Taka Hotel Khartoum

... in the village. He has 10 camels and a car – and an equal amounts of kids all shyly looking at us and smiling from ear to ear. Here we are served with ice-cold tea and biscuits. Next is the aunts house, then the uncle, cousin, best friend…this continues for some hours. We drink tea, eat cake, receive bags of dates as presents and finally try and take our leave. Tears well up in Galia’s eyes as we communicate our departure. She insists that we must ...

... We had anticipated only 70 kilometres but it proved well over 130. This was due to the erroneous interpretation of the map. We used a map by Michelin, producers of tyres and very useful maps (their France 1 in 200000 maps and atlas are my favourite ones). Normally the French are so Anglophobic that we assumed distances to be indicated in kilometres. They were, but in small blue print, not in bold red, like the mileages we were assuming to be kliks. When ...

... at speed. Eileen took over driving 50km out of the city. As we approached on a fast section of road, travelling at about 50mph, out of the darkness we saw a roadblock of tyres and wood. No lights on it so we both saw it late. I'm not sure which was louder, the scream of the tyres as all 4 wheels locked or us. We stopped with inches to spare and with heart still in mouth and eyes on stalks I had to answer the standard police questions. He agreed that he should really ...

This morning we woke up to considerably less bugs and insects and most importantly, scorpions. Chiho and Christoph discovered their front tire was flat (a slow leak probably) so while they got busy changing their spare, we pumped up ours to "normal tire pressure" in anticipation for the smooth tar roads today. While filling up with diesel at the Total Gas Station in Gedaref, we met Mergni Mohammed, tall broad and extremely dark. He came right up to us, took our hands with a firm ...

Hair: Let's Not Talk About It Beard: Itchy Distance Travelled: 6600km Frame of Mind: Triumphant Night 39 - Back To Gonder Back to Gonder for a pizza, pick up some last minute supplies/parts and get locked in a bathroom. I had to fashion a screw driver from the shower head to unscrew the door frame. That didn't work so had to unscrew the window frame to escape that way. No luck. Three stories off the ground with no purchase on the outside ...

Learning from our experience in Syria and the Middle East in general, we didn't know what to expect from The Sudan. We knew that it is the largest country in Africa, that it is governed by Islamic law and that it is hot - also some stuff about fighting in parts of the country, but we didn't go there...this time... When we arrived in Wadi Halfa, Sudan by the overnight ferry from Aswan, Egypt it was about 10 am. We changed trucks, so all our stuff ...

... de la mission Soudan et faire une "transition" entre la vie ACF et la "vraie" vie de Montréal. Arrivée à Montréal, si tout va bien, lundi le 9 juillet vers 19h30! 1 an de mission, des hauts et des bas, tous plus mémorables les uns que les autres. Des moments que j'aimerais oublier et qu'heureusement je ne pourrai jamais. Des leçons apprises ...

Will I manage to write this English entry before the computer crashes? That's what happened every other time, so let's give another try. I am at work right now; it's almost 5pm and it seems like only now can I tackle the work that needs to be done. Everything before 5pm is meetings, management and donors. Now is when it really starts: I put my iPod on, the AC off after the sun sets and things finally get done ... or almost! Lately ...

... engines (also very atmospheric), and now to Khartoum, where we are once more enjoying the luxuries of big cities.  But not for too much longer ... we leave Khartoum in a  couple of days time to follow the Nile through the desert, stopping at various monuments to satiate Prickett's urge to examine big piles of old rocks.  It may be  hard-work - with heat, and dust, and the like but it should be very  interesting.  We then have a rendezvous with a boat from ...