February » 2011 » Surfing Africa

Putting On the Brakes in Khartoum

Our arrival in Khartoum was helped by some GPS coordinates for the fore-mentioned National Camping Residance (see the travallog); the Blue Nile Sailing club, an icon of our entire journey, has gone so far downhill it is no longer worth visiting. People describe confusion, lack of management, filth, noise, and time wasting on arrival.

We’d been having some brake trouble with Finn. One piston in the front right calliper had siezed, causing uneven wear and a badly scored brake disc. We also needed to change the oil in both Surfs, having done 8000 miles.

We needed:

Oil
Filters
Brake disc
Calliper overhaul kit
Brake fluid
Brake pads

Our day off in Khartoum was thus spent:

Visit Golden Arrow (main Toyota dealer). 30 minutes later, leave with
- Nothing
Spend 30 mins looking for “nearby” larger Golden Arrow. 30 minutes later, leave with
- Oil
Directions to Golden Arrow head office take 45 minutes across Khartoum. Required to strip brakes on forecourt to show brake pads. 2 hours later, leave with
- Brake pads (incorrect ones)
At 3pm, hit the local factors. 15 minutes chat with Hassan Ab at Abayazeed Motor Co (15.59022N, 32.52263E), leave with
- Filters (incorrect)
- Brake disc
- Calliper overhaul kit
- Brake fluid
- Brake pads (swapped for correct ones)
Watch 6 or 8 men expertly remove, strip, clean, reassemble and refit front brakes in 90 minutes for Â£12.
Drink cold 7-Up and hot coffee (free) in airconditioned office (39C outside).
Eat 3 kababs (30p each)

Conclusion: Main dealers are the same world wide. Big, posh, shiney, overpriced and useless.

Sudan, aka The Best Laid Plans

Planning our trip, our guide book described the generous, hospitable people of Sudan, making it one of the most refreshing and relaxing countries in Africa. However we were facing arrival one month after a referendum on independence for the South, the culmination of a 5 year ceasefire in a civil war which killed 3 million people. The threat of violence led the London embassy to stop the already convoluted process of issuing visas, making it appear to be the hardest country to enter en route.

Sudan is not so much a country as a gap. Although the biggest country in Africa (for another 5 months), it has no reason to exist as a single entity. With an Islamic Arabic north, Christian African south and traditionalist African west, nothing other than violence, war, genocide and atrocities such as mass rape have held it together these past decades. That said, our experience was of North and Central Sudan, which could not have been more welcoming. God willing the peace and stability of the North may soon extend to the whole region.

The required week-long bureaucratic faff of entering the country is unlikely to be surpassed, and occasional police checkpoints manned by illiterate locals with vast ledgers didn’t help, nor did plain clothes policemen pulling us off the streets as we tried to go shopping. But those were the only effects of the despotic government.

From our entry at Wadi Halfa, in the North, we had a couple of very long days of hot driving on new tarmac roads, sometimes following the Nile and others cutting off vast loops on desert roads. Still traveling with Jesper and Tanya, we made our way South towards Khartoum in increasingly hot and dry climates.

The North of Sudan was heavily influenced by the ancient Egyptians and, for two nights, we camped amid large numbers of pyramids. Smaller than the famous Giza examples, they make up for size by sheer quantity. Until 150 years ago, they were largely complete, when an Italian “explorer” pulled most of them down; they are now nearly all crumbling. The occasional near-complete one gives an impression of the awe the complexes must have inspired.

Quick update from Khartoum

We’ve got a nice video on a memory stick here, but the internet’s crawling out of 1992, and unlikely to get here any time soon. So that’ll have to wait.

We’re in Khartoum, staying at the National Camping Residences, a rather odd but very pleasent government run campsite/disabled rehabilitation/religious retreat type place. All the guide books recommend the Blue Nile Sailing Club but word on the street is that it’s gone very seriously downhill and is now noisy, overpriced, filthy and badly (or not) managed.

We’ve finally started bumping into other overlanders – we spent the last 2 days with Jesper and Tanya from Denmark/Germany and have been regularly passing others each day. At our campsite here there are 3 other groups.

We’ve no pictures here but in the last 2 days we’ve seen 120 pyramids, of varying size and repair. We’ve been lucky enough to camp right between some of them, and unlucky enough to have to drive for hours on dead straight, flat roads at 39C to get to them. Without aircon the inside temperature regularly hits 45C, but air con uses loads more fuel and gets the engine hot under the collar when at high speed. Rock, meet hard place!

We’ll hopefully get good enough internet to get the video, or at least some pictures, up in a few days.

