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SUDAN
'Oh, that the desert were my dwelling place.'
Byron
24th February
As anticipated, our visas at the Immigration Office at Gallabat caused problems with an unsmiling official, who declared that they had expired and we would have to return to Addis Ababa to apply for another. Pointing to all Moona's tippexing on the visas, we tried to explain that she had mixed up the 1 month length of stay and the 1 week validity of the visa and that when we had queried this with her at the Embassy in Nairobi, she had told us there was no problem, the officials would understand and we could extend it in Khartoum! But no, our passports were slapped back down to us and the rest of our conversation was drowned out by huge machinery constructing a new road just outside the door! We asked to see the chief but were told that he would not be arriving until 5 p.m. and that was over an hours wait.
The heat and dust outside took our breath away, so we settled down inside and had a nice surprise when the chief arrived a little earlier than expected. The men, including Bill, all retired to a back room to discuss the matter, with another interested official who fortunately could speak some English but no, when they all reappeared, the answer was the same, back to Addis. This was going to be hard work now, we had been stamped out of Ethiopia and the thought of hours returning on all those roads just couldn't happen! I pointed to the framed words on the wall that stated 'Well Come' with following words indicating, that the best service would be given to all travellers arriving in Sudan and wishing them a happy stay and a safe journey. I also pointed out that this was the first time we had encountered problems at a border in the whole of our trip and that we had heard such lovely reports about Sudan and its people from other travellers, which was in fact quite true. And so our pleas continued, until slowly we could see them beginning to relent and smiles finally appeared. Madam was asked to sit down as she was beginning to feel tearful, whilst the necessary paper was slipped inside our passports, hands were shaken and all was well!
We joined Alain and Claude and we were on our way through a very flat, hot, dry and dusty Sudan. We pulled off the road about 30 kilometres outside of Gallabat to camp, so peaceful it reminded us of bush camping in West Africa.
25th February
Our Wedding Anniversary and so a bottle of wine went into the fridge to be shared this evening but which must be drunk discreetly, as this is a mainly Muslim country with strict Islamic laws.
Local people walked down the track near to where we were camping, waving a greeting and continuing on their way without curiosity or hassle. Wonderful! What a difference just a border can make!
Once on our way to Khartoum, official checks and diesel stops were met with smiles, help and impressed comments, as we tried our smattering of Arabic. There were no children shouting for things and the flat, asphalt road, although used by lorries piled high with people or sacks of grain and cotton etc. were not made more hazardous by straying animals and crowds of people.
We all stopped for lunch and sat ourselves down inside a group of huts by the roadside selling cold drinks and various, hot dishes. Through the open doorway, the wind was whipping up the sand, the men's long, loose jallabiyas were billowing and the horizon was looking yellow and thick with dust. The flies were loving our food, the temperature obviously not hot enough to kill them off completely yet, although we were wilting! Payment for our meal drew a whole crowd of people all trying to help but confusing us even more, especially as we were trying to get our heads around the latest dinar notes but the prices for our meal were quoted in the old Sudanese pounds, which are gradually being phased out.
Back on the road the whole horizon had turned into a watery mirage from the intense heat, with tracks heading off into a brown desert scoured by the wind, plastic bags blown up against every bush and fence and herds of goats scavenging amongst the rubbish and heading off onto a hazy sky. We were drinking water from our bottles as if from a hot tap. Women passed as vivid splashes of colour, pulling light and beautifully coloured fabric around them, as it rippled in the wind.
We crossed the Blue Nile at Wad Medani and this would follow us now on our right all the way to Khartoum, where it converged with the White Nile. This road was really busy and traffic travelled at a tremendous speed.
We found National Camping in Khartoum following our GPS, thanks to Rielle and Jeroen our Dutch friends, who had already made the trip north to Sudan. The advice and information that we received from them in Gonder will be very useful from now on.
26th February - 2nd March
Khartoum is said to be one of the safest cities in Africa and it felt that way, with everyone we approached wanting to help, making sure we could find places and helping with the language. Listening to our attempts at Arabic, they would laugh, shake hands and exchange names, always interested in where we had come from and our nationalities.
