A ghost town on the way to Egypt
Trip Start
Aug 14, 2010
1
22
31
Trip End
Jan 20, 2011
Wadi Halfa, Northern, Sudan
Monday, November 8, 2010
The best fun is coming down of course....
Then we're off on the road and have a stop for cook group shop in a very limited town. It's another stunning bush camp in the middle of nowhere with nothing but the chill of the stars. Sonya and I are on cook group and Sonya makes a mean Moussaka which I just help with the chopping up of the veg and tidying up.
The next day we head off to the other side of the Nile and stop in a small town for 4 hours after getting lost / trying to take short cuts etc. for 1 hour on the way (roads too sandy / narrow for us to go on, roads which aren't actually roads that Mark has a go at, power lines so low we only just make it under them - all those fun things!) Ah well seems like we need to kill some time which some of the boys do by playing scrabble but Jules, Sonya, Alison, Ish and I do by heading into town to the local bakery passing a shop to buy a tub of ice cream. We proceed to eat an excessive amount of insanely sugary treats with vanilla ice cream and hazelnut and chocolate spread as a topping!
On our sugar high we head back to the truck and find out there is an internet café nearby - internet!! It's the first in a few days and we're told it has air con so we're there! After a quick touch of base with Facebook etc we head off to pick up water on the way back to the truck. Jules is struggling with the 6 1.5lt bottles we've picked up and a very kind local offers her a lift - on his donkey drawn cart! In true form Jules jumps on and is given a ride for half of the way. It's at times like these that we wish we had our camera!!!
That night we bush camp next to the Nile which draws out lots of little flies and some big ones that seem to love living on peoples backs - yuck! That night we can resist no longer and borrow AK's portable shower for a bush shower - our first non wet wipe wash in 4 days! It's a bit of a struggle to get the flow right with our limited supply of water - damn those crocs in the Nile or we'd be bathing there!! But we persevere and it's worth it when we're back in the tent moisturising and changing into clean clothes. We are positively glowing from the inside out when we head over for dinner and get a good few remarks about our new found cleanliness. Kim and Kyle also have quick showers but nobody else bothers, knowing we'll reach Wadi Halfa the next day.
We are aiming to hit Wadi Halfa two days before the ferry is due to leave to take us to Aswan in Egypt. The truck is departing us for the cargo ferry a day earlier than expected so instead of bush camping we check into the hotel we're staying at, the Well Defintood Hotel. The hotel is basic. Jules, Ish, Son and I share a four bed room which only just fit's the four beds in it, it's in a prison cell type confinement complete with bar like structures across the windows!
The toilets are 'interesting', confined squatters in the 40 degree heat become pretty ripe, pretty quick! But there are showers which for those who didn't bush shower are like a mirage in the desert. Unfortunately the shower itself is a bit of a tease as no water runs through it - but there are buckets, and this is Africa, so it's a do what the locals do and fill up some buckets of cold water and start soaping! Having washed the day before we let everyone else commandeer the showers and head off into town for some lunch.
We have some fish at a local place. It comes on newspaper, a whole fish (with eyes and all which Jules is now getting over!) cut in two opened, battered and deep fried. We have it with some Mish (yoghurt with cumin) and bread. It's pretty tasty and a cool place to eat. We get into conversation with a Sudanese guy who lives in the US but is originally from Wadi Halfa - it's his first trip back home in 20 years! We also have some tea from a very friendly tea lady with the most electric smile. She has so much character despite not speaking English and mimes that she wants to come away with us on the truck - Jules tell her to pack her bags and jump on board, to fits of laughter from her and her friends.
We head back to the room to escape the heat and chill out for a bit catching up on some reading of our books. I'm on the epic Shantaram and have started to really get into it despite a slow start. Jules is making slow but steady progress on Life of Pi (JP - this is currently my third book on the trip which outstanding! One book a month, go on girl!)
That night we head to an Egyptian restaurant and have an ok meal but the lovely staff and the yummy tea make it worthwhile - I'm now becoming quickly addicted to the Karkareh tea (which is a kind of flowery petal tea) with lots of sugar. The tea and coffee in Sudan is crazy sugary but it really doesn't taste the same without it. The alcohol ban also leads to an increased amount of soft drink consumption and combining this with the sugary tea - we're all on massive sugar highs which swiftly makes us crash out like even older nanas than usual. But we're addicted now and just can't help ourselves ;o)
The following day, after some refreshing African showers, we 'explore' the town, which takes us all of 20 minutes! The town really is a ghost town with little more than a few restaurants grouped in one area, a very small market and lots of small corner shops. However the people are very friendly, always stopping us with a "How you are doing?" and a "Hello. Where you are from?". They are always keen to hear what we think of their country which we always answer honestly, it's hot but lovely and the people are the nicest in east Africa.
