19th October 2013

Egypt 

Aswan.

Having landed safely and got our change from the visa man, our fixer chap, Kamal picked us up and took us to the hotel. This was a fairly long drive, that if we had taken a taxi we may have paid a lot, maybe even an inflated price and we may not have found it so easy to find a taxi, so we were very happy.  The hotel is just what we needed. Air conditioned, lovely shower, very comfortable, good price etc, etc. 

at the Philae Hotel

The delightful staff

Aswan is a town that is wholly dependent on tourism and as there were simply no tourists, the situation is quite desperate. A very sorry sight is the large number of Nile Cruise ships, moored on the bank, all lying idle.

A small part of a fleet of over 500 ships lying dormant

When this place is crowded with tourists it is bad enough with predatory touts everywhere, flogging souvenirs and boat trips and all kinds tours. When you are the only tourists it is impossible. Every time you step outside, they follow you down the street. Now they are really struggling but to feel sorry for them is dangerously close to sharing your kids with a lion because he looks hungry! We did have an incident where two delightful kids attempted to pick my pocket! Suffice to say they were ‘unsuccessful’.

Actually there is more evidence of Egypt’s troubled times apart from the complete absence of tourists. All along the main drag of Aswan are stationed heavily armed and thoroughly bored cops, some dozing, sprawled out in patrol cars that never move or peering out of armoured cars. Some of it was a harsh reminder of the short time I spent in Derry all those years ago. There is a lot of anger here against the police.

Many restaurants are closed as there is no business and it is quite hard to find nice food.  It is very hot indeed. However, there is a Mcdonalds here which has air conditioning and milkshakes.  Sorted!

The traffic is quite strange as it seems to have waves of being quite dense during the day and then is quiet for a while. Quiet, I use the term advisedly as even when the road is empty with just one car it will blow his horn every now and again for no apparent reason. Also, for reasons that neither of us can fathom, most of the cars are fitted with some extra noise making device and indeed many of them have got a police siren! The noise pollution is tremendous and apparently quite pointless.

3^rd October 2013

Today we went to collect the van from the harbour. It arrived early yesterday but we were told that we could not come for it till today.

Shuffling the barges around 

On arrival, we found that the barge it was on had been unloaded and moved off the quay to allow another barge to be unloaded and then reloaded. Our van and our friend’s motorcycle were stuck on the barge. The circus that followed was both dangerous and annoying in equal measure.

The bunch of amateur clowns that pass for the crew set about swapping these vessels over, amid a tangle of ropes, a lot of chugging back and forth and a huge amount of shouting (it seems to me that it is not possible for Arabic speakers to raise their voice without sounding angry to my ears) and very little leadership. Sorry lets correct that. There was rather too much leadership as everyone wanted to have a go! It all took about an hour.

Most of the work was done by us

With the barge in the correct position, we then set about trying to retrieve our van, our friend’s heavy motorcycle and another car. All 3 were crammed onto a deck between two large holds. There was no room to manoeuvre and there was water on two sides and a 15 foot drop on the other two sides of the barge.

The chaos that followed in the next hour or so was hazardous and amateurish and it took several attempts for my German friend (owner of the motor bike) and myself to get the crew to leave us alone when we were eventually able to get our vehicles off the barge .

Finally!

Anyway, three hours later, the paper work is completed and we have our Egyptian number plates and off we go  By now it was sufficiently late that we had another air conditioned night in the hotel and we will move on in the morning.

Luxor

We left Aswan and drove along the Nile route. It was an interesting drive, though it was much slower going than we had been led to believe. We reached the town of Edfu where there is an important temple to the God Horus, which Ping insists on pronouncing as Horace. So Horace it shall be.

The humungous temple of Horus

We have been quite tired and wary of doing touristy thing. One of our friends pointed out that in view of the fact that we are here we really should seize the opportunity and make the effort. I do feel he has a point. So here we are in Egypt heading wards the Temple of Horace.

Here's Horace!

Edfu is not a huge town but as soon as we had past through the centre we found ourselves in a road that had a high railing all along one side. The railing had a huge empty space behind it and a row of closed down shops. On the other side of the road was a heavily fortified wall, probably 5 metres high with gun turrets all along it but no sign of any guns or soldiers or anything. We drove the length of this road and realised that the empty area was the car park for the temple.

Which one is the grumpy lookin bird?

So we drove in, there was a cop with a gun at the entrance who confirmed that we were in the right place. 

This vast car/coach park was all but deserted. The shops we had seen were souvenir shops all closed down and the only other inhabitants of this space were a troop of police dotted around. It might seem they were protecting us from terrorist, I am not sure. In addition there were several patrols with plain clothes officers, deep under cover. They could only be identified by the discreet machine guns that they carried.

