Desert Camp to Wadi Halfa

 Camp Louis next to the Nile

Resting at a roadside water hole and rest camp


Desert Camp to Wadi Halfa

Water holes along the Sudan highway

893km of  deselation and heatwaves

Another water hole with beds to rest

Typical desert town

 BMW cum Gabriel conversion - Rudi fitted our trailer shock to help him get through Africa

After an unbelievable night under the Sudanese Desert skies with the moon busy vexing and stars as bright as city lights, we got up at 4am to start our 2^nd last leg to Wadi Halfa.  An earlier start would give us time to ‘siesta’ somewhere along the road.  We still had +/- 550km to go and are trying to cut it into 2 days since we have to be in Wadi Halfa on Tuesday morning if we wanted our vehicles on the ferry/barge to Aswan, Egypt on Wednesday.

So far Sudan has been rather disappointing. All along the roads were discarded plastic bags, bottles and waste. Positively, we co-incidentally, were in Khartoum while history was in the making. South Sudan became independent from North Sudan. Our East London car group we heard later, stayed at the same hotel than our very own Mr Thabo Mbeki who was a main mediator in the North and South independence negotiations. Mr Mbeki was informed that fellow SA’s were in the hotel and agreed to meet with the guys.  Thanks Mr Mbkeki for acknowledging your fellow countrymen in Sudan. You can read more about this on the website http://www.elao2011.co.za.

 Both bikers and vehicles have been taking strain with temperatures ranging between 45 – 47degrees Celsius. I don’t know whether it was a blessing in disguise or not, but Rudi’s bike blew the shock absorber seal only 45km into Sudan and I had been delegated into the back-up vehicle. On our arrival in Khartoum he made a plan and fixed the trailer spare shock to the bike. Now he is riding a BMW cum Gabriel and I was promised that I could get back on the bike in Egypt. Nobody wants to get stuck in the desolate Sudan desert or in Wadi Halfa?

We travelled rather slowly from our desert camp up north and agreed that we would leave as little as possible kilo’s for the last leg. All along the road there are water stops with beds standing ready for anyone that would like to take a break from the heat. These water stops was well used.  The vehicles met up with the bikes at just such a stop and we all decided to go to a place on the Nile for a rest and a swim. We spent the next 3hrs bathing in the river, praying that the crocodiles have fed already, rinsed our washing that merrily have been shaking in our washing drum on the roof rack while driving.  After a refreshing rest we headed off for another 100km and started looking for a place to camp the night. The GPS showed up ‘Camp Louis’ . We found a place that could have been Camp Louis in the old day’s. It was a very dirty place with plastic bags in and around every tree. We cleaned up enough for us to strike camp next to the river.  At the end it was quite nice except for millions of bugs flying around that made it almost impossible to open your mouth.

Cheryl  and Ian cooked a nice meal, Rudi was sick, probably sunstroke and all had an early evening after having had another swim in the Nile.

Yet another beautiful night under the Sudan skies. We left round 8am with only 168km to Wadi Halfa.  We all pushed through and met up with the East Londen guys around 11am They have organized a guy called Ali to sort out our Carnets, tickets for the ferry for both vehicles and passengers. After handing over paperwork to the runner the waiting game began. The  ‘Guest House’ where we stayed at has no name so we just called it “The Yellow House’ the bathrooms and kitchen ware disgustingly dirty.  There was a cleaning lady around but I don’t think she has ever heard off cleaning materials, she just hung around turning dirt around from one corner to the next.  We sat outside after the sun had set and Roger and Jo-Anne did some rather tough fillets on the braai and the guys all drank some sachets from our bar. Wadi Hafa was just another dry desert town.  The shops had very little, the restaurants very dirty and men sitting around everywhere doing absolutely nothing and no women and children to be seen anywhere.