hard feelings. The only issue has been the lack of Internet within the game parks so apologies if our updates become a bit less frequent on www.arabiatoafrica.blogspot.com. By the time you read this out Ethiopia webisode will be up and our first batch of Kenya pics.
If you are flying in for a visit- get a package all inclusive deal- trust me it’s cheaper than the way we’ve been exploring! Until next week- see you on the road.

pictures!

2009-11-17T21:13:00.000-08:00

FOR SOME REASON WE'RE HAVING TROUBLE UPLOADING PICTURES TO THIS SITE- MUST BE KENYA INTERBET SO CHECK OUT OUR FACEBOOK GROUP PAGE ARABIA TO AFRICA
TO SEETHE PICS OF KENYA!
ARABIATOAFRICA

kenya!!!!!

2009-11-13T06:31:00.000-08:00

sorry it's taken awhile to write but we've had NO internet in kenya!
so to recap- we left Addis after staying at the fabulous Sheraton hotel and headed down to Kenya on the worst roads known to man! seriously! moyale to marsabit in northern Kenya is dangerous for 2 reasons- the roads destroy tires and there are loads of bandits! after destroying our rear shocks and avoiding the bandits we ended up in the samburu game reserve staying in samburu simba lodge as it was too waterlogged to camp! what an amazing place! seriously since being in kenya we have seen EVERY animal known to man! hung out with Rob and lisa from dubai- who very kindly brought down the shocks and rear window from Monal at nissan and we've been having a blast! yesterday after seeing lake naivasha- where they filmed out of africa- we headed to masai mara and saw a cheetah kill a reedbuck then the lion walk off with the prey! amazing amazing! loads of pics taken on the jvc and canon cameras! check them out! lots of love- sorry if this is short and sweet but internet is gold dust here! lots of love xxx

ethiopia laka tana northwards!

2009-10-30T20:49:00.000-07:00

As I’m writing this, I’m staring over lush green mountains where thatched villages nestle beneath the trees and wisp of smoke curls towards the setting sun. This is Ethiopia.
After finally getting our Nissan Xterra out of it’s shipping container at Djibouti customs we headed over the border to greener pastures..literally. Ethiopia on first glance seems nothing like the news pictures of drought ridden cracked earth and starving children. The countryside we encountered almost as soon as we were over the border post went from sparse scrubland to undulating hills, patchwork quilt subsistence farms, sheep, cows, donkeys, goats, and loads of villagers! It seems that contraceptives haven’t quite made the impact here than in other parts of Africa. In short, Ethiopia is stunning.
Our first port of call on the way to Addis was the 2nd largest city, Dire Dawa. It’s a quaint well organized little town with bustling markets (where we were almost pickpocketed twice!) the occasional church or castle and plenty of the two Ethiopian forms of transportation- donkeys wagons or the African version of a ‘tuk tuk.’ Martin and I hopped into one of the latter and headed into town armed with the jvc and canon cameras (which we clutched onto pretty tightly- wary of thieves).
After securing the usual tourist memorabilia we trundled back to the xterra and headed up to the ancient walled city of Harar.
Harar is over 1000 years old and was built (our guide Wilson told us) to protect the ladies while the men where away fighting religious battles in the 16th century.
Inside the small walled city you can see the traditional Harar way of live, check out the sewing and tailoring muslim market and the food selling Christian market. Ethiopia is mainly Christian orthodox with over 30 000 churches but their mosques, although not as common are equally stunning. One of the annoyances of Harar is the children. Hundreds of them follow sightseers round the streets shouting ‘Firenji (white man) give me money!’ the sad thing is that somne f the children begging are genuinely in need but because foreign tourists are associated with money parents of healthy well fed children send them out onto the streets to beg as well, instead of going to school. So the general rule, as Wilson told us- is don’t give any of them money. There are food coupons tousirst can buy from organisations around Ethiopia that you can distribute t kids instead of cash which is far more beneficial and at least they get a decent meal if they need it.
That evening-we waiting outside the eastern wal of harar for the famous Hyena men. For over 300 years a select few ethiopians have kept the tradition alive of feeding Hyenas by hand…and by mouth! The men know every animal by name and they sit patiently and wait for the Hyena men so string a piece of raw meat to a stick and either hold it by hand or place the stic in their mouths and the animal gingerly takes the meat. For a small fee Farenjis can feed them as well. We did. I was too scared to fed them by mouth so chose the hand stick option, but martin was braver and knelt down and placed the stick and meat in his mouth. (Check out the latest webisode on arabiatoafrica.blogspot.com to see the footage we got from the canon and senheiser). Feeling elated by the experience we headed towards Addis Ababa to explore the capital city of Ethiopia!
Addis Ababa means ‘New Flower’ and although we weren’t convinced by the name it’s a busy bustling metropolis with markets where you can find anything from guns to camels! We stopped into the National Museum view the remains of Lucy- one of our first ancestors found in the rift valley of Ethiopia in 1974. She’s 3.2 million years old and a mere 3 feet tall! After having a very welcome shower and nights rest at the stunning Sheraton hotel we headed up north, past Lake Tana to see ‘Africa’s Camelot,’ Gonder- a series of castles built by the kings of Ethiopia over a period of 300 years. Amazingly the castles are strikingly similar to those in Europe!
Then onwards to the rock hewn churches of Lalibella. The rumour goes that these incredible chruches- carved entirely out of the rock (much like Petra except the ones in Ethiopia are free standing) were built by King Lalibella himself, assisted at night by angels, to speed up the process,- thus the collection of 11 churches only took 23 years to build!
The only bad experience we’ve had in Ethiopia to date is a small boy on the side of the road threw a stone as we drove past and shattered our rear windshield. Expensive and annoying. So we’re on our way back to Addis to try and get it repaired before we head South towards Kenya. TIA. This Is Africa.

