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.