It turned out that we were indeed the only visitors there for quite some time. It seemed bizarre indeed that there should be such an armed presence when there is no one to protect.  We felt quite discomforted by being the only guests. It was very interesting to have Horace to ourselves. The temple is really quite large and was discovered, having been covered in sand for hundreds, possibly thousands of years. This big building was, it seems completely covered over.  When the sand was removed, it was surprisingly well preserved. Well, we paid our entrance fee and spent a n interesting hour and a half wandering round. We were accompanied throughout by a man who spoke no English but was convinced he would be our guide. We didn’t want a guide even if we could communicate, but he persisted together with a young girl maybe 8 or 9 years who at first had tried to sell us a bracelet and when she failed she just stuck with us throughout. It was really quite creepy.

I look like I have just finished building this

Once we had our fill from Horace we went back to the van to continue on to Luxor. We had the choice of three roads to get to Luxor one on the East bank of the Nile, one on the West and a road that goes through the desert. My esteemed life Partner had ordained that it would be much quicker to take the desert road. Well, we spent about 45 minutes finding it as nobody seemed to know of it. 

Then at a rough estimate it turned out be about 70 or 80 km longer, but it did get us to Luxor. It was getting late when we got into Luxor and we were searching for a recommended camp that turned out to be closed down. Bit of a pattern emerging here you might think. 

Egyptian drivers are really quite anarchic at any time, for example at traffic lights some people stop when red, but only a few. Others just drive straight through as if it were not there. At a green light, it is not uncommon for the road to be blocked by minibuses disgorging their passengers.

I mention this because when we were looking for a camp we stopped and asked a traffic cop. He indicated that he knew where to go and we should follow him, so follow him we did, red lights flashing all the way. Absolutely no one took any notice of him. I don’t just mean they didn’t give way, some were going faster, so blew their horn to get past, others cut him in on the inside, and despite his presence no one stopped for the traffic lights. It was actually quite a source of worry as we tried to stick with him. Then, without any warning, he stopped to ask directions. Not only did this take several minutes, but nearly everyone wanted to volunteer directions to us, in Arabic and again the cop was completely ignored. Several people said follow my taxi which we knew was not going to be free, one man said follow my horse and cart. It was a thoroughly bewildering experience, not just for us, because at the end of it, the cop seemed quite disoriented and for a few moments walked of in the opposite direction and could not find his bike, despite it being lit up like a bloody Christmas tree.

Eventually we arrived at the camp but not without a serious near miss where another motorbike, ignoring the flashing lights was overtaking him as the cop turned left across his path. I just managed to brake in time to avoid the biker who was taking evasive action. What a palaver!

We arrived at this new camp and settled in. We were the only guests! Aside from what seemed to be a religious Christian gathering that involved a lot of very loud, very enthusiastic and truly dreadful singing! Ping went to investigate and returned to report that it was a religious karaoke. Once over at about ten pm we got to sleep and slept quite well till the mosques started at about 4 am. It really is quite an amazing sound as one after another starts up and the sound is all around. Amazing it may be, but it is also quite difficult to sleep through. That was when the rooster in the chicken shed adjacent to our van started up. We did manage to doze off again but then the base guitar player from the Religious Karaoke group decided that he needed more practice. I agree with him, he did need the practice (it was truly awful) but not when I want to sleep and not with an amplifier at full blast, but I complain too much………………….

In spite of all this, our stay here was not bad at all.  The manager was really helpful and we had a lovely but gargantuan meal there. We managed to visit the Temple of Luxor which is quite interesting and grand. 

Karnak temple  Luxor

We also visited the Temple of Karnak which is about a mile down the road. This temple is remarkable for its sheer size, its age about 3000 years and the fact that there is an avenue of sphinxes at each of its entrances. The main avenue leads from the Luxor temple. This is a distance of about a kilometre or more. Now, I don’t know if you think in metric or imperial but either way that is a huge number of sphinxes. Karnak is quite breathtaking. It is huge. We both commented that with the column and statues and rocks around it was quite reminiscent of a large garden centre. 

How many sphinxes did you order?

The main difference being that where there might have been working pensioners offering advice and encouragement there were annoying ‘ne’er do wells’ lying around and who on seeing a foreigner took up the mantle of ‘guide’ despite not sharing any language. As far as I can see, they had few other skills to offer though they expect to be paid.

Western Desert

The next day we drove back along the Nile and eventually rejoined the desert road that we had arrived on  this time it would take us out into The Western Desert.

The Western desert is in fact a continuation of the Sahara and the locals refer to it as such. As I may have mentioned before I do so enjoy desert driving and I was really looking forward to what would be a few days drive up to Cairo to see the pyramids at Giza.

The road takes a wide sweep around away from the Nile  and through a series of Oasis.

What a great drive!

I am certain that this point you have a mental picture of a pond, a couple of palm trees a camel or two and depending on your gender there will either be man in a dress with large curved dagger or a beautiful maiden  doing the dance of the seven veils. Perlease………… get real!

