Khartoum

Khartoum, where the Blue Nile meets the White Nile to form the river Nile. You can walk out to the White Nile bridge and see the two rivers join, although it's not that great sight to see I'm afraid. I have spent over a week here in Khartoum not doing a great deal, hanging out with Jonas and Ghazala, and James and Ben two English guys I met here and Dan the cyclist, who actually claims not to be a cyclist because 'cyclists are gay'. Although it is nice enough here it isn't a particularly special place.

The highlight of my stay here was going to see the whirling dervishes in the northern part of the city. They follow a Sufi branch of Islam. Everyone gathers round in large circle and then the dancing begins in the middle, with a loud drum beat and lots of chanting. It has much more of an African feel to it than an Islamic feel if that makes any sense. The dancing and fun continues long into the night and by the end we had been dragged into the centre for a good old shindig. It was a lot of fun although pretty tiring as the dances seem to go on forever, and you are expected to chant at the top of your voice, not so easy when you're completely knackered. Well the locals there were really very pleased that we had turned up to see them, and we got to meet the head Sheik and went into the mosque afterwards for a quick pray. I will never forget how friendly and happy everyone was that we were there, definitely a big highlight of my trip.

And so came Christmas eve, and after a lot of fear that it might be a dry a Christmas Jonas and Ghazala came up the goods and managed to procure three bottles of vodka from the black market. So Christmas eve was spent in our hotel room getting wankered. At about 2am we ventured outside and found a marching band with a big drum and we walked with them for a while, then back to hotel to pass out. Oh and if anyone was worried that I might be going without any presents this year, don't worry I got a giant water melon and some cotton buds for cleaning out my ears.

A large part of Christmas day was spent in bed recovering. I did get up and have a roast chicken dinner, followed up with a snickers bar for dessert. Not quite the same as Christmas lunch at home but near enough. Now it is boxing day. I've sorted out my Ethiopian visa, and got my travel permit for the rest of Sudan (more time, money and Sudanese bureaucracy), so assuming I make the 5am bus tomorrow I will be off to Port Sudan for some diving and then should be in Ethiopia in just over week.

Meroe

Just a couple of hours outside of Khartoum are the ancinet pyramids of Meroe, the remains of a royal cemetery from the Merotic kingdom, dating back to 300 BC. Although not as grand or imposing as the pyramids of Giza in Egypt, the advantage here is that when you turn up no one else is there, well apart from the four people I traveled up there with; Jonas and Ghazala who I have traveled down from Wadi Halfa with, and James and Ben from England who I met in Khartoum. Unfortunately about 100 years ago a French guy turned up at Meroe and knocked the top off all the pyramids in the vain hope he might find some gold. It's really annoying actually because the pyramids would have been even more beautiful if still intact. But despite that the peace and quiet makes the experience a far more pleasant one than Giza.

We arrived in the late afternoon and watched the sun set behind the pyramids. Once the sun was down we set up a camp fire and spent the night in the desert and saw all the stars come out. First thing the following a morning a bunch of guys on donkeys turned up and started setting up a little market by our camp. We hoped they might have bought some tea and breakfast, but alas all they had was crappy handicrafts. We spent a bit more time around the pyramids in the morning and then hopped on top of a lorry and went back to Khartoum. All in all a very pleasant little excursion.

Wadi Halfa to Khartoum

Well I finally left Egypt a few weeks ago, via the port of Aswan to take the ferry to Wadi Halfa in Sudan. As I went through security on the Egyptian side an official saw a penknife in my back pack and apologized but said I could not take it on board the ship and confiscated it. Well I was a bit pissed off but walked through without it. On telling another traveler what had happened I was encouraged to go back and demand it back, which I did. Upon doing so the guy gave me the knife back without any argument. The cheeky fucker was just trying to nick it! Well perhaps that was a fitting send off from the country of scams and hassles. Good riddance I say.

We got on the ferry at 10am but it was another eight hours before the ship was finally loaded up and ready go. We went up on the top deck found a patch floor and put our sleeping bags down. There were just a handful of tourists on the boat, including a German couple who are biking down Africa, and an English guy, Dan, who is performing the ridiculous task of cycling from London to Cape Town. You can follow his progress, if you wish at http://www.londontocapetown.co.uk. The rest of people on board were mostly Sudanese and very friendly.

After a gruelling trip we finally got to Wadi Halfa at 2pm the following day. There really isn't anything in the town, but it was peaceful and I spent the evening sipping tea (there is no alcohol in Sudan) on street corners meeting up again with some of the locals from the boat who refused to let us tourists pay for any of the drinks. Despite there being nothing here it seems like paradise compared to Egypt. The atmosphere is just very laid back and friendly.

The next day was my first introduction to Sudanese bureaucracy, when I was obliged to register with police as all travelers are. The process involved toing and froing between different offices getting an array of stamps and signatures, handing over passport photos and, of course, coughing up money. This was unfortunately an experience I have had to go through a number times of since, on arrival at new towns and when applying for travel permits onto other towns or permits to see archeological sights.

The other little niggle with Sudan is the money. They used to have the Sudanese pound but the government, in a misguided attempt to curb inflation, divided the currency by 10 and renamed it dinar, so 100 pounds becomes 10 dinars. All the locals still quote prices in pounds and to make matters worse seem quite happy to add or remove of few zeros from the number when quoting a price, saying 2 when they mean 2000 for instance. It's a good thing everyone seems pretty honest as there is a lot of scope for confusion when you first arrive.

