We changed the mountainous area with his lovely fresh, chilly, and at times, rainy weather of Ethiopia with the hot and dry flats of Sudan. (Sounds like as I preferred Ethiopia, but then if I write it that way) Finally we escaped the rainy hills of Ethiopia with his chilly night temperatures – I even had to wear my fleece trousers at night in Addis Ababa – and are now in Sudan with more pleasant temperatures of around 35-38 Degrees Celsius – sure no fleece trousers at night necessary any more but some ice cubes 🙂 – sound that I’m glad to be out of Ethiopia, or?
Well, some how both. It is nice to have it bit warmer at night and not to worry about being rained at, but it is also quite ‘warm’ here but I like it. We managed to get from Gondor in one stretch to Gedaref – we thought that would take two days but luckily the roads improved within the last few years.
Gedaref was then so totally different then any place in Ethiopia. The life started with sunset and all the people came out of the houses or shady places and set down for a tee or coffee in one of the many ‘street cafes’ – a place with a portable charcoal stove, some canister with water and little wooden chairs – or went shopping. After having a coffee yourself, we went to have a look around the marked to see what eatable things we would find. We finally settled for some meet on stick – everything in Africa you get on a stick!! – on the ‘Night-Marked’ (not really a marked but street-stales everywhere). After the meat I could not help and had to try some of the sweeties they were selling everywhere. The ‘problem’ was that you could not buy them per piece but only by kilo 🙁 … 🙂 I probably gained 2 kilos in Sudan!!!
The next day we left Gedaref for Khartoum where we tried to find out more about the Ferry from Wadi Halfe to Aswan in Egypt. Because we did not speak Arabic and not that many people spoke English, we asked people to write in Arabic the places we liked to go to on a paper so that we could show the paper around and would hopefully be pointed in the right direction or put on the right bus. The thing is just, that we were never sure what the wavy lines on you paper were exactly saying and we just hope that the person who wrote it down, did not try to make a joke with us. Well, things went okay and we got the things done and it was a lot of fun to show the paper with wavy lines around.
We decided to get to the Wadi Halfe for the weekly ferry in about a weeks time and so we had some time to see something more from Sudan. We decided to go to Port Sudan since it is on the Red See – and for me to do some diving. The next morning we went by taxi bus station and he stopped at different company offices but we always said that those busses are too nice and expensive for us and that we would like to go with a ‘Nissan-Min-Bus’. He did not really understand us and so he stopped in an office where he knew someone who spoke a bit English.
“Yes, we do have busses to Port Sudan. They are costing 8’600 – ca.33US$ – Sudanese Dinar and will take 12 hours.”
“Thank you, but we are looking for the busses without air-con and served meals for 3’000 Dinar.”
“Okay, we have them as well but those take about 17 hours.”
“Yes, this are then converted lories but what about the ‘Nissan-Min-Bus’ who have 14 hours?”
“Oh, this we don’t know.”
We left the office and I started walking around the bus station in search for the ‘Nissan-Min-Bus’ but could not really find any but was shown different offices how had busses – converted lories – for around 3’000 Dinar. Because we have seen those on your way from Gedarf to Khartoum and knew how fast, or better said, how slow those where, I did not really trust the promised 14 hours. Also the LP mentioned that this ‘buses’ have rather 20-24 hours than 14.
Still looking for the ‘Nissan-Min-Bus’ and talking to different persons, I started to realize, that there are no ‘Nissan-Min-Bus’ direct to Port Sudan. We could, however, get a ‘Nissan-Min-Bus’ to Gedaref and from there on to another place and from there another Bus to Port Sudan. The whole thing sounded quite time consuming and would have taken us several days.
Because we were not willing to spend the 66 US$ for the nice air-con buses to get too and back to Post Sudan and were also not willing to spend 48 hours on busses for an intended two days visit, we decide not to go to Port Sudan.
But what to do instead? “There was a ferry leaving for Egypt from Wadi Halfa tomorrow, let’s see whether we can cover the some 800 km Dessert-roads in two days!” From the southern bus station we went to the north station and boarded a bus to Atbara. If we would be able to find there some sort of transportation to Abu Hamed the same day, we might be able to get to Wadi Halfa on time.