ETHIOPIA! we made it!

2009-10-21T12:22:00.000-07:00

so After being in Djibouti for 2 weeks as we waited for the car to clear customs....TIA This Is Africa, we finally loaded everything up- left the contradictions and rugged terrain of Djibouti behind us and headed to the Ethiopian border! There were a couple of Hiccups: the main one being we were told you can get a visa at the Ethiopian border, not the case, so had to drive the 3 hours back to Djibouti city to get one! But we finally crossed over- feeling like we'd finally broken the Groundhog day cycle of 14 days in one of the smallest countries in Africa.
Ethiopia...given what you see in the news it seems like it should be a dry barren drought ridden landscape. well the Ethiopia of today is lush green rolling hills, cattle, goas and donkeys grazing peacefully as brightly coloured tribes people walk down the tarred roads (with no regard for cars or lorries) as they herd their livestock.
We traveled all day to the second largest town in Ethiopia- Dire Dawa. It's a character filled town with plenty of markets whee you can buy anything from chinese sunglasses to knock off louis vitton handbags. Disappointingly i didn't find any of the traditional Ethiopian cotton shirts I'd seen everyone wearing. hopefully in Addis... after giving an Ethiopian version of a tuk tuk to drive us around the crazy busting streets, nearly being roben by street kids twice, martin and i harassedly (if this isn't a word then I claim it as my own) got into the Nissan Xterra and heading off to the thousand year old walled city of Harar.
it was built in the 16th century (that's Ethiopian 16th not roman..do you know by the Ethiopian calender we're only in 2002!) to protect the women while the men went out to war with the christian invaders. It's a stunning, stunning city enclosed by a 3000km wall.
outside the ancient city as night falls, a 300 year old tradition takes place. the Hyena men of Harar feed over 20 hyenas by hand and by mouth! they know each creature by name and for a small fee you can take part! we did! it's terrifying! The creatures are quite tame and are used to being fed but, they're still wild animals! so then off to Addis Ababa. at the moment i'm sitting in a fabulous fabulous Sheraton hotel room in the capital city, we're planing on having a great night sleep on a proper bed then back t camping and off North to Lalibela and Lake Tana! stay tuned for the next update
xxx

we've got the CAR!!!!

