Visited the Hamed al-Nil tomb in the northerm suburb of Omdurman to see the religious ceremony of the Sufi also colloqially known as the ‘whirling dervishes’. It was pure theatre with guys in pixie hats, rasta dreadlocks, green & red robes or even patchwork quilt clothes all chanting each Friday one hour before sunset. An amazing sight! One of them even had sergeants stripes on his arm but with an extra stripe! They chant ‘there is no god but Allah’ and sway to the chanting.
When we got back to Khartoum Mark & Blanca had arrived with their Land Rover 101 Grommit. We then travalled together through the desert seeing the pyramids, temples and tombs.
We visited the Meroitic temples at Naqa, a well preserved Kushite site with a temple to Amun, Lion temple and a rather oddly named but beautiful ‘Kiosk’! The reliefs here were in amazing condition and the reconstruction superbly done. We got stuck in powdery deep sand on the way to the next temple but Grommit pulled us out. Bush camped in the desert and were visited by locals even though we were this remote.
We visited the temple complex of Musawwarat next, the largest Meroitic remains in Sudan covering 55,000 square metres. We then went to see the pyramids at Meroe, there were about 100 pyramids above royal tombs here. Sadly an Italian treasure seeker blew the tops off most of them! We bush camped in the desert beside the pyramids.
We crossed the Nile on a small ferry the following day and had a heated argument about the price which was 6 times what it should have been. The man taking the money tried to shut George on the ferry so we reversed off before he could block our way. Blanca gave a spirited performance pushing the very large Sudanese guy out of Grommit! We settled in the end by paying slightly over the odds. The Sudanese guy complaining that this is not how we do things in Sudan, that said he shouldnt have tried to fleece us!
We then proceeded into the Bayuda desert where they were patchily building a new road (new bits didnt meet up!). In places it was very soft sand and in others very rocky. In parts there was no distinguishable track just a multi-lane freeway across the sand. There are marker poles so you know you are on the route but the tracks can wander a long way away from them.
Next we travelled further across the desert to the pyramids at Nuri but they were in a poor state so we headed for Jebel Barkal using another ferry across the Nile. Bush camped in the desert below the holy mountain which we climbed in the morning when it was cooler. A Sudanese boy called Hussein tried to teach me to count to ten in Arabic and with the help of a phrasebook we managed to communicate. He and a friend climbed the pyramids which looked decidedly perilous on the smooth sloping stone.
Our next stop was El Kurru, another Kushite Royal Cemetery where the tomb wall paintings were remarkably well preserved considering they were 2,500 years old.
We then travelled across the desert towards Dongola. We stopped in a village for lunch under the shade of a tree where two sisters insisted on us coming into their house for water, cheese and fruit. This is typical of the generous Sudanese hospitality we experienced. Just outside Dongola we got stuck in very fine sand and were rescued again by Grommit who has much wider balloon tyres with the help of digging out and sand ladders. That night we slept in a date palm grove and washed in water from a local irrigation pump. The owner came to see us the following morning saying that we could stay here for as long as we liked. Again typical of hospitality here.
The following day the visibilty descreased with a sandstorm so we couldn’t really see the River Nile at all. It made travelling very dusty and uncomfortable and everyone got very sore throats and wore bandanas to try not to ingest too much dust. Travel across the desert was amazing however. You are rarely ever this remote, hundreds of kilometres from the nearest village.
We continue on in the desert on roads with very bad and often unavoidable corrugations (caused by the wind on the sand). We went through small towns and villages beside the Nile where people were all very friendly, waving as we passed. We stopped in Abri a small market town to stock up with food. I stayed in the car and was greeted by many people who were very keen to have their photo taken. We later met an Aussie cyclist in the desert who had cycled from Mongolia in 8 months and who was annoyed that the map distances were so inaccurate (he had much further to go than he thought and little water). We stayed a day in the desert as there was no point in getting to Wadi Halfa early as there is only one ferry a week across Lake Nasser. Grommit ran out of fuel in the desert so we drove the hour and a half onto Wadi Halfa to get some Petrol and returned. We also met Mr Kumal who we had heard about as a person who could organise ferry crossings (although the reports had not been favourable). However we did find out that a boat would be leaving on Thursday and would cost us around £288 for the Land Rover, it could also accomodate the other three vehicles (including a MAN truck) that were on their way.
When all the vehicles arrived we camped by the Lake and then went to Wadi Halfa to try and arrange the ferry. We had decided to talk to Mazur about whom we had heard good reports. He could arrange tickets on the same boat as Kumal but for less money! We had to go to the Harbour to get all the vehicles measured and then paid for the tickets in local currency (925,000 Dinars). The following morning we were given more free fish by the local fishermen which I ‘despatched’ and gutted. We also got more fish (delicious Nile Perch) from the local fish factory in Wadi for supper.
We arrived at Mazur’s office at 8.30am to get the ferry and spent the morning waiting around for things to happen. His Uncle went to get get forms completed, we went to immigration to get the exit form and just this took the whole morning! Eventually we got to the port where we had to pay customs clearance (SD3000) (although Kumal was there and tried to charge us SD6,000 but we refused) and SD1,600 Customs Duty. I went with our 4 Carnets to get them stamped (it takes ages one person stamps it and another signs it and the latter was away from his desk praying!). The four receipts for the clearance all read different amounts and actually totalled more than we had paid!! We eventually got to the quay for mid afternoon to discover that we were not on a pontoon as promised but on a cargo boat (I had specifically asked Mazur this question and he had lied). I lost my temper with the agent pointing out that USD500 for this rust bucket was a rip off and that it was cheaper to stay at the Sheraton! His response was that we had not asked the right questions!! So we were on a cargo barge which had metal plates welded between the holds to take 4 vehicles. However the barge was a metre above the quay and they produced some very dodgy looking ramps for us to board. As the MAN truck was 8 tonnes we were understandably concerned as to whether they could support the weight. However we all loaded safely although it was all a bit hair raising to say the least getting the wheels on the ramps and the narrowness of the barge. We had to crawl under the front or back of the MAN truck to get to George, our Land Rover! All quite insane but hey this is Africa!
We were promised by Mazur that we would be on the barge for one night but it proves to be two. As we couldn’t open the roof tent we borrowed Mark and Blanca’s free-standing tent to camp in the cement-dust ridden cargo hold!
After all of the rediculous paperwork that took 2 days and taxis from the port to the town and back they tried to charge us for parking at the port in Aswan. We refused and they eventually gave in. In Egypt you even get new number plates and a smart driving permit card.