Despite the somewhat sombre mood of last night we packed up and set out into the early morning light in good spirits. A return of the tailwind saw us making good progress.
Now aware that the road may leave the Nile and head out into the desert at any moment, we once again availed ourselves of valuable water when we passed a stop. It was a good thing that we did, because almost straight away we headed out into the desert.
40km into the day we were surprised to be passed by a Toyota Land-cruiser with Swiss number plates. The driver stopped and introduced himself and his wife. They have been travelling from South Africa northwards and were now slowly heading back down. Which explains why they weren't on the ferry from Egypt with us. They were a lovely couple and it was nice to stop and have a chat.
Back on the road it was more of the same, desert followed by more desert, followed by more desert. The land eventually becoming a bit greener as we neared the more fertile plains around the Nile. It wasn't long before we were heading into the desert again though. As before in Sudan, we were buoyed along by the friendly waves and happy smiles of the people.
Eventually after nearly 90km we came back alongside the Nile and were called over by some policemen. They asked where we were headed and when we told Kerma, they pointed down a road in the direction we had come! We had clearly fallen foul of the lack of signposts.
Heading along the road, into the wind, we were greeted by groups of smiling children and received many shout of welcome by people sheltering from the sun.
Eventually we came to a mosque and filled up our water bottles and then bought a drink from a nearby shop. Checking our directions, we continued north along the road until we came to a junction where we were beckoned over by a taxi driver to shelter under a tree. By now it was very hot so we happily took him up on the offer.
While trying to buy a drink, I was approached by a man who introduced himself as Abdulfadil. He told me that he would like us to come and stay in his house. He had hosted a Japanese cyclist 3 years previously, who had been on the road for 10 years and had cycled 100,000km! Since then he has hosted other cyclists but normally in the winter. He was slightly amused that we had chosen to come to Sudan at the hot time of year! Obviously our assumption that it would be like our spring was a mistake!
After chatting with Debs we decided it was too good an offer to turn down. Especially after having camped for the last three nights. The chance to wash ourselves was too tempting. The desert dust impregnates everything, our clothes have become so ingrained by the sand and then baked solid by the sun that it is like they have been heavily starched.
Abdulfadil told us that he had to go to a market to buy some wood, he is a carpenter, but would be back in an hour if we would wait there. With the sun high in the sky we had nowhere else to be so we settled down to wait. Obviously being a Sudanese hour it was nearer 2.5 hours, but our Sudanese guidebook caused a lot of interest with the locals so we were kept entertained.
Rather worryingly, when Abdulfadil returned he was in a pick-up (boksi) and he said just follow the vehicle. We did our best to keep up, but it was just as well that he was waiting by the side of the road for us, otherwise it would have been the shortest home-stay ever!
Abdulfadil's wife, Zuleikha and son Abdulrazig are lovely and we have been made to feel completely at home. During the afternoon we have lost count of the amount of people we have been introduced to. We have had lovely food and have coped with eating with only our right hand. An invite to another neighbour's house for tea was most welcome and the hospitality has been amazing. Having supper at 10pm was a little tiring as we had been awake at 5am, but the whole experience has been unforgettable.
We have been invited to stay as long as we like, so we will stay one more day and go and visit the ancient mud brick buildings of Deffufa, which is why we were here in the first place.
It has been a good day. Every time things look a little low, there always seems to be something that reminds us why we are doing this.
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