Our Wild Journey Travel diary

SUDAN

Tuesday 13th January - Sunday 18th January 2009

..... after about 11 hours we crossed the Sudanese border and had only a few hours left till we reached Wadi Halfa. We had to bring our passports behind the cafeteria on board where we got them stamped and when being in the harbour we got questioned about our stay again before we could leave the boat. Well, we were promised that our car would be waiting for us in Wadi Halfa, but it was nowhere to be seen! We got told that the cargo barge had had some engine troubles and was delayed - apparently we had passed it at 3 o'clock at night! :o( So that meant finding a hotel in Wadi Halfa and spend an extra day waiting for the car! We took a taxi for
3 USD per Person, but didn't know it was only 2 km to the "town centre"! :o) And when we saw the "best hotel in town" we had to laugh in disbelief - cold showers, a room with nothing in but 4 old, squeaky beds, sand floor etc...all in all not much better than a pig shed! :o) We shared a room with Sandra and Gerhard. At least we could use the time to get to the city council to finish our "Alien Registration" for 30 USD per person. Many travellers here use a "fixer" but we wanted to save money and organize the paperwork ourselves - maybe takes a little longer but we had nothing to do anyway!
We survived the night and went to the harbour relatively early to pick up our car - but the barge was nowhere to be seen!!! Only the cars and bikes of other overlanders who loaded a day later than we, were there...finally some black smoke on the horizon told us that our cars were about to arrive! Then it took another 3-4 hours before the clever people found out how to put the barge on the pier so we could unload - what a day!!!! We had help with the paperwork from a "fixer", who told us he works for the customs, so when we found out he lied we pushed his price down - we had to save money somewhere! Finally, after a strong coffee we were on the road towards Dongola - we, 2 Dutch (Sandra and Gerhard) and 3 Malaysians (Alison, Ghani and little Adrian)!

Our first camping on Sudanese ground was maybe 50 km behind Wadi Halfa. There was enough firewood and we could enjoy being finally in the wild again, sitting around a campfire sipping tea! :o) The next day we continued our way to Dongola but the road got worse...no more asphalt, lots of corrugations and stones - sometimes we drove only 20 km/h! Our car was getting full of dust and sand...it just comes in through the tiniest hole! We were looking forward to swap desert for Nile water but had to see, that there were "armies" of sandflies attacking us! All in all we expected Sudan to be the same mess like in Egypt but our first impressions were much better! Clean little villages along the way, typical Nubian mud-architecture and a well kept landscape! We really enjoyed the drive along here. The people seem to be quite friendly (at least, for once, even women were greeting!) only the kids are the same, asking for money and pens! So even white man corrupted them here! :o(
Til Saturday afternoon we arrived in Dongola and had a quick look over the crazy market. We didn't take the ferry to the other side of the Nile but continued this way towards Kerima, where we wanted to see the pyramids...
We only had a quick fuel stop there and went to a place called El Kurru, there were supposed to be 2 rock tombs deep under ground. On the way there (through little Nubian villages) we collected more firewood for the evening and we could even manage to get into the tombs for 20 SD. It was really nice and the paintings were authentic, it seemed to us better than in Egypt. where the rock paintings seem like made for tourists! :o) On the way back we somehow lost Sandra and Gerhard so we spent the night camping outside town with Alison, Ghani and little Adrian. The next day we took a short drive to Nuri where we expected to see more pyramids. We had just got out of the car and taken photos when soldiers came (guns hanging over the shoulder) and asking us for money for the photos...we somehow managed to get away without paying. So we left this part of Sudan and went the 400km to Khartoum, orange desert on both sides of the road, lined with termite hills, acacias and sometimes little villages or camel herds.

Monday 19th January - Sunday 25th January

On arriving in Khartoum we already dreaded the crazy Arabic traffic that we knew from the 3 countries before...but nothing like this! Quite peaceful drivers, a relative order on the streets and not in the slightest to compare with Cairo. We were surprised. On stopping to find one camping we even met Sandra and Gerhard again - and found ourselves surrounded by beggars again! Horrible! We also met Abdel Salam, a workshop owner who guided us to the camping - but somehow we lost the other 2 cars again and had to camp alone. Here in the camp there are Sudanese police trainees, no white people but a good atmosphere. We spent the rest of the evening cleaning the car and our stuff from the dust of Northern Sudan and cooking 2kg of slightly green meat! :o)
On waking up the next morning we found ourselves surrounded again - this time by curious Sudanese men who watched our morning procedure with big interest...there were about 40 of them! :o) We packed up and made our way to the Kenyan embassy where we got the visa within 30min! Wow, that was fast! :o) After that we went to Abdel Salam's workshop where they fixed our lock from the Tunesian break-in and we sipped tea talking about cars. He loves 4x4 and likes helping overlanders. On top of that he invited us for lunch in a nice Turkish restaurant! What a nice guy! So anyone needing a good service in Khartoum get in contact with him, you can find his details in our links.
After that we just went for quick shopping and met Sandra and Gerhard again on our camping. The day after we finally got our Ethiopian visas in 3 hours! Only the Malaysians had problems getting it and we hope they can sort things out!
In the evening Abdelsalam picked us and the Dutch guys up to go for dinner in Taha's house - unfortunately on the way there we lost the Dutch people (again!) and ended up only Andrea and Rene together with a few offroad enthusiasts from Khartoum. We spent a nice evening with very yummy food!

