Wednesday 20 April 2011

Day 214 Sudan 20/4/2011, Wadi Halfa – Desert camp on the road to Abri. 75.52miles/120.45km, 5hr58minutes, Av 12.6mph.

Neither of us slept as much as we would have liked, but we were awake by 5am. Our plan was to leave at first light which we thought would be 6am, but had forgotten about the one hour time change in Sudan. With the assistance of the guy who had helped us yesterday we got all our gear downstairs, loaded the bikes and headed off at 6:15am, with the skies just starting to lighten. Finding the correct road involved a bit of guesswork as road signs don't seem very common here. Eventually via a checkpoint, where they had just woken up and weren't very bothered about us, we headed off into the desert.

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Leaving early meant that it was quite cool and we rattled off the kilometres. By the time the sun was fully up and the temperature started to rise we had done nearly 60km. The road was amazingly quiet and we were able to ride two abreast for large stretches without seeing another vehicle. The drivers of the vehicles we did see were all quick to wave, especially a Chinese road crew that kept overtaking us during the day. The nicest thing about the waves from the drivers was that they didn't sound the horn. After Turkey, Syria, Jordan and Egypt where truck drivers especially seem hell bent on deafening you as they pass, this came as a pleasant surprise.

The lack of traffic, peace and solitude made for a great ride through the desert, until it started getting too hot! Passing the 4000 mile mark today was an added bonus, go us!

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At the 90km mark with the sun almost directly above us we spotted a small shop/restaurant and stopped for a tea and bottle of coke. The Nubian mud brick buildings are lovely and cool and we could have stayed longer but we wanted to try and get to the Nile today. Having filled our water bottles up we headed out into the heat and rode another 30km, before deciding that it was too hot and we would be better off camping.

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The English couple travelling in a Toyota Land-cruiser were supposed to get their vehicle off the barge today and would probably pass us en route. They had promised to stop and say hi and fill our water bottles if they saw us, but either the vehicles were not released until late or they passed us unseen. If we have missed them it is a shame as they were very nice, plus the water wouldn't have gone amiss!

Carrying water is going to be our biggest problem, bottled water seems rare and we are just having to risk the water we can find. So far at worse it seems to taste a bit sandy.

Since camping we have had a visit from two curious locals and a guy who claimed he was a policeman and wanted to see my passport. The policeman did have a rather fetching pair of tiger print slippers on though, which didn't seem like police issue.

Aside from the strong wind, sand in everything and acacia thorns littering the ground we have a decent camp-site. If the wind dies down we may even get some sleep, which would be nice after the last few days. We will be leaving early again tomorrow and will hopefully soon be near the Nile and a supply of water!

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