My bus company for the leg to Khartoum has the threatening name of Kabosh, but their service levels give a good first impression when a car is sent to transport me the 300m from the lokonda to their departure point. This is the first bus of the day but it doesn't leave on time, and I am able to watch Karima gradually wake up. A donkey cart bearing a surreal load of severed donkey heads passes by in the dawn light. The journey to Khartoum is unremarkable, with desert once more dominating the scenery. The capital is truly enormous by the standards of the towns I have seen so far in Sudan, and in fact consists of three cities rolled into one. It takes us fully three quarters of an hour to progress from the first ... read more

Having exhausted Kerma's attractions, I move on to Dongola. The transport - a minibus rather than a boksi - is shockingly convenient, leaving just ten minutes after I find it and containing only four passengers. The pattern certainly seems to be that the infrastructure is improving the further south I come. There's a tremendous amount of road-building underway here and it won't be long before the whole stretch from Wadi Halfa to Dongola will be paved - possibly within a year. Dongola lies on the west bank of the Nile and the final leg of the trip is on board a ferry (though I see a half-completed bridge a little further downstream). The ferry has just one deck and the passengers - human and animal - stream in first, so the minibus driver has to reverse ... read more

While conducting my morning ablutions, I am surprised to see another clearly foreign face. This is a Canadian guy, Wally, recently arrived in Wadi Halfa and hoping to catch the ferry north. He has an iTouch on which he has copies of the WLP for all countries in East Africa. I mentally compare the size, weight, and info of my Africa-wide WLP with his iTouch and its contents, and am consumed with jealousy. The others head out for breakfast, which I miss due to a combination of not realising the time here is 1 hour ahead of Egypt, as well as the age-old excuse of washing my hair. It seems I also miss an altercation near the breakfast cafe, where bystanders have to keep apart two men intent on going at each other with knives. The ... read more

It was obvious within minutes of arriving in Aswan that it was quite different to Luxor, with the hassle factor barely noticeable. It was possible to stroll through the souk without people blocking your way and trying to force you into their store. The river had more character, with a number of islands midstream and flotillas of feluccas. There wasn't the same price variation as I had experienced in Luxor. Though I was slightly perturbed to see "chicken and herpes" on my dinner menu, and there were the same quantities of policemen dotted around the place standing behind their moveable bullet-proof screens, I felt significantly more at ease here. I had one piece of administration to deal with in Aswan, namely purchasing a ticket on the ferry to Sudan. The information on the web had been ... read more

For the last few days I have been hearing voices. Not one or two but tens, hundreds. They have not been urging me to commit some atrocity, or devote my life to serving a particular god, but - rather less interestingly - instead they have been offering me taxis. And feluccas. And caleches. And bicycles. And papyrus. And alabaster. And water. And sets of 3 wooden carvings for only 1 Egyptian pound. And umpteen other items/services that I have no urgent need for. Taking up even 1% of these offers would have resulted in me both becoming bankrupt and not seeing any of the sights in the area. Welcome to Luxor. I had taken the day train south from Cairo in the hope of some inspiring views of the Nile, but it was a repetitive scene ... read more