Blogs from Wadi Halfa, North, Sudan, Africa

After getting off the boat, minibuses took us to immigration, where all of the foreigners were fast tracked, without much searching of our bags. My original plan had been to go straight to Abri that day, but as there was quite a few other people around, I got a room in a lokanda (a Sudanese hotel, where the rooms have more in common with prison cells) with Jack an Australian guy, doing a similar trip to me and Nathan and Rien, 2 Americans on motorbikes, also doing a similar trip. On arrival in Sudan, you are supposed to register within 3 days and we went to try and do that in the local security office. However, we were unsuccessul as the office had ran out of stickers to put in people's passports! We got some food ... read more

And I thought it was convoluted getting off the ferry from Italy into Egypt. It's an entirely different ball game In Wadi Halfa. First you need to get your passport stamped, although no-one tells you this until you're woken at 6am by an angry man claiming there isn't much time (we land just 5 hours later). Then you fill out a travel permit, although no one tells you this either, or even hands them out, you just need to scrap and fight for the few remaining ones on baord. This done, you queue. And then queue some more. And then fill out two copies of a second form, which is remarkably similar to the previous form. And then you queue again. And then some more. And then, by luck, magic or bribery, you find yourself at ... read more

The ferry from Aswan to Wadi Halfa in Sudan leaves from the terminal at the High Dam, and I see a sign saying "Wlecome" (sic) as we drive along the dam's wall. My final shafting from Egypt turns out to be the hotel suggesting that I should take a taxi here as coming by train would still leave me a long way from the terminal - needless to say, the station is right next to it. A guard tells me I need to wait one hour before I go through so I sit on the edge of a disused fountain, in the middle of the rapidly-assembling crowd for the ferry. The other passengers are predominantly Egyptian and Sudanese, many with astounding quantities of luggage. I see one man with four TVs, another with a fridge/freezer. Bulging, ... read more

Upon arriving in Wadi Halfa we were immediately reminded that we were not in Egypt anymore when people stopped to greet us without trying to sell us something - how refreshing! After finishing laundry and exporing the town, there's not much else to do here in Wadi Halfa. So we climbed the hill behind the hotel and had a picnic lunch and took some photos. We are here until the Dragoman truck arrives, which ended up arriving almost 2 days after we arrived in Wadi Halfa. Interesting tidbit about this town: it was actually quite the place until its residents were told to relocate due to the flooding of Lake Nasser. Most of the original town is now under water.... read more

Wadi Halfa is a transit town.. where aeroplanes, trains and buses/trucks meet the ferry going/coming from Egypt.. It is a small town.. dusty.. at the southern edge of Lake Nasser.. the northernmost town of Sudan.. gives me an old western kind of feeling at first.. The ferry arrives in town on Tuesday noon.. and you need to register with the town's immigration office, which closes at 2pm-3pm.. The taxi ride from the ferry terminal to the town itself costs me a bluddy 500SD (Sudanese Dinars, 1 USD = 200 SD) maybe becos i was walking with some ang mohs.. there was Dave (whom I travelled with later) from South africa.. Dave from UK, who's has rode his BMW motorbike across Europe, down to Morocco, and across the north coast to Egypt, and now going to ... read more