The last 2 days in Khartoum we arranged our travel permits for our travels to West, South and East Sudan and then came the moment when we had to say bye to Gerard and Sandra and Alison, Ghani and Adrian. We would stay longer in Sudan but they had to move on. Our 3 Malaysians finally got the visa to Ethiopia and all of us saw a last time for breakfast in the 5-star hotel "Grand Holiday Villa" in Khartoum, where Alison, Ghani and Adrian were invited to stay. The breakfast was really nice and we chatted with the Malaysian ambassador who was invited too! Nice! In the evening Abdelsalam took us to his home in Omdurman where his wife cooked excellent traditional food for us - how could Rene have ever thought of losing weight in Africa? :o)))

There is a video clip about Rene's "nearly crash" when offroad driving with our Sudanese friends - on his birthday! :o) Just check the Photoalbum for this!

On Rene's 30th birthday, the 23rd January, we got invited again - this time on a mango plantation about 350km from Khartoum where a sheep was slaughtered. On the way there Rene got the car stuck in a mud dam, it nearly fell on the side - what an excitement!!! Fortunately all the heavy boys stopped us from falling! On the farm everybody unpacked their shotguns - it was time for monkey hunting! :o) Well...instead of monkeys we shot at the river! :o) We spent the night very calmly on the farm and the next day headed for El Obeid and the Nuba Mountains - an area which was shattered by civil war till 2005 but is apparently full of amazing nature and tribes! In Obeid we spent the night in Taha's sister Ihsan's house - where again we had very delicious Sudanese food! :o) After another very good breakfast in the morning we had a quick look on Obeid's market and continued our way to Kadugli. We felt a little bit strange - we were in Noman's land, our heads full of Western propaganda and the people here so much different from what we were used to till now. Th elast 80 km till Kadugli were just a gravel road which gets flooded by rains every year - it took us a long time to make it till Kadugli! We arrived when the sun set, so we stayed 10km out of town and would have a look the next morning!

Monday 26th January - Sunday 1st February 2009

...after we left camp and went into Kadugli we did as Taha had suggested and contacted his friend Hafiz, a captain if the army who would help us on our way through the Nuba Mountains. We met him and he introduced us to Jabir Tutu, a young SPLM officer (Sudanese People's Liberation Movement) who would be our guide. Of course we had to pay him a little bit but especially in this area a guide is essential. We squeezed him in the car and drove 12km out of town through some tribal villages to Miri to visit the dam and lake. Rene and Jabir went for a swim (bilharzia free water) and on the way back we visited the local market and wondered at all the nameless products that grow around here!
The night we stayed in Hafiz's house - we slept on the veranda but even there it was much too hot to sleep! The next morning we met Jabir and first went to the NMIDA (Nuba Mountains International Development Association) before we went visiting the biggest tribe in Kadugli (the town is named after them) and had a nice chat with the "mak" (chief) and his oldest sister. We talked about history and culture and he invited us for the next day for a little celebration and lunch. In the scorching sun we got back into the car and moved on to Jabir's family where we got invited for lunch - first time that we put our hands into the "communal" pot to eat, together with many others! We had kisera (sourghum bread), okra (very slimy!) and goat meat, which we afterwards washed down with homemade marisa, an alcoholic sourghum drink (something for Rene!) In the evening, after having a "jebennah" (spiced coffee) we left the dark streets of Kadugli to go into some village bar ( a straw hut with 2 beds and 2 chairs) to have more marisa and arragi (date spirit). Lightheaded we went to bed...
The day after we spent quite lazy, hanging around cafes, chatting to people and soaking up the atmosphere of Kadugli. In the afternoon we went to Hadjaralmak for the lunch and again dipped our hands into nice sauces of beef, okra, fried veggies, salad and kisera. So anyone trying to tell people that Sudanese food is nothing more than beans and falafel has probably never been here, Sudanese food is very delicious, even more so as you can eat with your hands and get dirty with food! :o)
In the afternoon we enjoyed a traditional dance, the "Kambala" with lots of drumming, singing and dancing! Andrea got invited for a henna by the tribeswomen but was a bit shy and left it for the next day. It was quite late when we came back to dark Kadugli (there is no central electricity) but we just couldn't miss the coffee with Hafiz, Badradin and Jabir before moving into our veranda beds.