Aswan to Wadi Halfa, Sudan

“When you get to Sudan, then you are really in Africa.” Wise words, as spoken by Mr Saleh, who sells tickets for the once weekly 20 hour ferry from Aswan, Egypt to Wadi Halfa, Sudan. The week long process is the only way from Egypt to Sudan. Mr Saleh carefully explained the whole convoluted process, giving us GPS coordinates and directions to the various police and customs offices we needed to visit.

Revolution aside, the less said about Aswan the better. A city which normally lives off the fat of tourism, for 3 weeks it has had no tourists (we counted 5 others, all travellers like ourselves). The shouts of “Feluca! Carriage! One hour, good price! I sell you spices!” followed us like hyenas flocking to a carcas.

We had expected Sudan to be the hardest country en route, partially as the London Embassy stopped issuing all visas in December. We contacted Midhat Mahir, a fixer who told us that he could arrange visas to be waiting in Aswan, for $180/person. Believing this was the only way for British people, we paid, only to be greeted with a blank stare at the consulate. “Midhat Mahir I know, but I have heard nothing from him.” Our hearts sank, until she said “But visas I can give you, with no problem.” It took an hour, with no help needed from a fixer. We have so far received only hand-wavy emails from Midhat, but no response to our request for our money to be returned – we’re still waiting for a final resolution.

Negotiating the beaurocracy of getting on the ferry, we met Jesper and Tanya, a Danish/German couple in a rather lovely 1993 Toyota Land Cruiser (like Ian’s, for those who know him). Arriving 2 days before the first demonstrations, they had planned to spend 3 weeks exploring Egypt but, as the diesel ran dry, they ended up spending nearly the whole time in Dahab, Sinai.

On Monday, we boarded the ferry at 1pm, leaving our 3 trucks on the quay. At 4:30, Jasper, Frank and I disembarked again to drive the trucks onto a barge, which we had watched being loaded beside us. The barge left at the same time as the boat but travels more slowly, and should arrive in Wadi Halfa today (Wednesday). [in fact we have just heard that the barge has arrived, and are off now to try and unload the trucks]

View of Abu Simbal Temple from the Wadi Halfa ferry

Having read multiple descriptions of the ferry, made famous by Michael Palin’s footage of the toilets in Pole to Pole, we expected the worst. In reality it was rather pleasent; we opted for first class cabins (500LE (£50)/person), while Jesper and Tanya slept on deck (380LE/person); the cabin provided some privacy, but without a locking door we could leave no valuables there. The toilets were, of course, insipid. But we didn’t spend long there. Food was basic but fine, and the company was cheerful. We saw it at its least crowded – maybe 150 instead of 300, due to the fun and games in Egypt.

The Bradt guide book didn’t raise our hopes about our arrival: “Wadi Halfa is undoubtedly a disappointment.” This is perhaps fair when arriving from Sudan, but when arriving from Egypt it is like striking water in a desert. It may not be pretty, but the locals are welcoming, the kids delightful, the merchents happy to chat and show your their produce without hassle.

We bought a few bits and pieces in the market with no haggling, for a fair price. The restaurant brought us “food for 6″ for 28 SDG (£7), and a walk this evening ended with game of football (Jesper & Andy v. Sudan, Europe won 10-8), and a ride the 1km back to the hotel on a passing donkey cart.

This may be a backwater of Sudan, but compared to the Robbers’ Den of Aswan, we are in a dusty paradise.

Before and after

Arrival in Egypt – the long version

As we reached Aqaba in Jordan, we filled up both fuel tanks on both vehicles and both jerry cans, to ensure we had maximum range, to limit the need to stops on our way through Egypt and because we didn’t know the fuel situation. 240 litres of diesel for about £80.

We arrived at Aqaba ferry terminal around 10 am, only to be told we needed to go into Aqaba city to buy ferry tickets. But as always, a helpful local taxi driver was there to aid us. Off Andy and Kester went to get our tickets. They returned at about 11:30, having been told the ferry was leaving at 12, with tickets but no guarantee that the border was open and that we could actually get into Egypt. Rushed to check point, only to be told no the ferry would go at 6/7 this evening. Entered through the gate getting our ‘blue sheet’ (customs) stamped and parked up. After reading some signs, the back of the ticket and asking we went inside to building to get sorted. Inside was a ferry ticket office and confirmations office, the man told us he expected the boat to arrive from Egypt around 3ish to leave at 6ish. Why we couldn’t buy tickets for our ferry inside this ticket office I will never know.