2009-10-17T00:13:00.001-07:00

finally! after being in Djibouti for 10 days we finbally have got the car out of customs!!!! yayayayayayayayay! off to Ethiopia we go! woohoo!

Djibouti- Lac Assal and moucha island

2009-10-16T08:34:00.001-07:00

still in Djibouti...

2009-10-15T03:00:00.000-07:00

Well this is definitely an interesting country. First of all we need to say a MASSIVE thankyou to the Sheraton Djibouti who have put us up for over a week while we try and clear the car out of customs! Mohammad at the Sheraton knows everyone in town so he has been a incredible help as nothing seems to get done here unless you know someone who knows someone. TIA- This Is Africa.
but on the bright side- we've done some fantastic diving with a dive and tour company here called 'le lagon bleu' We went looking for whale sharks but sadly are a bit before the season but saw 50 dolphins who followed the boat! Luke from Lagon Bleu has an incredible kick ass underwater camera so we borrowed it for a couple of dives so hopefully the footage will be amazing!We spent a day relaxing on moucha Island- which seems to be the chill out area for all the military in town- and there are loads of them...and us- we seem to be the only tourists in this place. We drove a couple of hours out of town to see lac Assal- the lowest point in all of Africa and the start of the salt caravan route. it's incredibly bizarre- the salt is hard like concrete and forms a beach around the lake. it's like being on the moon. the Djibouti people are friendly but the nation is held back by a daily arrival of Qat. It arrives in from Ethiopia every afternoon and the people here buy it in bunches that cost between 2 and 20 dollars depending on the size( it's basically just a bundle of leafy twigs) and they chew the leaves for hours and go into a hazy stoned daze all afternoon. random. anyway, we're being as patient as we can be while we try and sort out the car so we can leave for Ethiopia. hopefuly on saturday everything will be sorted. pictures posting soon ;-)

DJIBOUTI DAY 1

2009-10-06T07:25:00.000-07:00

After spending an incredible couple of days in Salalah in Oman, staying at the arabian sea villas and being shown around by one of the most amazing tour guides we've ever met- Yousef from Sumahram Falcon tours (we're editing the next webisode now so keep your eyes out for it), we finally cleared all the customs and nonsense for the car and loaded it into a giant shipping container on it's way to Djibouti- thus avoiding Yemen as everyone had been seriously advising us to do. We then flew dirt cheap to the capital - Djibouti city, staying in the Sheraton Hotel as we wait the 4 days for the car. It's a very strange country from first impressions- very third world Africa with loads of German military wandering around (obviously on call for Yemen and the surrounding problem regions)but being a french colony we felt a relaxed, smiling francophone vibe added to the mix as we drove from the tiny airport in an old battered bluebird station wagon taxi, past 2nd hand flea markets bearing bright french signs of welcome, terrible smelling factories and crumbling suburbs. We are definitely in Africa.
If, like us, you have trouble placing Djibouti- it's a tiny tiny country just above Ethiopia, that most Visitors to East Africa often miss as it's more expensive than Ethiopia and if you're not a diver or snorkeller you might miss it altogether. The beaches seem muddy as opposed to sandy with loads of crabs and ravens scuttling across the sulphur smelling shore, but the diving promises to be AMAZING- swimming and snorkeling with whale sharks are promised and we've heard rumours of a huge salt lake that you can drive across. Apparently the nightlife and bar scene here, especially in the European quarter is massive so we'll check that out in the next couple of days and there's a huge following for the nations daily drug of choice here called Qat which arrives from Ethiopia every afternoon and puts everyone into a lazy stupor for the afternoon. Things definitely run on African time here and there is no rush for anything, but the Sheraton staff are lovely and putting up with my terrible french and martin's English with an attempted french accent ;-), the hotel is clean and relaxed and its definitely an exotic new country to ad to our list. pictures to follow x

