Libyan Adventures! by Laurie Taylor Date: Wed, 2 Mar 2011
Yes, I know you are thinking that it was not the brightest idea to go to Libya, even if the Roman ruins beckoned and it was a wonderful opportunity to explore the famous Acacus Mountains, but February was the best month to visit the Sahara desert- not too hot, not too cold and the winds forecasted to be light. Further, of all the countries in North Africa, Libya- under the iron rule of Colonel Qaddafi- was believed to be the least impervious to the wave of uprisings sweeping the region! The tour, organised by the (as it subsequently turned out appropriately named) Exodus group, offered Libya as ''a well and truly adventurous destination for the discerning traveller''. The trip certainly lived up to its 'adventurous' claim! And, initially, all went smoothly with the planning; no adverse warnings from the UK Foreign Office and no problems with my on arrival Libyan Visa. A visit to Libya was not itself the objective, however, but more the opportunity to see at first hand the famous, well preserved Roman sites of Sabratha and Leptis Magna, plus to journey deep into the Sahara desert on a six day 4WD expedition to view the the ancient rock art hidden amongst the Acacus Mountains and to traverse both the Murzaq and Ubari Sand Seas. The tour commenced uneventfully on Saturday 12th February, with a scheduled flight from London to Tripoli; followed by a transfer to the hotel (past never ending series of patriotic hoardings and posters displaying pictures and quotations in homage to the Great Leader- Colonel Qaddafi.) and a subsequent group dinner in the central city area- our group comprised of eight Brits (one married couple, three ladies and three men); plus one Irish and one American lady. This was a well educated group all aged around 35/40 years old- with the exception of some more mature elders! Sunday followed with a conducted tour of Tripoli; the remaining Roman monuments in the city; the ancient medina and souk; the excellent Jamahiriya museum on Green (Martyrs) Square and the more modern 1930’s Italian colonial city area. Then, joined by a Government Tourist Policeman (as required in Libya for any group larger than 5), that afternoon we set off by bus, desert bound, for the Fezzan area of Libya- way down in the south west of the country close to the border with Niger. This long drive entailed an overnight stop in Gharyan, a nondescript, best forgotten town three hours drive south of Tripoli. Monday was taken up by a further long drive through numerous check-points and seemingly endless desert, to arrive late in the evening at the historic town of Germa, deep in the Sahara desert. That night, however, although tired by the long journey, we briefly viewed satellite television before retiring. It was then from watching Aljazeera and BBC World satellite television that we first learned of 'disturbances' in the Benghazi area of Cyrenaica, but went to bed confident that such local problems would have little effect on the rest of Libya! On Tuesday, early in the morning, we were then joined by our Berber drivers with their 4WD Toyotas and began our deep, off road, desert immersion. That day we visited the World Heritage site of Wadi Matkhandoush, to see the magnificent rock carvings of elephants, giraffes, hippos, crocodiles and other fauna, dating back some 12,000 years and illustrating the very different habitat and climate of that time- lakes, tropical flora and large wild animals. Then, continuing in a south west direction, we penetrated deep into the Murzaq Sand Sea (the size of Switzerland), surrounded by towering sand dunes, formed in dramatic sweeps and curves; honey golden in the setting sun. That night we camped out amongst the silent desert sands, under a star studded sky, bathed in the mystic silver moonlight of a full moon- a memorable experience in itself! After dinner and late into the night, our group sat at the fireside alongside our drivers, tour guide and policemen, drinking cups of sickly sweet tea and doing our best to join in the singing of Arabic songs! On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, continuing off road and sometimes driving at over 120 km/hr across the soft sands, our desert excursion took us in a sweeping loop through the spectacular scenery of the Acacus Mountains; high rocky cliffs, immense sand dunes and a further two nights moonlit camping. The stunning scenery (with its wind and sand eroded cliffs not dissimilar to Monument Valley) was captivating and, by itself, would have been enough to justify the journey, but the Acacus also held an amazing range of pre-historic rock art, with some of the earliest recorded paintings as old as 8,000 BC. The various rock carvings and rock painted scenes covered periods from 8,000 BC. through to comparatively recent times- these are placed by historians into various overlapping period groupings, reflecting the changing flora and fauna brought about by major climatic variations: Wild Fauna (10,000 BC. to 6,000 BC); Round Head- primitive drawings of people (8,000 to 6,000 BC.); Pastoral (5,500 BC. to 2,000 BC); Horse (1,000 BC. to 100 AD.); Camel (200 BC. to Present). On the Thursday night we returned to civilisation, staying at the small oasis town of Al Aweinat and it was here, once again via satellite television, that we learned that the uprising had affected the whole of eastern Libya, which was now in the hands of those opposed to the Qaddafi Government. Whilst