Khartoum was a huge city divided into 3 parts, the oldest part (Khartoum), Omdurman on the west bank of the Nile and Khartoum North on the northern bank.
National Camping in the old part of Khartoum, was a very friendly place where we had a huge, sand area surrounded by trees all to ourselves. However, it was also a campsite for refugees from Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia where the families would stay until they had been screened, had medical check-ups and then helped by the UN to make new lives in such countries as Australia and Canada. The men and women had separate sleeping and ablution areas, but once the women had finished their seemingly, never ending pile of washing, they would join the men on the grass areas under the trees and brew coffee and chat. I was invited to join them one day and sat amongst them to watch their fascinating method of making coffee. Water was boiled in an old, tin can on a few pieces of charcoal and then poured into a very, small coffee pot, that had some grass folded and pushed into the end of the spout to act as a filter. This was then placed on a small ring on a few more pieces of charcoal, to keep hot. I was given the coffee on a tray, in a small, china glass with lots of sugar in the bottom, together with a chunk of sweetened bread. I thought that the coffee would taste very strong but in fact it was delicious. These families sitting around me were from Somalia and Eritea. The women had beautiful smiles and we all communicated with gestures and more smiles. The children were also beautifully behaved. They loved to come over to our camping area to see what we were doing, help with the washing and carry things for me. They thought my yellow, rubber gloves so funny when I showed them how to turn them inside out and pop out the fingers! Each day they would play with these and try to do the same, shrieking with laughter! Every child always began with an Arabic greeting, shook hands and never once asked for anything. When they left, they always said goodbye and shook hands again. One of the older girls helped me put my shopping away and we had fun counting out the onions and potatoes etc. first in English for her and then in Arabic for me.
I did my washing with the women outside at the tap and everywhere we were met by genuine smiles and waves. Nobody walked by without a greeting and a smile and it was a very pleasant place to be.
Obtaining money was not so easy however, without any ATM's for our Visa card. We were told to try the Byblos Bank and things looked hopeful, until the manager discovered that our American card and Travellers Cheques had restrictions, due to sanctions. The bank kindly changed some of our remaining dollars into local currency however but we will have to be careful, as these are needed to pay for the boat from Wadi Halfa to Aswan in Egypt.
We visited the Libyan Embassy but they were unable to help us obtain our visas and suggested that we try in either Cairo or Alexandria.
Registering at the Aliens Registration Office in Khartoum only took a couple of hours, thanks again to Rielle and Jeroen's advice and to National Camping for providing us with the necessary letter of introduction and acting as our guarantor.
We visited the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife who were very helpful and also found us some interesting and informative booklets.
Our other travelling friends arrived, Sandra and Frank and Cissy and Marcel with Abby and Luke from England, who were also returning home. Bram and Marianne with their 3 children from Holland arrived a little later and so our numbers were growing!
We visited The Mahdi's Tomb, an interesting, domed and painted structure where we were invited inside. Religious leader Mohammed Ahmed-Al Mahdi started a political and religious revolt against the government in 1881. When he died, a tomb with a shining, silver dome was built in his honour and a pilgrimage to this site became an important journey for the Sudanese. Although the British destroyed this tomb when they were in power, the present one is a copy of the original.
Friday was also an important day for followers of the Quadiriyah Religious Sect introduced by Sheikh Hamad El-Nil, a 19th century Sufi leader. They gathered outside his tomb and mosque on a dusty piece of ground at about 5 p.m. where drums and cymbals encouraged chanting and dancing, in celebration of Allah. This was a spectacle not to be missed and it attracted huge crowds of local people, who were also encouraged to join in with the chanting and swaying. Some of the clothes worn by the people in the centre were very unusual and colourful, with strange hats and rows and rows of chunky beads. Incense was wafted around the crowd and many dancers appeared lost in a trance, as the drumming and chanting reached a crescendo. The celebrations were still continuing as we left just before sunset.