We tuck into some good food, a goats cheese omelette for breakfast complete with fresh watermelon that we buy from the market and ask the Egyptian restaurant to cut up for us which they do both with no complaint and absolute precision in the dicing of the watermelon and some major seed removal. For lunch we have some falafel buns filled with cheese, egg and tomato, washed down with more fizzy juice! Then it's across the road to watch Iron Man on the TV with most of the boys. More sweet tea is ordered - well we think it is... We ask for Hibiscus tea and in return get a plate of biscuits and cake!!!! Finally we get what we ordered after 4 more attempts at conveying it to the waiter and I catch up on some blogging instead of watching the dire movie. Jules heads off for a wee lie down whilst I finish blogging and head off for a sheesha with some of the gang, again more sweet tea is consumed.
Unfortunately we've not been able to take many pics in Wadi Halfa as there is a military base nearby and they got really angry at some of our group taking some pictures from the top of a big hill and gave us all a big warning not to take any photos around town! They really take the photo taking seriously in Sudan. On the way up to Wadi Halfa, Safa Rob got his camera taken off of him at a check point for taking a photo of a billboard!!! Never seen the boy move so fast though as he jumped off the truck to explain he'll delete the photo and claim his camera back.
That night we share some fish for dinner, still full from our massive feeds during the day. We head back to our friendly Egyptian restaurant for some tea, the rest of our watermelon and some sheesha. It's a good way for us to say goodbye to the town on our last night before we depart for the ferry.
Jules and I have another awesome night's sleep in our prison cell, the sugar rushes now truly draining us out. The next day we head to the internet café after breakfast to upload a blog post. Whilst we're finally catching up with the writing of the blogs we're not as caught up with the lenghtly process of sorting through the hundreds of photos we take, then uploading them and positioning the text around the photos on the blog. But each time we do a blog we get to remember the amazing things we've seen and the laughs we've had along the way - hopefully you guys reading this are also enjoying the posts!
I just finish uploading one in time to leave for the ferry. Jules and Ish have been on a provisions run in the meantime stocking up on treats for the ferry ride. The bus arrives to take us to the ferry around 12.30pm, the ferry doesn't leave until 4.30pm but apparently we need to get there sharpish to get a good spot and cut through all the customs stuff. The bus fits around 16 and there are 25 of us trying to squeeze on. Luckily we're at the end and when it becomes clear the only place left for us is the roof, it's decided he'll come back for us! So it's back in the shade of the hotel to wait for the next run.
Arriving at the ferry terminal it's pretty chaotic. Bags and bags of stuff everywhere. The locals using the ferry each seem to be travelling with at least half of their entire personal belongings if not more. We struggle through the crowds to put our bags down and then start the paper work process. Mark's fixer in Sudan has already done a shed load of the paper work for us which is a big help. So we just need to queue up and get some stamps. It's hilarious how they decide to work in Sudan. Three men are sat at desks with only one man doing anything until Kerry turns up and one of the men says "Come, only beautiful girls at this queue" and seriously only processes Kerry's passport despite the 9 or so boys around her. It's hilarious!
We finally get through to the departure area after having stickers stuck on every bag and then some prick with a red marker pen drawing lines through the stickers and hence lines over my handbag and our camera bag. Thanks mate! Then it's a long walk to the ferry and we're on!
Jules and I have a '1st class' cabin, thanks to Kim who piped up that we'd likely want to upgrade when the tickets were being booked in our absence. The cabin is pretty good compared to the small one we had on the Mombasa-Nairobi overnight train, so we're pretty happy with it. It doesn't lock however and on numerous occasions locals knock but then just open the door, stare for a bit then close the door and walk away - very random indeed and I'm sure not too pleasant for them if we happened to be butt naked at one of these times (would be just the shock they would deserve!) We hear a story later than a guy actually walked into a cabin which Kay was sharing with Mark, proceeded to kiss her hand and then dived in for the lips. She gently pushed him away and gave him the 'no thank you' treatment - Mark said she should have kicked him in the nuts! On our last day on board, Jen actually has the pleasure of a man 'squeezing' passed her in the tiny corridor and grabbing her hand to kiss it also - not sure if it was the same man and I guess we'll never know!
