Day 66: Sunday 6th April: Bush Camp #6 to Gondar

We have an uneventful trip to the next city (good tar road all the way), Gondar, where we meet up with our tour leader and our passports and visas for Sudan and Egypt. Two nights in the Goha Hotel in Gondar beckon so at least we can shower again tonight.

Day 67: Monday 7th April: Gondar

The city of Gondar is the third of the three cities to control the "old empire" after Axum and Lalibela.

Gondar has three main attractions for visitors: King Fasilida's Castle; Debre Selassie Church; King Fasilida's Swimming Pool.

The castle complex is walled and there are in fact 7 castles within the enclosure, the biggest being that of King Fasilidas. His wife had a smaller but more ornate one and brothers and successors the rest. The castles are evocative of JR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings (as of course is the name Gondar itself) and I have previously said that one of the images in St Mary's Church in Axum strongly reminded me of Sauron (the evil wizard) from Lord of the Rings. As a World Heritage site the castle complex has undergone restoration and is really quite magnificent to behold - the architecture is a mix of Ethiopian, Portuguese and Spanish, although to me they are reminiscent of English castles.

Debre Selassie Church is famed for the winged angles painted all over the roof as well as being square rather than octagonal (as they are in most monasteries and city churches). As we go in the priest asks us all to kiss his cross (mouth wash needed).

The swimming pool of King Fasilidas is the best for me, simply because it's a great feat of engineering, that water being piped about 3km from the local river. The pool is empty now, but once a year for Epiphany (Timkut) it is filled for the annual January 19th to 21st ceremonies and people jump in and swim.

There is a shortage of fuel so I spend 45 minutes queuing for diesel in town in the afternoon, but the cold beer and fish curry at the hotel soon let me forget that episode.

Note: [The kissing of the cross is a ritual in which the priest blesses you so you can hardly refuse the kiss the cross he carries, but we were all dreading that as the cross is made of wood and literally hundreds of people have kissed it that day - Ugh!!

Our guide also lets us have an interesting glimpse of his beliefs when he tells us that he agrees with Uganda who have outlawed homosexuality as it referred to in the Bible as a sin. He also believes that "you are put on this earth to make someone else's life better so it is horribly selfish not to marry and have children." That and a discussion with an employee at the hotel who believes "that there is no other worthy religion except Orthodox Christianity" makes me wonder if they have lost the plot in Ethiopia despite all their 'religious' convictions. The guide also told us that there are no drug addicts, except chat chewers, and the children who are not at school are "street children" whom he chased away very quickly. ] Lyn

Day 68: Tuesday 8th April: Gondar to Metema (Sudan Border) to Bush Camp #7

We travel down the Rift Valley escarpment from 2300m at Gondar to about 400m into Sudan at Metema. The Ethiopian side is quick (even though it is pointed out that some of our visas are one day out of date) and the Sudanese side although friendly takes forever - we are even offered dates to eat and the youngest lady is offered tea! It costs us R26 (US$2.50) for road tax. After about 2 hours we are through and now have Sudanese pounds in our pockets.

It has gotten quite hot down here at only 400m and I measure 46 degrees on the outside thermometer. We drive on potholed tar roads that, as usual, you can't take your eyes off for a minute (because as soon as you do a pothole pops in front of your wheels) for about 500km and I see a Wild Camp (aka bush camp) on our GPS that we head for adjacent the local river. It's very hot and at 7pm it's 35 degrees. Luckily it cools down rapidly and I guess it was about 20 degrees as a minimum overnight allowing us to sleep adequately. Of course there is no booze allowed in Sudan, but …………..

