5M Hotel Khartoum

Slowly the gear disintegrates. The switch of the fridge has melted into pulp, the soles of our slops are detaching themselves from their upper layer and all the battery fluid has evaporated into the thin, baking air. As the reading on the thermometer rises to 50°C (degrees), the oils in the diffs, gearbox and transfer box reach a maximum in viscosity, Bertha is sweating all kinds of fluids onto the tarmac, whilst her inhabitants try and equalise the dehydration effect ...

... been to. Mostly because there was no airport at all. We landed on a dirt road with a few dim lights around. Everyone got off the plane and we were left in SUDAN. We fell back asleep so we didn't have to think about where we really were. After another two hours and another free meal, we landed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. As we were touching down, we looked at our clocks and realized our next plane to Johannesburg was leaving in 15 minutes. We knew we were in trouble...

... total have about 100 pyramids. We explored the Southern cluster and the kids had a lot of fun jumping of the sand dunes. (Sander decided he wanted to sleep under the stars one night). The pyramids have all suffered from treasure hunters, especially one Italian called Guiseppe Ferlini, who passed through in 1834. He struck gold in one of the tombs (queen Amanishakheto) and proceeded to decapitate all the other pyramids without finding anything else. We found a lot of engravings ...

... Everything was stacked on deck with people camped everywhere inbetween, a sight to behold! The ferry left two hours late at 8 pm and sacks of red onions from Egypt were carried aboard until the last minute, probably overloading the german-built ship by 100 %. She still went along at over 10 knots and reached Wadi Halfa in Sudan at lunchtime the next day. We even got to see Abu Simbel from a short distance in the morning because the captain hat to go close ...

... make our way to Cairo and fly to Milan (which we've booked today for Aug. 10th), and then bus/train it to Venice to pick her up again. We figure it isn't worth rushing through Jordan, Syria and Turkey just because we have a tight schedule. Plus the fact that it will be the middle of summer there, sightseeing will be more of a chore than a ...

... encountered men in Africa doing laundry by hand! I was stunned, to say the least. The oldest of the bunch, the one who was probably in charge, made me empty my yellow bucket and plastic bags of clothes. I had to carefully take each one out and lay them on the dirt ground as he counted. He picked everything up from the ground, dropping a few pairs of underwear, scooped them back up and marched to the tap. I tried to imagine this man, dressed in a wide, ankle-length white gown (the ...

... in the high 30's. There was nothing we could do but try and sleep. Start: Somewhere in the bush, well exactly at N 13 14.120' E035 51.368', SUDAN. 09:30 End: National Campsite, Khartoum, SUDAN. 18:30 Distance Traveled: 521 km Road Conditions: smooth paved highway with manic speeding buses and trucks. Average Speed: 71.8 km/hr Max Speed: 104 km/hr Temperature: 46 degrees Celcius. When driving, it feels like a hot hair-dryer is blowing in your face; whilst idle, it's like being in a sauna.

... plenty of time. It is a little town about 35km from the border, has the customs post (which I elsewise would have driven straight past and onto Metema at the border), and is a bit nicer than the scummy border town of Metema. I had my last (few) beers for a while, as Sudan is strict with all that sin stuff, a good hot injera tibs and went to bed with the largest insect I have ever seen. I thought it was a rat from the sound it made. Day ...

... it's no surprise that we started using the station as a playground. We camped in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the desert, where there was absolutely no-one around. We didn't bother to put up tents, we slept on the "dorm" mats with our sleeping bags and the stars. The beauty of the no water desert is that there are no mosquitos either. We almost acclimatized to the 44-48 degree Celsius in the shade temperatures, but the 50+++ outside was ...

... and humanitarian programmes ... but it really makes you wonder what we could achieve if we had total control over our finances (like very few organisations). Like I said: frustration! So, for better or for worse, in 2 months, we'll have a bunch of new people who will have to deal with this frustration, those governments and those needs. I'm pretty sure a lot of knowledge and wisdom will be lost - and they'll probably think we were crazy to make some of the decisions we did ...