We decided to head into Aqaba city to try and find some internet to get as much information as possible about Egypt and returned to the port around 3:30. We then spent most of the next hour and a half leaving Jordan. Paying exit tax for each person and the vehicles, trying to get money changed to be able to pay this in JD and then getting that changed again because the custom guys had no change! Eventually boarded the ferry about 7.20 and it departed soon after. We were the last to be loaded, the only overland trucks on the ferry and two cars all others were lorries. Normally this boat carries fairly large numbers of overlanders. Having been told they were stacking up in Aqaba we wondered how many there actually are there, how much was exaggeration and if any had actually tried to get into Egypt in the last few weeks.

Got our visas validated as the boat pulled away and then found a deserted restaurant and set up camp in there, ate some food, read some books and maps. The boat seemed to dock around 12 but it was another hour before we were allowed off. Egyptian customs at 1 in the morning after a very long day – needless to say we were a little apprehensive.

Welcome to Egypt - bizarre road signs abound

Once we entered the customs area we were approached by a friendly tourist policeman who asked if we needed help, to which we replied “yes.” He directed us through the entire process, and each person we spoke to was very polite, welcoming us to Egypt and telling us repeatedly how safe it was. It’s funny how that doesn’t make you feel any safer. We were ready to leave the port at 2.30. We aren’t sure if it was a combination of how late it was, the lack of anyone else arriving (other than the two cars on our ferry) or making up for the whole situation in Egypt but we left the Egyptian customs area with own spirits slightly lifted! As we left we asked the tourist police man if we now owed him any money to which he replied, this is my job, I help everyone but it is up to you. We gave him 20LE (£2), as he was genuinely very helpful to us and we felt under no obligation to give him the money.

Once out of the port, we headed towards GPS co-ordinates of a campsite but it was all closed up. We camped there anyway! Alarms set for 6 am to leave for 12 hours of driving to reach Hurghda before the curfew.

With just under 2 half hours sleep it was time to set off again, the sun was just rising. We made it to Hurghda just after 7, we kept a running tally of the number of checkpoints between Nuweiba and Hurghada and got to 23 in total. The only hold up we really had was crossing the Suez Canal via the tunnel, where we spent 2 1/2 hours in a queue. It had been closed throughout the curfew time from 6pm to 6am and the army were checking every single vehicle in the remaining 12 hours.

The next morning we met Lorraine and Frank at Hurghada airport and said goodbye to the 3 de la Haye brothers, leaving them to find a beach hut and some good snorkelling for a couple of days. The 4 of us headed South for the next leg of our journey.

“We have won”

[wrote this at 20:00 but the internet died on me, only able to post it now]

Grab your banner. Wrap yourself in a flag. Get your children and throw them in the taxi. Turn on your bling. It might even be worth turning on your headlights, if they work.

Out for a quiet evening stroll an hour ago, all hell broke loose around us. Within seconds, car horns started blaring and empty streets flooded with shouting people, in a scene reminiscent of an extravagant Egyptian version of the Truman Show. 100 yards away, a group of riot police broke out from a walled compound and ran at the crowd, but quickly disappeared again as the crowd swelled around them.

Police confronting the growing crowd

What felt like a threatening situation quickly became obvious, as people shouted to us as they passed – “Mubarak finished!” “We have won!” “It is over!” “He is in Deutchland!” (don’t know where that last guy got his info from). I have never felt safer in a crowd anywhere – the atmosphere was (and still is) of shear jubilation all around us.

The police headquarters, across the road from where we were standing, was quickly “re-enforced” with army protection and the police have since melted away (the people love the army, but the police less so). The army are standing around, shaking hands with people, honking their horns with the traffic all around them. With the crowd in this mood, there was no need for protection.

An hour ago, Aswan was a dead town, at the end of the Sabbath day and having seen no tourists for 2 weeks in a city supported entirely by them. Now, it is as alive as any Spanish town during a carnival – every car is on the streets, horns blaring, the people are dancing and cheering in spontaneous groups of 100 or 200 all over the city.

The Aswan Crowd turning on us

In case anyone reading this doesn’t realise why the people are so happy, have a read at this description of the man Mubarak appointed as Vice President 12 days ago, to try and appease the people: Sulieman, the torturer.

Jordan : Andy’s favourite middle eastern country.

The border into Jordan went, well how can you describe it, organised. The kind people told us what we needed to get, where to get it and in what order. The border crossing took us one hour. The only bit that was worrying bit was when we were asked where we were heading and we replied Egypt the responses were, ‘No, it is very dangerous. You stay here for a while. Ok, but be very careful.’

We had GPS co-ordinates for a guest house that allowed camping in Madaba, south of Amman. We had been informed that there was a protest scheduled for Amman in Friday, so we skirted around the edge, but saw nothing, and headed straight for Madaba. Found out that Madaba had large ‘Christian’ population which was very obvious when we went out to a local restaurant for dinner and saw many women in ordinary clothes, no head scarves, smoking and many bottles of wine around.

