Wadi Halfa, Sudan

Monday 3rd September 2007 Wadi Halfa desert camp No2
We woke early thinking we were going to load the Landy and discovered that we could only load it Wednesday. So we have two days of waiting here in Wadi Halfa and a further wait in Aswan.
Midhat has offered us the use of his house, so we will be able to keep cool. We might be able to blog on Wednesday morning before we catch the ferry to Aswan.

Sunday 2nd September 2007 Wadi Halfa Desert Camp.
Today we drove through Hell. Black jaggered mountains, waterless desert, hardly any dunes for 160Km away from the Nile and only one stopover oasis, where a man sells food and drink to busses. It was hot, the road terrible and the going slow. (They are building a new road though.) We arrived at Wadi Halfa at 4pm and found we had a puncture. The second since leaving home. Our tyres have taken a hammering in the rocks. We found the relevant people to help us board the ferry and retreated into the desert 5Km away to sleep after being told that the Landy could board the cargo ferry tomorrow. This is one of the countries that the Johnson's would really like. Hot, dry, deserted, few mozzies and vast vacant places and desert to explore.

Saturday 1st September 2007 Desert camp South of Abri
We packed up at leisure and enjoyed the cool palm grove undisturbed. We left at 9.30 with the temp at 43 and followed the road through Nile-side villages. Each household area is walled in with a 2.5m high mud brick wall, occasionally decorated. Neighbours do not share walls and there are arbitrary alley ways between the houses. The rooms inside all face the courtyard. The window openings are usually metal shutters and are closed. Most have a single tap for water in the courtyard, usually brownish Nile water at this time of the year. Even towns as big as Atbara and Dongola. Often, if we do see people, they are men in their white jalabia robes lounging on mattresses and beds in the shade. We often get offered these beds, and have used them, and shai, very sweet black tea and food as we pass. They are extremely friendly and hospitable and are disappointed when we are so rude as to not take up their offer. They do not intrude on our space, even if we stop in their farmyard or pathway. They greet us and keep going. We feel safe and welcome. Crime is almost unknown and begging frowned upon. The roofs are made of matting.
Yesterday a kid with a brand new bike offered to swop it for my cell phone. I have also been offered a donkey for my cell which I considered as it was very tame something to which I aspire in my horse. They ride them halter-less, bareback and steer with a stick.

Friday 31st August 2007 Date Palms, Nile River
We have 300Km to go to get to Wadi Halfa by Sunday night so we are taking our time. We first called in at Dafufa, what appeared to be an 18m high anthill. It was a tomb-like structure 3000 years old made of mud bricks with ventilation vents, and snow-white granite pillar bases. Really intriguing.
We carried on north and stopped next to the Nile in the shade of the date palms grove. We repacked the Landy as we have too much stuff. Nev fell asleep. A Sudanese lady came along and greeted us and offered to bring Nev a bed, and then went away and left us alone. The Nile floods for the three hottest months of Aug, Sept and Oct. The small-scale farmers along the banks of the Nile utilize flood irrigation: during the wet season by using the high level of the Nile, and during the dry season by pumping the water into massive irrigation canals. It is too hot for crops at this time of the year except for dates and lucerne. Maize, sorghum, millet, onions and beans and potatoes are the main crops here apart from dates. The area of cultivated land varies between 20m to kilometers. The Sudanese also flood areas that are lower lying than the Nile during the wet months, in this way enriching Sudan sandy soil with Ethiopian topsoil, enabling them to cultivate more land every year. Some lands next to the Nile are sandy with an underlying layer of impervious sandstone and in this way they get topsoil.
We headed north after resting. Nev followed the main road out of Kerma and I fell asleep. As you all know I do not like to be woken up, so Nev followed the only sand-track road and arrived in an oasis, and I woke up. Nev had been checking the GPS but wasn't sure whether I had set it, but noticed that it said we were going the wrong way. It was midday and we had gone in a huge curve and we had been going south for 15Km. We drove back with Nev muttering and started again, this time with me awake, and landed on the same road. There was no-one around as it was Friday mosque and we couldn't ask direction. On the fourth attempt, after landing in gravel pits, following single tracks we discovered the road and proceeded on our way. We found a date palm grove next to the Nile at 'third cataract' where it was lovely and cool (temp was 48) and made camp early.

Thursday 30th August 2007. Kerma street , Assaam's house
We left Dongola for Kerma 45Km away. We went up the west bank intending to cross the ferry to Kerma. When we got there we were told that it was not working and that we should go back 5Km to siom and Asaam would take us there as he lived in Kerma. He was a 'big man' there and owned lots of property and businesses. The 5Km turned in 45Km and Asaam was a 'bullduster' and we ended up back at the ferry at Dongola. The sweating fat man at the ferry wouldn't sell us a ticket as we had to get police clearance. So off we went to the police station where we caused chaos as simultaneously, eight Arabic speaking police officers wanted three photos and took copies of irrelevant pages of our passports. They eventually told us to go back to Khartoum to get an Arabic translation of our passports. After much gesticulating and protesting on our part they said we must go, go, go. We wouldn't because we didn't have police clearance. So they wrote a letter for us to give to the police at the ferry. The fat man still wouldn't sell us a ticket, so back we went to Dongola and found the police who said follow me and we went back to the ferry. They eventually sorted out we needed to go to registration, so we jumped into a taxi who took us to registration, where we got the paper, and were at last able to buy a ticket for the ferry. It is easy to loose one's sense of humour in 46 deg heat and when you have Asaam chirping in the background, so it took quite some control, and afterwards we could really laugh at what happened. We crossed the 700m wide Nile at 4.30pm.
Asaam's offer of his garden, bed, and food were irresistible so he directed us to Kerma with me sitting on the consol. He took us to a 'kitchen' (open air eating place for men) and we had our first Sudanese meal of ful (beans) lentils, meat and salad, which you scooped up with bread with your right hand and ate it.
We don't get hungry as our tummys are so full of liquid. Our freezer is full of unfinished food.