Acropole Hotel Khartoum

... drinking 10 litres of water a day. And no beer in sight as alcohol is prohibited in Sudan. It is hot; it is very, very hot.<br><br>And yet the Sudan is breathtakingly beautiful!<br><br>The Sudan, as is the case with so many other countries, suffers from a really bad image problem. Judging from media reports, it is a country to avoid at all costs. However, our route north would either have to take us through the Sudan, or via an even less favourable alternative via ...

The last few days through the desert have been pleasant for me. The scenery hasn't changed much; occasional small towns break up an otherwise big monotonous desert. The pace that the vehicle passes through this terrain suits me fine. The roads are nice new asphalt and the riders are able to cover over 150km in a day with relative ease. Produce has become much less varied again. We were forced to make 3 dinners in a row with the main ...

... the Egyptian gods, Horus, Anubis and Osiris and pictures of battles, animals, boats etc. Amazing to just walk through and let your imagination go wild. Meroe was the capital city of the Kushite kingdom, the first great black African kingdom that even conquered parts of Egypt during the 25th dynasty. Kush developed an extensive trade network with Egypt, transporting ivory, ebony, wild animals and resin from the south to trade with Egypt. We camped that night in the wild. Some ...

... the western shore of Lake Nasser to drop off a Sudanese army official, who was picked up by a lauch about 2 miles off-shore. Wadi Halfa was a pleasant surprise for several reasons: the barge with our vehicles was moored nearby, the officials were friendly and efficient under the circumstances (it still took the best part of 2 hours before we finally set foot on Sudanese soil) and the township had an amazing supply of goods, as we discovered the next day ...

... Now we hope to arrive in Jersey a few days earlier than planned. We'll see. That's the plan. And we of all people know how plans can - and do -change. Start: Lisamin Safari Hotel, Khartoum, SUDAN. End: Lisamin Safari Hotel, Khartoum, SUDAN. Distance Traveled: 0 Road Conditions: - Temperature: well, it looked mighty hot, bright and dusty out there.

We flew from Cairo to Khartoum,Sudan and stayed on the plane for 45 minutes. It was enough of Sudan for us. Danielle fell asleep on her backpack on the seat beside us and was rudely awakened by a gigantor who slapped her on the shoulder and shouted "this is my seat". Although it was his seat, his knees and elbows seemed to enjoy drifting into Danielle's seat for the remaining 4 hours of our flight to Nairobi. Xoxo D&A

... Crossing into Sudan - 17 Sept I rose early and packed everything up, ready to be at customs to check my bike through when it opened at 7am. No such luck. A little after 8 the official with the stamp rocked up. It was gone 9 when I got to the Ethiopian border. My last injera and Ethiopian coffee, some money changed and some biscuits bought (Ramadan the other side - who knows whether it will be possible to buy food during the day?) and ...

... bit too much - so we got really good at digging the truck out fast...We also couldn't get used to the warm, most of the time straight out hot drinking water. We did have ice for one day...out of 8... I have to admit, that after wearing the same clothes for 6 straight days and nights, without shower, we had sand everywhere. When I had the opportunity in a small village to wet my hair (temperature 51+), I remembered the previous evening when we got ...

... I thought when I arrived - but I hope that the energy and fresh perspective will make up for it. And I hope we actually got most of it right ... right? Then there's the fact that we do some kick ass work here, even if it's not perfect and it's never enough ... you take a stroll in a Therapeutic Feeding Centre, even if there's not that many kids, and you just get it that it's better to be here than not at all. That's probably my queue to show you the "before and after" pictures ...