Itenerary

Our journey began at 6th March, 2004 in Cologne. We crossed Germany eastward and passed Czechia, Austria and Slovakia. In Hungary we passed by the lake Balaton in direction of South, to Croatia. There we firstly visited the inundation land of the Sava in Slavonia, then the Lakes of Plitvice and finally the Mediterranean Dalmatia. Inbetween we made a trip to Bosnia-Herzegovina.

From Dubrovnik we crossed the sea to the South of Italy where we followed the boot to the tip. In Sicily we passed the Northern coast and made an excursion into the mountains. Then we visited Palermo. Trapani was a spring board to Tunisia. After we had waited one month in vain for the Libyan visa in Tunis we visited the family of a friend. We made a round trip through the South of the country and returned to Tunis. Even now we had no luck to get the visa for the neighboring country. By this we took our chance to travel by cargo ship, to Haifa.

We visited historical places as Jerusalem, Jericho and Bethlehem and became witnesses of a contemporary system of apartheid. From Palestine and Israel we went again by cargo ship this time to Cyprus where we hoped to get a visa for Syria. When also this failed we went from the occupied Northern part of Cyprus to Turkey. In Ankara we got the visa for Syria. We visited Kappadokkia and travelled along the Mediterranean coast to Antakia. From there we arrived at Aleppo. We left the town in direction of the Euphrat but soon we turned southward because of the strong head wind. On the way to Palmyra we crossed the desert and saw the life of the Syrian beduines.

From Palmyra we went to one of the oldest towns in the world, Damascus. On the way to the Jordanian border we passed Bosra, where we visited the amphitheater. On the highway we went to the capital Amman that is built on several mountains. Steep slopes made the descent to the Jordan valley difficult. The Jordan river guided us to the Dead Sea. From the deepest depression of the earth we ascended to the King's Highway which winds like a snake over the summits of the mountains. Colorful mountains and remnants of an old culture awaited us in Petra. The South of Jordan is part of the desert. On lonely pists of the national park we found our way through the Wadi Rum.

From Aqaba we went by ship to the peninsula Sinai. We chose the road through the mountains. By this we crossed the heart of the desert and saw monuments of biblical events as the thorn bush from which supposedly God had spoken to Moses. At the Western side of the peninsula we travelled to the South under the merciless rays of the sun. From Sharm el-Sheikh we arrived again on African ground. From Hurghada we made an excursion to Cairo and to the Pyramids of Gizeh. Aferwards we continued our journey to the South. We took our time to visit the Egyptian antiquities in Luxor and Aswan. Then again a ship brought us into a new country. This time it was Sudan.

Wadi Halfa, town of the Nubians, today is forgotten by the world. The former economic and cultural centre had been sacrified for the lake Nasser. We pushed our bicycles over sandy pists, there are no asphalt roads anywhere. Endless wideness surrounded us on our way to Atbara. Sandstorms and intense rays of the sun made it difficult to get ahead. Fata Morganas accompained us until we reached Khartoum. In the multi racial capital we only stayed short time. South of Khartoum the landscape became more green. Near Gedaref the land was covered by fields and meadows. We crossed the border to Ethiopia and made a break in Gonder. There we witnessed the coptic festivities of Meskal and celebrated Roswitha's birthday. Through the Ethiopian highland we went on a hilly road that was built by Chinese and Japanese to Addis Abeba.

Due to our expired visa we made an excursion by bus and train to Djibouti. A dhau loaden with cattle brought us to Yemen. We visited old and new towns of trade. Already in times before the queen Saba there was business with incense, myrrh, spices and other goods at places as Taiz, Mokha, Aden, Marib and Sana'a. We had been surprised by the majestic mountains and the old yemenite culture. On the way back through Djibouti we had been impressed by the beauty of the Lake Assal. We returned to Ethiopia by a lorry, passed the Western plain that was infested by tribal fights and arrived at Awash. After a photo safari in the Awash National Park we went back to our bicycles to Addis Abeba.

In Addis Abeba suddenly the computer and two cameras were broken one after another and we had to wait for replacement from Germany. Afterwards we went down by bike to the Eastafrican Rift Valley. In Shashemene we returned to the world of green Ethiopian mountains. Firstly behind Konso we reached the lowland of the Rift Valley where the colorful Hamer are at home. In Omorate we met the Galeb feared by their neighbour tribes and proceeded to the Western Omo bank by boat. There we began to push our bicycles through a plain, sandy semi desert.

From Todenyang in Kenya we went along the Jade Sea trough the land of the traditional living Turkana. We visited Lodwar the centre of the Turkana region. From Lokichar we chose a lonely road over Lokori to the South. In Marigat we started again to climb up the mountains to Eldoret.

There we could let our bicycles at the house of German missionaries in order to make an excursion by car to Nairobi. By train we went to Mombasa where we enjoyed the beach for two weeks. Afterwards we took a dhau to Zanzibar as merchands did in ancient times. There we visited the legendary Stonetown and the tropical Jozani Forest. Through Dar Es Salaam we went again to the North, to Arusha. From that place we started a five days safari to the Tarangire Nationalpark, to the Ngorongoro Crater and to Lake Natron where we climed the Oldonyo Lengai, the mountain of God, as the massai call him.

We returned to Eldoret and continued our journey by bicycles. In Jinja we visited the source and the waterfalls of the White Nile, in Kampala we spend the Christmas time. Along the Mountains of the Moon we went to the South and crossed the Queen Elisabeth Nationalpark. After this we climbed onto the mountains of Ruanda.

Again we visited Tanzania, this time the Western part. On dusty roads we reached Kigoma and crossed the Lake Tanganyika by the MV Liemba. In Mpulungu we left the East African Rift Valley and went on dead straight roads through the Northern highlands of Zambia. In Livingstone we visited the Victoria Falls, the highest waterfalls of the world. Then we made a trip to the Chobe Nationalpark in Botswana before we started out to the Caprivi Strip which is known for its elephants. We went along the Kavango into the heartland of the bush people, the Calahari.

From Windhoek we made an excursion to the coast, to the port of Walvis Bay and to the German enclave at the stuary of the Swakop. We visited the majestic dunes of Sossusvlei and the Naukluft Nationalpark. In Richtersvelt we crossed the border to South Africa and passed through the legendary area of the diamond miners. Near Steinkopf a car drove into Roland's trailer at more than 100 km/h. We were taken to Cape Town where the first leg of our journey through the Global Village ended.