A  candid shot of an Oasis town

portable bullet proof shield   -  
                                These things are everywhere i n Egypt                         

Oasis dwellers

The main Oasis are busy important towns, lots of hustle and bustle and urban decay. There are also a string of lesser waterholes where out of the arid desert pops a clearly defined area of deep green actually one we saw was mainly growing flowers. 

There is oasis beauty too. Flowers grown commercialy

Rather surprisingly we have not seen a camel since we left Luxor.

There has been a serious initiative by the government to encourage people out to what are called The New Valleys and extensive estates/villages have been built near these various water holes but many of them are just empty and decaying in the desert.

We had been driving for several hours and I was quite interested to notice that a railway crosses the road several times which seemed odd to me. It also seemed odd that the tracks were being taken up for relaying but that the level crossings which left a huge deep scar in the road had been just left there. I photographed a couple of these. Then we came to a small town where they had a delightful little station and it started to emerge that a lot of this railway was still working, the station was sufficiently pretty that I decided to photograph it.

A few minutes later I noticed that a police truck was seemingly glued to my bumper.  A blast from his siren brought us to a halt and I got out to see what grief was in store for us. Four police armed with pistols and AK-47s got out and asked the usual where are you coming from and where are you going. Then they seemed to get frustrated by the lack of common language and they got back in their truck and indicated that they were done with me. So a bit mystified, we continued on our way. 

On further examination of my rear view mirror I noted that they were once again inches from my back bumper. This continued for ten minutes or so and it was very unpleasant. Then they overtook us. There were a number of hand signals that made very little sense to me and then they stopped on the side of the road. Believing that they may have thought further and decided that there was more to investigate I once again got out and went to speak to them. Lots of dismissive gestures and thumbs up, it seemed that this was not the case and I was free to move on. So I did.

Mirror, signal, manoeuvre, then pull out. I got to the mirror bit and yes there they were back on my back bumper! I can tell you it was very freaky! I took the precaution of getting Ping to delete the railway pictures from the camera. Just in case that was what was concerning them. We were even considering burning any possibly incriminating documents. Burn them and chuck them out before they can find a reason to throw us in jail! I jest but that was how we were thinking.

Just then a filling station came into view, so we decided to refuel and see what happens. I pulled in and they stopped up the road. So I left Ping to fill up and I walked out to confront them. Once again, they were all smile and reassuring gestures. In this desert, every 50 to 100 km there is always a police checkpoint. I was thinking that we were being kept in view until we reached the next one where we would be detained. We, by now were pretty alarmed. They just were not going away. 

I decided that I should show willing, as I had formed the belief that this was something to do with photographing the railway. So I produced the camera and showed them that there were no pictures of interest. They got quite excited about this so I thought I had got it right. Unbelievably instead they formed up to have their picture taken.

Safe on our watch!

Then they managed to get someone on the phone who spoke a bit of English , but this  did not amount to an explanation only a lot of ‘don’t worry’ and I will see you when you get here.

So we proceeded to the next checkpoint where we were greeted by more Kalashnikovs but no English speakers. At one point we were surrounded by happy, jovial heavily armed and (in my opinion) way too young cops. We continued the festival of non communication until the English speaker came on the phone again. He said ‘just drive 5 km along the road and I will be there waiting for you’. So off we went this time another police car peeled off to follow us. We drove 10 km with our bumper fully occupied by police.

Then out popped a man accompanied, even more bizarrely by 4 cyclists. It turned out that he is head of tourism in this town and the 3 Irish and 1 Spanish cyclist are cycling from Cairo to Cape Town.

3 Irish and one Spanish adventuers just setting out on an incredible ride of a lifetime

Our new friend explained that the police do this from time to time to demonstrate that they are busy protecting the tourists, who universally hate the experience. Oh really?!

Anyhow, we now followed our friend Mohsin, who was taking the cyclists to their hotel. We then had to go to his office, where I was to write a demand not to be escorted which he would translate into Arabic. Our police car followed us until the ink was dry and then they evaporated, like magic.

We stayed one night and then carried on our desert journey.

What can I say about this? One might think that a huge expanse of nothing much but sand would be pretty dull. It is not. It is exhilarating and serenely beautiful.

Entering the Western Desert 

Simple beauty!

As I have spoken about in previous blogs there is a sense of danger never being far away, though we always have plenty of water and fuel.  In this desert the temperatures are down to about 32°C which is far lower than in Sudan. The scenery constantly changes. We’ve run out of superlatives to describe the beauty. Flat sand and straight road as far as the eye can see but there is so much more. There are mountain ranges in wonderful pastel shades, huge rock outcrops in all manner of shapes and there is the railway which I spoke of, long and straight it is incredible that this can continue to operate but it does. 

Between these stretches of sand and rocky mountains there are the oasis - sudden splashes of colour and life which bring prosperity to these places.

