Al Salam Rotana Hotel Khartoum

... troubled Congo, Central African Republic and Chad... Sudan started looking more and more attractive. So we head north from Ethiopia planning to cross this desert land in the minimum required time.<br><br>We cross the border at Metema/Quallalabad and head towards Gaderef. Perhaps surprisingly, our first impressions are overwhelmingly positive&#8230;and only get better. We walk through the little town and are greeted at ever corner with welcoming smiles 'Welcome to ...

... being eggplant. We get excited when we come across okra, and haven't seen a decent carrot in days. Last nights dinner was gumbo and rice. The beef we had to work with was as tough as leather and had bone shards in it due to the fact that it had been dismantled with an axe. One rider, complained to me as if I had butchered it myself. Complaints based on obvious stupidity are handled with sarcasm. And the camp cooks skin thickens.... We ...

... meters from the main road we thought it would be quiet. It was not completely quiet. Two hours after sunset, we go to bed early these nights, everybody was wide awake again. A strange sound had woken us. Tapapapapapapapapa, boom, tapaapaaapaaaaapaaaaaaaaaah. Clearly one of tomorrows left behind tyres. The truck stopped, and within a few minutes left again. Must have simply dropped off the burst tyre. The whole night long we heard trucks but nothing really disturbed our night any further.

... Red onions were everywhere! After driving our vehicles off the barge without incident we camped in the desert nearby to return for the final paperwork the next morning (police permit to drive to Khartoum, 35 Dollars US per person!). Then it was finally off on our first and only desert crossing along the railway line towards Khartoum, cutting short the huge bend in the Nile, which turns south and then north again. We had a lot of fun racing through the ...

... the usual $5-$10 US per night to camp, we're blowing our budget in one full stroke. Last night we stayed at the World Food Programme/UN guesthouse. A UN staff worker directed us there by chance. This morning the manager told us there was a misunderstanding and only UN staff members were allowed to stay there. So here we are at the lovely locally-run Lisamin Safari Hotel. With no chance of ...

... Sudanese outfit for men called a Jalabiya), with strands of greying hair, hunched over his plastic basin scrubbing my underwear and socks. For a traditional and conservative country like Islamic Sudan, this concept was just too funny. He told me, (well the Manager translated for me), that for the 31 pieces of clothing (socks count as 2 items), he will charge me 8 Sudanese Pounds ($4 US) and to come back at 4pm to pick them up. Not bad at all. I said a hearty "Shokran" (thank ...

... cream cheese we are used to getting. Still we not happy to be paying $60/night so we look in Dark Star Safari to see where Paul Theroux stayed in Khartoum. We read that he stayed at the Acropole Hotel and so while we wait for the hotel manager to screw up his creative energies to write out a letter to the Ministry of the Interior we go to the Acropole to check it out. Physically it is not as nice as the Taka but we can see by the people in the lounge that it ...

... was ready to brave the infamous Sudanese customs and immigration. Immigration was a fight. One official wanted the equivalent of 65USD for 'registration' that I knew I had to do in Khartoum anyway. I refused and much to-and-fro-ing ensued. I agreed to register in Gedaref instead. I didn't. I knew he was blagging when the immortal words "give me money" came out of his mouth. I've heard that too many times from kids around Africa to think ...

... by a sand-cloud during diner (made the food a little crunchy), and I opted out, as I was afraid that without some serious shampooing I would only end up with a mud hat. At one point I was starting to be really happy about the nice tan that I started to develop on my feet, however a drop of water shattered all my hope, and I had to admit that this tan will wash away. After some very serious rubbing... On day 6 of the dirt accumulation we chose to ...

... little black kids and tell you how you can donate generously ... In any case, it's not my intention to moralise, just to share thoughts and "insight". Like I said, we do kick ass work, but we're not gonna put an end to the conflict, we're just keeping people alive, while the "international community" that finances our projects is "trying" to solve this politically. Can there ever be peace in Sudan? Will the people of Darfur be left to live in harmony? There's that line between ...