Day 82 to 84 - 20th to 22nd January - into Sudan

Point of departure : Gondar

Point of arrival : Khartoum

Accommodation: rooftop tent @ Blue Nile Sailing Club

Km travelled today: 765 km Cum: 16 155km (gravel 0km cum 4 649km)

Countries so far: 8/16

Where to next? Dongola

Total number of photos taken: 50 (cum 3 743)

We left Gondar at about 08h30 and headed for the border. A very pretty drive in the first 50 or so kilometres with the altitude up above 2000m and then the sudden drop down to the plains below to about 700m as we got to the border of Metema/Gallabat.

Border formalities completed in about one and a half hours. The Ethiopian immigration was a run down shack at probably the worst border facilities we have ever seen. However, they did the job in 15 minutes (both passport and carnet).

The Sudan entry was fairly straight forward but took a bit of extra time namely, 15 minutes for passport, 30 minutes for Alien registration (didn't realise we were from another planet) and 30 minutes to process the carnet de passage. We are convinced that on all 3 occasions we were dealing with trainees. Within a few hundred metres from leaving the border there was a police check where the uniform and non-uniform did not have their act quite together. Uniform was ready to wave us through on presentation of official documents, but non-uniform thought these "khawaja's" (foreigners) might be a good target for a bit of unofficial road tax. We resisted, threatening to return to the border for clarification, and were then finally waved through by the uniformed official (we had a similar two step about 100km later where a combination of indignation and not speaking the language had the same effect). Funnily enough, at the third police check, there was a very friendly chap, who enquired where we came from and whose face lit up with South Africa and Bafana Bafana and was even happy to receive a small SA flag that Marina waved at him.

The road was mainly good (tar ALL the way from Gondar) and once on the Sudanese side it was interesting how habitation progressed from mud and thatch to mud and corrugated sheeting roofs and then to brick and flat concrete slab roofs. All along, the buildings were well controlled away from the road, and although there were some animals about they were almost without exception, off the road. One just has a sense of orderliness about this place.

In the absence of any sensible place to stop, and our wish to get through to Khartoum, we broke our cardinal rule about night travel in Africa again.This was more hairy, not because of gravel or potholes or stray animals, but because of traffic and dust but the last hour was a bit hairy. John could not let his attention waiver for a second, but we made it safely. Our longest day of travel so far with a further slow, but steady, reduction in elevation to about 400m above sea level as we approached Khartoum and the confluence of the two Niles.

We were happy to get to the Blue Nile Sailing Club despite camping in the car park and somewhat below average ablutions (actually they are quite s***ty). We do however, have a view of the Blue Nile.

Khartoum the city, where the waters of the Blue Nile and the White Nile meet to form the mighty Nile on its journey to Egypt. Khartoum the tri-capital as it is made up of three cities namely: Khartoum proper, Khartoum North (or Bahri) and Omdurman.

Khartoum once had a slave market which rivalled Zanzibar and, as a result of European pressure, the public slave market closed down in 1854, although slaves continued to be sold outside the city limits where they were then sent to Egypt, Red Sea and Arabia.

Of interest to us was the era relating to the siege of Khartoum to the Mahdi and the recapture by Lord Kitchener. A brief summary of the events follows.

At the beginning of 1880 the Madhist rebellion (led byMohammed Ahmed who called himself the Mahdi and claimed descendancy from the Prophet Mohammed) was prospering in western Sudan.As a result the Turco-Egyptian regime in Khartoum felt threatened and in 1884 called upon Charles Gordon (who for four years was Governor General of Sudan back in 1877) to return to Khartoum and organise an evacuation of the Egyptian garrisons.Gordon however felt he could not abandon Khartoum to its fate and tried to negotiate with the Mahdi. When this failed, he decided to stay and defend the city against the Mahdi advance.