Dofar

2009-10-03T05:01:00.001-07:00

2009-10-03T04:46:00.000-07:00

Oman- the journey has begun

2009-09-29T22:44:00.001-07:00

Arabia to Africa
Warning- the following article might make you want to pack a bag and drive off into the sunset. You have been advised.
Most of you who live in Dubai, with 9 to 5 jobs, a villa in jumeirah, 2.5 kids and a couple of cars will think we’re crazy for doing what we’re doing.
we had the ultimate Dubai lifestyle. Martin and I lived 5 minutes walk from the sea, we were both earning good salaries, had great friends, family and jobs- martin in the Dubai film industry and I was a drive time radio dj (which meant my actual working day was 5 hours in total.) the Dubai dream.
That was last week. This week we are driving in a bright yellow Nissan Xterra from Dubai through Oman and all the way to Cape town down the East coast of Africa. We have loaded up the car so we almost feel we know what we’re doing – we’ve got an Icon pop up tent on the roof and every technical piece of equipment imaginable : jvc and canon cameras, apple macbooks and sennheiser radio mikes, . You see, we decided that life was getting a bit too comfortable so we’re driving back to our home continent and are filming the whole thing as a kind of reality type TV series we are calling ‘Arabia to Africa’ We’re also filming an extra bumper episode focusing on orphanages throughout East Africa and AIDS orphans in Zimbabwe for a reality check to the trip
Day 1
After fafffing around in Dubai for far too long we headed off to Oman. The only problem is that because we are traveling through multiple countries we had to get a yellow booklet full of tear off pieces called a triptique that every customs post in each country has to stamp as we enter and exit so we don’t have to pay duty on the Xterra. Sounds easy enough. so we think, so we arrive at Oman customs and they have no idea what a triptique is..and refuse to stamp it. After much broken English, big hand guestures and confused looks we found a helpful Omani customs official called Mohamed who knew his stuff, stamped our triptique without a second glance and smilingly waved us on our way. We had arrived in Oman!
After diving for what seemed to be an eternity, we pulled in to Muscat and headed to the Oman dive centre where our trusty guide book had promised us that we could park our car and camp. No such luck. The very nice Omani guard pointed us off into the distance with a promise of a camp site on a beach. He neglected to tell us that there had been a recent rock fall and all the temporary roads were gravel, there were no sign posts and no official campsite. So after a couple of hours of aimlessly driving around in the dark, avoiding stray goats and asking the friendly but non English speaking locals in various villages, we found a dirty public beach where we set up camp.
Our first night was completely shambolic, we’d packed the xterra all wrong and everything we needed for cooking, sleeping and cal our toiletries were right at the bottom. We’d both stupidly decided to bring massive suitcases instead of backpack thinking they’re be easier to access. Mistake. Hot and bothered we fell into a restless sweaty half-sleep to the sound of waves lapping and fisherman chatting loudly nearby.

