My last UN country and I must admit I was nervous and anxious. What if there was an issue? What if they didn’t let me in? What if I was stuck on 192?
But luckily everything went smoothly and when the plane touched down in Tripoli, this wave of emotion hit me. I composed myself and went to the immigration queue and waited fairly quietly to be stamped in and have my passport returned. Sadly, we had been warned not to bring alcohol in, so it would not be my usual type of celebration, but that could wait til I was back in Tunis.
I already knew my buddy Gary was on the trip, but I was so shocked to walk into gate 57 at Tunis airport and find my buddy Brett there too! It was so good to see him. I'd met both Gary and Brett in Nigeria, nearly a year before and both are great guys, easy to travel with and fun to talk to. I was still trying to remember the names of everyone else I'd be travelling with for the week.
We got on the bus and were driven through the streets of Tipoli to our hotel. Tripoli looked modern, and clean and there were lots of shops - shops you'd recognise - Zara, M&S, Debenhams... Quite unexpected, given Libya has been somewhat closed off to the world for over 10 years. On arriving at the hotel, it was already 6pm and the only plan was dinner. I took some chill time and msgd my parents and some travel buddies to let them know I made it and was at 193 and tried to take in the moment! I slept well that night and was looking forward to exploring Libya.
The next day, we had a long drive, heading South, if you were looking on a map, we were heading to Ghadames, where Tunisia, Algeria and Libya meet on a map. It was in the desert, and it was cold in the morning and evenings, and hot during the day. We made several stops - mainly for coffee, but also at an old Berber Granary, where food was stored by different families.
This was our first experience of being followed constantly by the police. Ive had this in countries before, and in general, it just gets a bit annoying. But in Libya, it felt different. They were so happy to see foreigners, they wanted pictures, of us, with us, etc. I was very conscious I was in a muslim country, and when we landed in Tripoli, I got my headscarf out and put it on. A local chap, said to me "you don't need to wear that in Libya, you're not Muslim". I must admit I was relieved. We asked the police, if I could take a photo with my back tattoo showing, and they agreed, taking many photos themselves. Things were far more relaxed than I would ever have envisaged them being in Libya.
We stopped for lunch just south of Nalut, where we had out first homemade meal (mine without the chickpeas) and man, was the food spicy!!! My mouth was on fire! Brett had even taken the chillies off my plate to have himself! Wow!!
Next we went to the dinosaur museum. There were a number of dinosaurs found in the Libyan desert. and we got to hold a dinosaur tooth and see a dinosaur egg. Kinda cool and definitely unexpected.
We then stopped at an old settlement that had been abandoned - populations would move when the houses started to crumble and start again, and that what had happened here.
Our final stop was for sunset, where we messed around taking photos on the rather desolate road and watched the sun set. I'd started watching the four part Netflix film, I'd downloaded called "All the light we cannot see". Its about a blind girl during World War II and despite my crappy blurry eye sight, I was in awe of what this girl had been able to do. It gave me hope, that one day, maybe I would get over myself and start to learn braille so that in future, I could continue to read independently. I'm still slightly convinced it will never get that bad, but in reality, it is quite likely.
Ghadamès, aka "the pearl of the desert" is situated in an oasis. It is a pre-Saharan city and also one of the oldest and quite beautiful in its structure, layout and greenery.
It is the epitome of a traditional settlement, with storage on the ground floor, family space (bedrooms, living room) on the first floor, and a roof that contains the kitchen or the "women space". The women tend to move around across the roof areas.
The men take the alleyways on the ground floor. The houses are decorated by the women and look nothing like anything Ive seen previously.
They have built air vents based where the houses sit next to each other, creating both air flow for calling and light.
The doors that have yellow on them, are a sign to show that people from the house have done the hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca).
The Berbers, also created water systems and ensured they had water all year round.
There was also, as part of this city, one of the first girls schools in Libya, that is now on the 20 dinar note. It is no longer a girls school, but it was quite famous, at one time.
After walking round the old city, we took 4x4's out into the desert, to an old fort, which we hiked to and looked out over the invisible border between Algeria, Tunisia and Libya.
Afterwards, we drove up the sand dunes to watch the sunset.
In the evening, we went to a cultural show, where there was a lot of dancing.
I was exhausted, and wished we could just go back to the hotel (I felt bad about feeling like this). During the break, a cake was presented to me - a fantastic way to celebrate reaching my 193 UN countries, and Brett had even managed to find some moonshine to top things off!
We then had the long drive back to Tripoli, with only one stop. That stop was Termsa, and I had zero expectations as I'd never heard of the place! When we arrived, It was a very pleasant surprise for most of us. It reminded me very much of the "Edge of the World" outside Riyadh, where you can see forever over the desert - spectacular views and the remains of a town where the berbers hid from the romans, during their time in Libya.
We kept having lunch in these amazing wedding venues - totally bizarre, but equally quite fun. Today there was a stage and we took turns of having out photos taken!
It was a long day, but we eventually got back to Tripoli, only to sit in some of the worst traffic Ive ever seen! Wow, night time is when the Libyans come out in force!!
Finally, it was the day we were going to see the Roman ruins, and the reason I'd been so excited to coming to Libya. There were two sights we were going to see. Sabratha and Leptis Magna - today was Sabratha. Sabratha was once a Phoenician trading-post that was used to get African products to Europe before being "Romanised" and during the 2nd and 3rd centuries A.D was rebuilt.
Sabratha is quite a small site, although what it lacks in size, it makes up for in how spectacular the ruins are. With mausoleums, columns and the amazing theatre that have been found, there are still much of the ruins still below ground awaiting funds for them to be uncovered.
Andrew and I checking out how comfortable the toilets were!
The theatre was where I'd decided to get my "193" photos as it was meant to be the most spectacular part of the trip, and I must admit, I was blown away by the three storey backdrop of the theatre. Yngwie, our tour leader was also a professional photographer, so he took some amazing photos to mark the occassion!
I was sad to leave the theatre, but we got a picture of everyones country count, which showed just how well travelled the group was!
After a quick lunch, we got to walk around Tripoli, a really bustling city, full of life, and incredibly kind and friendly people, always offering us tea and coffee, wanting to speak with us, and so grateful to see foreigners walking around and seeing what Libya was like.
We walked around the old town and the souk, and ended up in a square where the locals enjoyed drinking coffee and meeting to have a chat. Life in many cultures is the same, people just getting on living their own lives.
We went for dinner, then strolled back to the hotel in the dark, enjoying being allowed to walk around (with only one visible police escort) rather than being on a bus escorted by the police at all times.
I woke to many Happy Birthday messages. Today I was 40, having completed my personal life goal at 39. Today was also Leptis Magna day and I was so happy that it was on my birthday. I had heard so many great things about Leptis Magna and today I got to go see for myself!
Leptis Magna is far bigger than Sabratha, and just as spectacular. Leptis Magna was a prominent Roman city, enlarged and embellished by Septimius Severus. Severus was born in Leptis Magna and made it a focal point of the empire when he became emperor. It was one of the Roman Empires most beautiful cities.
The theatre, the amphitheatre, the market place, monuments and shops. There was so much to see and luckily we got to spend the whole day exploring the different parts.
Again Yngwie kindly took photos to mark the occasion of my milestone 40th birthday! Thanks you again Yngwie!!
We went for a beautiful fish dinner with birthday cake and that was the final dinner of our trip. The next day we flew back to Tunis, where those of us staying the night, headed straight to the bar for a celebratory drink! Great trip and a really memorable country! I look forward to returning to Libya to see the East side of the country.
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