Khartoum, Sudan to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 8-24 February

We finally had our papers in place and everything we needed to exit Sudan and enter Ethiopia. Can’t say we were too sorry to leave Khartoum which was so incredibly hot and mossie ridden. Can’t complain about costs in Sudan though, everywhere we have camped was free for the entire country – as we bush camped all the time - except the campsite in Khartoum which cost £9 total for 4 nights stay!

We stocked up at the one big supermarket, again, a loose sense of the word and headed off south east towards the border with Ethiopia. We had two more lovely nights bush camping, still with Peter and Traudl and enjoyed open roads, wide spaces, vast expanses of space etc.

Here are photos of the meat we DON'T buy (check out the tail still on!), the fruit and veg that we do buy every day and us enjoying more bush camping....

The border crossing into Ethiopia was pretty uneventful, although a little long as the customs guys decided to take their lunch break as they saw us approaching up the dirt track. Getting out of Sudan was a case of popping from shack to shack, avoiding the donkeys, in order to get the right signature on the right bit of paper. On the Ethiopian side Metema village is a crazy border community – everyone wants to change your money, stare at you, beg from you etc. After about 3 hours we had everything in place and stopped to enquire about the price of beer – BEER – hurrah!- and drove on towards the town of Gonder.

It was stunningly beautiful scenery driving to Gonder, just climbing non -stop up the mountains and rejoicing as the temperature gauge began to drop. Although we were apprehensive about all the trouble on the roads – local kids throw stones at faranji (foreigners) cars and it is not unknown that people throw themselves (or their kids, or goats, or dead relatives) under your car wheels in order to claim compensation. However we drove at a sensible speed and circumvented all the cows, kids, people, goats, sheep, donkeys and horses on the road and didn’t have any problems. I must say my heart began to beat faster and felt much lighter and i felt exhilarated to be finally back in Africa. And Africa “proper” surely is Ethiopia, it is mostly a Coptic Christian country so alcohol is available, women are not second class and hidden away, things are a little more chaotic, people are everywhere (as mud and stick huts are everywhere) and animals rule the road.

We arrived late into Gonder and found a tiny pension (local hostel) which allowed our 2 cars to park in their central car park and camp. We went straight out to eat as we had nothing in the car – we went to a local eatery and the food has changed completely from Middle Eastern influences. Now local food is served on njeri – a huge brown flat pancake type thing- and you eat with your fingers. The most common topping is a bean paste, or you can have cubed meat (as it’s commonly served raw and we have seen what the butchers shop looks like we have avoided that option!), or various others. Peter and Pieter dived straight into the local beer – and did so with broad smiles! It is excellent and we are now travelling wtih a crate of our own. In that restaurant you pay close attention to the hand washing ceremony (important as you don;t get cutlery for your njeri) and there was a pet duck wandering around.

Scenes of Gonder: Pieter's favoured local beer, fresh avocado and mango juice, the local scaffolding

The next day we went out for breakfast and enjoyed delicious porridge and fantastic macchiato – as i sat there and looked around me and the hustle and bustle i just can’t explain the emotion to be back in Africa. Gonder is stacked with history – just who would have known that there were stone palaces and castles in Ethiopia? And many of them in Gonder. We paid to wander around them, each one built for a different Emperor and the kids ran around rather uninspired as they
claim “Scottish ones are bigger”!! Archie and Euan made friends with a couple of local girls

The adults just marvelled at European type castles which already existed in the middle of Africa.

We went for sundowners at a posh hotel outside of town and the most exciting part of the day was the drive there in a "tuk tuk" (part motor bike, part taxi and prevalent from Egypt to here) – the kids were shrieking with delight as we buzzed our way up the steep hill.

Back to our little compound camping and off early the next morning as both boys vomited all night and guess who was on clean up duty? As our facilities were negligible we decided to set off immediately south to a campsite we knew was run by a Dutch couple. This campsite was right on the banks of Lake Tana, in Gorgora; a terrible road to get there but once there you enjoy peace and quiet and no more hassle from the local kids (“pen,pen,pen”, “money,money,money”, “you, you, you”). There is no running water because 3 of the local villagers are employed at 19Birr a day (about £0.60) to carry water from the lake. Mara immediately came to report that the toilets were spotless, sparkling AND even had toilet paper! They don't flush but you pour lake water down to flush. You can choose to wash either in the quaint bamboo hut where there is a tin bucket on the roof which you unleash with a twist to be blasted with fresh lake water, or you can meander over the rocks to a little enclosed bay on the Lake and wash there. We bathed in the lake every day (yes bilharzia is present but you should hopefully be ok if you stay in for less than 10minutes and don’t bathe anywhere near the local animals.....hmmm....will keep you posted on that one).