3rd March
We left Khartoum today with Sandra, Frank, Abby and Luke to begin the journey to Wadi Halfa. The others will join us later. Omdurman was full of activity after the Friday weekend and it took us some time to crawl through the traffic that was almost at a standstill through the huge souk, said to be the largest in the country.
Once out of town the scenery became a flat, desert landscape of ochre sand, stunted trees and bushes and scattered, flat-roofed, mud and brick dwellings with goats and camels searching for food. At Abu Dom, the tarmac ran out and the desert track made it a dusty journey. We found a quiet spot to camp but near enough to the road for Cissy and Marcel to see our lights, as they were hoping to catch up with us some time later.
4th March
Up at 6 a.m. still dark and VERY cold but a beautiful, sharp, orange horizon appeared below a clear, dark blue sky and white moon.
We drove to Dongola where we registered with the Security Police and then to the banks of the Nile, where we had to wait for quite some time for the ferry, as only one was working. These dusty banks however, were full of activity, crowded with people, vehicles and donkey and horse drawn carts loaded with onions, palm-woven baskets full of tomatoes, bundles of alfalfa, sacks of cement and water carriers. Children carried round trays of sweets and stalls sold drinks and bread filled with spicy felafel. The little donkeys arriving off the ferry with their carts heavily loaded, struggled to get up the steep, river bank, desperately digging in their toes and sometimes falling to their knees. Bill and Luke rushed down the bank a number of times to help push the carts from behind.
Three of our vehicles were finally beckoned on to the ferry, with much manoeuvring to allow a very small car to squeeze in between Moby and a military Land Rover. Donkeys and a horse were also led on and quickly removed from the shafts of their empty carts, which were then stood up on end. There were only inches to spare between everything. Crowds of people had already taken up their positions with all kinds of goods. Safely across and unloaded, we all had to wait for the ferry to return with a new load and for Sandra and Frank and their Landy to get on the next crossing.
From Dongola we followed the Nile, surely a wonder of the world, this massive river threading it's way through the desert, creating ribbons of green on each side and edged with palms. Nubian villages lined the banks, their flat, mud buildings looking absolutely beautiful, painted in shades of ochre, yellow, grey, pale green and blue, terracotta and of course, white. Some were simply left with their smooth coating of brown mud. Many had their shuttered windows painted in a different colour, bright blue appearing to be a popular choice and which looked stunning with the yellow. Walls that surrounded the homes created large courtyards inside and the metal doors set into these, were very often a special feature, with geometric designs painted in bright colours. Such simply but cleverly designed buildings, that created wonderful contrasts of straight and curved lines, shadows and light. Many of the painted houses and walls also displayed simple, white, geometric designs. Large, clay pots containing water, were grouped under trees or mud and palm shelters in the shade for the weary traveller and small, dome-shaped buildings provided homes for pigeons. This was going to be a particularly interesting part of our journey.
Nubia stretches from just before Dongola to Aswan in Egypt and the Nubian people have their own culture and language.
By late afternoon, the piste took us away from the Nile, through a mountainous, desert landscape of black rocks and large boulders. It took us a while to determine the correct track amongst the many and this piste was badly corrugated in parts, as well as having some deep pockets of sand that filled the air with a thick, yellow cloud. The sun turned the palm trunks to orange as it began to sink in a fiery ball behind us. We pulled off into the desert just before dark, not quite so cold but with a full, bright moon and absolute quiet.
5th March
We continued our journey alongside the Nile with fields of dark green wheat and alfalfa and also passed numerous villages, where people smiled and waved a welcome. No wonder these people looked so relaxed surrounded by such a beautiful environment, the Nile and an abundance of crops on one side and the quiet of a vast desert and mountains on the other. Men sat under the shade of trees, chatting and drinking tea in their startlingly white jallabiyas, in contrast to the women who were swathed in brightly coloured tobes. This beautiful part of Sudan, following the Nile through the Nubian villages, has certainly been another highlight of our journey. Our thoughts went back to our trip in Nico's microlight in Namibia, how spectacular it would be to fly along this route also!
