Thursday 21st July.
The Blue Nile Sailing Club, hell's home away from home.
We stopped again a little further down the road at in a small, dusty, hot town with a large fruit and vegitable market down one side of the dirt road. Alex, Emma and Aileen went shopping for food for dinner and I went in hunt of cold drinks with Marcus and Fiona. We had great success, and even stumbled upon a glass cabinet filled with baclava. Naturally I got a bit excited and bought a kilo of it, enough to feed the whole village I think.
We arrived in North Sudan's capital, Khartoum, in the early afternoon. Driving into town saw most of us hanging out the windows of the truck looking at everything in wide-eyed wonderment. It was certainly not what I was expecting. There was big, modern looking bukldings, fancy cars, huge houses- there is money here. We stopped at the Afra Centre, a big shopping mall that had a fair out the front with some rides, a cinema, bowling alley, game arcade, wedding centre, a male and female mosque, big food court with free wifi, gigantic supermarket, and all the other regular shops one would expect in a western mall. Khartoum airport is right in the middle of the city and it was weird to see huge airliners taking off right over the main road, power lines and Afra Centre. Farron gave us an hour to look around and stock up on anything we might need, most of us made our way directly to the food court. We weren't even hungry, but the excitement of seeing something so familiar and a place where it was least expected was such a novelty. I have never been to Dubai but have seen photos, and from what I have seen so far, I imagine Khartoum to look like Dubai's much older, much dirtier, but still impressive brother.
After we had all had our western fix at the Afra Centre we made our way back to the truck and drove to the Blue Nile Sailing Club, the place where we would be camping. It was mentioned in the Lonley Planet as a place that overland trucks stop, but it looked more like the place where hell stopped. It was right on the Nile, but the river was too full and flowing too fast so we couldn't swim. There was a small patch of grass or a gravel carpark where we could put our tents, there was one airconditioned room with a pool table in it but it was for members only and we weren't allowed in, there was no where to buy food, there were toilets but they were filled with shit and really gross, and there were showers but they were over the shit filled squat toilets, plus the water wasn't on anyway. I think you get the picture. As you can imagine, we wanted to find somewhere else to stay, but were far to hot to do anything about it so we sat in the gutter of the carpark in the shade for a few hours drinking cold water.
I helped Alex, Aileen and Emma prepare a pasta salad dinner, and then Farron, Leigh, Mark and us went on a mission to find a hotel. Geoff and Kate had seen a few on thier own unsuccessful mission earlier in the day for 100-150 Sudanese Pounds. They werent willing to pay that much money, but we were willing to consider it. Our little hearts were crushed when we finally reached the hotels, a good 30 minute walk away, and the prices were in US dollars NOT Sudanese pounds. Bugger Bugger Bugger. We sat in the airconditioned lobby and drooled over the hotels pool, sauna and gym while we drank a stupidly expensive can of fanta before putting our tails between our legs and going back into the hot night to trek back to the Blue Nile Sailing Club.
When we arrived there, tired, hot and pretty unimpressed we were greeted by a crowd of locals sitting at tables around the tents on the grass, playing cards under flood lights and watching something really loud on a big outdoor screen. Brilliant, this place just gets better and better right?! On top of that we were told that there had been no luck in obtaining photo permits so it was still illegal for us to take any photos. At least we were told that the water was back on so we could have a cold shower, albeit over a dirty squat toilet. We set up our tent in the carpark, as far away from the crowd as we could, in 35 degree heat at midnight and tried to fall asleep, even more convined than before that we had to find somehwhere else to stay.
Friday 22nd July.
Wild goose chase + 45 degree heat = bad idea.
Downstairs there was a female mosque right next to the female toilets and instead of basins to wash hands in, there was trough like things to wash feet in because shoes have to be removed for mosque. Quite interesting to go into the toilets and find a crowd of women all washing their feet in a trough.
We spent most of our time trying to find somewhere else to stay and find a hostel that seems to be right across the road from the Blue Nile Sailing Club. Marcus, Fiona, Alex and I got a taxi back to try and track this hostel down. It was here that a 4 hour wild goose chase started. The hostel was not accross the road from the sailing club and everyone we asked about it had either never heard of it or told us a different location to the last person. Plus, the phone numbers supplied on the internet didnt work. We should have known then. Instead we grabbed a non-airconditioned minivan taxi and drove around for the next 3 hours looking for the hostel. We couldnt even find the street that the hostel was meant to be on, noone knew where it was and everyone kept on pointing us in different directions, so we were just driving in circles around and around Khartoum. To cut a long story short(er) we finally founf the place at 7pm- 4 hours after first getting in the taxi. Turns out that we had passed the place for the first time about 3.5 hours ago. We had stopped and asked the hotel next door (who's rooms were crap and US$100, plus we needed marriage certificate to stay in the same room with someone of the opposite sex) and were told that it was a gym! Turns out that we had passed it about 10 times and asked people on every corner in the area and they didnt know where it was! Unbelievable!