We stayed 3 nights and chilled out and did home schooling

and washing and enjoyed meeting Brian from North Berwick and his girlfriend Jan. He is following the route of Ewan MacGregor’s Long Way Down for charity, but has the additional challenge of being in a wheel chair. He thought we were brave doing the trip with 3 kids – in comparison, hardly!

From Gorgora we drove to Lalibela in a day – a long day’s drive full of absolutely incredible scenery that just takes your breath away – mountains and gorges and forests and huts and animals and climbs of up to 4000kms.

We found another hotel which allowed us to camp in their car park and we had 2 nights and 1 full day exploring. Lalibela is famous for ancient Coptic Churches dating from the 12th century which are carved into the rock. Not just the facade is carved into the rock, every Church is entirely free standing....wow.

Lalibela was a bit tiring though – it was a super busy wee place and we were hassled a lot, although in a different way to Egypt. Our second night in Lalibela brought sadness, it was our last night with Traudl and Peter as they were then travelling North and we were heading South to Addis Ababa. We had a meal together and the next morning Mara leapt out of bed to draw them picture and write them a letter. We have made life-long wonderful friends who were such a pleasure to travel with and made our last 3 weeks even more memorable.

From Lalibela it is too far to get to Addis in one day. The first 50kms from Lalibela are on quite a bad dirt and stone road ( we have had a number of trailer problems with dirt roads and things just rattling clean off). We had to pause for one night in the small town of Kembolcha – and it took 8hours to reach there. We negotiated to stay in the grounds of a hotel again as so far bush camping has been impossible as there are just hamlets of huts absolutely everywhere.

After an early start and a further 7 hours drive on mostly tarmac and through a bizarre tunnel with no lights and a crap stoney, bumpy road, we reached Addis. We are staying at an overlanding camping spot – where we are 4 vehicles squished into a grassy compound. Great people though, everyone on the same type of trip and even another family with a child! We set up camp and all ate pizza together – our first “faranji” food in quite some time. The car has had an oil change and had the brake pads checked (up and down climbs through the Rift Valley of 4000kms we thought it prudent) and the trailer had its bearings looked at and some welding done (as expected, it’s not handling the corrugated roads very well!).

At least i have been able to buy a few things in Addis – a bottle of gin for £2.20 (i list the important things first!), fruit other than bananas, a little slab of cheese and bread. The kids are in heaven to have a wee friend to run around with and we will try and look in on a charity before we leave. Next issue is to try and find internet access – it has not proved easy so far....posh hotel here we come.......



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Fleeing Eygpt and into Sudan; end Jan 2011

So I am posting two updates at once as the earlier one I have been unable to post until now as the internet was cut in Egypt and then we have been travelling through the desert in Sudan.

Basics first:
• Yes, we got caught up in the troubles in Egypt. We witnessed rioting, tear gas, mob violence, the riot police etc. Other travellers had their 4x4 damaged by the mob and we all remained locked indoors terrified about our car.
• Saturday and Sunday evenings the violence and protesting on the streets began after evening prayers – about 5pm. We watched it all on Saturday evening (locked inside our budget hotel) and by Sunday decided to drive out of town and camp with some other overlanders we met.
• The troubles throughout the country meant that there was no internet and no mobile phone signal (the government cut both).
• All the government offices closed which meant we couldn’t get all our paperwork done in order to sail to Sudan. We were meant to do the paperwork on the Saturday but couldn’t, then same thing on Sunday. By then we had become firm friends with 2 other overland cars – also hoping to sail on the Monday to Sudan. We were all in various states of apprehension as it was not pleasant being in the thick of things and with no communication with the outside world.
• Finally on Monday morning we managed to rush through the various offices and procedures in order to get on the boat – “rushing” means we began the process at 8am and finally got on board the boat at 4pm. We had to drive from pillar to post to get clearance for this and a stamp for that. Then the customs guys (who we had heard are normally extremely overzealous) were so stressed by the amount of backlog they asked for a bribe of £6 and let us drive straight past them. Result! (we are carrying lots of illegal booze)
• Finally we had our cars on the barge and then we walked over to the total chaos of the ferry.

