Wadi Halfa

Place: Wadi Halfa.

Tunes: No tunes whatsoever.

Our hotel room.

The mattress is well ventilated.

A local keeping us company at the restaurant.

We are in Sudan. The mayhem unloading the boat was restricted a bit by the Sudanese immigration guys who only had a limited amount of stamps on them, so they could not process people very fast. Our arrangements were sorted by our agent and we were spared most of the sweating. Customs and the other paperwork went through without too much hassle and we did some of it on the boat. Apparently it is not possible to get a visa here without a travel agent to sponsor you.

Wadi Halfa is a small place and there are not many hotels. No aircon but a fan that used to be a tail rotor in a helicopter. Nothing to do in town but count the flies.

We have had the same chicken and rice meal in Africa already for quite a few times, and the chicken here was definately ok. The locals seem to be content in sleeping and watching American movies.

Day two:

Today we went to wait in the sun as it was not hot enough at the
hotel. We needed to get some passport photos taken as you need your picture to get a permission to take pictures. Afterwards, we were also promptly raided by the police, who checked our permits. 

The carnet's have still not been sorted but we should get them before the vehicles. We were told that the barge with the vehicles would arrive one day later than the passenger ferry. This would be today. But this is not the case anymore. The barge will arrive maybe tomorrow, maybe in a couple of days.

Apparently someone on the barge has just noticed that they can only proceed at daytime as the barge has no radar. Also, the vehicle barge, which is being pushed by the motorized barge thing, is slowing down the progress. I am sure that the ferry and port operators have never seen this situation before and it is normal not to know how things will work out in detail.

The only explanations we have heard so far are “Insallah” and “This is Africa”. Not only with this matter with the ferry but several times before too. Usually the former when the person knowing it that there is no way in hell something is going to happen as planned, and the latter when everything has been fucked up already. Convenient ways to push the responsibility away from you and allows you to make the same mistakes again and again.

In the evening we heard the news that the ferry has arrived but they will only unload in the morning.

Day three:

Got the bikes, went through customs after the big boss got there and have his most important nod to his staff. Bikes were inspected by customs and narcotics and we were on our way. The narcotics officer would have been arrested on sight anywhere in Europe as a dealer just for wearing those sunglasses. Man, he looked like a guy who knows his drugs.

The brand new tarmac road in front of us had been laid by the Chinese not long ago. You could have played pool on it, it was that smooth. Untill recently the only option was an old sand road not in a very good condition. Considering my off-road experience, this was a relief as wrestling with the bike in 40 degrees was not something I was looking forward to. 

The ride through the desert was not eventful and there is virtually no traffic on it. Whoever was in charge of traffic signs here seemed to have a sense of humour. There were "sharp corner ahead" signs where you could see a straight road stretching to the horizon in front of you and no sign when you actually did reach a corner.