The badly corrugated piste continued through the desolate, uninhabited and mountainous area that followed and where we lost each other in clouds of dust. This part of the journey had taken us inland and for a while we lost the Nile. With only 20 kilometres left before reaching Wadi Halfa, we expected to see it over the brow of every hill. Finally, Lake Nasser appeared looking very blue, with the town of Wadi Halfa beyond. It had taken us 3 full days of driving from Khartoum to reach here. The late, afternoon sun had turned the sand to an orange glow and sharpened the shadows, as a Bedouin rode by on his camel, loaded with bags and sacks.
We turned off into the desert, near to the edge of the lake to camp for the night. Sandra kindly cooked extra food for us as we discovered our rear door would not open. By 10.30 p.m. we still had not succeeded, the rear roll cage and mesh separating the front and back of our vehicle, making it very difficult to access the lock, that we think has probably got full of dust and dirt. We go to bed and sleep on it.
6th - 16th March
Wadi Halfa was once a busy, Nubian town, until the beginning of the 1960s when the construction of the Aswan Dam flooded the Nile. This brought an end to the once thriving town. A number of inhabitants were relocated, although many remained to rebuild their homes. There is now a fishing industry there but apart from ferry day, the town remains a quiet and relaxed place, with a good fruit and vegetable market and some well-stocked grocery stores.
Bill managed to finally open our rear door by dismantling the lock and discovered that dust, as he had thought, was the cause of the problem.
We drove into Wadi Halfa later to see Mazir, who dealt with the ferry to Aswan. However, the news was not as expected. There was no boat with an engine to pull an empty barge for us and the only other barge, was full with bags of cement and not being unloaded due to a dispute over pay. The regular, Wednesday ferry only took passengers but not vehicles. Perhaps a boat with an engine would arrive by Thursday or Saturday from Aswan.....inshallah! Mazir invited us all back to his house for tea but the family insisted that we must also eat before we left, such kind but typical hospitality. Mazir's lovely, cool house was built around a courtyard, completely open to the elements and when we queried this he said quite simply, that it never rained!
Frank and Luke went fishing and despite the heat, were successful in catching three fish. We cooked them over a fire and they made a tasty meal.
There was still no news about a boat for us all when we returned to see Mazir later in the week. The men in our group checked out the harbour and asked the captain of some Egyptian vessels having cement unloaded, if they could take us on board when they returned to Aswan. Unfortunately, because they were army boats, this was not possible.
We moved away from our camping place by the lake and moved further into the desert, as the flies were becoming really unpleasant. So quiet and so much space, we could have been miles from anywhere. The stars were beautiful at night. However, cold, cold winds blew through the valleys between the dunes and rocky outcrops and we seemed unable to escape them. Jackets and fleeces were needed most mornings and evenings and we continually manoeuvred the vehicles to get out of the wind for cooking.
We were able to fill up with water whenever we needed, at either the fish factory, or at a local house with two delightful girls, who used to bring out dishes of sweets for us. We also filled our plastic shower bag and tied it to the bonnet, so that by the end of the day the sun had heated up the water. However, although the water temperature was wonderful, we never managed to have a comfortable, hot shower, as the wind chill always spoilt it for us!
Every time we visited Mazir our hopes were dashed, it looked as if we were going to be in for a much longer wait than expected!
For some of our group the wait was becoming difficult but for me the desert was wonderful. I went for long walks wrapped up against the sun and wind with one of the beach wraps from Mombassa wound around my head and face, leaving trails of footprints in the smoothest of sand, that would soon disappear for ever as the wind filled them in again. I found pieces of petrified wood and beautifully coloured, smooth, weathered stones. I climbed to the top of sand and rock hills and looked across to distant desert views of grey and yellow dunes, always at their most beautiful in the late afternoon sun. It was a magical place!
After 10 days of waiting in the desert, visiting the little market for fruit and vegetables, yoghurt, eggs and cheese (when available) and becoming addicted to the cheap, local bread filled with falafel from the hot food stall next to Mazir's office, we were beginning to recognise a number of local faces and stopping to chat.
