Sudan

---

From Craig---

Hi All,
The mission has gone off with nary a hitch ... until yesterday. All the little potential disasters piled into one hectic day.
But we beat the odds ... "escaped" from Sudan with mere seconds to spare.

We are now resting and eating well in Nairobi. 48 hours into our homeward bound journey. Half way there. (Actually, Colin and I are homeward bound. Ari leaves this afternoon/Sunday, on a bus to Tanzania for her 3rd month/4th chapter of her African Adventure. We'll see she gets on the bus safely, knowing that she has become a very savvy, veteran traveler who is popular everywhere she goes.

Yesterday was a challenge. Our previous day/Friday, we began the first leg of our overland journey traveling only 75 miles from Wangulei to Bor town. It took us 5 hours of constant banging, bumping, sweating. I got to drive part way as our driver was exhausted. The worst 1/2 of the journey was behind us. The comparatively easier highway laid ahead. We planned an early Sat. start from our camp at 6:00am to allow enough time to get to Juba for a "12:45p" flight. Our driver promised to see us at 6am. We should be in Juba by 10, with some allowance for mishaps.

At 6:00am we waited pre sunrise in the stench and mosquito infested zone outside our camp, adjacent to the Nile. We sat thru the brilliant sunrise and lots of early morning activity ... without seeing our driver. He finally arrived 1.5 hrs later with 3 extra passengers. Meaning cramped quarters for the pending 4 hour rough drive. I noticed he did not have a watch. So we flew over the bumps, with reasonable caution to try to make up time. We also needed to change my wad of Sudan pounds back into US $, since would be hard to change elsewhere. My calm demeanor gave out more than I'd care to admit when he arrived so late. He has been an excellent driver and guide, but the schedule had worn him down ... and we had no margin for error. For to miss our flight would forfeit our fares of $350 each person and require an overnight or two in Juba at outrageous $200/night for a primitive room.

He told me at 9:00am that we'd be in Juba by 10:00a. About that time we came to one of many security stops along the route ... in the middle of nowhere on a very rough dirt road.. The main highway north/south. There was a little traffic cone in the middle of the road. Our driver came in fast and to a halt on the left side of the cone, instead of the right side, honking his horn requesting a soldier to drop a rope that was across the road. The soldiers took exception to his approach. Were not going to let us pass. So we waited and he argued. As precious minutes passed. Soldiers were all armed, so we took driver's advise to stay inside. After considerable squabbling our driver agreed to take two extra passengers to Juba in lieu of paying the security troops a "fine". So we got more uncomfortable for the remaining 1.4 hours. Driver mis calculated time, because after the security checkpoint we still had over an hour to travel and we needed time to change about $800 worth of US$.

You don't travel fast on these roads or your vehicle and spine will simultaneously expire. As we approached Juba at 11:15am, we began to cross a bridge over the Nile. Sitting in the front seat, I wanted a picture of shantytown across river as we approached bridge. I didn't get camera loaded in time, but had it out of my pocket ready to snap a shot. A soldier on the entry side must've seen and reported to soldier on the other side. They flagged us down. Reached into my open window, grabbed the camera. Apparently sensitive about taking pictures of potential targets ... a 300 meter long bridge. I tried to grab it back, without success. All my trips images were now out of my possession. No one told us the rules of photography as I had been taking pictures all over the bush of chiefs, high commissioners and reg. folks. We had to wait for a supervisor to arrive. I was able to show him the card had no bridge pics. After loosing more precious time, we were underway thru terrible Juba traffic and roads. Trying to see if we could take enough time to detour to the money changers in the market, the slower banks or just race to airport. I decided that my currency needed to be changed as I didn't want a pocketful of Sudan currency souvenirs at home. We had very contentious negotiations with hawk changers ... our driver wanted to abort our process and go to bank. I yelled, no way, we do this deal now as we had less than 1/2 hr til plane departure. We didn't have quite enough Sudan pounds to make the exact transaction, but I knew they were getting the best of us. I yelled again to start the car and leave them a few pounds less than they wanted ($3 on a $800 transaction they made good money on). So off we went, honking at anyone possibly foolish enough to get in our way. As we approached airport, Ari read our itinerary, to discover our flt was 12:15p, not 12:45. And then we hit a detour to the airport. We'd hope the plane was late, as it was on way over. Raced inside without rearranging bags/carryon etc., Plane had already been boarding and we just checked in.

Then things got real dicey. Hand inspect all bags. Tick, tick, tick. Then go to passport control desk. Colin had not retrieved his Sudan visa from his bag that had already gone to plane. And we needed to fill out more exit forms with our visa info. tick, tick. Then they wanted us to pay them for making copies of our passports and visas. We had no more local currency. tick, tick. THEN we discovered that we were supposed to have checked in with a local police dept within 3 days of arrival to register our itinerary and activities. tick, tick. Because we hadn't they were going to hit us with a $65 pp fine. tick, tick. My wallet was in my bag on the plane. tick, tick. Gate attendant was saying they were goin to leave us. Still more forms to fill out, copies to be made. Personal security and pat-down to go thru. Departure time had passed. Tick, tick. We got angry. We had taken 2 days to get visas in Kenya before arriving, paying already $40. No one had told us about checking in with police. As we grew angrier, they decided they would just hold our passports, we could resolve on Monday. Missing our flights out of Juba and onto USA. $$$$$$$$$$$. tick, tick. I had remembered I had stashed a few hundred $$ in my hidden pocket so disgustedly gave to them. tick, tick. They rejected both new $100 bills, because of wrong serial #'s. Counterfeit problems. tick, tick. Fortunately I discovered another cache. And captured our passports as gate attendant really getting hot. Fortunately they didn't hassle CJ for not having his VISA on him. We sprinted across the tarmac to a waiting plane.

Day's fun was not quite over. When arriving back in Kenya we were told our $50 Visas that were to expire in February were void because we had left East Africa into Sudan. So coming back into country we had to get new visas. Neither Ari or CJ had any currency with them ... in bags that were checked in, in a rush. Fortunately after some squabbling to no avail, I was able to pass off the $100 bill that had been rejected in Sudan to the visa officer in Nairobi. We emerged from the airport to get a cab to a very nice simple hotel in downtown Nairobi that had flush toilets, clean sheets, nice instant hot shower and cable tv with this free internet access... a great, cheap dinner buffet and a wonderful included breakfast.

Damn, we are lucky to be here ... on schedule ... and ready for continued adventures.
having fun,
Craig and team

---