NETHERLANDS: 25-12-06 PREPERATIONS
- Created on Monday, 25 December 2006 10:34
- Written by Jan Eisenloeffel
A few more details to look after and all the items on my packing list are assembled. The remaining items will be gathered in the next few days.
The most worrisome item is the visa application for Ethiopia and the Sudan. After much ado and attention from my side the Ethiopia visa were secured earlier this month. However, when I checked the bill it became apparent that of our group of 4 only one person had received the correct 3 month visa. The other 3 had a useless 1 month visa stamped in their passports. By the time the passports had been retrieved from the Sudan Embassy where they had been delivered in the meanwhile and resubmitted and re-stamped at the Ethiopia Consulate in Brussels it was close to the “day before x-mas”! IF all goes well the Sudan stamp will be put in our passports Thursday 28 December. High time as I’ll be leaving for Cairo January 4.
The other item of major concern is ICT related. This website needs to be completed: the photo album, the sponsor form, the map of The Route. Then my “webmaster” Sophia and I need to learn and practice more on how to administrate the site. When I am on the road in Africa I’ll be mailing reports and photo’s home which Sophia will upload to the website. This brings me to the other ICT problem: the connection from my laptop to the Iridium/Motorola satellite phone, which I purchased through e-bay. The Africa SIM/Voucher only works from within the African continent and as a result I can’t test the set-up before leaving here. But help from a firm that specializes in this type of equipment I can get this concern settled this week.
Yes, I still get time to go out on my bike to keep in shape. The relatively warm and unusual dry weather we had so far in December has helped to keep the mileage up which stands 600 km’s until x-mas day. Anyway, my base condition is adequate and in the coming months there will be enough time to improve my speed. In the next few days I’ll be figuring out how to pack all my things into the prescribed size box in, and the bag on top of, the accompanying truck.
A little news item: my friend Ralph Tuijn and his brother Eric have just successfully completed a transatlantic row. In just under 3 months they rowed without any outside help from La Gomera to Willemstad in the Caribbean. Ralph was our expedition guide on the 2003 PolioRide, 12.000 km in three months from Vladivostok, Russia, to Scheveningen, Netherlands. You can read all about their rowing adventure on the website www.zeemanoceanchallenge.com; In February 2007 Ralph will continue rowing single-handedly from Peru to Australia where he hopes to arrive in September/October 2007.
The most worrisome item is the visa application for Ethiopia and the Sudan. After much ado and attention from my side the Ethiopia visa were secured earlier this month. However, when I checked the bill it became apparent that of our group of 4 only one person had received the correct 3 month visa. The other 3 had a useless 1 month visa stamped in their passports. By the time the passports had been retrieved from the Sudan Embassy where they had been delivered in the meanwhile and resubmitted and re-stamped at the Ethiopia Consulate in Brussels it was close to the “day before x-mas”! IF all goes well the Sudan stamp will be put in our passports Thursday 28 December. High time as I’ll be leaving for Cairo January 4.
The other item of major concern is ICT related. This website needs to be completed: the photo album, the sponsor form, the map of The Route. Then my “webmaster” Sophia and I need to learn and practice more on how to administrate the site. When I am on the road in Africa I’ll be mailing reports and photo’s home which Sophia will upload to the website. This brings me to the other ICT problem: the connection from my laptop to the Iridium/Motorola satellite phone, which I purchased through e-bay. The Africa SIM/Voucher only works from within the African continent and as a result I can’t test the set-up before leaving here. But help from a firm that specializes in this type of equipment I can get this concern settled this week.
Yes, I still get time to go out on my bike to keep in shape. The relatively warm and unusual dry weather we had so far in December has helped to keep the mileage up which stands 600 km’s until x-mas day. Anyway, my base condition is adequate and in the coming months there will be enough time to improve my speed. In the next few days I’ll be figuring out how to pack all my things into the prescribed size box in, and the bag on top of, the accompanying truck.
A little news item: my friend Ralph Tuijn and his brother Eric have just successfully completed a transatlantic row. In just under 3 months they rowed without any outside help from La Gomera to Willemstad in the Caribbean. Ralph was our expedition guide on the 2003 PolioRide, 12.000 km in three months from Vladivostok, Russia, to Scheveningen, Netherlands. You can read all about their rowing adventure on the website www.zeemanoceanchallenge.com; In February 2007 Ralph will continue rowing single-handedly from Peru to Australia where he hopes to arrive in September/October 2007.