The high spots for us both were the areas known as The White Desert which is mile after mile of flat land and mountains which are pure white with chalk. You will see from a distance a lake at the side of the road. You may think it is a mirage but as you get closer you see it’s the sun reflecting off a white area of ground. It reflects differently to golden sand around it. It appears to be water almost up to the point where you can touch it. There are beautiful and bizarre shapes rising out of the sand in brilliant white chalk.

Shapes and brilliance in The White Desert

Our desert camp

We stayed out here in the desert up a  small hill a long way from the road. It was absolutely stunning and we were quite alone. Well almost. After dark I went up onto a ridge by our camp to see the town away in the distance. As I did so in almost complete darkness I saw the silhouette of something vaguely dog shaped pass across in front of me. I was quite shocked and it really was as you might see in a horror movie. I rushed back to the van to warn Ping. As I did there beside the van was a tiny desert fox with huge pointed ears.  It was beautiful and not at all concerned about our presence, and it hung around for much of the evening.

We had such a lovely night more stars and everything.

The next day we drove on through the White desert into, yes you’ve guessed already,

Leaving camp

The Black Desert.

Here the mountains and outcrops and indeed sometimes the sand itself  is quite black. This I am told because there is a high content of manganese which is oxidised and appears black. Another extraordinary thing about desert driving is that another time, or someone else passing through may well have a completely different experience.

Hmmmm! oxidised manganese!

Oasis in The Black Desert

I could go on for hours about this but really you had to  be there. Such a good experience.

Our  next destination was for Giza and the Pyramids. I had for no good reason been under the impression that at the end of the desert road we would come to the Pyramids. This is the case but it seems that Cairo has sprawled out and it is not the romantic and lovely experience that it might have been years ago.

Most importantly as much as 60km out you start to notice the haze which I guess must be from pollution. It just goes on and on.

Dumping on an unimaginable scale into and all around Giza

Then about 40 km for Giza you start to become aware that ‘fly tipping’ is really endemic all along the side of the road for mile after mile is a continuous tip mostly of building materials but also rotting household stuff and vegetation, even old used oil is dumped in frequent unsightly patches. 

Oh yes this was among the flytipping!

There has been a massive building program but there are hundreds of blocks of flats that are completely unoccupied.

Hundreds of blocks of flats unfinished and empty

As we approached Giza, the traffic became increasingly dense and then on the main road in, we discovered that some traffic was heading toward us on the wrong side of the road. This is something that happens in Egypt but we were unprepared for what followed. There was a truck overturned on the opposite carriageway and the traffic was just starting to reroute itself into the opposite carriageway. As this progressed a level of chaos ensued the like of which I have never seen before. Rush hour traffic going in all directions. It was like a  dodgems track with real cars and trucks. It became clear that in Egypt if something is in your way you go round it no matter what. It also seems without exaggeration that when necessary the notion of driving on the right is not actually a rule but merely a sort of custom. For me what followed was about two hours of the most intense, chaotic and dangerous rush hour traffic. Two hours to travel about 10 km. At the end I was totally rinsed out! We mercifully had not collided with anyone. I just don’t know how.

We eventually found the Salma Hotel camp which was not recommended but appeared on our GPS so we opted to try for it. This really was a mistake and I urge other overlanders to avoid it. We were in a difficult position as we were really tired and it was already dark. We negotiated a price for camping and found that we were the only people there. 

The squalid bathroom at Salma Motel Camp

The toilet and showers were in such a  dreadful state. Not only were they filthy but they were falling apart. Only one toilet had a seat. There were no doors fitted only what were once plastic curtains. 

The showers were above the toilets and consisted only of a jet of water from a pipe no rose or shower head. When I spoke with the manager, he said ‘well, we have not had anyone here for a year’. 

‘Ok but you are open for business and ready to take money for this.’

‘Well, we have had Germans and Italians here and they don’t complain’.

I told him that it was late for us to go elsewhere. 

"How much would he charge for us to just park in the car park overnight?" His reply was it didn’t matter to him if we used the facilities or not, the price would be the same, take it or leave it. 

I am starting now to get very short of patience with the Egyptian way of getting money from foreigners. I was getting mad with him and we had to stop for the night but I really did not like it. It is all I can do to warn others which seems pretty lame.

The next day we found another place about 2 km away and the driving was a good deal easier. The  Isis Camp is run by Sue and Helal.  Very pleasant people who are open for a few guests and have room for just one overland vehicle. Fine if you have a Land Cruiser as room is quite restricted. We managed to fit the Iveco in, Just! Anything larger and you would have to park on the street. The place is a haven from the city as it is all behind a high wall. So it is pleasant and private there is a pool and a lovely garden. In comparison to other camps it is not cheap but it is a good place for a much needed rest.

Pyramids.