We load off our bags and take a rest on the beds. After things settle we head up to the deck to check out the area most of the guys are sleeping. It's a pretty small deck but it's clean and there aren't many people there so it's not too bad at all. The million of annoying little greenflies buzzing around soon drive us below deck to the comfort of our wee cabin! I catch up on more blogging to pass the time broken up nicely by some visits from our lovely Ish. Time passes pretty quickly and then we're off. The ferry moves quicker than we think however within about 10 minutes we're stopped by the police and sit for a good 15 minutes whilst a heated discussion goes on.
We have some forms to fill in for immigration which is mainly covered on the ferry to save time at the port. Whilst doing this in Mark's cabin we discuss dates with him for our onward travel in Egypt, having heard various conflicting and worrying rumours. It turns out that a new passenger wants to do a Cairo to Istanbul trip and wants to join the truck in Cairo on the 2nd December. This would be fine except it now means that the itinerary has been changed and instead of getting a week in Dahab at the end we will get 1.5 days before we have to fly out. This pisses us off! We have in writing that the trip ends in Dahab on the 7th December after 3-4 nights there. It's now due to end on the 6th after 1 night. Also the boss has now decided that the trip will end in Cairo for us, not Dahab as we were told before booking the trip, but that we can get a "free lift" to Dahab. Oh how nice of him. We booked flights from Sharm to Cairo at the suggestion of the company so are compelled to go to Dahab and if we want extra time there we have to leave the truck and make our way to Dahab at our own expense.
After hearing this news we raised hell in a very carefully and firmly worded email to the 'boss' Chris Gee. We haven't had a response from him to date (no surprises there given he took weeks to get back to AK and Lara after their passport debacle) however Mark has since decided to work the trip around to accommodate more time in Dahab. He said he just told the boss to let him work it out but we think it's likely that after reading our email the boss realised how in the wrong they were given the information we'd kept on file of our conversations with the company. Either way we're chuffed we're getting to see Dahab as we'd paid for but anyway back to the ferry ride as no doubt we'll be dedicating a full blog entry to African Trails as a company once the trip has ended...
Jules is starting to feel pretty poorly at this point - more an explosive stomach than seasickness. Luckily we're close to the toilets but unfortunately they are quickly becoming smelly and having to squat down to them is causing some major retching for my poor girl who does not do sick by any means! She's a star though and battles through, managing to hold down the re-hydration sachets and get some sleep to bring down her small fever.
Dinner that night is an interesting affair - they appear to have run out the chicken being served earlier and instead we get a plate of Fool (should be spelt Foul!), a boiled egg, some cheese spread, a pot of jam and some bread! Hmmm. We then discover they have not in fact ran out of chicken but that we can buy some for a dollar! Which given the contents of the dinner so far we do. It becomes an interesting game of who can construct the most interesting meal from their dinner. Ish and I come up with, one chicken and cheese roll. Followed by half an egg and cheese roll and then the remainder of the roll dunked in jam for pudding. It's really not that bad but the fool is pretty rank so we give it a wide berth.
It's back to the cabin for me to do some more blogging and attend to my patient. Jules is pretty much passed out on the bed so I blog away then call it a night around 10pm (11pm in our heads as the clocks just changed back an hour). The sound of the ocean beneath us is rhythmic and relaxing and it's not long before we're in a deep sleep. We sleep a full 8 hours and wake up an hour or so before we dock in Aswan, giving us enough time to pack up our bags and have breakfast - which to my dismay is the exact same meal as dinner!!!
We are docked for around 2 hours before we actually get to leave the ferry. Then it's a battle of wills and baggage as we try to get down the stairs and off. First there's big fat man shoving Jules down the stairs into the tens of other people already queued to within an inch of each other. Being a tad under the weather Jules is not happy and quips at him "where do you think you're going to go then, there's a queue!" Enraged already, when another local tries to push past her getting all up in her personal space, Jules screams at him "EXCUSE ME!" as he shoves past her. His cheeky mimicking response is met with a sharp reply of "Use your f*cking manners, arsehole!" - she was feeling very under the weather so we'll let her have that one!
It's all fun and games as we finally get of the ferry and make our way up to the arrival building. We're becoming like locals here and get some shoving of our own in. Us whiteys are given preference and ushered through the gate amidst locals cries of dismay and one old lady pleading "Please hurry we are waiting" - can she not see the 60 other locals in front that we can't actually fit past!!
But we finally get through and after a quick run through a metal detector and a baggage x-ray, we are free and in Egypt!! Hmm hopefully the ferry people aren't an example of all Egyptians we'll encounter over the next 3 weeks....
