Cycle distances
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AH! Entonces que hermano?. Aswan (Egypt) a town on the southern border with Sudan!. But tell me, how was your itinerary to there?
From Khartoum to Atbara [300 km, 3 days] I had more or less the wind in my back so that was really nice. Then I had to cross the river Nile and to do the three-day trip to Marowe / Kerima where I had a south-west wind charged with sand against me. I managed to do the distance in three days but it was tough, very tough.
August is summer in Sudan and the hottest period of the year (I was there the whole month of August). From 13.30 to 17.00 there is the Zenith which is the hottest part of the day. Temperatures exceed 50 degrees Celsius. Places to hide [from the sun] are not available ...
How did you have a break then?
Short breaks I kept just along the side of the road, but a longer pause (resting, eating something) I kept in pipes under the road where at least there was shadow and a hot hairdryer wind for [some] freshness.
Villages were not there but I had enough bread and eggs with me to be able to make an omelet. Right now I use the liquid fuel burner because gas cartridges seem to be nonexistent here. Weird because everyone cooks here on gas ...
The first day I had many problems such as a freewheel that failed because of the sand, tires [patches] that gave up on me caused by the high temperatures ... It gives a lot of stress because you have to fix it in the desert [sand!]. It takes time and you're constantly thirsty, so you drink but you are not progressing in the sense of making kilometers [because of the reparation]. So you use to fast your amount of water.
How much water did you have with you for these three days?
Seven liters per day [times three] but it was not enough. Very occasionally you had a structure which they call `Cafyteria` where there was a barrel filled with water from the Nile. One time I had to pay for it. The joy of seeing that dork with his rancid water was stronger then the feeling to be pissed of [because he made me pay for it].
Did you still camp in the desert?
Yes, that was great though it cooled down during the night very slowly. Not before 06.00 in the morning there was a nice fresh breeze.
You see that the locals also suffer from the heat: during daytime you do not see [if you're in a village] people and during the evening they drag out a kind of stretchers on which they sleep. In the desert you have no air conditioning or fans!.
But finally you reached [first] Marowe [a town on the Nile bank], and then Kerima [right across Marowe]. Kerima is rather special eye?.
In / outside Marowe I camped in a palm grove, marvelous!. Imagine the following [if you follow the river Nile in Sudan]: a vast desolate desert / lunar environment through where the Nile meanders. The Nile banks are flanked by a green strip: dade trees where dade farmers crop dates. These plantations are never- or very rarely- demarcated or fenced so it is easy to get in such a palm grove. It is basically a giant camp site and if you find yourself in it [ with during the night a marvelous stellar sky!] it is as if you are in some kind of 'Garden of Eden'!.
The asphalt road itself lies about four kilometers outside the green belt why I do not know. So you're constantly in the desert with these ## temperatures ##. You also will not pass villages because they are situated close to the green strip on [NOT IN the green strip because literally every square meter is used for dade cultivation].
As night falls it was the highlight of the day for me. I cycled to the green strip and pitched my tent under such a palm tree. That was cool and I ate a delicious omelet with a good cup K`aghwa Turkiy [coffee as the Arabs make, so hot water on the coffee and that`s it] in a lovely garden under a beautiful star sky!.
What have you seen from Kerima?
Pyramids!. The first time I'm in Sudan!. Although they were not as large as in Egypt but still impressive [they were in good condition which in itself is particularly special because 90% of such monuments in Sudan are in a deplorable state].
Me in front of the pyramids of Kerima (Sudan), with on the background the holy mountain Jebel Barkal, Kerima, Sudan
Kerima, Sudan
Now for one time you were really in such a town on the riverbank [Kerima]. Was that a bit special?
Well, there is a paved road [special!] leading to a sandy gare routiere [bus station] full with collectivos [small buses], pick ups loaded with homies with white turbans wrindled around their heads that yelled Qhoalla at me when theyI overtook me on the road .
Around that Gare there are a couple of `resto` s `where you can eat one type of meal [a menu does not exist]:` fool `[bean portridge] plus chicken or a slimy substance that is lubricated on a kind of injera and is put inward with high speed. Besides that you get a cup of genuine brown nile water [directly from the river Nile] that was the cause of ten days diarrhea.
Ugh!. Were you still able to cycle then?.
Well, I had to go to the bathroom many times and I had stomach cramps but I was not sick or anything. Moreover, I had on the bike such a stance [tilted slightly forward] that postponed speed-shit. But if I went for a break where I sat or stood on my feet everything came out. No, the bike actually gave more problems than my physical condition.