We had talked together about whether to visit the pyramids. We felt that we are pretty overloaded with tourism. It has been a long year. We had also been advised, quite rightly, to take full advantage of being in Egypt and not to simply pass through. Other previous travellers had said they felt the same way and they found you can see the Pyramids from the road so they scooted on through.

We decided that we should at least take in the experience. I knew that the touts that operate there are a nuisance, actually we were well briefed that they would be very aggressive, climb on your vehicle, pose as officials, even as police. The little patience that I have for these people is now pretty diminished due to our previous experiences. I decided that if we were to go then a fairly aggressive approach was the only way to avoid any kind of engagement with them. I drove ‘assertively’ but when I found that there were literally dozens of people trying to stop us in any way they could, by saying they have to check our ticket, to redirect us to their car park or to tell us we would not be allowed to drive and that we should go by camel /horse. One guy said, ‘if you drive your car up to the pyramids, you will be searched and it takes hours, but I can come with you and it will be easy’. So I drove faster and a bit closer to them than they were used to. I felt no sympathy as they bumped into one another to get out of my way. We arrived at the car park without incident and with me feeling a bit smug in outwitting them.  Ping was a bit annoyed with me as she does not like that kind of hard driving. I have to say I feel no empathy at all for these crooks. There are plenty of decent people in Egypt who are having a tough time at the moment. I think I shall empathise with them.

Once in the vehicle entrance the van was supposed to be searched but the policeman who was quite happy to let us in was overruled by some manager who said that a right hand drive vehicle was not allowed in as it is too dangerous! This is in a place where people drive on whichever side of the road that is most convenient for them! I put up a spirited defence saying that we’ve driven all over the continent on both sides of the road and had no problems. So he changed tack saying that as it had writing on the side it was a commercial tour bus and that is not allowed.  Was not having that either. A more senior manager then intervened on our behalf, so the first guy spoke to the cop who said there is a gas cylinder in the van and that is not allowed. I of course spat my dummy and said that despite coming all this way I no longer wanted to visit. I was pretty stressed by the drive in but now I was boiling over. Ping went with the senior man to speak to the cop’s boss. He said it isn’t a problem. So off we went with our van to see the pyramids. It was pretty amazing!

Just about the culmination of our time in Africa!

But the hassle continued throughout the visit and it really got under my fingernails. When we were charged Egyptian£5 to use a manky toilet, I had just about had enough. 

Mohsin, the arch diplomat

That was when we met with Mohsin. He was the senior manager who helped at the gate. He greeted us like long lost friends and took time to talk with us not just to apologies, he was really quite embarrassed, but we had a really enjoyable chat which to a great extent helped to change the mood.

When we returned to our camp I found I was completely tired out, it had been a long day. By the way The Pyramids were pretty good but really not worth the hassle and the horrible drives to get there but we are both glad we went.

Out of Africa

We are almost at the end of our drive from Cairo to the east side of the Sinai peninsula and as we cross into Sinai, we realised that we have indeed left Africa and we are now in the continent of Asia. We had to go through a long tunnel under the water so we never got to see The Suez Canal, we were very disappointed. 

Entering The Suez Canal

After that we drove in a long V shape down one side of the peninsula to Sharm el Shaik and then back up the other side up to the Israel border. Last night we stayed in the car park of a holiday resort where we were treated as a welcome guest.

We had thought finding somewhere in Sharm el Shaik but it was just full of expensive package tour type resorts and the town was just like Benidorm but with very few holiday makers, The main reason there were any was the Egyptian holiday week.

We are about 70 Km from the Israeli border and we have stopped for the night. There is nowhere to stay so we have been kindly put up at one of the many emergency rescue stations in the desert. Once again such lovely hospitality!!! It seems to me that this kind of Egyptian behaviour puts the tourist touts further to shame.

My feelings about Egypt are really mixed. I find that the various tombs, pyramids and archaeological sites are really only of passing interest and unless one has a strong interest in them then they are just not worth the hassle. I genuinely regret having to say this!

Ping – It was a truly remarkable experience to take in the pyramids after jumping through hoops to get there – to see the only surviving monument of the 7 ancient wonders of the world! Could have done without the hassle though!

The frequent heavily armed police checks and vehicle searches are quite wearing and mindless. What remains with me as a positive memory is the genuine kindness that we have received from some remarkable ‘ordinary’ Egyptians. Our heartfelt thanks to them!

These have been days and days of overwhelming beauty. I have simply run out of superlatives to describe them. The Egyptian deserts are truly astounding. I am in danger of repeating myself but the Sianai desert is very different and is yet again stunningly beautiful. 

More beauty in Sainai

I know that we could have made so much more of this part of the journey had we the time and the nerve to leave the road more bravely.

We will toddle off to Israel tomorrow, on our way first  to Jordan and then back to Israel to get the boat to Europe.