Still no boat from Aswan however and the barge at the docks was still full of bags of cement! We were invited to Mazir's home again where we met Grandma, who was said to be about 88, sadly bedridden but lovely to 'talk' to with smiles and hand signals and the odd words understood. Abby and I had our finger tips covered in henna and ended up looking as if we were heavy smokers! This would take a long time to disappear we were assured - oh dear! We were brought delicious, mint tea in glasses and told once again that we must eat before we left. A large tray was brought in with three bowls containing rice and vegetables that we scooped up with Arabic bread. Delicious!
Even Mazir and his uncle were becoming a little concerned now at our delay and made some suggestions that could help to get us on our way. It seemed that there were 3 options; to wait until the cement was unloaded, which could be some time as payment could still not be agreed upon, pay ourselves for it to be unloaded, (which was greeted with great indignation from everyone), or pay 53 dollars more each vehicle, which would then cover the cost of bringing a boat with an engine from Aswan, to pull the empty barge sitting in the harbour. This should arrive within 2 days and we could then leave immediately.
After much discussion we all opted to pay the extra, it seemed we really didn't have a choice, as we will soon have been waiting here for 2 weeks. Claude and Alain and Bram and his family had also arrived by now and so there were 6 cars and a trailer! Dave and Heidi had also turned up but they planned to leave their Landy at Mazir's house and take the Wednesday ferry with Bram's family to Aswan and then fly to Cairo for a holiday, before returning to South Africa.
17th March
We were finally allowed to enter the harbour today! A small boat with an engine had arrived from Aswan and the paperwork was underway! We camped by the lake inside the harbour and it really looked as if this might possibly be our last night in Sudan.
18th March
A blue sky but still that bitterly, cold wind, as Mazir came striding across the sand with his usual big smile, to collect our passports and ask if we were ready to load on to the barge!!
We arranged the vehicles and trailer on the barge with the two Land Rovers at the back. The little boat that was to pull us, had to turn around and attach itself to our barge. Wooden crates of oranges and sacks of onions had to be unloaded, food brought on board for the captain and his crew and finally, the customs officials had to arrive to stamp our passports. This all took some time but soon after noon, the engine of the little boat burst into life, belching out black diesel smoke and fumes and we slowly left the harbour behind, waving to everyone on shore.
We made good progress during the day and had made a space between the vehicles where we could put our chairs and also shelter from the wind, that was still very strong. None of the vehicles were tied down and Moby, needing new shock absorbers, bounced up and down quite alarmingly at times and the little boat pulling us shuddered and rattled as it caught the waves and gusts of wind. We often wondered how it all held together but at least the engine appeared very strong! We could be in for an uncomfortable night though, as the crew were uncertain about us putting up our roof tents due to the wind.
As we arrived in Egyptian waters on Lake Nasser, the engine was shut down. We then had to wait for officials from a customs post on shore, to come out in a motorboat to check all our passports.
Just as it was getting dark, we passed Abu Simbel on the distant shore, a mass of lights, with a large cruise ship anchored close by. A sound and light performance was in progress at the great temples there and through binoculars we could see the enormous statues of Ramses II and the smaller statues of himself and his favourite wife Nefertari on the second temple, changing colour and all for free!
We soon realised that once it was dark, the lights on our small boat, were probably totally obscured by our tall vehicles. There was no navigation system, not even a compass and we really wondered how our crew knew the way or were able to see other shipping. Lots of shouting confirmed our doubts, as a vessel was suddenly sighted uncomfortably close and the captain asked if he could borrow a torch from one of us, to flash a signal. From then on things only seemed to get worse. There was more shouting and running up to the front of the barge by the crew a short while later, engines were quickly shut down and we all also rushed to the front to see a dark line, looming close..... we were heading towards land! Small boats with outboard motors suddenly appeared from out of the darkness and pulled up alongside. Lots of shouting from everyone and we presumed advice was being given, to get us heading in the right direction. Our boat was turned, using a series of one, two or three hoots, depending on the direction it was to go and we were off again, water rushing by at a tremendous speed! Perhaps now we could think of turning in for the night. We were just getting ready to do this when there was more commotion, with the crew once again, running to the front of the barge, shouting and pointing. A serious grinding noise and juddering sent us all also rushing to the side. My head torch picked out a massive bank of rock, an unbelievable sight, I could have waded ashore! We had run aground on rocks, a few metres from an island! A guy suddenly appeared over the rocks with a torch, waving it madly and more, small boats surrounded us once again, shouting advice. The engine went quiet for a while but then with more hooting and shouting, to manoeuvre the barge back into deeper water again, we eventually were on our way once more. Our tents were put up at the last minute, as the wind was still strong, although Bram, Cissy and Marcel and Claude and Alain were able to sleep inside their vehicles. We had been in our tent about 20 minutes when again, there was more commotion, the engine shut down and there was more jolting and scraping. Thinking we were once more off course and had run aground again, we rushed to open up the front of our tents and saw a huge wall of yellow rock straight in front of us. However, this time, the captain had made the decision to stop for the night. We all breathed a sigh of relief, the barge was secured on rocks and we could relax and enjoy some sleep at last!