Day 2
At 6 am the sun scorching through our tent woke us up t our second hot Omani day after a windless night interrupted by street cats caterwauling, sedans cruising past blaring load music and friendly fishermen stopping to inspect our strange roof tented sticker emblazoned Nissan wanting to have a chat. We packed up our haphazard camp site and drove irritably to explore the area.
The Omani people are the friendliest people we’ve ever encountered, they are helpful, polite and curious and want nothing in return. As we were searching for a prettier beach to set up camp for our second night we saw 4 local boys wearing the obligatory sunglasses and scarves wrapped over their mouths and noses driving a black 4x4 and looking like something out of mad max, driving through the dunes near Muscat. We decided to follow. What we had neglected to think about was the fact that our car was incredible heavy- bags, tents, spare tires and supplies for 4 month tend to weigh down a vehicle. 5 minutes into the sand we were wheel spinning, car sinking, well and truly stuck with ¾ of one side of the car stuck in a dune. Nice move on our part and its only day 2.
Then the black 4x4 came over the dune and like knights in Omani armour they smilingly attached a tow rope to our car and hoisted us out. Then with hospitality typical of this incredible country they offered to show us around the area. They became our guides for 4 hours refusing anything in return, not even a coke. The lead us through quaint little townships and villages, full of goats, camels and dirty barefoot Omani children smiling and waving us on our way. As the four boys said goodbye they drew circles on our map of the secret spots we should check out on the way to Salalah.
After a much better organized 2nd night camping and feeling fortified by our newfound camping success and the recent good company we set off from Muscat towards Ras al jinz where we were told by our guides was the best place to see the turtles come up to the beach to lay their eggs.
Day 3
The turtle sanctuary in ras al jinz is a protected site as decreed by the sultan of Oman, It is a temporary home to hundreds of Green turtles who travel from as far afield as Somalia and the Maldives to lay their soft eggs on this beach every three years, Each green turtle will drag themselves onto this specific shore because the monsoons in Srilanka and India push larger waves onto this shoreline creating a massive amount of wet sand which the mothers find easier to dig their nests into without the sand falling back into the hole. Each turtle will lay aprox 100 eggs per nest and our out of over 1000 hatchlings only 1 or 2 will avoid the threat of seagulls, foxes cats and ocean predators to survive to adulthood. It’s a beautiful but depressing site. We booked a tour and woke up at 3am to follow our guide Nasser onto the sands to scout out which turtles where nesting. Each guided group can be as large as 100 people but only the guide is allowed a flashlight and absolutely no flash photography is allowed as it can blind the laying mothers. We were told that it is imperative not to disturb the green turtles who are digging their nests as if they are scared off they return to the sea and de themselves if unable to drop their eggs within 2 nights. Once a mother has started laying her eggs however, nothing will make them stop. So we sit on the dark sand, hearing the waves lap and wait till our guide calls us towards a 1m long mother who is covering up her eggs with her front flippers. It’s an amazing sight that few are privileged to see. Our group is silent in awe as we watch this animal, graceful in the water, haul herself back to the sea. And just as she reaches the waves we are hurried to another point where baby hatchlings are emerging from the sand beneath our feet up to the to the surface, attracted by our guide’s torchlight. As we watch they begin to quickly and clumsily flap their way towards the waves, looking more like tiny black crabs than turtles.
We stay on this beach to watching shooting stars an listening to the waves until the sun rises, occasionally directing baby turtles who have lost their way, back to the water. Martin has happily captured the whole night on the jvc and canon as the babies rushed to the sea avoiding the attacking crabs and nearby stray cats . For the price of 30 aed per person it is a life changing experience that everyone should do.
The next day armed with stunning canon sunrise shots and great film footage for the show, we drove through terrain that changed from pristine beach with massive pounding waves to yellow untouched sand dunes, past white sparkling salt plains where workers rake the condiment into large mounds for harvest as we headed onwars on the 800 km drive to Salalah.
A warning to drivers- The terrain on the way to salalah is hypnotic, once you’ve reached the empty quarter, the roads are flat and mesmerizing with glittering miages temping you into a half trance. Be careful- as every now and then a huge lory travvelling at 10 km an our will rush past you threatening to drive you off the road from the wind impact as theypass. Then suddenly over a hillverything changes- as you enter the Salalah areas everything changes from dull flat sand to lush green tropics in the space of 5 minutes. You honestly feel like you’re in another world!
Salalah is Beautiful. Calmly waving palm trees, pristine white beaches and lots of waves! We arrived at 8am and dragged ourselves to the crowne plaza for a well deserved drink. We got chatting to yet another friendly Omani waiter who suggested we speak to the manager and see if we could stay at the hotel for the night as the public beaches were difficult to see in the dark. So I am writing this from our sea facing free hotel room at the crown plaza salalah. Boy was it great to have a shower!
Our Journey has officially begun, after a shambolic start on our part we are getting better and better at setting up camp. Day one took us over an hour to get all the equipment and cooking gear organized and set up, it’s now- day 5, taking us all of 10 minutes. It’s definitely a learning curve but one I would recommend to anyone with some holiday leave coming up and a sense of adventure. See you on the

day 1-MUSCAT!

