Dandas Hotel Khartoum

... the ancient tombs and villages all alone, the imagination unhindered to transport you back more than 4000 years. <br><br>So despite the political problems between the North and South, the humanitarian disaster in the Darfur region and a president that has an international arrest on his head &#8211; the common people we met were full of love and hospitality, the country beautiful in its ruggedness and a culture as yet untainted by tourism. A wonderful travel experience.

... kept relatively mum about it. Still we wanted to see them. That meant the Atbara road. But then a precious bit of info reached our ears. Apparently, the Atbara to Dongola road had been tarmacked. A bridge had been built a Merowe (do not confuse Meroe and Merowe). That would leave only 400 kilometres of sand and stones to Wadi Halfa. The direct route from Atbara to Wadi Halfa, following the railway line would be over 600, many too sandy to be acceptable. Besides; that route ...

... are more important. At 100 USD per room the price was a bit too steep. Next morning we left early. The road was not so good as the stretch from Metema. The traffic was much denser, all goods to and from Port Sudan and the capital pass over it. They use lorries that are much longer than the max in Europe. Two 40 foot containers on trailers makes 24 meters plus a cabin and a bit of connecting hardware. So one has to be sure of enough free road space to overtake ...

... disappointing that after 3 full days of hard driving, little sleep and occasional food we were so far away from making it. Bill took about an hour to work out the problem then we took another few hours to locate the tiny piece of metal that was lodged in the air valve keeping it open. After a 5 hour delay we were off again. Jo was already resigned to the fact that she wouldn't see me before tomorrow, her birthday. I drove fast for the first 30km. Alas there were ...

... at all. ;) After a leisurely breakfast of bread and coffee under the shade of some trees at the campsite, we took a public minibus 400 metres down the road and found refuge in an internet café. But after an hour of relative fast connection, the power cut off unexpectedly. Everyone got up, paid and exited. We were the only ones left in the dark, packing up our laptops slowly and only until the heat from inside was too unbearable did we step out into the blinding ...

... Hmmm... there is no racism in your country, no? Everyone is friend." Us: "Well, there are many problems with racism in many cities. Not everyone is friendly." MM: "No, I don't believe! What kind of racism?" Us: "Well, sometimes people don't like your skin colour, your religion, your language, your hair colour, the food you eat, how you smell, how you dress, it can be anything!" MM: "No, I still go and I be friends with everyone!" Us: "I hope your dream will come true one day." MM ...

... would really be enforced. The police are friendly but say no photos because it is government property. This is a little strange to us because at our hotel we meet Erick and Will who are Australians working on a project where they take aerial photographs of the Nile area with cameras that can identify objects one centimeter in size. They can even measure the height of railroad tracks and street curbs. It is extremely high tech and is for the purpose of ...

... hoard of other men from the village in the back garden of the house and I fell asleep under the stars on a bed they had brought for me for that purpose. Despite much insect repellent I got bitten lots, and it did get a little chilly in the middle of the night but it was a fantastic evening. What a wonderful introduction to Sudan. I only realised very late that since crossing the border I had not seen a single woman. Perhaps I wouldn't ...

It's a strange feeling today. I came back from break energized, but to deny that there is this underlying fatigue would be, well, big-time denial. Strangely enough, I'm realising this during perhaps the calmest weeks I've seen on this mission. THings are winding down, for better or for worse. Most of the people I've come to be close with have now left this mission, and the ones that are left ... well the whole team, except for 4-6 people (out of 45 at the moment), will be gone by ...

... can't find more ways to say that I'm soooo tired), but because I've experienced this very strange thing whereas I've started to define myself by my work. Which is great when you've got energy to do it well and succeed, but which absolutely sucks when you don't and you start making mistakes, dare I say forget stuff, and come home feeling like a loser, not knowing exactly what to do if you're not working ... very strange indeed! I ...