Before going onto the chat of the ferry here are some photos of sightseeing in Aswan....Mara holding a crocodile, and walking round the Nubian village....

And then onto the ferry....

We had booked a cabin which the 5 of us planned to squeeze into. It was basic and dirty and next to the men’s “washroom” which went like a fair the whole time as everyone was perpetually washing for prayers and the loos didn’t flush and rather overflowed onto the floors. Boy though, we were all just SO happy to be on the ferry and leaving Egypt!

We are somewhat acclimatised to the standards of the Middle east and grubbiness and whatnot by now – so I am trying to think of how to describe the ferry to anyone sitting in the UK. Here are a few photos of waiting in line, the other types of passengers and the chaos of everyone loading:

Our new friends Peter and Troudl (Austrians in a Landcruiser) and Polly and Greg (Londoners in a landcruiser), ourselves and about 8 others were the only Westerners on board. The ferry looked big enough for about 200 but was carrying 600. Only a few had paid the extra for cabins and everyone else spread out their rugs and blankets and slept on deck. These are Pieter on deck, homeschooling on deck and some pics of amazing Abu Simbel which we sailed right past....

It was chaos – every person had so much stuff and luggage lovingly purchased in Egypt and being hauled home to Sudan. So the deck was laden with twin tubs in their boxes, Chinese plastic food processors, boxes of pasta, bags of plugs and sockets, suitcases, bodies, prayer mats and shoes. Someone else suggested the only way to really understand the feel of the ferry is to watch the Michael Palin episode when he took it! We actually found it ok as we’re kind of used to it all now. We were all carrying various snacks but grub was also served up on tin plates in the basement – the usual scorched remnant of chicken, oily rice, pide bread, a great potato soup, cucumber salad and black tea.

The sailing itself was uneventful, Peter and Troudl had made friends with the captain in his jalaba and flip flops as they hadn’t managed to get a cabin and were sleeping on deck. He made a special place for them up in one corner and we all hung out there – somehow not fitting in with mass of bodies all lying around. We slept ok and early the next morning were up on deck to look out as we sailed past Abu Simbel – wow.

While on board we had to do our basic immigration procedures for entering Sudan. This meant squeezing along the corridors and into a cabin where there was a guy with a thermometer taking everyone’s temperature and recording it. Best not to think about the fact that he never changed the tip of it and goodness knows what bugs live in all the ears on board. Having proven we were all healthy we went next door into a cabin where two heavily henna-ed women were reclining on a bunk and drinking tea with another guy and chatting their heads off. A vaguely official man in the other corner wanted our papers and passports and he appeared to be the immigration officer operating out of a bedroom.

We arrived in Wadi Halfa in the early afternoon and it took about 2 hours to get off the boat – and we were lucky. It was disorganised chaos as about 50 porters jumped on board to start unloading the twin tubs, boxes, blenders, bags and assorted luggage.

At the same time Sudanese officials were wandering around in various directions and as usual only the men can complete the paperwork. Troudl, Polly and I are now completely used to being left behind (with the kids) while the 3 blokes have to disappear off to take care of procedures, paperwork, money changing, etc. The locals just don’t want womenfolk around.

Finally off the boat with our bags and sleeping bags we fought our way into a mini bus to get to the customs building....which was the only building around oddly alone by the banks of the Nile. Our bags were looked through and passed and we were out in the open and into Sudan. Hurrah. Once again, all so thankful to be out of Egypt. We squeezed 13 of us into an 8 seater mini bus and were driven to the village of Wadi Halfa proper. A bizarre and quirky wee village with little square concrete buildings that can be shop or house or cafe. No roads just concrete buildings deposited in the sand. We went to the poshest hotel in town - £10 for the 5 of us to have a room with 4 single cots. No bedding but sparkling clean floor. The shared ablutions were 4 squat loos with a shower over the top of them – pretty gross and only cold water but as we hadn’t showered in a while we were happy.

