Sudan

With the exception of having to wait for almost a week for our bikes in bloody Wadi Halfa, the rest of Sudan was more of a fast paced exercise to catch up on lost time.  We clocked up a record 530km in the last day across the desert and that included a border crossing over into Ethiopia as well. Not too shabby.  This pace did come with its own set of consequences having been caught on camera twice by the local police exceeding the speed limit.  The first action shot was a pretty good one of me looking quite tucked behind my front screen.  I think it was like 90 in a 60 zone or something.  The first officer was quite happy to let us go after “donating” a 10 Sudanese pound sim card topup voucher and in the second instance, we just stated we had no money left on the way to leaving the country.  Just wait it out and eventually they realise its not worth the hassle with the language barrier and eventually let you go.  The only regret was possibly was missing out on the Meroe pyramids but we did see some small pyramids by chance just outside Karima.  Having a bit of urgency about things, seeing old sites was now less of a priority.  Get to Khartoum before the weekend in order to get our visas for Ethiopia (again) was the task at hand.

We’d heard the ferry was not going to be anything luxurious and so the result was no surprise really.  The group of us scattered a bit, eventually just settled on the deck wherever space could be found amongst  people and luggage strewn all over the place.  Quite a mission finding your way to the ever so attractive toilets (via a very appetising looking kitchen area – not) and passport control (basically just one of the cabin portal windows) was quite an achievement if you managed to not step on someone’s head first. I suppose we were just happy to be moving again and sleeping under the passing stars at slow speed was not too bad either as well as passing the temples fronted by two great big statues of Ramesses the something’s and his missus at Abu Simbel in the morning as well.

So.  Wadi Halfa.  A tiny little place who’s sole existence pretty much relies on passing travellers coming back and forth on this one ferry.  If they do open the roads again, I’m not sure if this town will continue to exist.  We stayed in the “Kilopatra hotel” and it at least had a cold shower available there.  The rooms had a bit of a prison cell feel to them with 2 beds (with accompanied banana shaped mattresses) and steel doors with no windows.  Delightful and quite possibly the best in town.  The days were passed eating falafel, drinking “Jabana” (coffee) and then splurging in the evenings for a grilled chicken.  Somehow I couldn’t get myself to try the local foul.  (Looked to be a staple with the locals – a bean based brown mush basically)  Oh and for some reason there’s a less than 10 second long announcement of the bus route to Khartoum repeated over a loud speaker that can be heard through pretty much the whole town..  All day long…  The locals all were very friendly and we became known at the local falafel shop where the prices for food seemed to dwindle the more time we spent there.  Quite a simple life and people did seem content and happy and willing to come up and chat.  I can still see the dudes face smiling away while going through the whole falafel preparation process.  Still happy to do it everyday, also all day long…

With all this being a bottleneck on this eastern African route, we met another German (or Austrian – I can’t remember) on an old classic overland BMW R100 as well as 12 Portuguese bikers, (1 Spanish) all based in Angola and all riding the big brother BMW GS 1100s.  They were all going north in the opposite direction and the Portuguese were aiming to get home for new years eve.  As all their bikes were still there when we left, I’m not sure if they would have made it. They’d also had quite a hard time in northern Kenya.  This being some of the most testing terrain of this particular Eastern African overland route.  Basically if there’s rain – you’re in trouble.  I think they got stuck on the Moyale road for 4 days or something and with those big heavy bikes, it couldn’t have been too pleasurable.  I don’t think any expense was spared with these guys as they had all the extras mounted on these big machines.  Quite something to see this ton of money just parked up, baking in the sun and waiting to be put on a simple and very slow barge to be hauled up river.  All the best guys.  Hope things turned out ok there…

Anyways…   So without the usual elaboration here.  On the way down to Khartoum there was wild camping (now no longer a novelty in any way, including a couple nights in the bush / desert with some of our new over lander friends, spotting scorpions and identifying stars)  and also our last fast paced stint through any sort of desert scenery as well.  Hats off to the Chinese who are building all these roads in Africa.  No complaints here and some pretty smooth sailing.  Erm… Riding rather.

Business in Khartoum was wrapped up pretty quickly with us getting our Ethiopian visas in the same day as well as finding that the locals were also quite considerate drivers. – Nice touch! Along with the fact that car hooters were no longer going off all around us like in Cairo.  The only thing missing from this pretty picture is beer.  Not sure if Sudan is the place for me with its strict Muslim laws with regard to alcohol and male / female segregation and of course no bacon sarnies.  Maybe at a subconscious level this is why we got were in a rush.  Naaa.   Never.  Anyways… We did get some pizza (minus the ham) and at the same time bumped into a German couple James had already met on the ferry previously.  I found their travels quite interesting as they’d been using public transport and couch surfing their way through the middle eastern countries for like the past 18 months or something.  Having taken Arabic lessons, they could communicate quite well and had recently just spent 4 or 5 days in a small village with a local family. They were doing the full on cultural experience.  They mentioned not actually seeing each other during this time because of the whole segregation thing.  Good effort but once again as I don’t I’d be able to pull something like this off.  Lots of prayer, women that consist only of a pair of eyes behind a sheet and no beer.  Somehow I don’t think I’d fit it in.  Shite.  I think I just said beer again…

Heading south from Khartoum to the Ethiopian border at Metema I got the first real feeling of being in Africa in the passing scenery going through Dinder National Park.  Mud huts and an open savannah type landscape helping the transformation from the Arab world into the African world quite nicely on its way.  And of course a necessary addition to the feel was there being plenty of pothole dodging on the way.  Oh yes and rupturing my jerry can filled with petrol was a bit unnerving.  Due to the heat, these plastic cans tend to expand a bit and the result was it rubbing up against the back wheel.  We managed to save what was left but are now 10l shorter in fuel.  Hey ho.  The solution we had in mind was perfect but just not for the harshness of Africa I think.  Steel cans being the way forward in my opinion.  Something to bear in mind for the next trip hey…