[The heat is oppressive and of course being out in the open is very hot and very dusty if the wind comes up. We stopped on a river bank, but the river was completely dry so just thorn bushes and sand. For once, no fire is needed. I take a wet towel to bed and all the tent flaps are left open. I wrap the wet towel around my head and shoulders and fall asleep like that, only to wake up about four hours later when it has cooled down so much that I can discard the towel and pull the duvet up a little. Blissfully quiet night and no more visitors after the chap in white who suddenly materialized when we stopped to set up camp. Of course communication was a problem, but money talks and a couple of Pounds later he leaves us to camp.] Lyn

Day 69: Wednesday 9th April: Bush Camp #7 to Khartoum

The drive to Gedarif is uneventful but as we turn onto the main Khartoum road the trucks and buses build up and I realize that the drivers obviously believe Allah is on their side as they are plainly suicidal. There are loads of carcasses of donkeys, dogs, goats and camels next to and just off the road, all rotting and dried-out - they are just left there. The heat builds up again to 45 degrees and you can see why there is no time to eat the road kill (sorry Rebecca)! It's only 200km of flat, semi-potholed driving but it is quite taxing. We arrive at the Khartoum Mall (amazingly big and modern) and stop in for breakfast (at 11am) and some shopping as there is a big supermarket here (no beer though).

We then head off to The German Guesthouse which is blessed with a pool, air-conditioning and good food (no beer though) and park off for the afternoon.

Day 70: Thursday 10th April: Khartoum

Well week 11 is upon us - can you believe it!

Today we take a taxi to the National Museum of Sudan and witness the Sudanese early Kus***e history and then the event of Christianity and eventually Islam takes over. There are a couple of interesting temples (Senna and Buhen) that have been re-erected on the premises which gives some idea of the magnitude and scale, original build around 1500BC.

There are lots of statues and carvings from 700 to 600BC, including the sphinx (animal with human head and body of a lion) as well as the Ram's head and its significance in ancient Egypt. The Egyptians conquered Sudan more than once and the history of domination along the banks of the Nile is well depicted.

Our taxi driver, being bereft of English, then takes us to the Omdurman Souk (big, massive market) when we'd asked him to take us to the site of Kitchener's gun boat. After half an hour driving through the alleys (and it's stinking hot) I tell him to quit and take us back to the guesthouse!

In the evening a dust storm brews and the air is thick with it - we climb onto the guesthouse roof to see it approaching.

This evening our guide gives us the run down on what will happen in the coming two weeks regarding the ferry crossing from Wadi Halfa (in Sudan) to Aswan (in Egypt). The main problem is that after the trouble in Aswan there has been an increase in ferry passengers so the scheduled ferry next Wednesday is full and we are booked on an additional service running next Friday. The problem with this is the vehicles have to be loaded onto a separate barge, probably on Monday and this barge takes about 3 days compared to the 24 hours for the passenger ferry.

This means we have to spend 5 days in the Wadi Halfa - reportedly the a******* of the world as we know it (and believe me when I say we have already seen some a******* towns). In fact I dare say it's a burst a*******. There are no hotels (as we know them) so our guide has arranged for us to stay in someone's brother's house, with sketchy amenities (wonder if there are beds?) but at least we will be fed. There is no booze and no air-conditioning (note my priorities) and it will be as hot as Hades - probably peaking at around 48 degrees in the afternoons.

Day 71: Friday 11th April: Khartoum

We have decided to stay another night here in Khartoum (principally to minimize time spend in Wadi Halfa).

Today Lyn and I self-drive around Khartoum and visit El Hamid Nil's tomb, Mahdi's Tomb, the Al Khalifa House Museum (which is closed - although not according to the guide book) and the Yacht Club where Kitchener's gunboat is beached (and a sad and sorry state it's in too).

In the afternoon we visit el Hamid Nil's tomb again where there is a dancing ceremony by an Islamic group devoted to El Hamid Nil. There is supposed to be some trance like states entered into and we expect "dervish" type behavior, but in reality most of the "dancers" sort of plod around as they are into their dotage (old geysers in reality) so we only see one guy swirling about and leave the party early as the wind's still blowing and it's quite unpleasant out there.

Back at the guesthouse the owner has cooked up a special treat of melon and black forest ham for starters and beef with LOTS of sauerkraut (good German that he is) with beetroot and cucumber salad and sugared onion and olive potatoes (with pot-loads of gravy) - naturally I make a real pig of myself!

Tomorrow we set off for the first leg of the 1200km drive through the desert to Wadi Halfa.

Day 72: Saturday 12th April: Khartoum to Bush Camp # 8 - Nubian Desert.