Like what?.
The rear axis [of genuine Indian handicraft] again crashed, inferior tires that degraded too fast ... Very frustrating if you such things happen when you are in an environment where the cycling itself is rough ... Often I could at the end of the day not even rest but first I had to do a reparation or fix flat tires.
How was the contact with the locals. Were you still bullied by them or wasn`t it so bad?.
Also in Sudan people gladly want to talk to you and there is that desire for attention from that GLWF [Good Looking White Fella] but significantly less compared to Ethiopia. Yet there were incidents ...
Like what?
Oh, maybe `incident` is a big word ... but still. I paused a few times at a gas station [shadow] and that's where the pick- ups- loaded- with- homies also stop. You must answer then to a sequence of moronic, stupid questions but I ignore them by default. They also often touch my stuff and I hate THAT. They love it anyway touching things: another person, themselves, cars, motorcycles, bicycles, handle / brake bike etc.
To such a figure I walked and told him in a rather intimidating way and in Dutch: 'Do I touch you? [I hit the side of his face and touched his skull with my right hand], pointing to my bicycle, touching, saying `MA` (= NO).
A policeman saw it, got angry, stepped out and started to yell in Arabic to me. Rather amusing were it not that the whole group started to turn against me. The other officers did no effort to communicate [Ma Inkelizie = no English], the 'victim' suddenly got to be loudest and very self confident and told me in a quite arrogant way to hit the road.
In Kerima I caused some disturbance because I had the feeling I was cheated [at a restaurant]. It's not about the money, but if they fool me or not treat me fairly I get angry [here in Aswan for example they overcharge you all the time. Two, five times more compared with a local. I don`t accept that, put the normal amount on the table and walk away].
... You've been so long on the road, it's not surprising that your tolerance level decreases [or you're just a nasty man :)]. But how was the last piece to the border, to Aswan?
From Dongola to Wadi Halfa [the border with Egypt] is 400 km and I've done that distance in 4 days. For me it was the toughest part to cycle in the whole of Sudan. Now I had four days full wind against me [where in the Western Sahara, Mauritania this wind was in my back and even propelled me!]: at 10.00 the`valve` opened until it was closed at 19.30. I was desperate because I almost didn`t make any progress [day 1: only 60 kilometers at a time span from 09.30 to 18.30].
On day 2 I cycled hundred kilometers after starting early, cycling in a very disciplined way [short breaks], much swearing, hard working and continuing for one hour in the darkness. On day three I started at 06.30 which is extremely early for me - the road was incidentally RIGHT beside the Nile which was very cool! - and then I got fed up.
Fed up?. Did you hitch such a rebel pick-up?
Haha, just kidding. no, I was not confident for the day after so I decided to continue during the night.
Mmm ... no sleep and 240 kilometers non stop. Not easy and in the desert where you additionally would have to do the span [60 km] during the worst time ...
During the night cycle was great!. Refreshing under a beautiful star sky, no wind and the possibility to cycle normally .... From 20.00 to 06.00, I had three breaks where I was so tired that right besides the road I have fallen into asleep [three times an hour].
The morning I had breakfast in such a dirty `cafyteria` and with trembling knees (fear) I cycled to 10 o`clock, the time where the valve would be opened again. The last 115 km to Halfa was a huge piece of raw stone desert near the Nile River. No tree, no vegetation nothing. Suddenly a plain with mountains in the far distance where in it the road seemed to disappear. A winding road where you sometimes had that damned wind a little less against you.
Then the 50- degree- hairdryer started to breeze. The credo: 10 km cycling- resting in a tube under the road- 10 kilometer cycling- resting, etc. Even those 10 kilometers cost a lot of strength, energy and time. Finally I arrived after doing 60 kilometers in 8 hours, because I was so tired, I had stomach cramps ...
But you made it!. Wadi Halfa, a village founded by a couple of Nubian families who refused to leave when Lake Nasser [caused by the dam at Aswan] swallowed their ancestral lands under water.
Wadi Halfa is the limit, the 'gateway' to Egypt and the only way to get there [Aswan, southern Egypt] is by boat.
Tired and hungry, I reached Halfa and ate chicken, Xoebs and zir- zir- [a kind of leaves you feed your rabbit with] plus sjey in a place with a few trees where I was allowed to camp. The next day I discovered the 'ticket office `[discovered, because nothing is indicated, and if there is something they have written it in Arabic] in which the chief said,`complete, next week `.