The guest house we stayed in was connected to the orthodox church where the 1500 year old Mosaic map of the Middle East is located so before we packed up we went and saw that.

Madaba mosaic maps

We spent the rest of our free time reading about things in Egypt and generally worrying about it. We also phoned the ferry company who run the ferry from Aqaba, Jordan to Nuweiba, Egypt and they told us that the ferry was still running ‘every day, no set time’ and ‘not many people using, so no need to book’

We headed off from Madaba in search of the Dead Sea, drove crazy down hill hairpins to get to the edge. We spotted some holiday huts and tried asking if we could use their showers after we went for a swim. They replied no you can’t swim it is too cold! And then continued it would be 12 JD EACH to shower (1JD is roughly £1 GBP). So we decided to find another spot and use our bottled water to wash.

Floating in the Dead Sea

In the Dead Sea you float, it is the weirdest feeling to just lie back into the water and float. It also tastes really really bad and stings you eyes like crazy but all in all a great experience and not too cold. Hah! We’re from Scotland (& Ireland).

From the Dead Sea we headed for Petra, along amazing little back road which alternated between brand new tamac and really old dirt tracks. Found a hotel that allowed us to camp, in Wadi Musa, the town at the entrance to Petra. They had showers which didn’t really work and then ran out of hot water, so not much success in washing off the salt. We met another overlander here who had just come from Egypt saying the border was closed and overlanders were stacking up in Wadi Musa and Aqaba, not knowing what to do about Egypt. We saw at least 7 other overland trucks parked in Wadi Musa. We decided we should just head to the port and find out for ourselves what the situation was.

The next morning we went to the ticket office in the glorious sunshine, paid our 50 JD, quite expensive for the 4 hours we had to spare in our schedule.

It was differently worth the money, an amazing city just carved out of the stone. You could easily have spent two whole days exploring all the sites, but we were all glad to visit it in February when could comfortably walk around in jeans and a t-shirt, hate to think of the heat in mid-summer.

After Petra we drove the short distance to Wadi Rum and camped in the middle of the dessert, surrounded by large rock formations. Total silence all around and amazing views of the stars. Early to bed to attempt our way into Egypt in the morning.

Egypt – quick update

A very quick update to say we arrived safely in Egypt in the small hours of yesterday (Tuesday) morning and, after clearing customs and having a 2 hour nap, left at 6am for the 13 hour drive to Hurghada yesterday. We passed 23 checkpoints (only 3 or so seemed unofficial, the rest were army run) and arrived just after curfew, which is not enforced in tourist areas.

The people at the checkpoints have all been professional, polite and friendly, with none of the corruption we had been warned about – not a single time were we asked for, or even hinted towards, a bribe. Even the unofficial ones, despite being less professional, were comedy rather than threatening.

The police appear to have been disbanded – so far we’ve seen no hint of them since the border.

The next border

As posted here, our current route was highly improvised in order to avoid Tunisia which, 2 weeks ago, descended into revolution. We instead decided to route through Eastern Europe and the Middle East to enter Egypt from the East, instead of the West.

We are now in Aqaba, the port city in Jordan, at the point of entering Egypt. It’s been a hard couple of weeks, covering enormous distances in countries we were totally unprepared for. But it’s been incredible. We’ve seen a lot of sights and places we were never planning on this trip, and met some fantastic people (like the Turkish farmers who hosted us for a night). Lunch beside the fortifications of Dubrovnik, a couple of days with Angela and Paul in Kosovo, visiting Istanbul, where Louise and I honeymooned, camping beside Crusader castles, climbing the height of Ben Nevis in 40 minutes through Jordainian desert, exploring the ancient rock-carved city of Petra, sleeping out in Wadi Rum – the days have been eventful to say the least!

Our camp site in Wadi Rum. Sunrise was spectacular.

The irony is that Tunisia is now relatively safe, and Egypt is in turmoil. We are booked on a ferry there tonight, but with no guarantee that we will be allowed into the country when we land. Assuming we are, we have a route planned to the Southern border with Sudan which should avoid all the trouble spots: Across Sinai from Nuweiba where we land, up towards (but not into) Suez to cross the canal, then South to Hurghada, where the de la Hayes fly home and we meet Lorraine and Frank. From there, we will travel down the coast as far as possible before crossing inland to Aswan, from where we can get the ferry to Sudan (if it is running).

Family back home have been in direct contact with the FCO, who have said that our route, in current circumstances, should be plausible. There are no internet and only dubious mobile connections in Egypt at the moment, so expect the site to be quiet for a few days. We will attempt to update Twitter via family back home if we can. See you soon!