this came as a surprise and held portents for the future of our remaining trip, our tour continued with an unchanged itinerary- probably because the desert areas were initially untouched by this uprising and our routing was in any case taking us back towards Tripoli, from where we were scheduled to depart Libya. Due to the increasing nervousness of our drivers and the obvious concerns of our tour leader, however, we were no longer under any illusions about the seriousness of the situation! Saturday, it was back to Germa, to visit the ruins of the ancient mud city of the Garamantine, whose empire that flourished from around 900 BC to 500 AD. and then to tour the local museum. That night, again huddled around the satellite television, we learnt of the latest details of the uprising and became aware that other towns throughout the country were spontaneously joining in the revolt! It became clear that the situation in the north was getting ever more serious! On Saturday, however, we continued northwards through the Ubari Sand Sea where our drivers had great boyish fun 'dune bashing' (like Top Gear boy presenters) up and down the short, sharp sand dune inclines of this vast sea of sand. Then, appearing like a mirage in this remote desert, we seemingly stumbled onto a strikingly beautiful picture postcard group of lakes- surrounded by palm trees but having very salty water of vividly different colours; some emerald green others aqua marine blue. Our more adventurous lads swam briefly in the hot waters of one, only to get stinging eyes and a thick coating of salt that could only be removed with great difficulty by using the fresh waters of an adjacent well. Then, we continued through the dunes again for what was to turn out to be our last desert camp. As if to confirm the seriousness of the situation, however, early that evening jet fighters and helicopter gunships flew over our campsite apparently enroute to Tripoli. And later that night, following further anxious mobile phone calls made by the drivers and discussions between our tour leader and his Tripoli office, we were advised it had been decided in the interests of safety that our itinerary would be cut short and we would return to Tripoli. This came as no surprise to the Group and, given the circumstances, no objections were raised. Accordingly, on the Sunday morning, we exited the sand dunes and via a long drive north made our way towards Garyat for our planned last scheduled overnight desert camp, before our next day journey to Tripoli. Events overtook us, however, as once close to Garyat and having linked up that evening with the bus due to take us onwards to Tripoli the next day, our 4WD drivers- probably in concern for their own families as much as being apprehensive at shepherding foreign nationals around during an civilian uprising- refused to continue further and to carry out the overnight camping programme with the provision of dinner and breakfast as scheduled. Whilst they did help to unload our luggage from the 4WD vehicles and onto the bus, they then made a swift departure, leaving us at a local, main road filling station. Subsequently, now at around 18:00 hours, our tour leader tried without success to arrange local accommodation for the night and, hence, it was decided to start back for Tripoli and attempt to find alternative accommodation along the way! Off into the gathering gloom we went, along the main north-south arterial road to Tripoli, passing unmanned check points and burnt out police stations, to attempt late that night to find hotel accommodation in a small town some five hours to the north. Reaching this town, our tour leader flagged down an obliging passing motorist who led us to a small hotel, which was unfortunately locked and shuttered. Not downhearted, the same motorist requested that we followed him back to his district where, later, he and his relatives graciously provided overnight accommodation for our whole party- including our tour leader, bus driver and tourist policeman: a kind act of hospitality under very tenuous circumstances. In a spare family owned apartment, we all rolled out our sleeping bags on the floors of various rooms and, after a refreshing night’s sleep interrupted by spasmodic automatic gunfire, early on the Tuesday morning we were again heading off on the road to Tripoli. In our whole ten hour, south to north journey, we only came across only one Government check point and saw no military presence until we reached Tripoli, where there was a further check point on the outskirts of the city- in these two nervous check-point situations our tourist policeman finally became of some use, his previously hidden revolver now on display, as he explained our ‘authorised’ presence and facilitated our smooth onward progress. Arriving in Tripoli early in the afternoon, we decamped to the city centre and a pleasant modern hotel some 300 metres from Green Square. On arrival, the Manager explained that there had been shootings (and deaths) in the adjacent roads over the last few nights, but that we would be safe as long as we stayed inside the hotel! Accordingly, we indeed stayed inside, whilst make discrete studies of the surrounding area from behind the windows and curtains of the hotel. Then, watching events unfold on the Aljazeera/English news channel, minute by minute we learned of the uprisings happening throughout the country and, also, of the situation a few hundred metres west in Green Square- a pro Government