The city was easy to defend as a result of its location between the arms of the Blue and White Nile. The Madhi army isolated the city by cutting Khartoum's telegraph lines and stopping steamer traffic, thereby cutting all supplies to Khartoum.This siege began in earnest in September 1884. By December the city's food supplies were low and the population was reduced to eating rates and Gordon expelled 5 000 citizens to the Mahdi.

A British column had been sent to Khartoum to assist Gordon but it arrived two days too late. When the waters of the Nile fell and exposed the city's defences the Madhi stormed the city on 26 January 1885 and looted the city.Gordon was killed on the steps of the Governor's Palace. The British column too were shelled by the Madhists and retreated.

The Madhi made Omdurman the capital but did not live too long to see Omdurman's prosperity. He died five months later probably of typhoid fever.

After much pressure from the British public to avenge Gordon's death and as a result of the "Scramble for Africa" at its height (several European powers had their eyes on the Nile river) - Britain's position in Egypt demanded that it maintained control of the Nile River - an army was sent out in 1895 to recapture Khartoum under the leadership of Lord Kitchener.

Kitchener organised the construction of the railway line from Wadi Halfa to Khartoum to ferry troops closer to the city.He sailed up the Nile on his gunboat Melik.And, on the 2 September 1898 at the Battle of Omdurman, the two armies (British and Mahdist) met outside Omdurman.The Khalifa (who took over from the Madhi when he died) fled, leaving 10 000 Sudanese dead. The British lost 48 men and in true British tradition, Kitchener was quoted as calling this "a good dusting".The writer Hilaire Belloc on reading of the victory and bloodshed at Omdurman penned the immortal lines "Whatever happens, we have the Maxim Gun, and they have not".

Lord Kitchener's gunboat the "Melik" is at the Blue Nile Sailing Club and now acts as an office.

Day 83 - today we spent the morning at the Afra shopping centre to restock, went to the bank for foreign exchange and the afternoon we went on a boat cruise to the confluence of the two Niles.

The confluence of the Nile (al-Morgan) in Khartoum, is an important geographical highlight. The two Niles are a distinct colour, the White Nile is muddy and brown (due to the different silts they carry) and the Blue Nile is greenish. This is very evident when you see the confluence of the two rivers either from a boat on the river or from the bridge. The Blue Nile contributes approximately 80% of the Nile's water as the White Nile loses most of its water, through evaporation, when it flows through the Sudd (the swamps) in southern Sudan. The Blue Nile is narrower and fast flowing whilst the White Nile is very wide but slow moving (this can be seen from the rooftop at the Coral Khartoum, formerly the Hilton). During heavy rains the flow of the Blue Nile is so strong that it causes the White Nile to back up and at times flood southern Khartoum.(background information Bradt Travel Guide).

In the late afternoon we went to the Coral Khartoum (formerly the Hilton Hotel) to see the confluence of the Niles from the rooftop of the hotel and to get a better perspective of the city.

Day 84 we drove across to Omdurman to visit the Mahdi's Tomb. The tomb was blown up by the British after they recaptured Khartoum and the present tomb was rebuilt in 1947.

We were unable to visit the Khalifa's house and museum as it's closed on Fridays and Mondays. The museum apparently has items from the Omdurman battle.

A couple of hours was spent walking around the Omdurman Souq - the largest in the country where it seems that you can get just about anything… food stuffs, meat, spices, toiletries, bicycles, hardware, mobile phones, luggage, fabrics, clothing, shoes, etc.

Then drove out west of Omdurman to visit the Camel market but all we found was a second hand car market… maybe things have changed in the desert? (We subsequently heard that there IS a camel market, but it's off the beaten track, and not that impressive.)

Back to the Blue Nile Sailing Club to find that religious/holiday Friday had really filled up the car park and camping saw us squeezed in between various cars and boat trailers. This provided a challenge for Marina as cooking had to be done in the rather exposed and dusty car park.Nevertheless, we survived, and despite the movement of cars and a live music concert, just down the block, we had a good night.