We have found a camp to stay in that has managed to stay open. It is a nice place right on the beach of the Red Sea. With the mountains of the Saudi desert just across the way. It is a lovely vista.  The camp is run by a nice family who are establishing  a community farm where in completely arid environment they are showing their neighbours that at a time when it exceptionally hard to make a living there are an array of cash crops to be  grown. They have regular meetings with scientists and other experts so that they can build a template for other people to use to grow their own organic crops without too many problems. Very interesting!

From the deep!

I had a diving lesson which was a really good experience although my lack of anything that looks like skill in the water rather let me down. It made it difficult for my very patient instructor, who nevertheless ensured that I had a beautiful dive on the coral reef where I saw so much of exotic fish and wonderful aquatic countryside.

That's all from Africa!

Lot of love 

Ping and Noel

pingbow54@gmail.com

noelbow51@gmail.com

1st October 2013

Sudan

Dateline Nubian Desert, whatever that means!

Sudan has not been a disappointment. This is partly because we did not really have any expectations. There is not much here, it is quite flat and the first part up to Khartoum was quite green. On the drive up to Khartoum and beyond it got increasingly hot, I mean hot! Whilst in the city I asked someone how hot it gets, he replied clearly, “about 45˚C”. I looked at our outside temperature gauge and it said 45˚. An hour later, it was up to 52˚.

A friendly greeting

The reason that Sudan has been such a good experience is because everybody we have spoken to has been pleasant, welcoming and helpful, mostly no English is spoken but from time to time we have been approached by serious language   students who really want to practice their skills.

Internet coverage has been quite a headache. It has been impossible to send emails or to post our blogs. Even when we were able to post it was so slow we decided to halve it and send the later part when we could access better wifi. As I write, that second half has yet to go. The internet Caff that we found is run by an English speaking family who were good company, helpful and a mine of information. I think we both would have like to have spent more time with them.

While in Khartoum we stayed at the National Camping Residence, which seemed to serve as the University Camp accommodation for the vast African International University nearby.

Lifting weights for Sudan

We were placed on a sort of square with a stage at the end. There are also a lot of those ubiquitous plastic chairs laid out. It made us wonder what event was going to take place. It turned out to be the Sudan National Weightlifting finals also the selection for Olympic hopefuls.

I joked with this guy's team that they couldn't lift weights in pink. With a smile his simple answer was to take off his jacket and show me what he has!

I would never have thought I would attend such a ‘gruntfest’ but we were surrounded by the whole thing and with absolutely everyone coming up and enthusiastically and formally introducing themselves to us as we  set up camp.  We enjoyed the way that we were involved socially and by the phenomenal effort put in by the contestants, not to mention the joys and disappointments.

Dinner with the journos and judges

On the second day we were invited to share dinner with some of the judges who it turns out are some of the top Sudan sports journalists. The camp was very basic, the shower and toilet, we would describe as quite ‘fragrant’! However, we had a really nice time and everyone we met was so welcoming.

Leading sports journalists

Champions!

                                

As we set off again, I was really quite surprised and interested to find that there are a lot of old trucks and lorries in Sudan, but far and away most common are the 1960 vintage Austin K type and Bedford JO lorries that are nursed along I believed with some affection. These ‘old boys’ haul their huge payloads all over the country everything from sacks of grain to livestock. 

Vintage Bedford

Ageing Austin

An Ice cream van in the Nubian Desert ?  Must be a mirage!

I saw one truck carrying half a dozen camels. They appeared to be quite content but then camels usually do. They just sit there and wait for something interesting to happen.

After Khartoum, the land turns quickly to desert. We stopped for the night at a kind of motel at Begrawiya Oasis. This is just about 1km south of the Meroe Pyramids so we stopped for the night and in the morning we went see the Pyramids. 

The very beautiful Meroe Pyramids

They can be seen from the road and appear to be just a bunch of monuments. We cut across the desert and paid to go and take a closer look. I am so glad we did, they are quite beautiful. They are tombs for the local Royal families. Set amid some lovely dunes, there is a mix of fairly rough structures as well as some superb geometric shapes. Really worth the climb.  It is so beautiful.

Geometric forms 

such a memorial

After a couple of hours we continued through the desert. 

I just love driving here though it is unspeakably hot. As we cruise along the good roads it is necessary to have the window up as a scorching hot wind blows hard across our path. It is heavy going driving like this with the windows up. Ping really finds extreme heat a trial and this is as hot as we have ever experienced. The fans in the cab just blow hot air in your face.

The next night was difficult  as we had a recommended camp. Allegedly run by a Korean couple in a remote town we had to hunt for it in the dark dodging unmade roads and squeezing between houses, no street lights of course, well actually there were no streets as one might recognise. Anyway, with the aid of yet another very kind and English speaking man we located the place to find that our Koreans had bailed out and closed the place down. So we camped in what may kindly be described as a gas station, or possibly a building site. Trucks in and out all night oil drums being dragged around and donkeys braying, we were forced to sleep with the side door open in order to breathe. Surprisingly we both slept quite well.