The road from Khartoum out into the desert is tar - yippee, and besides a few potholes is in relatively good condition.
It is 1200km from Khartoum to Wadi Halfa so it's going to take us 2 days.
Our first stop is at Meroe Pyramids which is right alongside the road but nevertheless we have to pay 50 Sudanese Pounds (5,5SPE to the US$ or 8.6 on the black market which we take advantage of naturally) each and then get hassled to ride a camel around (roundly declined).
The pyramids are impressive and we have seen pictures in the National Museum in Khartoum, so we now see first-hand the Kus***e Kings burial places. There has been some restoration and unfortunately some graffiti, but nevertheless they are impressive.
Then it's onto Jebel Barkal which is another set of pyramids alongside the road (this time no entry fee) and there is also a mountain alongside that legend has it gives a sphinx / lion shadow at sunset at a certain angle - hence the burial ground being sited adjacent the mountain.
It's 6pm by now and we find a bush camp in the desert about half a km from the road and have a windy but peaceful night in the roof top tent.

Read: "Middle of nowhere!" for this bush camp. One lone camel came wondering through the camp in the middle of the night and that was the only sign of life apart from the half-dead trees which seem to survive in the old river bed and around which we camped. Yes, our 'toilet' was two bushes down and three across. At least there's no-one to watch you I guess. [Lyn]

Day 73: Sunday 13th April: Nubian Desert. Bush Camp # 8 to Bush Camp # 9 - near Wadi Halfa.

We arrive at Wadi Halfa police check point about 2pm after 550km today and await our "contact" Masar to introduce ourselves and give him our passports and carnet and other necessary paperwork.
After about 45 minutes Masar rocks up on a motorbike and we follow him to his house (which we are to use whilst we wait for the ferry, most likely sailing on Friday coming). The house is ok, squat toilet, bucket for shower, no aircon, but it does have power and they will feed us - all for the paltry sum of US$90 per day! Well, beggars can't be choosers.
We decide to have another bush camp out of town tonight to minimize the time spent at the house somewhat. So we gad down to the lake and Dave gets royally stuck in soft mud. Our fellow traveler tries to pull him out and gets himself stuck in the mud. I then pull him out eventually and then I get my first chance to use my (never used before and expensive) winch - which works!!
The area we have chosen has a water trench running by that could come from the town (if you know what I mean) and the water's edge is very soft mud so swimming is out.
So we travel around the lake and find another spot, but the water is full of green floating bits (natural mind you) and we decide to move on again. Eventually we find a high rise on sand with a lovely view - where Dave gets royally stuck in the sand again. After much deflation of tyres and digging we get him out and then I nearly get stuck and decide to deflate my tyres (but fortunately no hassle).
It's a beautiful spot and we have some stew, illegal hooch and the temperature actually get down to around 16 degrees forcing us to pull the duvet on.
Unfortunately the lake looked lovely but smelt bad and no matter what Simon says about the 'natural' green floating bits, we were not about to take a chance and swim. What a pity to be surrounded by water but not able to swim. Mind you the pelican and flamingo and heron did not seem to mind so we had to be satisfied with watching them in the water. [Lyn]

Day 74: Monday 14th April: Bush Camp # 9 - near Wadi Halfa to Wadi Halfa - Masar's Place.

So here starts the toil. We hang around the bush camp looking at Lake Nasser until we get a call on the radio from Dave saying he is now at the house (after having started yet more paperwork and red tape) so we can come through. In the meantime we have been packing what we think we will need for the house and the dreaded ferry trip - the stories are not good, I will let Lyn tell these.

Glynnis will be proud of me - I have packed all the surface sanitizer, hand sanitizer and anti-fungus spray that I can fit in my bag in preparation for the ferry. The stories of the ferry are horrific so we are preparing for the worst! Apparently there are at least 1000 people to be loaded on the ferry and we have (hopefully) managed to book two cabins which are tiny, air-conditioned cupboards with a bunk bed. We booked three cabins (for the six of us) in Khartoum but today we have been told there are only two cabins now so the guides have courageously said that they will sleep on deck with the masses. The truly frightening prospect is ablutions which are shared by all and apparently very quickly reach overflowing stage. Can we sail for 26 hours without going to the loo? I am soooooo looking forward to getting to Aswan (where they were shooting one another last week!!)