2009-09-26T01:10:00.000-07:00

ok so we've finally left dubai- our car is super loaded up and we drove to Muscat to spend our first night on a idyllic public beach. beautiful!!!!
now off to muscat centre to get some great shots and will catch you soon.we'ree off to an incredible plareau tomorro then to salalah!
finally on our way~!!!
lots of love, miss dubai already and totally not getting the hang of the camping thing but we;ll learn. haven't torn our hair out yet x

Dubai Eye Interveiw

2009-09-18T01:33:00.000-07:00

Dubai eye one hour long interview on nightline!
have a listen to our Dubai Eye interview with James Peicowye

our leaving party at the grand grill!!

2009-09-12T22:34:00.000-07:00

an amazing amazing evening at the Grand Grill! thanks to all the friends, family and new acquaintances who came to support us and a special thanks to Zighy Bay Six Senses Spa, British Airways, The Westin, Bateaux Dubai, Wild Wadi, Bab al Shams. the Grand Grill and Fusion for Donating amazing Raffle Prizes!

All Pictures were taken By Martin Leahy using a Canon 5d Mark 11 slr. stay tuned for our second webisode which features the party footage ;-)

PARTY FUNDRASER TONIGHT!

2009-09-10T22:43:00.000-07:00

DON'T FORGET! 7PM HABTOOR GRAND, THE GRAND GRILL RESTAURANT, BEER/WINE AND FOOD AED 300 INCLUDING A RAFFLE TKT!
CASH ONLY AS NO CARDS ACCEPTED! SEE YA THERE..OR IF YOU CAN'T MAKE IT..THERE'S ALWAYS THE DONATE BUTTON ON THE RIGHT....

leaving party invite

2009-08-17T06:00:00.000-07:00

LEAVING PARTY NEWS!

2009-08-15T03:33:00.000-07:00

FOR ALL THOSE IN DUBAI ..WE ARE HAVING A BIG FUNDRAISER GOODBYE PARTY TO RAISE MONEY FOR OUR DOCUMENTARY 'CUTTING THE RED RIBBON' ABOUT ORPHANS IN EAST AFRICA AND ESPECIALLY IN ZIMBABWE.
DATE: FRIDAY 11TH SEPTEMBER
TIME: 7PM
PLACE: HABTOOR GRAND, GRAND GRILL RESTAURANT, THE MARINA
PRICE: AED 300 PER PERSON INCLUDING ALL YOU CAN DRINK (BEER AND WINE) AND A SOUTHAFRICAN BRAAI BUFFET!
ADDED INCENTIVE: RAFFLE PRIZES INCLUDED 2 BRITISH AIRWAYS FLIGHTS TO LONDON, FUSION B&B WEEKENDS AT THEIR VILLA, DINNERS FOR 2 AND LOADS MORE!
BRING ALL YOUR MATES- IT'S FOR A WORTHY CAUSE.
RSVP BY EMAILING US:
arabiatoafrica@gmail.com
OR JUST TURN UP AT THE DOOR!
IF YOU CAN'T MAKE IT AND WOULD LIKE TO HELP, JUST CLICK THE 'DONATE' BUTTON ON THE TOP RIGHT OF THE BLOG.
CHEERS AND SEE YOU THERE!

THE JOURNEY

2009-08-04T22:38:00.000-07:00

So the resignation letter has been sent off, the boss understands, we are collecting our fabulous car from Nissan in a week, Apple have donated a mac book pro to us and now we are gearing up for the journey! Is it wrong that we are really enjoying buying plastic knives, forks and plates for the camping part?
anyway- so we start our driving excursion 'ARABIA TO AFRICA' in the U.A.E, drive through Oman and Yemen (we have a guide in Yemen if you're worried about our safety), take a ferry to Djibouti, go through Ethiopia, into Kenya (probably meet up with our co producer Lisa Buschek here to catch the Wildebeest migration on tape and visit an orphanage or two), go into Uganda to see the Gorillas in the impenetrable forrest, through Tanzania and Zanzibar, drive to Malawi and Zambia and into Zimbabwe for Christmas then off to Mozambique for New Year (open invitation for anyone to join us on a beach in Mozambique for new year!) then finish the journey driving through South Africa to end in Capetown and watch the 2010 world cup! we are raising awareness and funds for orphans throughout Africa as we will visit several orprhanages along the way: including a child soldier rehabilitation centre in Uganda and a baby orphanage in Kenya. Our focus will be Zimbabwean Orphanages who desperately need our help so if you want to donate to a worthy cause please email us at: arabiatoafrica@gmail.com
they would really appreciate it! We leave Dubai on World Peace Day- September 21st 2009.