19th March
Bill's birthday!!
We were up at 6 a.m. to see the sun rise over the rocky hills, the lake was very still and a few fishing boats glided by. Bill gave the captain a spanner to tighten up the propeller shaft gland, whilst Claude blew up some balloons to tie on Moby.
Bill was presented with a cake from everyone, decorated with K & K's (chocolate covered peanuts). This was divided up for everyone, including the crew. Two of the crew came on to the barge and began to sing, dance and clap, beating out a rhythm on an old tin tray. It was then present time. A calendar from Claude and Alain, rolled up and beautifully decorated with two, red, plastic flowers and birthday wishes from everyone written on the back. Claude, an expert in threading beads, had sat yesterday and made him a green and yellow, Nile crocodile. Cissy and Marcel presented him with a little pot for his coffee and Luke and Abby added music, with an appropriate CD and had also found him a wooden chicken crate that would be useful for burning on the Kelly Kettle! Sandra had cleverly designed and coloured a birthday card. A photo session had to follow!
It was a restful day with everybody amusing themselves, from working on websites, joining Claude's Crocodile Club to learn how to thread beads to make more crocodiles, reading books and Land Rover Owner magazines, taking photos and scanning the banks of the Nile for the Amada Temple and Castle Ibrim. At the end of the afternoon, Claude brought out some Ouzo (Greek drink) that we diluted with water, put out some nibbles and we all drank Bill's good health. Certainly a birthday with a difference and one to remember!
Lake Nasser had turned to a sheet of glass, the horizon disappeared in a haze and the rocky islands appeared to float. It was quite beautiful but also eerie. The day ended in drama, with poor Sandra missing her footing as she went to collect her torch from the boat crew and plunging into the water in the narrow gap between the barge and the boat. It was dark and I had been standing at the back of the boat and saw it happen in a split second. It was very scary and easy to see how people could be lost overboard. Fortunately, three of the crew had been standing on the edge of their boat ready to hand over the torch and so were able to pull her out immediately. Sandra fortunately saw the funny side, saying that she was the only one that had managed to have a shower!
We continued gliding through the still water for a bit longer, until the crew found another rocky island to pull up to and Frank held the lamp, whilst ropes were secured around the rocks. Not a breath of wind and once the engine had been shut down, we were in for a peaceful night.
20th March
The engine burst into life soon after 4 a.m. pouring out diesel fumes and nearly suffocating us in our tents at the back of the barge. Another very hot and still day and quite uneventful, until we arrived at Aswan.
It took nearly an hour to manoeuvre the barge up to the concrete ramp so we could unload the vehicles. It seemed that this was also the first time that our crew had done it and there was a lot of shouting and confusion over how to do this, from the boat as well as from the dock, with everyone giving advice at the same time!
We were finally all on shore after a journey that could only be looked back upon, as being a real experience!
We have only seen a small part of this huge country, the largest in Africa, bordered by 9 other countries, with some borders sadly closed, due to conflict and political problems. However, the scenery that we have passed through was wonderful, the people amongst some of the friendliest that we have met in Africa and it is definitely high on our list of the countries that we would love to return to.
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