Bit of a hiatus, but you might have heard that we didn’t have cell service in Sudan or Ethiopia. It turns out we barely ever had any internet access at all until Kenya, so I’ve got a lot of catching up to do.
When last we left our villains, my visa to Sudan had finally come through. There was a neat once-a-week ferry to the Sudan border town of Wadi Halfa, but we didn’t want to wait around for it. We were 10 days behind schedule already. Overloaded coach plus barge plus minibus it is!
Up at 3am to catch our coach, and finally flee Aswan and get to the next country on our itinerary! We climbed aboard and settled in as they loaded appliance after appliance and sack after sack…
… and then unloaded the appliances and sacks. The bus was broken, not going anywhere today, come back tomorrow.
We were crushed, but there was nothing for it: we waited some more and woke up early again.
The bus went! It was pretty crowded with people and all the material they bought, but we didn’t care. 14 days in Aswan were finally behind us! We drove for a couple hours along the Nile, then stopped at a big bus hub in the desert. There were a dozen or more coaches lined up in various states of loading, unloading, and repairs.
We parked next to a bus that was apparently suffering through the same affliction our original bus had yesterday.
Nearby, the stack of appliances and sacks apparently not going on that bus was lined up to be rescued.
Why all the appliances? Sanctions and currency controls in Sudan have led to a severe devaluing of Sudanese pounds. You can’t get Sudanese cash from an ATM or pay using a Western card, and changing cash at the border gets you the “parallel market” rate which is about twice as much for your Egyptian as the official rate. Apparently families that want to buy durable goods like these (and maybe shops that want to stock up) are best off making the trek north into Egypt and carrying their new purchases back with them into Sudan, even with the import duties.
Go ahead, guess what they did with all those stranded appliances and sacks and people.
Back on the road we went! We settled in to our little corner of a massively overloaded bus. It was hot and miserable but we were so happy to finally be on the road we didn’t care. There aren’t many roads down here, so our route seemed a bit circuitous. We crossed the Nile on a big bridge and headed south towards Abu Simbel. This spot is famous for some giant carvings but they were on the other side of the hill from where we stopped, so we didn’t get to see them. Why did we stop here? Well, to get lunch and wait for the barge back across the Nile, obviously.
So we’re off the bus in a dusty corner lot next to the river. There was no guidance on what was happening, but we did see a barge nearby. We sat down for a soda and some internet.
Finally the bus honked and we clambered back aboard. It drove right past the barge and up to a large official-looking gate. There we waited as our driver talked to some men. Of course, we had to pay some more money. This grudgingly completed, the bus backed away from the official-looking gate and onto the barge. In order not to be baked alive, we climbed off the bus once more and took up a spot at the “bow” to watch the world go by.
Standing on a hot metal slab in 46C/116F is not as fun as it sounds. We finally sucked it up and cowered in the shade like real men, until finally we rammed the shore on the other side and climbed back onto the bus.
Thankfully, it wasn’t much further to the border. Once there, the massive group and all their belongings went through the immigration and customs process on both sides. We raced through thinking we could walk across the border and leave the bus behind, but were forced back to the bus group. We waited at the cafe adjacent to customs as they unloaded and re-loaded most of the cargo. When they pushed us back onto the bus to cross the border into Sudan, there was now no way back to our seats so we crammed into the front with the women and kids.
Immigration on the Sudan side was actually really quick. We pushed to the head of the queue, got our stamps, and walked into the empty customs hall. The officer who took a quick look in my bag kept up a pleasant conversation and asked me about our travels and homes. As I turned to leave, he even called out to me: “You have a friend in Sudan now!”
Finally, we were in Sudan. We found a taxi to take us the last half-hour into Wadi Halfa.
The barren landscape on either side looked very much like the surface of Mars.
Wadi Halfa is not what it used to be, or even where it used to be. The original town was a thriving river port on the Nile, before the Aswan High Dam was built in 1964 to form Lake Nasser, control the Nile flow, and provide power. As this would flood the old town, there were protests in the capital which were brutally suppressed. Martial law was enacted and the residents were forcibly resettled. The new town is a shadow of its old incarnation.
We found a reasonably decent little hotel for the night and walked into the main square for some street food. We ended up with the best meal we’d had in Africa, some simple delicious barbecued chicken and rice.
Next time: onwards and downwards!