From Wadi Halfa I traveled onto Abri on the top a lorry with a Swedish couple called Jonas and Ghazala. There isn't too much to say about Abri, it is a quiet little town with not much going on. I ended staying an extra day because there were no buses running, but it was still nice to just to hang out and chat with locals at the hotel. We did get taken on a boat to go crocodile hunting Steve Irwin style. After being initially skeptical about our chances of seeing a croc or that there actually were any in the Nile I was surprised to see a huge croc slither off a bank and disappear into the river. No swimming in the Nile for me.

After Abri I took a Toyota truck, still with the Swedes, to Dongola. This was another long journey and our driver clearly he thought he was Colin McRae, as he sped down the desert roads terrifying us all. Dongola was another quiet laid back town. I spent a day walking out to the ruins at Kawa and then it was another long bus trip to Khartoum. It has been quite a long haul from Wadi Halfa to Khartoum, so I will spend a little time here resting and more than likely be here for Christmas.

Sudan

Just a quick post to let you all know I'm now in Sudan. I'm in Khartoum at the minute where I plan to spend christmas, although it's looking like it may have to be an alcohol-free christmas with Sudan being strictly muslim. I'm having a great time in Sudan, the people here are the friendliest I've ever met and I really mean that. Well I will post more details when I get time but for now I just want to wish everyone a happy christmas wherever you may be and all the best for the new year.

The Western Desert and Goodbye to Egypt

Assuming all goes well at the Sudanese border tomorrow this should be my last post from Egypt. I am now back in Aswan awaiting the ferry that will take me up the Nile to Sudan.

Anyway after a few relaxing days in Dahab, I went back to Cairo to sort out my visa for Sudan and was pleasantly suprised to receive my visa very quickly and efficiently in just a couple of hours. I wasn't quite so pleased at the US $100 it cost me though. I had given myself a few days to sort out the visa and now found myself with a few spare days on my hands and rather than spend them in Cairo I made a trip out to the western desert and the oasis of Baharia.

Baharia itself is not such an exciting place, one the attractions being a hot spring, which is actually just a petrol powered pump spurting out hot water. I'm not entirely sure why this is thought to be a tourist attraction. But Baharia is the base to do a trip out into the white desert and spend a night under the stars. I set off with my guide Ahmed in a rather dilapadated 28 year old 4x4. Somehow the jeep made the journey into the desert and as I watched the sun set Ahmed cooked us a great meal. After dinner over a shesha he told me his tail of woe; his wife has been ill for six months. This in itself didn't seem to upset him too much, it was more the fact that in all this time he wasn't having any sex. After the sun went down the stars came out and the desert looked great lit by a half-moon.

The next day I made the journey back to Cairo and then straight onto the night train to Aswan. I have enjoyed my time in Egypt, but have to say it can be hard work at times putting up with the hassle. It seems to slowly wear you down. It is a shame that, although there are only small number people in this country trying to hassle or scam you, they are the ones you seem to meet most. I have been told that this will not be the case in Sudan so I look forward to leaving tomorrow with a sense of relief and excited expectation.

Feluccas, Luxor and Dahab

After three days confined to my hotel in Aswan, I was thankful to be feeling well enough to get out of the place. I hopped onto a felucca for which I was to spend the next two days and nights. Also on board a couple of chilled out Aussies and a Kiwi (Attila, Stu and Jenny), a grumpy German couple (names not important), our rather mad Felucca captain Mohamed, and his mate who funnily enough was also named Mohamed. In actual fact about every second bloke you meet in Egypt is called Mohamed (and I'm not exagerating) and the ones that aren't are generally called Ahmed.

The two days on board the felucca were very peaceful and relaxing, Mohamed cooked us great meals and in the evening we set up fires by the riverside while bongos were played the shesha was passed round. On the second day we pulled up by the riverside and I was entertained by a bunch of kids given their donkey a wash in the Nile. The poor donkey lay down and played dead as the kids dragged it down the bank into the river and then dragged it back out of the river back through all the mud again.

The end of the felucca trip seemed to arrive way too soon, and for the next couple of days we were ferried around a bunch more temples in Kom Ombo, Edfu and Luxor; you can check out the photos if you're interested. By now I was suffering from what is known as temple fatigue and didn't take in the grandeur of the magnificent ancient monuments, the one exception being the Karnak temple in Luxor which most people seemed to agree was the best of the lot. I spent one night in Luxor and have to say it as unpleasant as Aswan and I was glad to get the bus and head to the backpackers Mecca that is Dahab.

The overnight bus to Dahab was an event in itself taking seventeen hours, in cramped uncomfortable conditions, to get there. The journey would've been much quicker except for the numerous ID and ticket checks that went on. There are lots of checkpoints on the roads in Egypt, and Egyptians are very restricted as to where they can and can't travel in their own country, with very few being allowed into Dahab. Although this is not so good for Egyptains, it is good for the travellers as it means Dahab is not full people hassling you and trying to rip you off.

Dahab, on the Sinai coast, seems like paradise after the bustle and hassle of Cairo, Aswan and Luxor. I have the spent the last three days chilling out relaxing and doing plenty of scuba diving. The diving here is great and with it being low season the dive sites at some locations have been deserted. This is a great place to hang out and do absolutely nothing, which is exactly what I intend to do for the next few days.