The Sudan, where should we start? The trickey thing is that we have such different views of our experiances so far, so for this blog I think we should split it into two.
Dan
The ferry from Aswan was an experiance, very overloaded, a group of men sat oppisit us seemed to be carrying enough kitchen electricals to set up a shop, they were friendly enough and fed me stale bread. That night we were ushered onto the roof away from everyone else so we could sleep, that night was cold but the stars were fantastic, the milky way was so clear, and there was an abundance of shooting stars. My worset moment on the boat came when I woke up after 12 hours sailing and spotted Abu Simbel, admitidly some might think this was an amazing sight to wake up to but to me it meant that we were still in Gypo land!!! This disappointment was fleeting as we were soon pulling into Wadi Halfa, the customs and imigration process was actually much easier than we were expecting, though when the guy was asking me if I was a tourist I thought he was asking if I was the "tallest", which confused me no end, I eventually decided to say yes as I was the tallest, and it didn't seem like something I was going to get into trouble for.
So begins the desert adventure - We set off rather early having confused the effects the time change would have on the sunrise. The going was good if a little bumpy for the first few hours, and then it happened we got stuck in the sand, this is something I had secretly been looking forward to. In my head this was what the trip needed to be to be a true adventure, a bit of hadship never killed anyone. 4 hours and 300m later my bravado and gusto had ebbed ever so slightly! That night we spent bush camping, and boy did i sleep well. The Next day started with more of the same, but the desert was that cold it felt more like snow than sand, at least we didn't work up too much of a sweat digging. We eventually rocked up at station 6 (they put a lot of thought into the station names here) at lunch time, where we were some how able to buy ice cold drinks. Not that impressive you might think but these stations would not look out of place in the wild west, they are miles from anywhere and have no electricity.
The next day we arrieved in Atbara for lunch after a relativly uneventful mornings drive. Managed to pick up some great local grub, and then had a game of football with some local kids while we waited to have our gas tank refilled. The end score was one all, man of the match goes to Heather for a great save and a rather crunching tackle on a poor unsuspecting ten year old. That night as we pulled into a bush camp we caught a glimps of the pyramids (Meroe) that we would be visiting the next day.
As you know i was rather underwhelmed by the pyramids at Giza, so my expectations were not high, how wrong can I be. We walked over the sand dune that we camped behind and were greated with a feild of no less than 40 pyramids. I spent the morning snapping hundreds of pictures, it was fantstic and best of all, unlike Gyposville we were the only tourists there.
The following day we decided that 6 days without washing was quite enough, so we all had bush showers, very long process, but thourghly rewarding. I stayed clean for at least an hour, still it was nice while it lasted. The next day was a relaxed one stopping at Shendi for a spot of lunch before driving to somemore ruins (Muswwarhat El Sufra). The rest of the time in the desert played out much like this, though on the second to last day we did get stuck for another 4 hour session in a dried river bed.
We are currently recouping in Khartom, staying at the Blue Nile Sailing Club - not as posh as it sounds, infact not posh full stop. The reception is Lord Kitcheners Gun Boat.
Heather
The ferry from Aswan was a nightmare... We had to board the boat at 12pm even though we did not sail until 5pm and there was no shade. I found myself cornered by a male tourist policeman in the ladies washroom, very frightening. We were attempting to keep a space for us to sleep when the 'nice' Egyptians as Dan called them started to pile there kitchen wares in our corner, and yes the thoughful captain did allow us to illeagally sleep on the roof of the bridge but there was NO windbreak. We froze, the stars were pretty when I could thaw my eyelids out to see them! And Dan forgot to mention our free meal, the food was ok (greasy) but the spoons get shared by everyone on the boat!! No washing in between uses, thank goodnes for my Mother's supply of one step wipes or I'm sure one of us would be in hospital now.
And so the desert, for the most part it was enjoyable, we followed the 'safe' road, which really means stay close to the train tracks and you shouldn't get robbed, but apparently it is marked on maps. When we first got stuck I was really impressed by everyone's chipping in and really thought we were going to do well, except it took us 6 hours and another overland truck to go 2km, extremly disheartning. Even I slept well that night at the bush camp, and needless to say when the following morning we got stuck after 5 minutes of driving, I had had enough of the desert. But we pressed on because that's all there is to do you're in the middle of the desert! Station number 6 was a welcoming experince, friendly men who seemed to be selling their own food, but hey we were hungry. We finally hit tarmac at Abu Hamed but it was short lived as the bridge that lead to the rest of it wasn't finished. Another bush camp and we finally bounced up to the pyramids, they were stunning. Well worth all the hassle, although I was felling majorly grimmy. Next day was a treat of visiting the Royal City of Meroe (now deserted) and using the locals water to bucket shower, there was a lot of staring envolved, but it was good to get the thick layer of desert off. We then had 3 more nights of bush camping, I have to say that I'm very proud of myself, I can now put up our tent all on my own, cook a meal for 16 without fresh supplies and pee behind anything. The Blue Nile Sailing Club isn't much but Khatoum is nice, I'm happy to be spending a few days here...in one spot...with toilets...and restaurants...and alcohol free beer (hey it's cold and alcohol is illeagal!)....but we did break the law in the desert with some illeagally smuggled whiskey.
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