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Hi everybody,
Its now Thursday 25th Jan and I am in Khartoum since
yesterday. In my earlier blog I had
stated that I would be staying in Atbarah for an extra day but in the evening
of Tuesday I looked around and got the
creeps of that hotel and dirty room with another horrible bathroom smelling
after all that goes through.
it. Told myself , if
I can get holsd of petrol wednesdaymorning I am off to Shendi = hafway to Khartoum.
Indeed, I found petrol before 9 and took off to Shendi. The road was no comparison to the desert
roads, much more traffic, mainly lorries and long disatnce busses and therefore
a much more bumpy one with the occasional bad stretches and dangerous
potholes. However I flew through since
with a bike one can avoid a pothole while with a car you avoid one on the left
side but hit one on the right side.
The lorries did behave reasonably correct sine they are
heavily loaded and cant go fast and manouvre quickly. On the contrary those busses you must watch
out for. They drive like mad and do not
see any other road user. As a bike I try
to stay away from them since I am no match except for speed.
They are just ludicrous as many bus drivers around the
world, even those from De Lijn in
Belgium drive like mad with , often, no passengers inside so why the hurry ?
I arrived at Shendi at 11 AM already and felt good so I
pulled the throttle and continued to Khartoum that I reached by 14.00 hrs. It was 30 C and the bike did not like the
slow traffic.while my underworld was also cooked or fired. Quicly went to the area where i had seen
hotels on a map and found The Regency, an old English heritage where , since
that time, not much has changed or was maintained.
I do not disloke such old hotels provided its clean and not
smelling after wet and rotten carpets and leaking bathrooms. Not the case, quite acceptable so I dove
in. Rather tired from those 4 days of suffering. I ate like a dockworker , nice veggie sprigrolls, lambcutlets and
fruitsalad. Was nicely filled up. Went to bed by 10 Pm but had problems to
catch sleep since my room was next to the disco of the neighbours. Noise till 1 Am and after that I slept irregularly. Could also be from the withdrawelsymptoms of
no alc in Sudan. Who knows ?
Khartoum is the usual big, dusty, hectic city with traffic
jams all day through so I have the bike parked in front of the hotel entrance
because the manager wants to show it off and I will not move it until I leave
on a nice cool morning which is good for the bike. The town reminds me of Kaduna in Nigeria.
I was told in Wadi Hakfa, only on my 2nd visit for the lost
paper, that In Khartoum I had to
register again at the airport. So this morning I took off with a completely
rotten taxi to the airport. Once there
I found some officials and asked about the registration. They brought me to an office with a man in
uniform with lots of gold stars on it.
He and also the others looked as if I was from outer space and as if I
was the first one to do this while I know that all overlanders do this. Strange feeling and agian I was told there
was a problem. I belivee its the word
they know best or is their only Engllish one. My reply was for them to solve it since I
KNOW NOTHING, QUE ?!!
I had to go to other offices at another airport and an
office in town. Told them I would not do this without somebody from them to come
with me. It is their cooked up nonsens, right ?
And yes a big guy in uniform without stras or stripes went
with me to a building at about 100 meters .
Witioin 15 minutes all was done, I paid 535 SDG = 40 dollars and I had
another stamp and sticker in my PP. But
before that they had produced again 5 papers and 4 copies of , God knows what,
before the sticker was issued. Fortunately
I did not get all those papers to carry again.
Where did they learn this absolute useless way of administration. I think its to keep people at work otherwise
they roam the streets.
Now back in the hotel I do this blog and look out for lunch
( without a nice cold beer ).
For the rest I chill, make coipies of the papers I need for
the Sudan / Ethipian border and enjoy my crackers with pindakaas, yes , all
still from Belgium same as my dutch stroopwafels. Trick is to take enough to your liking and
not eat them all at once.
I had the plan to stay till Monday but I am now already
down to leaving Saturday but to cut the kms to the border in 3 piececs of
approx 250 each. Hope the hotels are
not of the sort that I had before geting here.
One thing that has struck me since the border with Egypt and
that is the high number of cow skeletons along the road in various stages of
decay, from fresh to real skeleton. This
is because Egypt has almost a continues supply through Wadi Halfa from within Sudan. I met a cattle trader in Abu Simbel who had
just struck a deal for a 1000 cows in one go.
That is approx 25 full trailers with 40 cows each on it , standing loose
so they fight, fall over and die on the long journey in the scoring heat. Quite a number do not survive and they are
thrown out of the lorries on the raod side so one gets a constant rotten smel and death aroma in the mouth. Do not eat your lunch along the road side cause
the flieis will also come for you.
The cows are not allowed to enter Egypt alive so they are
slaughtered on arrival in Abu Simbel. I have seen many ways of slautering cows,
sheep and horses in Africa and one must have a steel stomage to watch
that. I would not like to see that place
of carnage in Abu Simbel. Not one of
those cows want to die while they smell the blood of those already gone. They have never felt a rope so will fight
like hell and they are big with very dangerous horns that cut you open when they attack you.
I know the African solution for
this but will not explain that in this
blog. In fact, I should forget that I
have ever seen it.
One more remark to make is that I am surprised about the
fact that nobody has asked me for money or bribe since i landed in Cairo till
now. Not at the borders, not on the road
, not in towns and even not at roadblocks.
Surprising. There must be stern instructions from above.
At the roadblocks they ask often for my PP. However the guys
are mostly in civil clothes. I have now
learned not to accept that. I ask for
their ID before showing my PP. No ID no
PP and it works. I had 2 occasions
yesterday that the guy let me go without seeing my PP.
Also I tell them that I am a tourist and not terrorist or
criminal sio they should be nice to me.
That also works, ceatinly for the elderly ones amongst them.
Its now 13.00 hrs and I go for lunch.
Than a nappy , if I can and
off to the copier for my document copies.
Bye.
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