Douala, Rome, Sofia..

Hi guys, Sorry for the delay in posting..
Cameroon was quite the experience from my first trip a few years ago. Although they are celebrating 50 years of independence its still very easy to say I am on a farm... I visited with Sebastein and his family as well as my friend  Elvis from Tanzania,  during  his global tour to bring awareness to education and our environment ( chiletokili.com)

SEbastein has a small stand at the local school selling omelets to students. He is the subway of Bafoussam... add mayonnaise $ add spaghetti $$ add meat $$$ add seasoning $, and so on.. he fries the eggs and the students cut there own bread, and add the options they want ... he sells up to 60 full size subs a day .. also working Saturdays,  he makes about $18.00 per week..

My return was to give him an opportunity to do more, and help provide some future for his family.. we both soon found ourselves trying to help a friend instead . Sebasteins friend was sent to prison accused of stealing a speaker ( value about $20.00)
I was surprised by the corruption  just getting into a federal prison ( NOT A JAIL). I had to pay to get inside, prisoners have to pay for there own food, and should expect to be covered everywhere  in BITES from ??    Guilty in Cameroon if someone says you are, and innocent if you have the financial resources to do anything about it. He may spend the next 5 years there, and by looking at how slow Cameroon is to get on its feet and progress,  It may be longer... ( more to come )

Douala has an active nightlife, great sea food,  beer seems to replace drinking water, starting from the time many people get up. It was a nice change for Elvis who was arrested twice the previous week in Nigeria suspected of being Boko Haram . ( google it please )
The 250 kilometer bus ride to Douala included a minimum of 20 road side stops by the military all expecting some kind of payment for nothing from the driver... When I traveled Cameroon I never stopped , or considered paying a bribe. They do not want trouble from a white man, but they think nothing of cheating each other any way they can.

We split ways

 at the airport as I departed for Rome... The plan was Bulgaria, but Rome was on the way... kind of...
I spent a week with all the other tourists walking the streets looking at the map for the next tourist site. lots of good coffee , pizza, and  pasta to keep you going. My birthday that week was celebrated by the hotel manager and  friends from Iran  in there New Years eve celebration year 2578 ?? Traditional Iranian food and spirits.. Vodka mixed with wine ... !!

I get conflicting information about travel thru Iran. The motorcycle is registered in the USA , and  I do have both a Canadian and American passport , but with American tourists still in there prisons it seems a bit dodgy... despite USA Today and other articles that Iran is doing what they can to get American tourists to come visit... If given a choice I would rather ride Iran and Pakistan into India rather than ship it from Turkey... hmmm

Yesterday I arrived in  Bulgaria and took the BMW for a spin !!

Cameroon 2014

I made it !! missed a flight in Turkey, baggage delay in Yaoundé , and 6 days later I am in Bafoussam , Cameroon. The 5 hour bus ride completing the final leg of the trip quickly brought me up to speed with local culture. Loud gospel music is played in the bus while women sing along as they would any Sunday... Music was interrupted as a young man spent about three hours trying to sell passengers everything from toothpaste to green tea ..  I asked the young man how much he paid the driver to turn off the music ?? he lost  his courage to continue as passengers laughed at the question  and the music was turned back on and the singing continued.
Locals try hard to separate me from my money, ( Egypt is worse ) and an expected " duty " from the white man is part of travelling here. My friend here, negotiated my hotel room price before I arrived. When the hotel manager saw I was white he was not happy, thinking whites must pay more. Waitress's do not bring my change unless I go ask them for it, same goes for just about anything I need to buy.
Hundreds of 100cc Chinese motorcycles create the local mass transportation system as young businessman try and make a buck racing up and down the streets for the next passenger. Women as seen in the photo usually can be seen at the farmers market selling there produce or fresh cooked ... Young men are usually the ones walking the streets with bags of used cloths for sale .. my goal is to find a Super Bowl jersey from the Denver Broncos.. Seattle made sure they were all donated to Africa !! Thanks again Seahawks .
The malaria pills, mosquito nets and crazy dreams as a result,  will be short lived, as I leave for Bulgaria in 2 weeks and jump on the BMW .

How's Your German ?

Let's hope pictures tell a 1000 words , :)  I looked for a translator to English and found nothing, so

Your imagination and German it is. The documentary is about the ship MV Liemba,  part of my recient travels thru east Africa.   

My few days on the ship was an adventure I hope others consider , if wanting to truly get the feel for Africa.
You may have to copy and paste into the browser.

 http://m.daserste.de/#videoplayer?id=die-koenigin-vom-tanganjikasee-100

"The Dust Bin of Africa"

 SUDAN is  nicknamed" The Dust Bin of Africa " for many good reasons. It is also the country in sub-Sahara Africa with the largest amount of bureaucracy of any on the continent.  The Sudanese stamps in my passport that recorded the endless details that seem to serve no purpose, are also my favourite!  My interest in the desert started as a child and a grade school science project. Now many years later I am still learning. Carcasses of hundreds of camels that have perished along the road, gives "reliability" a whole new meaning when trusting a motorcycle to get me to my next destination.
This is my adventure.  Some of us may enjoy the excitement of Disneyland, or a trip to the lake fishing, but for me it's adventure of overland travel on a motorcycle.
Now after almost two years in Africa I find myself completely within my comfort zone. Negotiating with street traders for the best currency rates of the day, setting GPS coordinates for pyramids, or understanding security considerations of an area, is all part of everyday travel. The warm welcome I received from so many children in Sudan made it difficult to see the last bits of Africa fade into the horizon.

