Day 219 Sudan 25/4/2011, Abo Hojar – Deffufa – Abo Hojar. 14.8miles/23.96km, 1hr43minutes, 8.5mph Sand!

For some reason this morning I woke feeling a little queasy. Shaking it off as nothing, we had breakfast and then headed down the road towards the mud brick buildings of Deffufa. The directions we had been given were good and despite having to ride on sand for part of the way we made it to the site. After what a lot of form filling, parting with money and having to explain that we didn't have a photocopy of all our documents, we were allowed in. Fortunately they didn't insist on keeping our travel permit which we need!

By now the queasiness that I had ignored had turned into full blown nausea. The fact that the mud brick building we were looking at was over 3500 years old and possibly the largest and oldest man made structure in sub-Saharan Africa, didn't change the fact that I felt really sick. While Debs went for a wander round, I sat in the shade and tried to hang onto my breakfast. The nausea eventually eased, so I was able to have a little wander and take a closer look at the massive structure.

With me clearly not feeling one hundred percent, we decided to head to the town of Kerma to buy our hosts a gift for letting us stay and then head back. The lack of a tarmac road made getting to the town very difficult and we never actually made it. Instead we were beckoned over by some men and had a cup of tea with them and then stopped at a shop for a cold drink. I had thought the drink may settle my stomach a little, but it didn't help at all. Getting invited into another families house was a lovely gesture but it was all I could do to stop from being sick. For once the amazing hospitality, in my case at least, wasn't so welcome.

The projectile vomiting didn't start until we got out of the house thankfully. Rather fortunately there wasn't anyone around either, which saved my embarrassment at least.

From then on there wasn't much to do but head back. Trying to explain that I was feeling unwell was difficult and the family were very concerned. Even more concerned when I couldn't eat any food. I hope that they didn't think it was because I didn't like it. I ate a little and they insisted that a coffee was the best thing for an upset stomach. Another round of vomiting later and I did feel a little better, so I guess the coffee served its purpose!

I spent the rest of the day feeling extremely weak and groggy, Debs meanwhile went off with Zuleikha (Abdulfadil's wife) to a pre wedding event.

Debs' account of the evening:

It was a ladies only event and it appeared that all the women of the village were there. I was introduced to everyone and was greeted with warmth and curiosity and was made to feel very welcome. The bride's sister, Mona spoke English quite well and took me under her wing. After a while the groom's female family and friends arrived from a nearby village in light covered pick-up trucks with loud music blaring. With everyone present, the main reason for the party became clear; the bride was given lots of gifts for her wedding next month. The gifts included a lot of beautiful outfits and shoes for her new married life, which when shown around were greeted with loud whoops and shouts. It was a lovely evening and a great insight into Sudanese customs. I feel very honoured to have been part of the event and cannot thank Zuleikha enough for taking me.

Later that evening I started to feel a little better and managed to eat a bit of supper. For me at least it has been a difficult day. I am glad that Debs has been so roundly embraced by the local women, as looking after a sick grumpy me wouldn't have been a great deal of fun for her!

Day 218 Sudan 24/4/2011, Abo Hojar. A day spent in a lovely village with a terrific family.

Our plans to go to Deffufa early this morning didn't come to fruition. We left getting up a little late and we fell foul of the Sudanese custom of having breakfast about three hours after they get up. Chatting to Abdulfadil he suggested that we went after 3pm when it was cooler. We have to say that we were a little doubtful that it would be cooler by 3pm but you have to listen to the locals!

Once again during the day we were greeted by more of the neighbours. People seemed to be constantly dropping in for tea, coffee or a chat. We get the impression that this is a usual occurrence and not just because we were there.

We never did make it to Deffufa and it certainly didn't cool down at 3pm. Instead I had the tricky task of trying to explain some very wordy Playstation games to Abdulfadil's son and we had an impromptu game of football with a neighbour's disabled son. Just kicking and volleying the ball around had him rolling with laughter. It was all very sweet and a lot of fun.

Later that evening we went to another neighbour Mohammed el-Hardi's house for tea and got to meet his mother and lovely family. It has been another terrific day and we are finding ourselves slipping, possibly too comfortably, into the Sudanese way of life.

Day 217 Sudan 23/4/2011, Desert camp North of Delgo – Abdulfadil's house in Abo Hojar. 63.11miles/102.27km, 4hr50minutes, Av 13.1mph.

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.

Day 216 Sudan 22/4/2011, Desert camp south of Abri - Desert camp North of Delgo. 60.54miles/98.06km, 6hr16minutes, Av 9.6mph.

No punctures this morning and we got on the road at just after 6:30am. Once again we had the road largely to ourselves for the first few hours of the morning. The tailwind that we had had for the first two days had dropped and was replaced by a gentle crosswind.

For a while the road followed the Nile, passing the palm-tree and mud-brick village lined banks. With the villages came the chance of water and filling our water sacks up proved to be a wise decision when the road slowly veered out into the desert.

By the time we had covered 70km the temperature was rising dramatically, so a roadside rest stop was a welcome sight. A couple of cold drinks each and a falafel sandwich later and we felt a bit better.

There seemed little point in carrying on after our break as the sun by now was directly above and we were nearing the hottest part of the day. Foregoing the rest stop where we could definitely have stayed, we rode down towards the Nile through the village of Abu Sari. Two friendly Nubians greeted us as we rode through and gave us directions down to the river where we could rest.