Our cars were not expected to arrive until the next day, at best, so the little posse of us had time to kill in the village where there is very little to do. We went for a meal at a street cafe – not bad and a pleasure to sit by the street and not be hassled nonstop. Euan drank a bowl of meat soup – greasy liquid with 2 big hunks of stringy meat in it – he loved it. Mara had a chicken leg (literally, that's all it was!) and Archie ate a bowl of rice. I had Fuul (now called fal but the same thing); Pieter had fish which arrived looking fossilised but was apparently ok.

Back in the Kilopatra Hotel (yes, really) there were tons of bikers – 2 Norwegians who have been biking the world for 2 years and a large group of Frenchies who were rather unfriendly and had a huge support truck, a support Landover and a huge support trailer. The 6 of us gazed at this assortment of new and expensive vehicles – and wondered how we had all gone so wrong with our 10year+ plus aged cars and lack of posh trucks and cooks and mechanics following behind. Na, not really. Bloody woosies!

Wednesday dawned and the men folk had to go off to the police station to get visitor permits and part with many dollars for the privilege. The rest of us sat in a cafe and drank tea and local coffee (weird grainy brown stuff with cardamom and cinnamon and not bad if you add lots of sugar) and waited. Something we have all become rather expert at. The kids amused themselves with home schooling books and playdoh. You see the obvious figure to mould!!....

When the remaining formalities were complete we got the good news that the barge would indeed arrive that day and sure enough, with very little hassle and no checks from customs, we had our cars back at 2pm. The Austrians and the 5 of us decided to pack up and leave town and wild camp; the Londoners decided to wait another night and catch up with us on the road.

So Troudl and I went round the tiny local market trying to get as much fresh produce as we good to keep us going for a few nights of bush camping. Then we stocked up with water and hit the road. Didn’t drive far as it was late in the day. Spectacular desert here and loads of places to choose from for remote camping. We set up camp and had a lovely meal under the stars in the middle of the desert.

We have altered the sleeping plan as for single nights of bush camping we don’t set up the trailer and up until now have been squeezing the 5 of us into the roof top tent. Not very comfy however so now we have set it up that one kid sleeps across the back seat, and we might even try getting another kids into the boot for extra space all round.

We continued in this vein for 5 further nights - bush camping in the desert as we wound our way towards Khartoum.

It got hotter and hotter the further south we got, until by Khartoum it is above 44 degrees C. We enjoyed fabulous nights of wilderness however - great big expanses of "nothing" and yet little settlements somehow still survive and there are a few basic veggies to be bought. A few photos of camels on the highway, the stalls where we buy our food and huts and settlements...

One night we camped next to a farmer and he had a trough of water to irrigate his meagre few plants with and he invited us all to bath in it. We were more than happy to; finding the dusty Lawrence of Arabia look not much to our liking. We camped also near some camels only to find the nearest inhabitants came wandering out of the desert to come and sit and stare at us - literally. Just sitting, staring in amazement as these bizarre white folk.

One night we set up camp next to the Nuri Pyramids one night at Jebel Barkal, near Karima. We were hot and dusty and tired after a long day's drive through the desert and i was desperate to wash. We had just finshed setting up the whole camp when along came the police and told we had to move 100m further away. ARGH! Impressive place though.....

The last night of bush camping (we stopped and filled up with water every day in whatever village we drove through - purely water for washing and cooking as it generally came from very dodgy sources) we camped right next to the Meroe Pyramids - Sudan's biggest tourist attraction. Tourist attraction obviously being in the loosest sense of the word! The kids even visited them by camel - as the guy with the camel was waiting for us when we got out of the tent the next morning. This was a very kind "treat" for them from Peter and Troudl! :

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Finally yesterday (Monday) we reached Khartoum and its blistering heat and found a national campsite where we can park and use mosquito infested showers. We are still with Troudel and Peter, the Londoners have flown ahead on a tighter time schedule. So we have a couple of days here to sort out Ethiopian Visas, paperwork for the car (complicated to take the car through Ethiopia as they want letters from the UK Embassy AS WELL as the carnet). HOwever i am sitting typing in a 5 Star hotel and i am clean - and somehwere in Khartoum there is a man with a misshapen face doing our 4 sacks of laundry - so some things work out ok!

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