As we started out the next day, we had been going for a while when we saw in front of us a couple of men riding cycles. They are Steve and Reza who are attempting to break the record for cycling from the Arctic Circle to Cape Town in 100 days. On this afternoon they had just ridden some 200 km and were distinctly worse for wear.  

The courageous Steve and Reza

It is unbelievably hot, 45° outside and a strong hot wind from the east so it blows across the road. We had to drive with the windows up because the heat of the wind is hardly bearable.  I have the utmost admiration for those hardy souls who attempt this journey on pushbikes. Even though there are quite a few of them what they do is just incredible. They will undertake a number of rides that we found difficult enough in our vehicle never mind using pedal power. What Steve and Reza are attempting is a step further. We feel quite proud to have made their acquaintance and really wish them every success. It is a truly remarkable thing to do.

Desert Scene

We carried on through the beautiful but barren desert, in extreme heat and we had set our sights on a place called Camp Louis which our GPS said it recognised.  We never found it; at least we don’t think we did!

After a long drive we went on a wild goose chase across rough terrain. Following vague directions on the GPS, as well as an array of tracks in the sand , eventually we landed on a flat rock on the bank of the Nile. The GPS coordinates must be a bit off, not only because there is nothing here, and the actual location the GPS gives is about 20 metres into the river. We have driven about a km off the road into the sandy desert; all we have found is a maze of other, disappointed tyre tracks which suggest we are not the first to find this.

Anyway, we decide to settle here for the night, particularly as Ping is really not up for more driving. The Nubian Desert on the bank of the Nile is idyllic in appearance, but for the fact that it is unbearably hot (45˚), there is a strong wind blowing fine dust everywhere and Ping is feeling distinctly unwell. Everything is hot to touch, all the drinking water is hot, the water from the tank is hot and our little fridge is working so hard to keep up.

Our visitor just leaving

As we  were driving in, we saw no one, we were all alone, not a soul for miles, at least though we were able to take advantage of the solitude………… Er, hold on………… some bloke has just come out from behind the van. Without any discreet cough or other kind of warning, this bloke appeared wearing turban and traditional costume. He greeted us, shook hands and asked for some water. We gave him a bottle of water. He thanked us, shook hands and walked off into the distance. Really scared the willies out of me!

Ping was really feeling the heat and was not feeling at all well at this time so we cooled her off as best we could, though our solar shower was almost too hot to use.

We went to sleep early not being at our best. In the morning we rose with the lark to find that the wind had died down, it was quite cool and the sun was rising over the Nile. It was really lovely!

Vulnerability

As we sped across the desert in the extreme heat and dust,   I realised that as long as we have plenty of water, and I do mean plenty, we are drinking gallons of the stuff, and as long as the van is running well, then we are just fine. However if that for any reason ceases to be the case then we are in real trouble.

We have just learnt on the BBC world service that a few hours earlier, along the exact route that we took as we left Khartoum, they had the worst civil disturbances that Sudan has known for a very long time. As we drove out of town on the main road to the airport we stopped to fill up with diesel. I was surprised to see that the price had increase by about 50%, and queues were starting to build, though at that time we were blissfully unaware that there was a problem. By lunchtime a police station and petrol stations were on fire and during that day alone 126 people were confirmed dead. The internet was shut down by the government. It must have been truly awful.

It is ironic that we were so cautious about not getting caught up in any trouble as we head north, when it all pops up behind us in a truly unexpected way. We laboured over our decisions to drive through Egypt and yet 5 minutes after we left the city, Khartoum was on fire.

The same can be said about our decision to drive through the dreaded Marsabit (Kenya) to Moyale (Ethiopia) road where reports of banditry and tribal conflicts were a real threat to our safety – we are still shocked and horrified at the bloodbath that took place in Nairobi just days after we left, this was a shopping centre that anyone of us could have frequented whilst in Nairobi.

I feel it is really important for us all to try to appreciate our own good fortune.

Minimum speed restriction, Nubian style

As we packed up and got ready to move on the wind started to get up and make the dust fly. So off we went on our way to our last stop in Sudan, Wadi Halfa

Wadi Halfa is the port for the Nile ferry that will take us up Lake Nasser to Aswan and Luxor. This promises to be quite an adventure as we have to send the van on a barge that departs on a different day to us. Everyone who has written about this describes having a severe case of the Heebie Jeebies at watching their vehicle bobbing down the Nile on an old barge.

Leaving the van

As it has turned out we made use of the services of a ‘fixer’ who, unlike so many of the people who make their living at ports and frontiers helping people through the procedures our chap, Mirzar was possibly the most helpful person in Sudan, a country where everyone is pretty helpful.