When I arrived after one hour to buy the ticket for next week [150 Hard SPound = 30 USD = 20 E] and just to be sure asked: `next week? ' the good woman said:` tomorrow! `. GOOD woman, Allah Akhbarr!.
The next little project was to explore the way to the harbor [after at immigration I have been told to get the exitstamp tomorrow]. But first, having a decent meal: chicken plus fool plus a wonderful Nile-Aseer-Mango (mango juice) produced by an imported Egyptian citizen herrliitsj!.
Then the cruise to Aswan [the first and major city in southern Egypt]. How was that?. Was it the same as you entered southern Sudan like with such a `camion` (truck) loaded with people, wood and other shit but now over water?
E-X-A-C-T-E-L-Y!. PLUS being crammed together, having barely space to move, pure wahnsinn!.
So an excellent opportunity to make new friends!.
Oh, you know I'm not such a social typ but I've actually talked with other people: a former rebel from Darfur [who ended his rebel career because he found his occupation ultimately unproductive and now he is on his way to Libya to to work in the petrochemical industry, for a better life]. Two from Darfur that had fled to Chad and with whom I could speak French, very nice!. Plus a German couple and an Italian / Ethiopian freelance photographer with a huge camera of 10 kilograms on his belley.
Besides traders, penny finders also a mini exodus of Sudanese who are tired of their country, the discrimination, the economic hopelessness ...
Yes, it's sad. They were young sympathetic open people I spoke with. With the ex-rebel I could even speak reasonable English because he was so hungry for knowledge, something better ...
During the night the decks were strewn with sleeping people, you could barely walk. I sat in the `` `Kafyteria`, a half dark filthy damp cave memorizing/ writing down arabic words meanwhile sipping at watery sjey and being observed by other homies that, when our eyes met, immediately wanted to talk with me .. .
At 01.00 we passed the epic statues of Abu Simbel, lit by huge spotlights. An impressive sight: huge stone Pharaoh `s watching stoically ahead.
As the sun rose I found myself on a lake in the desert, quite special!. Eventually we reached the huge dam. First all the [luggage] shit of the boat had to be unloaded by porters dressed in a kind of blue overalls before we, the passengers could get of the boat.
Customs, a chaotic embarrassing passage where everyone- passengers and porters who were carrying huge boxes- had to wrestle through a narrow corridor. A lot of yelling, pushing, Egyptian officials who did not intervene. At the end of the corridor - such as at the airport, a detection / rolling tyre machine where my bike had necessarily to go through. I got really pissed off [another lady became hysterical and started screaming] because I had to unload everything and put on that device while around me a current pushing passengers/ porters swarmed.
... Egypte [source: the lonely planet]
Anyway, eventually you survived that ordeal too. How is Aswan?
Still a shock but in the positive sense of the word. First I had to cycle 12 kilometers through the desert and suddenly there are trees, forests, gardens, parks, the river nile showing slow gliding `felukahs` with their characteristic triangular sail loaded with a few tourists. Garbage cans. Clean drinking water. Public clean toilets where you can sit on (!). the possibility to take money with my bankcard .. Other white boys [tourists]. The people here are more westerner dressed, they seem to be less religious than in Sudan, though also here you see huge mosques.
There are soukhs as in Morocco. It reminds me anyway very strong at Morocco: the people, the `sjey`, everything is still more developped than sub-saharan africa ..
I still must visit Aswan actually. Also I do not know if I'm going to Abu Simbel [you can take the boat].
You have come from far. Very far, from far. How do you look at the continuation of your voyage?.
I am still not fed up. I'm happy to be here and I am looking forward to the sequel [of the journey]. I'm curious how the road will go [more villages or not], if I will be harassed as in Ethiopia [or not]. Also it is now September. Summer is unofficially over and now it should become cooler [though it's on a day like today pretty hot].
Also, the way I get through is an area dotted with monuments from the Pharaoh times [though it is impossible to visit everything] and it is exciting to approach Europe again though I will not arrive there in the best period of the year.
You must have a goal allthough you cgange your goal all the time. I aim now for the Sinai, Jordan, Israel. Maybe I also will visit Gaza [via Rafah though the crowdiness of that area I don`t like so much/ make it less attractive to go there]
I muse on the Shvil Israel that I want to hike [Israel trail starting in the south, Eilat and going towards the north, to the border with Lebanon]. I break my head about how to do the first 300 kilometers through the Negev desert, there's no water, nothing. By foot it is six days when you do insane stages of 50 km ...
Take a break and be tourist in that God-for-saken Aswan haha, hasta la proxima!.
Vale!.
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