Definitely not the photo of the day but it’s the reality of these 5 days on the road.
Remember the official itinerary drastically changed because it’s been a pain to find a reliable freight cargo option departing from the Middle East.
Roaming in the south of Turkey at that time, I was not sure to take the risk to go all the way down to Oman for ‘nothing’ (when I say ‘nothing’ I obviously mean ferry-wise because I’d have loved to learn about this unique region of the world).
Also, shipping my car from Turkey was insanely expensive. And they were not even able to give me concrete info about the process.
On the 5th of March, I’ve finally had a good opportunity to ship Rafiki to Africa. However, it meant to go back to Europe, all the way up to…Hamburg in Germany (3,929 km away from Kizilot, and Rafiki needs to be delivered on 24/03).
Challenge accepted.
During 10 days, I decided to keep enjoying Turkey the best I could: I’ve been off-roading breathtaking Cappadocia and seeing it covered with snow! Then, I’ve been passing by busy Ankara and exploring the Black sea coast (where I could witness snow on the beach!).
On 16/03 I was back to Istanbul to relax for a couple of days.
6 days ago, I left Istanbul and I started this trip to Hamburg.
It took me 5 days, 2,545 km, 7 countries (Turkey - Bulgaria - Serbia - Hungary - Slovakia - Czech Republic - Germany), 6 borders to cross and 50 stops at gas stations (to relax, to fill up the tank -hopefully not every time-, to eat, to go to the toilet).
I’ve arrived in Hamburg yesterday afternoon. I don’t realise it yet. I need to see Rafiki in that container.
Things always happen for a reason and I want to believe this Hamburg option is the best one.
It feels weird to think that next time I’ll be overlanding with Rafiki it’ll be in South Africa. I really don’t realise anything. It’s magical.
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