Crossing the Sudan - Ethiopia border

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We left early in the morning and tried to cross the border on the 6th.. Previously, crossing the border usually will have to take 2 days.. 1 day's drive from khartoum to gadaref.. and another day's drive from gadaref to gallabat (sudan's border town), cross into Metema (ethiopian side) and then drive to Gonder.. The road from Gadaref to Gallabat is now tarred.. so that makes travelling much easier..

The journey to the border was still hot.. but as we near the border, we start to see some trees.. then taller trees.. and the architecture of the building changed from the Sudanese square buildings to the more Ethiopian round huts.. we arrived at Gallabat at 4pm.. but the customs office for vehicle is closed.. the officer supposed was at home.. so they have to call him to come to office.. took us about 1.5hr befre we cleared the sudanese immigration procedures..

The procedures is also multi-stepped.. you have to go to three different offices.. 1) The security office, to register that you are going out of the country 2) The customs office, to move your vehicle out of the country and then 3) the passport office, to stamp your passport..

You then cross a small bridge to Ethiopia.. the passport office is a green building.. and with no hassles, the couple at the building (looks like husband and wife.. no uniform.. non-official looking) stamped our passports and we are done.. for the vehicles you have to go to another town called Shihedi, which is about 45mins drive away... where we decided to spend the night..

By the time we arrived at Shihedi.. it was dark.. and Dave was bushed.. managed to ask around and find someplace to sleep.. 25birs/night.. dunno what's the name of the hotel.. no english.. haha.. Dave was suffering bad from the heat.. so i let him have the room and i used my hammock for the first time in this trip.. i think the ethiopians do not see a hammock very often and they were all curious about this thing that i've hung.. so i demonstrated how it's used and they clapped.. haha..

Had a beer at the courtyard cafe.. 5birs... nice.. first beer i had for this trip.. yay.. then did some reading before going to sleep..

Didn't take as many photos today.. as i did most of the driving.. i did however, take some pics on my handphone.. cos it's easy to take while driving.. and also took a few shots of the border using my handphone..

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Photos

Morning coffee at Sunrise
before we leave for Ethiopia!

Agricultural Planes
We drove into some parking lots of farm-use planes along the way.. quite interesting..

Cows grazing
You can see more and more vegetation towards the East and South.. not so deserty anymore..

First glimpses of Ethiopian architecture
This is in Sudan territory.. about 1-2 hours from the border

Landscape on the way to Border
Woah! It's no longer flat!!