The next day Andrea was a bit nervous because of the henna ceremony - we came t the right time and all the women were already eagerly waiting for her. It took 4 hours to paint her feet and arms and the women really had fun to paint Henna on white skin! More and more she looked like a Sudanese bride! After all the henna celebration the tribeswomen took us to some pre-marital celebration - Rene was a bit shy because he was the only man among 30 women dancing and singing away to the beats of drums...
The next day -friday and muslim weekend- we got invited at the tribe for breakfast which consisted of asida - some sort of sourghum-porridge, this was the first Sudanese dish we didn't like so much. The rest of the day we spent more or less in the shadow, because 40 degrees in the shadow take their toll and make us "cold Europeans" slow! :o) In the evening Andrea didn't take arragi with Jabir and Rene but took a lot of fish for dinner. On Saturday we planned to leave Kadugli but Andrea's mix of milk and fish made her very sick and she had to stay in bed the whole day! So Rene had to go alone to say "Goodbye" to people and in the evening he took another brew of arragi together with Jabir and Badradin. Finally, on Sunday we were ready to move, Andrea feeling better, but we had an overnight stop in El Obeid because Ihsan, Taha's sister wouldn't let us go without dinner and a good night's sleep! :o)

Monday 2nd February - Friday 13th February

Of course we couldn't leave Ihsan's place without a very good and filling breakfast and with full stomachs we made our way back towards Khartoum. Rene took the wrong road and we had a camp close to one village before returning to Kosti the next day and stopping at Abdelsalam's place for a tea and a chat. From there on we moved towards Musawarat, Naga and Meroe for the pyramids and temples, which we wanted to visit the next day. The pyramids at Meroe are really nice to see, we took a long time to stroll between these old remains from the 4th centurey B.C. Many of them are still quite intact with a lot of stone carvings similar to the Egyptian style. We enjoyed the tranquillity of these places as there is nearly no sign of tourists! After that we went on our way back to Khartoum but stopped on the way to visit the 6th cataract, some Nile-rapids in an "out-of-the-way-village" where we had some close encounters with monkeys (they were CUTE!) and wondered at the green surroundings of the Nile valley. When coming back to Khartoum we picked up some copies of the "Advocate", a Sudanese newspaper which wrote an article about us, then we visited Taha at his house who invited us to stay here as long as we wanted. Here we finally had the time to clean and rearrange our car, relax and Andrea could cure her sickness. With Khawla, Taha's wife, we visited the old Omdurman market with loads of spices, clothes, meat, vegetables, and animals such as parrots, dogs, chicken and even monkeys! Andrea now had nothing else in the head than getting one of these monkeys! Luckily, the paperwork and veterinary for such an animal takes a long time and this made the decision for Andrea. We didn't visit so much else in Khartoum, because Andrea felt even worse in this hot weather. Finally, we stayed a lovely 7 days in this very nice and sweet family, tasting their traditional Sudanese food (helping was not allowed!) and even their family doctor took care of Andrea's bad virus. While Andrea kept herself more in the shadow, fighting with the virus and washing everything :o), Rene took care of the car maintenance and cleaning in the heat of the day. Unfortunately our Sudanese visa was about to finish so we did one last big shopping in Khartoum before making our way to Gedaref and Gallabat, from where we would cross over to Ethiopia. Our "Sudanese family" gave us lunch packs, cake and even grandma's yummy mango ice cream for the way! How lovely! :o) So after one last "jebennah" (coffee) we said a sad "good bye" to this very nice family and left - our heads full of the nice experiences and thankful that we could see the traditional Sudanese family life during this one week's time. Of course, when we left it was hot, from now on it gets hotter and hotter every day, even now it was around 40 degrees all the time! Uff! On Friday, 15.00 we went through the Sudanese bureaucracy, had one last invitation for a coffee (thanks guys!) and left Africa's biggest country! :o(

So what about the Sudan, the much dreaded and fearful country??? There are not enough words to describe this wonderful country! After the "rip off Egypt" we really enjoyed this true and genuine country! People are nice and very welcoming and it's much cleaner and more advanced than its Northern neighbour. We more or less passed quite quickly through the Northern Sudan but spent quite an intensive one in Southe4rn Kordofan - in the Nuba mountains! Since 3 years they have had a peace agreement after a 22 year long civil war including words like "genocide" and everything, but we never had even the slightest feeling of fear there. We always felt VERY safe. People her still eat with their fingers, wear second hand European clothes, are in average quite poor and have no electricity at night but they are happy to give one their last shirt!!! We saw a lot of UN cars (the newest models!!!) in town but had to realize that the UN people don't like mixing with the community! They just quickly buy things on the market before moving back to their air-conditioned offices! What a shame!
The Sudan is a country of racial mixes, here the continent splits from the Arab world and goes more towards the really black Africa, it's a country of mixture. That's why it's probably predestined for trouble between the different cultures! Still now, after the peace agreement there is no real security that the Sudanese regime sticks to its promises - anyway we cross fingers for one of the SPLM's aims - unity of this country!