Day 115 - 22nd February- Zliten

Point of departure: Tobruk

Point of arrival : Zliten

Accommodation: Hotel Zliten

Km travelled today: 1 090 kmCum: 20 463km (gravel 0km cum 4 649km)

Countries so far: 10/16

Where to next? Tripoli

This was going to be the first of two long days but with advice from our guide, Wesam, we decided to make today even worse (1 100km instead of 800km) and make tomorrow more manageable and relaxed. Although it was a 06h00 start, the day was in fact not too bad with the first 400km across the wide expanses of the Sahara desert (largest in the world) fairly painless. We also shared the driving, and with it the tedium of the road. As the Lonely Planet Guide says "this bit of road through the desert is gun barrel straight, barely a hump, hardly a bend and steady speeds of 120km plus quite durable (and with the fuel the equivalent of R1,00 per litre, no thoughts of fuel conservation! And we thought Sudan at R3 and Egypt at R1,50 per litre was cheap!) We bypassed Sirt (our original stop) and the birthplace of Colonel Muammer Gadhafi, although once back on the coast the road was a little more interesting, with evidence of Libya's quest for an agricultural economy, with quite a lot of greenery, cultivation, irrigation projects etc. These irrigation projects, and the rest of Libya's water supply originate from their "Great Manmade Rivers" (GMR) - tapping water from subterranean lakes below the Sahara Desert and piping it through to the towns along the coast.

We arrived at Zliten just after 18h00, and John still had enough energy to re- organise the roof carrier. Early supper with Wesam and early to bed.