It would have been the perfect hostel, the rooms were airconditioned, camping was free, because there was no-one else there the owner would allow co-ed rooms, but there was one major problem. There was no water. Noooooooooo! We refrained from pulling out our hair, or stabbing ourselves in the eyeballs with blunt instruments (I realise this may sound a bit dramatic, but it was so, so, so hot and had been such a long, pointless day) and we made our way back to the sailing club. On arrival we were told that there was still no photo permits. We filled everyone in on our adventures and told them how perfect the place was bar the fact that there was no water, so no showers or flushing toilets. Farron suggested that we leave Khartoum the following afternoon in stead of staying there for three more nights, and no one had any objections. He also said that he would get the GPS coordinates for the hostel that we had finally found so that African Trails never again stopped at the Blue Nile Sailing Club. At least our day was not in vain.
Saturday 23rd July.
Surprise goodbye to not one, but two.
From there we made our way to the Afra Centre to wait for the truck. We were meant to have a few hours there before leaving Khartoum. Everyone else arrived at midday and joined us in the food court. Tony had had a third day of unsuccessfully trying to get hold of photo permits for everyone and had been given the run around by everyone he asked (sound familiar....?). Janet came up to us and told us that she had booked a flight home to Scotland from Khartoum, leaving at 3pm! She had been suffering pretty badly with the heat and dehydration and had made the call that it was time to end her journey. She had started in Marakesh and her whole reason for being there was to challenge herself and see the gorillas in Uganda, and having accomplished both of those things she had decided that her health must come first and that she wanted to see her husband and children again. Sad to see her go, especially so suddenly, but fair enough and completley understandable.
Little did we know that that would not be the last suprise of the day.
Marcus, Fiona and I did cook group shopping for dinner but only got meat because the fruit and veg in the supermarket was really old and expensive, and Alex and I splashed out on some new shirts. Then we made our way back to the truck. Once everyone was there Farron drove the very short distance to the international airport. Janet came and gave everyone a hug goodbye and then grabbed her bags and started walking into the terminal.... with Leigh! Leigh had also booked a seat on the same plane and was heading home to London. You could have knocked us over with a puff of air. We did not see that coming. Turns out that she hates goodbyes too much and pulled a hudeinie on us. I can understand that it would have been hard enough having to say goodbye to Farron, let alone everyone else. It was very bitter sweet because they were both doing what was best for them, but we were going to miss them. Poor Mark was a bit of a mess!
We carried on down the road and out of Khartoum, two persons lighter. We drove through a massive dust storm, apparently my fault because I have said many times that I really want to see a dust storm like the one on the movie 'The Mummy'. It was pretty awesome to see, but much less awesome when we stopped in a small town and Marcus, Fiona and I had to get out and buy fruit and vegitables in the middle of the dust storm!
We pulled over as the sun was getting low on the horizon, just at the arse end of the dust storm that seemed to go forever. It was a really nice location, on soft sand surrounded by rocky hills. As we bagan preparing dinner and everyone else put up thier tents two cars approached and a few official looking guys got out and spoke with Farron. We continued on with the cooking as they asked for the passenger list and cross checked it by asking us one by one what our nationality was. As we sat down for our sloppy joe's, Farron said that he had been told that we were parked on military land and had to move. Thank goodness we hadn't put up our tent yet. After dinner clean group did a quick clean as everyone else put down thier tents and then we were escorted down the road. Once we had gone a distance that seemed to satisfy them, the cars took off and we carried on down the road in search of another bush camp. Not too much later Farron found a flat peice of land next to a big telecommunication tower. It looked like we had landed on the moon, it was completley flat and bare to the horizon in every direction. It was late so we all set up our tents and went to bed.
Sunday 24th July.
Dessert, dust, water, flood...
We had an easy mornings drive, only going a short distance before stopping at the Meroe pyramids. They were really little compared to what we were expecting the Giza pyramids to look like, but still really cool to see our first pyramids. There were 8 or 10 of them all up, some with hyrogliphics on the inside. Despite not having a photo permit, we decided that the chances of police asking to see our permits out there in the middle of the desert was small enough, so we all got our cameras and got snap-happy. We walked around for as long as we could bare in the heat and then made our way back to the truck.
We were going to camp behind the pyramids, but it was only 2pm, so a bit early to stop, it was too hot to set up camp, and the place where we would have put our tents was really exposed, so we kept going.
We bumped into the Nile again and stopped in a small town to get cold drinks. Carrying on a little further the plan was to find a bush camp just out of town. But then the heavens opened. It was the weirdest thing, on one side of the truck there was a dust storm, on the other side a rain storm. As we continued up the road, they met to form one hell of a storm. We struggled to get the tarps down as we were blasted with sandy water. We eventually had to turn around and head back in the direction from which we came when the snady road turned into a lake. In the middle of the dessert. I could hardly beleive my eyes.
Farron managed to find a relativley dry place that didnt look to likely to flood if it rained again and we set up camp. Cook group made bangers and mash and the heavens opened once more just as we were finishing dinner. Once the rains stopped, the wind picked up. I couldnt stand another sleepless night in a collapsing tent so we bunked down in the truck with Jimmy, Jan, Aileen, and Lars.
Monday 25th July.
Nile oasis bush camp.