Mirzar , a study in black and white

This is what happens next. We have to get on a ship that will transport us down the Nile to the port of Aswan alongside the Aswan dam. This ageing ship carries only passengers and so our van will have to be loaded onto a barge that then is towed by the same route and we then collect it at the other end. However, this is Africa and although it might be reassuring for these two services operating to schedules that coincide. They don’t! Actually it would, I think, be exaggerating to say they operate to any kind of schedule.  

We met Mirzar as we entered the town of Wadi Halfa. He was riding his motorbike and we managed to recognise one another . Introductions over, he immediately started the paperwork off getting forms completed and stamped. It really turned out that Mirzar is a remarkable guy. Everyone in the town and the port knows him by name and he is very well respected. It was agreed that we should get the van onto the barge the next morning and then ourselves onto the passenger ferry in the evening. This was the best way to minimise delays in collecting our van, so it was arranged.   Then we were informed that there had been an incident on the barge and its cargo of rice had been contaminated with diesel fuel. This would take several days to salvage the cargo. Mirzar continued to run round the various offices and so on. We were now booked on the ferry and the next barge may, or may not be on Monday.

Staying outside Mirzar's lovely house

At Mirzar insistence, we spent the night in Wadi Halfa, camped outside his house. He let us use his toilet, shower and even his washing machine. Ping realised that we would have to turn the fridge off in the van, so we had a supper made of some of the goodies which we had been saving in the fridge. Sudan is a fairly straight down the line Muslim country, where no alcohol is allowed. However, it turned out that our dinner that night was bacon sandwiches and one last beer that had been overlooked in the back of the fridge. Almost perfect, until Mirzar called me in as he thought I might enjoy watching Wallace and Grommit and the Wererabbit on the telly. A great night!

The next day we had to finish the arrangements which meant taking the van down and leaving it in the customs yard cleared and ready to be loaded. We then spent the day kicking our heels until we could get on our boat. The time came and went and then suddenly, only two hours late we were able to board, and what a bear pit that was. As you push along with the rest of the crowd through a narrow doorway, someone took your ticket and your passport and threw them into a cardboard box lying on the floor, full of other passports. We were told that we would get them back at the end of the journey.

Writing this blog on the Nile

Mirzar had arranged with the skipper that as the boat will be crowded with people, we could, for a fee have a place on the deck in front of the bridge. And so we did. Having given the skipper a backhander for our place on his deck we were approached by his deputies for a ‘tip’.

Our ticket included a meal, and we were hungry by this time. Someone thoughtfully brought it to us! It was not of the quality you might get on a cruise but it was pretty good and gone all too quickly.

As the sun set we were on our way to Egypt.  In the ship's light there was a myriad of insects flying all around as well as bats circling. We took our sleeping bag with us and it did get a bit chilly at night.

On the way we encountered a fishing boat that had got its nets caught up in its rudder so our ship stopped to rescue them. The rescue was a matter of getting a line aboard, pulling them alongside and then handing them a big carving knife to cut the entangled net.

Then down to sleep, I had a surprisingly good night’s sleep despite being on a steel deck. Ping was not quite so rested, as she spent most of the night gazing at the stars.  We awoke the next morning to a beautiful sunrise in the hill on the banks.  We then had a breakfast of bread and peanut butter with honey which we had brought with us, very nice. Overall, the journey was not too bad at all.

There was a bit of a fly in the ointment when Ping slipped off her flip flops and was then told by one of the passengers that the wind had just taken one of her slippers out to sea. She had no other shoes with her.  Now, Ping is ever resourceful and had very soon found someone among the passengers who had a new pair that she was willing to sell her. We discovered later that we would have had real problems disembarking with only one shoe.

Moments later the wind took my beloved cap off and it was gone forever. I am really upset about this as I have had it for about ten years and it was a gift from my lovely daughter, Daisy. 

New shoes?

Shoe sales department

By the time we had docked we had still not been given our passports back. As everyone was leaving the ship, only then did they decide that we would need a visa (which we had known all along).  And so they started the process, the visas would cost $15 each so we produced 2x$20 and of course they had no change. We were kept waiting for an hour before we were told to go landside and queue up there. Eventually we were given our visas with no real problem but still no $10 change. I felt that we had already spent more than an hour as punishment for not saying ’keep the change’.

I felt like digging my heels in even though we were now dealing with different people. Eventually after much patting of pockets and denying it concerned them, we finally got $5 and the remainder in Egyptian pounds. 

We met with Kamal, who is the opposite number of Mirzar, to take us through the complexities of getting our van back in Egypt.  A lot of people feel that they should not need to use these people but in this part of the journey these guys are surprisingly professional and they know how to work the system. Importantly, Kamal picked us up at the port and drove us to our hotel which is a decent journey. 

So we are now settled in a pretty nice and not too expensive hotel in Aswan. Here we get to have a nice, and much needed rest, a bit of mild tourism and some air conditioning and wait patiently, and hopefully for our van to float its way down the Nile to join us.

Lots of love 
Ping and Noel

pingbow54@gmail.com
noelbow51@gmail.com