Bougainvilla Guesthouse Khartoum

... 8216;Do you need some help?&#8217; &#8216;Please come and have some shai (tea)&#8217;. People are courteous and honestly want to help you without expecting a tip or payment in return. There is no describing the selfless hospitality of the people here, it is constant and without a hidden agenda &#8211; a soothing cool in the blistering heat. As a consequence, Northern Sudan has been the most pleasant place to travel in thus far.<br><br>A further advantage in this ...

... Khartoum today. The riders entered the city in a convoy to lessen the risk of injury due to vehicle traffic.I enjoyed the comfort of the truck at the back of the convoy and felt like a celebrity waving to the people looking on at the spectacle from the side of the street. The heat was intense, apparently. We will enjoy a day off here tomorrow. Again for me this will involve stocking up on dry goods and reorganizing the chaos of the truck.

Gondar to Khartoum We left the gentle care of the Goha Hotel behind us at about 07.30 on the fourth of December. It had been quite cold during the night, so the first few hundred meters we left a slightly blue atmosphere behind us. Not blue as in Billy Holliday, but as in "cough, sneeze and rasp". Once the engine had warmed up enough we did no longer visually pollute the air. While utterly enjoying the tarmac, we almost passed the turnoff to Metema. That was the ...

... and getting stuck, mostly driving abreast at wide spacings and only occasionally stopping for a leak or lunch break. We had two desert camps and on the third day reached the tarmac at Abu Hamed. Last nights camp was at Meroe, the capital of the old Nubian kingdom with pyramids dating from the 7th century, which we inspected this morning. After a 4 hour drive form Meroe we reached Khartoum this afternoon and are camped on the site of the Blue Nile Sailing ...

... traveler's cheques in Sudan and nowhere to use our credit cards, we found one bank (a Lebanese one) in the whole of Khartoum who could do a cash advance on our HSBC VISA. Our backup plan was to get money wired from Western Union from back home. It reminds me of the desperate time while I was living in Ghana when I called home collect because i had run out of money and got my parents to ...

... and walked back to the others. On my way, I passed a group of men sharing a meal of beans, cheese, tomato, onion and flat bread. I had said a polite Salam the first time I passed but this time they beckoned me to go over and share their meal. I protested and made motions to my belly to indicate I had just eaten breakfast. Here the men and women eat separately but for foreigners that rule doesn't always apply. They pulled up a white plastic chair and insisted I sit down. I was ...

... a popular place for foreigners who have some purpose for being in Sudan, such as contractors, NGO workers and journalists. The owner is Italian and tells us in good English that the cost is $230/nite but includes the cost of taxis to anywhere in the city as well as breakfast and dinner. Theroux probably met the same man and writes that the owner could arrange excursions all over Sudan. Basically the people staying at the Acropole are here making money. We ...

... was anything official! Customs was a doddle, if a little time consuming. The chap was very nice and friendly and everything got sorted in as short a time as possible for a fairly tedious process. Then I was on my way, and what a nice surprise awaited me.... The alleged road-from-hell that takes 8-12 hours to do the 155km to Gedaref has been replaced by the-road-where-angels-tread. Beautiful tarmac all the way, extending to Khartoum ...

... by the Nile River. We were so exited that we would be able to take a dip, that we didn't really care that 1) Sudan is an Islamic country where women are not really allowed to go in public less than fully covered up and therefore we had to go in fully clothed; and 2) the Nile was so muddy, we couldn't see an inch below the surface. We still went in, took our soaps, shampoos and even conditioners, and "cleaned up". (At least we smelled better for a ...

... and pragmatic again? I just hope that if funding is winding down, it's because gvts are confident they can end this conflict : do they have an ace up their sleeves that I'm not aware? Or does Sudan? Well, in exactly 2 months, my mission is over. I'll be the wiser for it and I really do still believe in this work, in this humanitarian community ... I hope Sudan will get another batch of creative and devoted people to make the best out of the winding resources and help the people ...