In the meantime we are staying at Masar's house where we have been made very welcome. I will take photos as no-one will believe what we are paying $90 for. Open-plan is a good description and the beds are all movable so that you can put them outside in the 'garden' at night to try to catch a breeze. The 'floors' are all mud and the ablutions are one very clean 'squatty' toilet and one bucket to wash in. At least we are not still stuck in the desert!

Day 75, 76 & 77: Thursday 17th April: Wadi Halfa

Still stuck in Wadi Halfa waiting for the ferry. Hopefully tomorrow by this time we will be on the ferry to Aswan, Egypt. We were always warned that this week is the toughest of the journey by far. We are staying at Masar's house which is very basic accommodation and it is incredibly hot with nothing to do so not much fun at all. The first night we stayed in a 'room' (no windows no doors roof with holes in) on two of his (single) beds, but it was still hot and he was in and out washing dishes and welcoming other guests, who slept on the pavement outside, so it was all too disruptive. The second night we decided to sleep in our roof-top tent - on the pavement (sand actually) outside. That was much cooler, but then you also hear everything the neighbours do and say and all the dogs barking etc. We still slept better in our own bed so we camped every night and just sat around in the shade at Masar's house all day. At least Simon starts the day with a cycle and then we go for a quick walk before it gets too hot. Very, very boring with very little to do except read and write and hot as hades. The highlight of the day is the 'shower'. Would never want to do this again.

Mind you, I might soon be saying that about the ferry as well!

We have also been reduced to drinking covertly although we are now down to soft drinks only. We had one bottle of whiskey and one bottle of gin amongst us but unfortunately that is all gone now. We sound like alcoholics the way we go on, but it is amazing how much of our socializing revolves around having a drink or two. Good old pub culture.

The most interesting part of travelling in Sudan has been the amazing welcome we have received from Moslem people living here (Nubians). Even though few people can speak English, there is always a smile and a wave and a word of welcome. The children are shy, but they run out and say hello if we are walking by and all drivers beep and wave as they pass us. Everyone we have met have been welcoming and have tried to be helpful. Even the police at the road-blocks were welcoming. We had a bit of a lecture from one elder about Moslems welcoming other people 'as brothers' and that has truly been our experience.

Day 78: Friday 18th April: Wadi Halfa Ferry

Well today is the day we say goodbye (riddance actually) to the s***hole well known to us now - Wadi Halfa. After 5 days here in the searing heat with nothing to do it's not hard to kiss this place goodbye.

I have ridden my bike for at least an hour every morning (early due to the heat) and now know the town and surrounding desert intimately. Nothing to report actually except the packs of wild dogs that made me slightly nervous. We make an excursion to "town" every afternoon in the Doddle to buy cool drinks and try and alleviate some of the boredom.

So, to the ferry. We depart the house at 11am and get to the port gate and wait for half an hour then drive inside and park the vehicles. We then have to wait for the custom's guys to inspect the engine numbers and clear the vehicles. This takes another hour whilst we wait outside in the now 45 degree sun. Then we are allowed into the waiting building with about 20 million of the great unwashed and at least get a seat at the front of the warehouse (doubtless due in part to the exorbitant prices we paid for the tickets) and wait for another 4 hours in the heat. It's now 5pm and we get the call to commence boarding. This involves a custom's inspection of our bags, with stickers and more checks, then we eventually board (actually fight our way onto) a bus in which we wait for half an hour (in the searing heat again) before it hurtles down the dock at break neck speed. We then queue to get on board (including surrendering our passports) and find our cabin - if you can call it that. The bunk beds are direly syph - I think the bedding has never been washed. We strip it and Doom the cabin intensely (i.e. drown it in anti-bug spray) - looking under the mattress causes great consternation, there's at least 10 years of food bits under there (yum yum).

At least there's an air-conditioner and our cabin has a porthole (which the other two couple's don't) so it can't all be bad. The worst thing possibly is that we are opposite the ladies toilet - which Lyn says is disgusting in the extreme and we're not yet even underway!