Settling down under a shady date palm tree, we laid out our kip-mats and tried to sleep through the afternoon heat. The small village was very quiet, with us only being disturbed by two very sweet children. After a brief chat they saw that we wanted to sleep and left us in peace. Despite the breeze and shade, it was still very warm. We planned to sit out the sun until about 5pm and then do a bit more cycling, before finding somewhere to camp for the night.

Leaving at 5pm turned out to be too early as the heat was still stifling as we headed out into the desert. At one point we cycled through what looked like a huge refugee camp, which we have since learned was a gold town. Gold has been found in the desert and it seems that everybody is now heading towards the area armed with metal detectors to try their luck. A large mine has also opened bringing valuable, if dangerous, employment to a poor area.

As the sun started to set, the temperature eased slightly and we started to look in earnest for somewhere to camp. Debs was really struggling as she has not been feeling very well and I haven't been helping much by being snappy and irritable. With nothing but open desert to either side of us finding a camp site with a bit of shelter from the wind was going to be tricky.

Turning a bend, the Nile came once again into sight and with it a small quarry, which proved a decent camping opportunity. We set up camp with the last of the light fading and quickly made dinner.

It has been a very long day in difficult conditions. For the first time in the trip I seriously discussed with Debs about whether we are doing the right thing. Africa suddenly seems like the enormous continent that it is. The whole point of the trip was to challenge ourselves and Sudan is certainly offering that challenge. It seems at the moment, maybe because we have been on the road for so long, that it is challenging our health, mood and relationship too much. I will probably feel differently tomorrow, but there is no doubt that I have reached a bit of a low point. I am very proud of what we have achieved so far, but I can't and won't let it bring us down too much. Still tomorrow is another day!

Day 215 Sudan 21/4/2011, Desert camp – another desert camp, 15km south of Abri. 48.19miles/77.91km, 3hr59minutes, Av 12.1mph.

So much for the early start, not one, not two, but three punctures put and end to that! An important and frustrating lesson was learned about camping under acacia trees.

Instead of the 6:30am and on the road, we didn't get going until about 8am. Fortunately it was still relatively cool as we only had a limited amount of water with us.

Once again the road was flat and we were helped along by a nice tailwind, which was just as well as I had slightly miscalculated how far it was to the Nile. After about 40km we passed the first of the Nubian villages that line the banks of the river. A further 20km and we were heading into Abri, no thanks to the non existent signposts!

Finding a small shop to buy a drink and then spotting some of the clay pots that contain water came as a relief. The cleanliness and safety of the water within the pots is questionable, but thanks to the way the terracotta allows some water to seep through and then evaporate means that it is cool. So far we have had no ill effects from the water so fingers crossed, or possibly we have built up enough of a tolerance.

Abri is a bustling little town. We had a big lunch of Fuul (mashed beans with garlic, spices and a lot of oil), eggs and bread and then bought some vegetables. We had a look at the small hotel in town but it was a bit grim and a little expensive. Plus it was still early, although very hot, and finding a camp spot in the desert isn't exactly difficult. What we really wanted was somewhere to have a nap for a few hours and then head back out when it got cooler. While talking to some of the very friendly locals they told us that we would be able to find a shady tree down by the Nile that we could rest under.

Heading out of the town we passed a small village and then spotted a track towards the river between two houses. What followed was one of those experiences that makes the travelling worthwhile. We were greeted first by several children and then their mothers. A reed mat was laid out under a tree for us and we had the company of several very exited children. I quickly asked the women if I could take pictures of the children and was told yes. At the sight of the camera they got more excited and happily posed.

When more people arrived to say hello, it looked like we were going to meet everyone in the village. Eventually some lads arrived and asked if I wanted to go for a swim. The chance to cool off seemed like a good idea so I was soon swimming in the Nile. There didn't appear to be any crocodiles although the lads seemed keen on trying to tease me about them. Having seen how well they swam I was quietly confident, even with my limited swimming skills, that I could out swim them. Which is all you need to do, right?!

While I was swimming, Debs was entertaining the children. It was all a great experience but not as restful as we had planned. Eventually the adults, realising we wanted to have a rest, rounded up the children and we were left in peace. Debs managed to sleep for a while and by the time it was 4pm we decided to head back out and cover a bit more distance. It was sad to wave goodbye, but we needed to go and find a camping spot.

Any ideas that the temperature would have dropped were quickly quashed. It looks like we only have the early morning to make any serious distance. We had planned to go further but a decent spot presented itself, so we set up camp. A little sadly, while I was sorting our gear I spotted two of the overlanders we met on the ferry going past. They had obviously not got their cars back until today, plus they had told us they were taking a different route. Had we of been on the road 20 minutes longer they would have seen us.

A note on desert camping: people get very excited about the prospect, quoting the quiet,

solitude and clear skies. While all these things are true, they forget about the flies, sand, temperature, utter lack of shade, scorpions, snakes and oh did I mention the flies. Actually we haven't seen any scorpions or snakes yet but that doesn't mean they aren't out there. If the flies aren't heading for your mouth, they are up your nose, in your ears or trying to drink from your eyes. If I knew that scorpions dined on flies I would rather have the scorpion!

On a more serious note, the zip on our very expensive Hilberg tent is failing. The sand is certainly not helping but this is potentially a major problem and one we would not expect. Fortunately we can use the other entrance, but I am not convinced about that zip either. I will email Hilberg when we get the chance, but that doesn't do us much good in the meantime.

Problems aside, we will be having an early night, if it ever cools down, and an early start tomorrow.