salaam aleikum

Day 51 (16/07/08) Wadi Halfa to Bush camp along the Nile
Defintoad Hotel – N21 48.033 E03120.929

Travelled: 159km

Andrew: Magdy arrived back the next morning with passports and registration stamps etc. We were told the ferry would be in between 10 and 12 and it was a 5min procedure and we would be on our way. Well after lots of waiting around in the heat we eventually set off at 3:30pm. Magdy was a great help certainly make the procedure a lot easier and he had a set fee for US$15 which is not too bad. There was also another chap doing the same thing Mazhar who also seemed pretty switched on. After checking phones and GPS’s were working set off ahead of Peter, Sam (Canadian) and Steffen (German) with some of their bags and would sms GPS waypoint of where we decided to camp. It was all dirt tracks following the construction of a new road for most of the way. We hit some bad corrugations and at one point the dash board where the dials are cracked loose and subsequently the speedo and odometer are not working anymore, we will have to see if we can get it fixed in Khartoum. Signal was few a far between so we managed to get a waypoint off to them and said we were going to carry on a bit further. By sunset they hadn’t reached us and a little after dark we saw some lights circling around in the distance, eventually they started coming closer and we signalled the boys into camp with a torch. They had been looking around the area we had taken the waypoint. The Italian group also found us a little later and soon we had a massive camp site going with a big bowl of pasta on the gas.


Day 52 (17/107/08) Bush camp along Nile via Dongola to Bush camp in DessertBush camp - N16 49 18.9 E31 45 52.3

Travelled: 586km

Andrew: Again we thought the bikes would be faster than us so we set off early, we knew it was going to a long day. After a few hours the Italians past us but with 5mins Maurizio was stuck in some soft sand. We decided to wait for them to get out then pass through the same track. After a few tries Paulo got on the bike and Maurizio stood behind to push, as soon as Paulo accelerated the wheel spun and Maurizio disappeared in an explosion of dust. We were doubled over with laughter and just wished we had got it on film. We had actually made much better time than expected and Tracks4Africa came in very handy. It guided us very accurately along some dessert tracks (shortcuts) and we had some great sand driving out of the corrugations of the main dirt track along the Nile. We filled at Dongola where it was tarred from there on. By sunset we were about 200km outside Khartoum and found a sand dune to camp behind in the middle of the dessert. We got news from the boys that the bikes weren’t handling too well in the sand and that they were still short of Dongola. Maybe we’ll see them late in the afternoon in Khartoum tomorrow.

Debbie: After reading so much about this leg of the adventure from others I was expecting the worst roads ever seen to man. Well they weren’t all that bad. There were some bits of really bad corrugations but we had made the decision ages ago that we would do this leg slowly. So we averaged 20km an hour for most of the day and thought all the bikers would come wizzing passed us but slowly slowly won the race and we ended up way ahead of them. I even did a bit stint of the driving and learnt how to drive in sand- which is not all that easy. Its still hot but not as hot as we had thought – we were expecting hight 40’s but its only got as high as 43 which is what we are used to. Only thing is that as we are following the Nile there is a lot of humidity to deal with.


Day 53 (18/07/08) Desert to Khartoum (Blue Nile Sailing Club)

Travelled: 212km

Debbie: We were up at sunset and headed into Khartoum. It was Friday so all the shops were closed and we couldn’t get the speedo fixed so we went straight to the camp site. Lucky they had shade and we spend the rest of the day doing as little as possible. I attempted to clean out the car as its FULL of dust but I gave up halfway and hope that Mary and Kennias can help me when we reach Kushiya. We had not eaten a proper meal since Sunday night so the burgers at the camp were to die for as were the fruit shakes that they make from real fruit. As it was a Friday a lot of the club members were around and we were invited by one gentleman, Kamal Omer, who is an aircraft engineer, his son and his friend who was a doctor, for a ride in his boat up the blue nile at sunset. The boat ride was very pleasant and we stopped at the big chief for MTM Sudan’s rest house which is right on the Nile and is a spectacular property. It’s where he spends his weekends. After that it was more burgers for dinner and then a muggy and mozzie filled night in the tent. Just before midnight we heard the roar of engines and Sam, Peter and Steffen had arrived after a long day on the bikes.

Camped at:
Blue Nile Sailing ClubN15 36 42 E32 32 04


Day 54 (19/07/08) Khartoum - Gedaref – wild camp on the road to the borderBush camp - N13 35 20.8 E35 36 11.0 (also marked on Tracks4Africa by someone else)

Travelled: 491km

Debbie: We tried to get a new speedo this morning but when we were quoted US$200 for one we told them to get lost. We popped in at the Afra shopping centre (if you can call it that) and stocked up on some supplies, had a very expensive sandwich and then decided to make our way towards the Ethiopia border, which is about a 2 day drive. We aimed to sleep at Gedaref but after closer inspection of their “hotels” we decided to rather bush camp and found a nice spot among some trees. The scenery has changed dramatically and we have gone from desert to a landscape we are more accustomed to in Africa- trees, crops, cows and grass! The temperature has also dropped to around the 25 degree mark.