With reaching Atbara, I was convinced that we would be able to find a bus or lorry to Abu Hamed the same day – there were so many of them. A man showed us a place from where buses to Wadi Halfa are leaving. Talking to the men in the office, we figured out, that the busses leave just on Monday – it was Thursday – to meet the Wednesday Ferry in Wadi Halfa. We asked about lorries or pick-up’s but where told that there are no vehicles leaving for Abu Hamed. Not right believing this, we went with some wavy lines on a piece of paper on our way to ask around.
After some walking up and down the road, we were final pointed to a place from where busses to Abu Hamed are leaving and were assured that there would be a bus today. Excited, we went to the office and they affirmed us, that there are busses to Abu Hamed but, just on Monday – sh…..! Exhausted and disappointed we set down in the office and had a tee. Then, after about 20 minutes, a man came and told us that there would be a lorry leaving for Abu Hamed in about 10 minutes. I went to talk to the driver and we sort came to an agreement about the price just to be told, that the lorry would not leave today but tomorrow. I tried to explain to him, that in that case it is of no use for us, since we would not be able to get to Wadi Halfa on time but he did not really understand that this mattered.
Bake at the office, drinking some more tee, there were more people coming and telling about lorries or busses. I went to see all the different drivers but it always turned out that they would not leave before tomorrow or even next Monday or then that we would have to ‘rent’ the whole vehicle which we could not afford. The whole thing stared to be very confusing and exhausting and we started to think about other possibilities. After about 4 hours in Atbara, failing to find any kind of transport, we decided to go back to Khartoum and make our way to Wadi Halfa via Dongola and get on the ferry in a week time.
Having set our mind to leave Sudan and get to Egypt, during the ride back to Khartoum, we thought about other possibilities to get the Wadi Halfa this Wednesday and we remembered that there would be flight tomorrow. We decided to check on the price – just that we would know – and so we went from the bus station strait to the airport. There was a flight at 7:00 AM the next morning and just two more seats were available – it just looked like, that it had had to be that way. Somehow it felt right to pay this 83 US$ and fly to Wadi Halfa, that way I would have one extra week in Egypt to find a way to Switzerland.
The flight did – what wonder – not leave at 7:00 AM but at 10:30 AM. Apparently there where some technical problems to solve and, as we saw the airplane, we were surprised that it took just 3 hours and not 3 weeks. The plain was probably in his prime some 25 years ago and we got really sarcastic – even more then we already had been the last few days. We boarded, went to our seats and put the seatbelts on. Because my seatbelt was missing some peaces, he could not be adjusted anymore but was loosely stitched together for a fixed size – I fit comfortable twice – but then what you need a seatbelt for anyway?!?.
A look out of the window made me feel better. The tyres were quite new, at least on the small service vehicle that was out there. The airplane on the other hand, had an interesting combination of his two tyres, one was profiled and the other was a full slick – I guessed that made sense. If it rains – happens probably every 25 years here in the desert – you have one tyre with profile and if it is dry you have the slick one ‘for extra grip’ ?!?! Why the slick tyre showed also patches of fabric, I could not figure out. What is written again on the back of so many busses – “In god we trust” – should have been written on this airplane as well!
A real cool feather of the airplane were the two really fancy flat screen monitors, though they looked a bit out of place. Whether they worked or not, we don’t know since there were neither any safety procedures shown nor any movies – but they really looked cool.
Anyway, not totally unsurprised, we mad it to Wadi Halfa and managed to buy a ferry ticket. The next thing we had to do, was to get an exit stamp for which we had to line up on three different places. The first line was to pay for the whole procedure, the next line to be registered and at the last we get some papers. Luckily, a local boy helped us and we could ‘sneak’ the lines a bit and, for once, I did not mind. Even so, the whole thing took us over one hour and, as we found out in the end, it was not to get the actual exit stamp – we would get that on the ferry – but to have the passports checked!!! – I really don’t know what they checked.
We finally made it to the ferry and got our exit stamp. Because the passenger rooms where a bit crowded, we decided to sleep up on deck what is anyway much nicer since you can feel the fresh air and see the stars. First we thought we would have the whole deck for your shelf but then more and more people cam up. Really crowded it got during prayer time and we had to move your stuff in order not be stayed on.
Even we stayed just 4 days in Sudan, I really like it and I probably will go back once. I also regret a bit having taken the ‘easy’ with flying to Wadi Halfa – I think it would have been great to travel overland up to Wadi – but then I would have to miss something else somewhere else – I have to go back :-).