Leaving camp at 9am we drove for only an hour before stopping in a large-ish town. Farron had found out that the once-weekly overnight ferry to Egypt is due to leave on the 3rd of August, not the 1st as we originally thought. Farron came up with the ingenious plan of fanging it to Wadi Halfa in time to catch the ferry due to leave on the 27th of July, rather than take a casual, slow three day drive to Wadi Halfa and then have to spend 8 days there waiting for the next ferry. This way we get to Egypt earlier, and get to spend more time in Aswan, where there is much more to do than there is in the dusty little border town, Wadi Halfa.
The only condition was that on the ferry a week earlier, the 27th of July, there was no availability left in 1st class. That meant that the people that had put thier name down for the US$75 upgrade to an airconditioned cabin would now be on the deck with the rest of us bums. If the ferry leaves on time, and there is a big 'IF' there, it is said to take anywhere between 18-40 hours to cross into Egypt. If something happens with the ferry and it doesnt depart, say due to mechanical problems, there is no other way in, so we would be stuck in Wadi Halfa for anywhere between one week and however long it takes to build a new ferry!
We stopped a few more times during the day for pee breaks and to get cold drinks when some were spotted. Everything was peaceful and normal, we were all doing what we do in the truck- playing eye-spy, reading, listning to music, sleeping, when suddenly the seemingly daily dust and rain storm event happened, but this time with furious anger. It was unlike anything else I had ever seen before, I may just have gotten to see my dust storm like the one out of the movie 'The Mumy'. Within mere moments of it first appearing, it was so thick that we couldn't see the side of the road anymore. A few moments later, it was getting hard to see the person sitting across from you- partly due to the sand, partly due to not being able to open our eyes. Then the rain started to fall even heavier and we struggled to get the tarps down, while hiding our faces under whatever we could get our hands on. The rain was like a high pressure sand blaster, it felt like a million needles puncturing our arms all at once. It hurt so bad and it was such a releif when finally we had the tarps down and could breath again- just as the storm passed. It was intense.
Farron found the most amazing place to camp, right on the Nile. We put our tents up on a flat, soft, sandy area that was surrounded by big palm trees. The first thing we did was run down the small sand dune to the rive and jump in- in what ever we were wearing at the time. It served as both a shower and a washing machine. Some clever bloke (Benne) bought a bar of soap down and passed it around. The current was so strong we couldnt swim, but had so much fun sitting in shoulder deep water, clinging onto rocks to prevent ourselves from floating away. We couldn't have dreamt of a more prefect camp. It really was prefect.
Tuesday 26th July.
Into Wadi Halfa and straight back out again.
We found a bush camp just out of town between two rocky hills and spent the afternoon and evening alternating between hiding from the heat and packing our bags. We would need to pack enough stuff for a week, as the truck would be coming to Egypt on a vehicle ferry a few days after us. We also had to pack our pillows and sleeping bags just incase bedding wasn't supplied in the hotel we would be staying at in Aswan. The heat was oppressive and it took every ounce of strenght to get up and do something as active as packing a bag, but we managed.
We went to bed not too long after dinner, exhausted from the heat and tried to get to sleep- almost impossible due to.... you guessed it.... the heat!
Wednesday 27th July.
African Trails refugee camp.
At 2pm boarding began. Signal the chaos. There seemed to be no order or logic at all. Everyone stampeded towards the double glass doors, one of which was yanked off its hinges. There was no airconditioning and we were crammed in like sardines as they let people through one at a time. Just as we got to the front of the 'line' someone realised that everyone else had blue stickers on thier bags except for us. Turns out customs required a blue sticker in order to board the ferry. Bugger. Squeezing out of the crowd we found the guy with the blue stickers and he quicly placed one on each of our bags, he didn't spend a second looking at us, our bags, or what we might be carrying- saftey first. Back in to the sardine squeeze we finally made it through the now broken glass doors.
Outside the building, to our dismay, was not a ferry, but instead mini buses that we then had to cram into. These mini buses drove a few hundred meters down the dirt road to the ferry terminal. Then we had to get on the ferry, as you can imagine, this was as well organised as the rest of the process.
Finally on the ferry we rushed to find a good position. We made our way straight to the top deck, the only place with enough space for all of us to put our sleeping mats down. Thankfully we were early enough to grab a god spot and set about putting the sun shade up. Soon enough we had our home assembled. We had all of our sleeping mats and pillows lined on the floor, covering and therefore reserving the whole front area of the ferry. We were strategically placed under the sun shade so that we didn't melt. Some local guys that parked next to us saw our set up, complimented us, and then set about hanging thier blankets to make thier own sun shade.
The ferry was supposed to leave at 4pm, but we took off at 6.15pm. At 7.30pm we got our free dinner of plain macaroni pasta, a piece of chicken, and baked beans on metal food trays that looked like those seen in prison movies. We also didn't fail to notice how much we resembled refugees!
We spent the rest of the night playing card games like UNO and bullshit and our Malawi Bao game. At one point towards the end of the night when I was just settling down to sleep we passed Abu Simbel all lit up. It was beautiful. And then we settled down to have a surprisingly good sleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment