We are in Africa

We woke up to the sound of prayers waiting for the arrival on Africa soil. We were told that the ferry will travel for 12 hours which made the arrival after 1 pm. By this time I am not feeling well I think I have a cold. It took us more than 3 hours to finish customs and leave Suakin.

We were told that the weather is nice and cool in Sinkat so we headed there which is just 60 km. We stopped at a local shop to fill up with water in preparation to camp for the night, when the local authorities requested to see our papers and took their good time deciding what to do.



By the time we could go, it was too late it was almost sundown and we don't ride at night. So we managed to spend the night at the police station and head to Atbara tomorrow.

The Ferry to Sudan

We had to leave Al-Taif around 9 am to reach Jeddah at noon. So we took a shorter mountainous road (Al-Hada Road) which had a great view and was very twisty and a great motorcycle road.

We got to the port and with the assitance of Ali's contacts we were able to finalize the handling of customs and paper work for going on the ferry. Special thanks go to Mr. Rasheed Baaboud & Steve for their support I hope you are reading this.

By 1 pm we had delivered our bikes and stayed in a close hotel until 5 pm when we went to the port to leave Saudi Arabia and get on the ferry.

This is when we felt the presence of Africa where there is no particular schedule for the ferry and time has no significant importance. We were on the ferry at 5:30 pm, put the bikes in the ferry by 10 pm, and managed to actually depart by 1 am.



We also noticed that there is no personal space here people used our luggage as pillows by the fact that they were on the bench. The ferry has no cabins so everyone stays in the general seating. The issue is that there are two classes on the ferry, the deluxe accommodations for the families (men with accompanied woman, and women by themselves), and the not so deluxe accommodations for the bachelor men. This is where having your wife with you on a trip helps.

The Dusty Road to Al-Taif

After staying at a good hotel we rode off around 8:30 after stopping briefly to fill up with fuel and check our tire pressure. It was windy and very dusty for the first 280 km with our bikes tilted against the wind. We were getting sand blasted and had to raise our collar to stop the sand form hitting our necks but couldn't stop it hitting our wrists at that small space between out jacket and gloves.



The last 100 km or so were on the main highway going from Al-Ryadh to Al-Taif were very smooth and we reached the hotel by 1:30 preparing to go to Makah for our Omra.

We left a little late for Makah and it was a little crowded so by the time we ate and got back to the hotel it was around 11 pm.

Tomorrow we head to Jeddah Islamic Port to take the ferry to Sudan where the real adventure begins.

The Real First Day

We woke up to fined Mohammad Ashkanani (Hussain's Brother) , and Mohammad Abdulhadi had driven to accompany us to Makah for the Omra driving a pickup truck.

We were slow to start since we haven't ridden our bikes for long distances for a while. Preparing for a trip like this takes a lot of time and at the end you still didn't do all that you wanted.

We left around 9 am and by the time it was 1 pm we stopped for lunch and prayers having ridden only 300 km while our target was 800. We managed to pick up the pace and ride a total of 686 km to Afif.

Along the way a group of Saudi's in a big SUV were taking pictures of us on an SLR camera, we posed while riding in formation for the pictures but refused to stop since we were on a tight schedule.

Starting the Africa Adventure

As I was packing for the trip, which is always last minute, Hussain Called me and told me that we have to visit the Botswana Embassy to receive our visa document. So we had to stop for 5 minutes at the embassy to get the document that would allow us a visa at the border. Something always comes at the last minute.

We arrived at Kuwait Towers around 4:10 pm, met all the friends, family and news media personnel thanks to Kuwait Riders who organized the event. Then we proceeded to the Salmi border accompanied by many of our biker friends who we said good bye to and headed to Hafer Albatan with a total of 266 km, not bad for the first day.

Al-Watan News Paper has a half page about our start click here to view.

Leaving Tomorrow

Well we are almost packed and ready to go although I doubt that any one of us will get any sleep tonight since we are always restless before leaving. Kuwait Riders have organized a great ride, and we will be meeting at Kuwait towers @ 4 pm and then start ridding by 4:30 to Hafar Albatan (only 250 km).


We would like to thank all who have supported us especially those who don't want to be named, hope to see you all soon.



In this video Ali is demonstrating how we fit a full sleeping beg into a small satchel, he didn't believe it at first that it would fit.

Count Down

Our target date is still the 31st of March while Hussain is working on getting our visas and Ali found out that the ferry from Jeddah leaves on a Sunday and Thursday. I have got a quote for shipping the bikes back to Kuwait, and we all got the last of our inoculations (I think) last week for yellow-fever and each got a yellow vaccination card. We are still waiting for our tires, sleeping bags, and new HD Helmet Cams and I have to get my bike fully serviced before we start.