We get underway at 8:30pm from Wadi Halfa and have various predictions of the journey duration from 24 to 26 hours (Dave) to 17 hours (Masar, the fixer guy whose house we stayed at in Wadi Halfa.

Day 79: Saturday 19th April: Ferry between Wadi Halfa (Sudan) and Aswan (Egypt)

Predictably it was a noisy night - screaming kids, shouting women, the toilet door (opposite our cabin) along with other cabin doors banging all night. At least the aircon was not so noisy.

The ferry was as bad as we expected - the noise predictably so. The women have a great tolerance for noise and are oblivious to their bickering, banging, slamming, screaming children and the men just seem to disappear when a child starts tantrums. There are apparently about 570 people on board this ferry and there are only about 30 cabins which sleep two people each. There are about 8 women and children in the cabin next door and I wish it had a revolving door as the door bangs every 10 minutes or so and has done so since we set off. There are also only four toilets for women and four toilets for men which thankfully have hand-basins so you can wash your hands. No other washing facilities so everyone washes in the hand-basin and that means the floor is always awash and it is filthy so I have kept my shoes on at all times. The 'toilets' are predictably 'squatty' toilets with a tap for you to wash down afterwards. They are filthy and close to over-flowing at all times.

The cabin we are allocated is a little bigger than we expected and has a port-hole which we can open so at least we can see a little of the desert as we pass by. There are bunk beds - each with a sheet and pillow (with pillowslip) and two blankets as the aircon is pretty effective. However, everything is absolutely filthy and I don't think anything has ever been cleaned since the ferry started operating. I have taken some photos as it is impossible to adequately describe the filth. I turfed the linen and pillows into the 'cupboard' and sprayed an entire can of Doom in the cabin. Just lifting the mattresses unveiled a cockroach-feast of left-over food from previous travelers. Unbelievable. Anyway, you could smell our Doom-cabin right down the passage-way and it worked as we had no crawlers and no bites. Dave says their cabin, which is unfortunately near the 'kitchen', is crawling with cockroaches even after they used Doom. We have made good use of our surface sanitizer, hand sanitizer and anti-fungal foot spray but I don't know how anyone else copes. Thank goodness we brought our own linen else I would not have slept at all. As it was, sleep was snatched in-between people shouting (talking), banging doors and people who can't read and barge into the wrong cabin (no locks).

And that is the 'larny' part of the ferry! The other 540 (plus "extras") people literally had to scramble to grab a place for themselves, their mats, their children, their bags, somewhere on the deck of the ferry. They put down a mat to stake out some space for themselves and then pack their bags (and children) around them. Absolute chaos and very, very difficult to move around the ship at all. The ferry provides food so you each get a meal ticket and line up at the 'kitchen'. Once again thank goodness we were self-sufficient and settled for cup-a-soup, noodles and pro-vita and cheese. We even had our own tea and coffee so we got a couple of boiled eggs from the kitchen and that was breakfast as well. If you saw what the 'galley' was like then you'd quite understand that we were not about to eat that food.

Two life-boats (full of sleeping people of course) and only a few of the cabins had life-jackets and more and more people were being loaded in the dark before we left (certainly more than 570) so now you understand how these disasters happen. We have also had to keep our shawls, long-sleeves and skirts on. Karlien was told off by a customs official yesterday when her shawl slipped and revealed her neck and shoulder and last night on deck a woman told her off and re-wrapped her head shawl when the wind blew it open. We will dutifully keep our gorgeous bodies fully covered until we are off this damn ferry!

After an 18 hour journey we come alongside another ferry in the Port of Aswan adjacent the High Dam wall. But after 10 minutes of maneuvering we pull away at speed and sail into the dam again and anchor down - not sure if we're waiting until there is a berth for us. In the hour before we "docked" the masses already started filling up the aisles and queuing to get off and hours later are still standing "in-line" squabbling with each other. We are advised to wait in the cabin until it has quietened down.

After two and half hours of waiting in the bay and having our documents checked and stamped by the Egyptian authorities we once again steam back to the port. You do realize of course that this boat is "dry" - so they're wasting valuable drinking time and we're getting a little pissed off to say the least.