ARABIA TO AFRICA (THE DOCUMENTARY)

2009-07-29T23:27:00.000-07:00

I am pleased to announce that we have a couple of fabulous fabulous women on board to help out with the research and production for the documentary film we will be shooting at the same time as the travel show!
Lisa Buschek, (left picture)our documentary co-producer and head researcher, is putting together everything we need to film orphanages throughout the journey with a focus on Zimbabwe so we can raise awareness, and hopefully funding, for our incredible country! Thanks for being involved hun!

Our second fabulous lady who is offering us her medical expertise and helping with the mountains of research is Dr Reham Awwad (right picture). Both women are currenty based in Dubai but I'm sure with enough convincing they'll definitely join us in Zimbabwe for the final leg of our journey to make sure we get all the footage necessary to make our documentary a success! thanks ladies!

FILMING THE PILOT

2009-07-25T23:01:00.000-07:00

So off we went on a mini adventure to film the pilot for ARABIA TO AFRICA. we chose sharm el sheikh and Cairo as we figured there'd be fantastic and varied footage, especially if we spliced the diving shots of the red sea with footage of the pyramids. it wan an amazing amazing trip, we got some great footage, got acquainted with the fabulous JVC cameras and now feel much more confident in our material, the equipment and ourselves.

the only thing i'll say about Sharm is, while it is a fun, tourist fliled party town, it is damn expensive! definitely dive the red sea while you're there and if you have you advanced padi- then try the thistlegorm wreck dive! it's a 32 m deep 2nd world war carrier ship and you get to explore inside it! very exciting!

This is the 3 hour long journey to the thistlegorm wreck site. it doesn't look like it but it's 5 am!

so now we're ready for action!
xx

PROTECHnology AND APPLE ARE ONBOARD!

2009-07-06T08:13:00.000-07:00

The fabulous JVC camera we are being given is directly compatible with apple mac and final cut pro ...so PROTECHnology (who are suppliers of apple products in dubai) have very kindly agreed to give us an apple laptop for the trip. it just gets better and better!! thanks guys!
xx

WE HAVE A CAR!!!!

2009-07-05T06:32:00.000-07:00

This beauty is the nissan xterra and yes we are driving this amazing vehicle from Dubai all the way to Capetown! and the best part is -it has a custom built tent that pops out of the back of the car! prety huh? thanks nissan! we look forward to driving this through mud, stones, water etc. hope you don't mind ;-)

BUSY BUSY BUSY

2009-07-01T06:01:00.001-07:00

So today we picked up our amazing JVC GZ HD 320b EVERIO CAMCORDER. It's an amazing little camcorder that records in full hd to the hard drive and it has 120gb! awesome! cheers JVC!- we also have an underwater housing for great diving shots.
check out http://www.jvc-me.com/ for all their product details or http://www.jvc.com/ globally.
ticking boxes as we speak
lots of love

2009-06-29T12:40:00.000-07:00

To see the Sunset over the sea in Capetown- the final goal to our trip!
still working on the blog so it's all sorted before we set off!

GEARING UP

2009-06-29T06:32:00.000-07:00

So...

We're 2 and a half months away from the start of our journey and frantically trying to figure out what inoculations we need, what border crossing documents and the car and equipment insurance is becoming a mission! apparently we need a carnet or travel passport for the car to prove to the border posts that we're not going to run off with it so we don't have to pay duty.

On the bright side- JVC professional have stepped up and said they'll give us an all singing all dancing HD camera to film the seriews, Nissan are thinking about giving us a vehicle, and icon say they'll kit it out for us!

all is going according to plan!

watch this space!

love Sarah and Martin