Smiles

• Sudan has WONDERFUL tar roads, built by the Chinese. That also means that Jannie had to do some very glib talking to get himself out of a speed fine – the first encounter with the cops since Tanzania. The two shortcuts that we took through the desert, each a few hundred kilometres long, allowed us to avoid the numerous little villages along the Nile. Both were new asphalt, allowing for a cruising speed of 140km/h.
• Fuel costs R4,50/litre.
• There are signs of oil money everywhere. Khartoum is a much better organised city than Addis, for example.
• People do not live on the road, neither do their livestock.
• The confluence of the White Nile and the Blue Nile is impressive, so too the various bridges over the Nile in Khartoum.
• The Omdurman souk is madness, we did not venture into it on foot, but drove the length of it twice to absorb the chaos and the atmosphere – certainly worth seeing, Africa at its most characteristic.
• At the 2000-year-old Meroe pyramids, we were the only tourists. What a thrill! We had to smile at our own stupidity, this was going to be an overnight stop with lovely sunset photos, but with the mercury at 46 degrees, we quickly changed our mind.
• A phone call to Mazar Mahir, our highly recommended fixer in Wadi Halfa, revealed that the cargo ferry would be leaving port at 12:00 on Monday 16 Sept, and that there was space on it for the Prado. We could then leave on the passenger ferry on Tuesday 17^th. Our initial plan was to take the ferry from Wadi to Aswan on the 24^th, but the heat (both of us are beach bums and particularly fond of hot climes, but this is something else) and the fact that we were already a few days ahead of schedule, made us decide to push on to Wadi, “voet in die hoek”. That meant we would reach Aswan a whole week earlier, and we like the thought of spending the extra time at the very end of our trip relaxing at Sharm el Sheik resort on the Red Sea.
• Fresh fruit everywhere. Watermelons especially, and we indulged!
• We finally got the official alien sticker in our passports, in Wadi, and the passenger ferry arrived, as scheduled, on Monday. We’re holding thumbs for its timeous departure on Tuesday.

Tears

• It is very, very difficult to travel in the Sudan. Hardly any English is spoken and almost all signboards are in Arabic. With T4A still not a great help, we’ve been seriously challenged trying to find our way.
• Alien registration within three days of entering Sudan is a law. We tried to get this done (cost: $40/person) at the border, but they did not know their a.. from their elbow. We were told to do so at the next big town, where we went on a wild goose chase. Eventually the head of Gedaref police told his flunkies to sort us out, but they were none the wiser and told us to get this done in Khartoum. In the capital, we eventually located the office where this has to be done, but the four or five guys who were hanging about in the courtyard, lounging on string beds, could not speak English so we were not helped there either. What a bother!
• The camping facilities in the car park of the Blue Nile Sailing Club in Khartoum are really disgusting. Dirty and dusty with an erratic water supply; obviously there is no water in the showers just when you have soaped your dry body all over in anticipation of a cold refresher. We stayed two nights only because we arrived at 21:00 on Friday evening. Our initial plan had been to bush camp, but there were so many people in the vicinity of Wad Medani that we decided to push on to Khartoum. Of course it was Friday night and we got stuck in traffic (Nairobi again, but not quite as bad).
• Sunday morning traffic is like Monday elsewhere, incoming cars and roads, even bridges, turned into one ways, which made it hard to find our way out of the city via Khartoum North.
• On the road from Meroe to Karima, heavy trucks and tankers en route to Port Sudan spoil the fun of a good road.
• As each day wears on, the desert heat really gets to us, with powder sand penetrating everywhere once you get out of the luxury of an air-conditioned car.
• We bush camped in stony terrain not unlike Namibia, but the hot desert wind made it quite impossible to sleep. I got up twice to pour cold water over myself, it felt like the hot water tap at home. Eventually we got up at 01:45 (temperature 34 degrees), packed up by moonlight and head torches and left at 02:45 for Wadi Halfa, which we reached at 06:30 after a couple of stops along the way to rest our bleary eyes. We then lay down flat on our camping lawn and sleeping bags on the first open space we could find, relieved that we made it safely, with enough time for the masses of red tape.
• True to his word, Mazar has been extremely efficient, but the system has let him (and us) down. The cargo ferry, which made us rush here at breakneck speed, is not leaving on Monday after all. We spent three hours inside the port, trying to get customs to clear the vehicle, only to be told that it would have to be done on Tuesday morning before we board the passenger ferry.
• The people are very friendly and they try hard, but the national motto of Bukra – sometime in the future – and Inshallah – Allah willing – means that nothing much gets done.
• For tonight we are checked into a fancy hotel by Sudanese standards, there is not much choice in Wadi, but it will probably give me nightmares sometime in the future.
• Sudan is dirty, in the sense that nobody picks up rubbish. Completely the opposite of Uganda, which is such a clean country that it is a pleasure to drive through towns and especially villages.
• Today’s temperature: 43 degrees and rising. Sudan is simply too hot to have a good time. We have been drinking litres and litres of water and (big smile!) I found a stall that sells Diet Coke. Alcohol being forbidden here by Sharia law, we can’t wait for a cold beer in Aswan…