 YES:  Africa is SAFE ... My own lack of knowledge usually had me on guard for the first day or two in any given country, but I constantly learned for myself, not from the 6:00pm news, that there is nothing to fear. The best example of safety was Egypt. If you look at the numbers of murders the: US state department should have{ travel warnings} to many of our own states and not Egypt .

 In total the trip was about 30,000 miles? Lots of new Chinese parts on the BMW and tires. A counter clockwise trip of Africa..as well as several countries.. The motorcycle accidents I could always walk away from, and items lost or stolen I could easily replace !
Arrived in Turkey last week ... Garth

Egypt : tensions soar at Port Said

A recent headline in American news was : Egypt Descends into Chaos . I am stuck here for the time being,  but I would not say the country has descended into chaos . most of the killings have been very isolated to specific areas and limited to supporters of former President Morsi. The millions of protesters who came out against him far out numbered those who came out to support him. there were almost no killings until the few armed \Morsi supporters came into the streets.
 It will take some time to bring order again, but I am sure it will come and Egypt can try to find a leader who doesn't consider himself Egypt's next pharaoh , trying to give himself unlimited powers, and ignore the supreme court as Morsi did.

Fifteen days ago I arrived at the Suez Canal ( Port Said ) to board the ship Aqua Hercules to Turkey . After long waits and unlimited amounts of bureaucracy no one would ever believe,  the ship finally arrived from Turkey with 108 transport trucks and drivers on board. Only after boarding the ship did I realise it was basically being held  captive at the port by the union truck drivers. The drivers  refused to listen to there employers and leave the ship, feeling Egypt was no longer safe for them they demanded the ship take them back to Turkey. Out side the port 116 trucks and drivers wait to board the ship and leave Egypt. ! Five others and myself have been caught in the middle, and the port has been our home ever since. Expired visas , and officially stamped out of Egypt we are forced to wait in no mans land for the issue to be resolved and the ship leave. Soldiers , police, trucking company owners, union leaders ,  immigration, the shipping company, media and many government officials have all been involved in the stand off.
Although most do not understand English , I did hit the end of my rope today during one of the many screaming secessions calling them all pirates for ceasing the ship, and babies afraid to travel Egypt. I travelled Egypt solo on a motorcycle the past 30 days saw the many sites, and got to know many wonderful people, but unfortunately these union drivers have probably not made a real decision for themselves in years.
The past several days on the ship the drivers have all been very united, but slowly they have been fighting more and more. I knew it would only be time before solid lines of division were drawn and those fear full of loosing a good union job would get in their trucks and leave. Its Monday night and the first trucks have started to leave the ship !! I feel it will not be long before they are all gone. If the army needs to force the remaining few off the ship, I think they will and Turkey should be my next port of call by the end of the week !
Love Garth Anton

Egypt Coup of 2013

 The photo is my armed escort and myself in Ethiopia ... This is not something you would see in Egypt. Throughout Egypt the millions of protesters that took to the streets to voice there demands for President Morsi to step down were loud like a world cup celebration . Yesterday the army staged a coup, but did not take control of Egypt , it gave the supreme court the power of the president until elections can take place. The coup was celebrated late into the night with army helicopters flying low over the cities dragging flags of support for Egyptians. Millions of people dancing in the streets, fireworks, painted faces, horns honking, A party like nothing I can ever imagine. Egyptians vow to continue protests demanding change as long as they need to, if corruption in government continues.  

Its the noise that keeps the Peace ! it may be a man loudly shaming another man by screaming at him over an unpaid loan. Or a woman loudly screaming from her roof top how her husband cheated on her. These loud public displays of anger are often resolved without violence. Egypt has a very low crime rate as a result of there public system of justice. 260 people were killed in the city Chicago from January to  June of last year.  Compare  this to the 32 Million protesters making noise demanding Egypt's removal of its president and resulting  in  only 15 deaths. If you consider the numbers and forget about what the news is saying about Egypt you should see how and why I have always been  VERY SAFE in Egypt . The experience has been incredible in so many ways, but  I know if your relying on the news for your reporting of what its like in Egypt you probably think otherwise.. hmmmm

Las Vegas Luxor

It now seems clear to me that the owner of the Luxor Hotel in Vegas has never been to Luxor. Lots of tombs, temples, and the Nile of course, but no pyramid. Maybe he  travelled to Giza on a cheap package tour and did not known where he was,  when he decided on the name Luxor.
Its been a very long time , almost 2 years since I have seen the Mediterranean Sea. Departing Spain into Morocco in 2011 I have now completed my loop around Africa. The final week here I will follow the coast from Alexandria to Port Said where I will get on a ship to Iskenderun Turkey !