rally followed Qaddafi’s rambling, incoherent ninety minute speech TV speech; then subsequent automatic gunfire late into the night. On the Tuesday afternoon, being unable to contact the British Embassy on any telephone number, emergency or otherwise, or to learn of any finite details regarding the possible British evacuation flights that were talked of on the TV news programmes- our confirmed outward flights with British Airways having been cancelled on both the Tuesday, Wednesday and for the foreseeable future- we learned through the American in our party, who had been able to contact her Embassy, that a catamaran ferry chartered by the US Government was evacuating US Embassy personnel and other American citizens from Tripoli harbour later the next day. She was also advised that, if there was spare capacity, other foreign nationals would be evacuated on a first come first serve basis. Accordingly, the Exodus Agent bussed us down to the embarkation quay by 09:00 hours on the Wednesday morning, where we then queued for some five hours in wet, windy conditions before finally starting the embarkation processing procedure at 14:00 hours- luckily only some 200 Americans boarded allowing some 200 other nationalities to join them, but only after we all individually agreed to reimburse the US Government for all expenses incurred (in reality we signed a blank cheque!). Although a long and boring procedure, everything was well organised by the local US Embassy staff and belatedly, we finally boarded the Maria Delores (a Maltese catamaran manned by a Maltese crew and US Malta Embassy staff) at around 16:30 hours. Just when we thought we were safely aboard and on our way out of Libya, we were then advised that due to inclement weather- in fact the worst local storm and weather conditions in living memory had decided to roll in during the course of the day- we would remain overnight, tied up on the quay in Tripoli! And then overnight continued into the next day (Thursday), with the ship bouncing up and down against the dockside buffeted by high winds, and then onto another night and morning as the storm refused to abate- and all the time the unmentioned ‘elephant in the stateroom’ was the possibility of Qaddafi deciding to use the ship and its American/foreign nationals as some pawn in a game of political brinkmanship. The boat was moored only some 500 metres from Green Square and 100 metres from the main waterfront road, along which Qaddafi supporters could be seen driving up and down waving banners and machine guns from flag bedecked cars. The Embassy staff did their best to keep our spirits up with ample food and beverages, plus a never ending series of cartoons and the whole of the Star Wars film series. In addition, the American Vice Consul informed us that she had just spoken personally with Hilary Clinton who had advised her that we were her 'No. 1 priority at that time and that her thoughts and prayers were with us'- so we realised just how serious the situation was! Finally, after 48 hours aboard, and two nights of sleeping on the passenger deck floor, the catamaran set sail for Malta at around 15:30 hours- with escalating violence throughout the country, rumours of a Bhengazzi assault on Tripoli and immanent post Friday prayers protests, we set sail anyway despite the continuing stormy conditions. Once into of international waters, we were welcomed by the fly past of a US jet fighter as we made our slow progress through the huge swells of the weakening storm. The boat repeatedly plunged under the violent waves and many people were thrown about and received injuries to both head and limbs, whilst the majority were sea sick despite copious anti-sea sick pills having been distributed. We finally limped into Valetta harbour around 23:00 hours local time to be greeted by host of TV cameras and press reporters all clamouring for 'eye witness' details of Libyan incidents and atrocities. And finally my two minutes of fame arrived when, having been briefly interviewed by the Times on disembarking- I thought it to be the Times of Malta, but it turned out to be the Times of London- a brief paragraph was printed in the next day, Saturday edition quoting my name and interview statement! Having finally arrived safely in Malta, we found that Exodus’s local Agent had arranged for us to be met and taken to a local hotel for an overnight stay before a 05:00 hour’s transfer and 08:00 hour’s flight departure for London. More stress and rush before finally settling down to the flight home to London, where I was to spend the night at my son's apartment (watching the international rugby matches and England's victory over France!) before returning to Marbella and home. In all, having completed our desert itinerary and then having been advised that we were to be evacuated, it then took me six days to get back to Marbella and safety! And now, on reflection...........my adventure seems a little surreal as I sit safely in Spain whilst watching the continuing saga in Libya as it unfolds in the TV and newspaper reports. We met many friendly, hospitable and very helpful Libyans and it had seemed almost cowardly and uncharitable to speedily depart and to leave them to an uncertain fate! I am sure, however, that we all hope and pray that civil war is averted and Qadaffi and his regime are replaced by a democratic system which reflects the needs and aspirations of the Libyan people.
Short stories Spain by the U3A Marbella Writers Group