Sudan - it's getting hot in here!!

Bush camping outside the Meroe Pyramids

From the start what struck us about Sudan was how flat the country was.  Coming from the rolling hills and mountains of Ethiopia it was odd to once again find ourselves in a country where the landscape was almost entirely flat in every direction.  Sudan also felt considerably more affluent, especially in its capital Khartoum, and orderly - the villages at the side of the road, although still constructed from mud, were separated by fences and the village layout felt much more organised than many of the other countries we have visited so far.

As with many countries that do not have a large tourist industry, the people struck us as very friendly, incredibly honest and pleased to have us visiting their country.  During our entire time in Sudan (and Egypt) the Muslim culture in honouring Ramadan, a month-long Islamic fasting period, where nothing is allowed to pass one's lips during sunrise to sunset (food, water or cigarettes).

Coming down from the Ethiopian heights involved a considerable increase in the temperature too, but we didn't quite shake the rain until we were well into the desert, with rain on the first night, second day and the evening when we headed north out of Khartoum and into the Nubian desert.

In all, we spent about 10 days in Sudan.  On the second day in Sudan I bought a jallabiyah, a long white robe often worn by men, also known on the truck as the 'man dress'.  It was considerably cooler and it didn't take long for many other people on the truck to follow suit!

Our room

By mid-afternoon on our third day in Sudan we reached Khartoum.  Our campsite, the 'Blue Nile Sailing Club' wasn't quite as nice as the name suggested and the general heat and humidity of the city led us to splash out on a 2 night stay in the Burj al-Fateh Hotel (now the Corinthia Hotel).  It was absolute luxury.  Supposedly rated as the (world's only?) 7-star hotel, a colleague on the truck had managed to discover a Ramadan special at the hotel, enabling us to take advantage of utter luxury at very affordable rates.

The Corinthia Hotel, Khartoum

As such, it was hard to pry us from the air-conditioning of the hotel and its facilities, including 4 restaurants, a pool, jacuzzi, sauna, steam room and satellite TV.  A short excursion outside on our second day in 40 or so degree heat was enough to remind us that pounding the un-pedestrian friendly streets was a much less attractive option.  We figured we could see enough of Khartoum from our hotel room to get a pretty good feeling for the city.  It is a very up-and-coming city, reminiscent of Dubai (although neither of us have yet to actually travel there) with a number of ultra-modern buildings displaying impossible and eye-catching architecture.

From Khartoum we continued north, through a fantastic sandstorm to the Meroe pyramids about 200km out of Khartoum.  Some 30 or more pyramids, ranging in size from some 4 or 5 metres high to something that could have been 50 or more metres high on construction, the pyramids are truly amazing and highly enjoyable; no crowds (aside from 1 or 2 other people we were the only tourists there) and very few hawkers trying to sell us something (mostly they wanted to sell us a camel ride between the pyramids).

Riding a camel outside the pyramids

Most of the bigger pyramids have eroded whilst the smaller ones have been restored

From Meroe we had some 4 days or so to cross the Nubian desert to Wadi Halfa, a border town in Northern Sudan where we caught a ferry to Egypt (there is a road between Sudan and Egypt, but it is closed to traffic).  There is a tarmac option, however, given the time that we had for about a 400km journey we made a diversion alongside the old sand road which follows a train line connecting Khartoum and Wadi Halfa.

This was real desert travel.  It was incredibly hot, much hotter than anything else we have experienced so far, with temperatures well into the 30s from about 8am onwards and above 40 degrees from about midday til 5pm.  We recorded a peak temperature of 45 degrees in the shade one lunch time, although it was likely to have been hotter than that in the sun.  The wind created by the movement of the truck didn't exactly cool you down, but it did mean that we were getting fresh air and helped with the heat.  Also the complete lack of humidity made the heat much more bearable than had it been overcast or raining.

lunch-time heat - mid-40s, mirages were common and even reflected the hills in the background

It also didn't really get cold - well after sunset it was still in the mid to high 30's.  The only time we felt cold (if at all) was about 3 or 4am until sunrise (about 6am).

Subtly different from the desert we crossed in Northern Kenya (to the Ethiopian border), mostly in that it was much drier and covered in sand, the landscape was stunning - all the more so given the complete absence of people.  Aside from a single gold-mining operation (which we stumbled across in what felt like the the middle of nowhere where maybe 500 or more people were digging through surface rock in what must be unbearable work), we only saw people on trucks heading towards the gold mining town, or in one other instance a railway station where water could be obtained.

From time to time the truck would get stuck in soft sand which requires a full dis-embarkation from the truck and an exercise in sand-matting - exhausting work which involves shovelling and heaving heavy iron tracks under the truck wheels until we reach more packed sand, made all the more unbearable for the incredible heat outside.  Fortunately we only had to do this twice!

A desert highlight would have to be our impromptu stop at Station 2 (about 40km's outside of Wadi Halfa) where a jigger (or handcart) was spotted alongside the tracks.  Hauling the jigger onto the tracks we all took turns moving it up and down the tracks.

The ferry from Wadi Halfa to Aswan is about a 17 hour trip, dragged out to about 24 hours once you allow for customs and immigration on either side, boarding early (to secure the best seats) and general waiting around.  The ferry makes its way up Lake Nasser, a 500km long man-made lake courtesy of the hydro-electric dams in Aswan.

Aboard the ferry, most of us slept under the lifeboats on either side

The ferry trip is certainly not a tourist friendly venture.  With only about 25 cabins that take 2 people each, the vast majority of travellers on the ferry sleep either on the ground floor or above deck.  Supposedly the ferry is rated to take over 500 people, fortunately for us there were probably only about 300 on board heading North.  This meant that when we got on early we could secure about the only shady space above deck (which was beneath the lifeboats) and enjoy enough room to stretch out fully at night.  By and large the ferry trip was quite pleasant.  Once the boat started moving there was a good breeze, and we had shade to avoid the harshness of the desert sun.  A dinner was included with our ferry ticket, was served in an air-conditioned dining hall and was actually very tasty.  Although sleep was hard to come by, we both got more sleep in than we thought we might and disembarked much fresher than we would if we had spent 17 hours on a plane.

We have now reached Egypt, our final African country.  As some of you may now know, we have decided to extend our travels and following the conclusion of our African trip will be heading to South America for 3 months (travelling via NZ).  We will be in NZ between 2 and 13 Sept and hope to catch up with as many of you as we can during that time.