The end of Egypt and onto Sudan...

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Before leaving Luxor and going onto our last week in Egypt we paid a visit to the Sunshine Children’s orphanage where we spent the morning playing with the children and seeing their home. It was set up 13 years ago by an English lady (who was a Methodist) who came to visit Egypt many times and noticed the amount of street children there were without parents. She decided to sell her home in England and use the money to come out to Luxor and set up the home and they now have over 80 children in their care. Despite them all being orphans, the children were very happy and loving (most of the time I had one toddler jumping on me cuddling and a baby on the other arm!) and enjoyed us being there. I gave a third of the money raised on the three peaks walk to them as they’re saving to buy a new cooker. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take photos but I can assure you the money meant a lot to them. Thanks to everyone who sponsored me for my walk, I can see it will make a big difference to the home and of course I’ll update on the other charities I visit - the next one will be in Uganda.

Next we took a few hour drive to Hurgada on the Red Sea Coast for two nights where we spent a day on a boat trip to do snorkeling and diving (I stuck with the snorkeling!) and then celebrated one of the girls - Harriet’s - birthday that night by having a party in the hotel themed with “silly headwear”! You’ll see what I mean with the pictures!

Aswan was our last stop in Egypt for 6 nights whilst the Sudanese Visas were arranged. We were stopping in a budget hotel again which was the nicest yet with a pool on the roof. Most of us used the time to relax and just wander around the souks and explore and then took a trip out to Abu Simbel Temple (with a 3am start!) which is on Lake Nasser and built by Pharaoh Ramses II, who likened himself with the gods hence the amount of statues of himself inside and out including the 20m tall ones of him at different ages of his life lining the entrance to the temple as well as drawings on the walls inside! It is probably one of the most amazing temples I’ve seen so far, especially due to the fact that it is built into a rock face and was moved in the 1960’s piece by piece in an amazing engineering feat due to a new dam being built which submerged it underwater. There is a second smaller temple - Temple of Hather -at the sight that Ramses built for his main wife Nefertari (still with lots of statues and pictures of himself though!). Also whilst in Aswan we had the chance to visit a Nubian village on the other side of the Nile and have dinner with the locals, being shown around their houses. The Nubians are lovely people, really welcoming and friendly and have a very simple way of life building their houses themselves and living with a real sense of community, they also have their own language and customs.

On the last two days before setting off for Sudan we took a trip on the felucca sailboats along the Nile, stopping off on the shores to sleep for two nights. The other truck were also with us (meaning four boats in total) hence the first evening ended in quite a party around the campfire with African music and dancing and a bit of drinking! It was good fun and nice to spend some real relaxing time with everyone , not to mention the sights as we slowly zig-zagged down the Nile, again with the most stunning sunsets and sunrises (one of those moments definitely to be committed to memory forever).

After the feluccas everyone definitely agreed we had then completed our experiences in Egypt and were ready to move onto Sudan (I really enjoyed my there but after over 3 weeks of hassling on the streets, busy towns, being offered marriage proposals in exchange for camels on every street corner by the locals it was absolutely time to move on!) and so we prepared ourselves for the Sudanese ferry!
We all knew this was going to be one of those brilliant experiences of the real Africa and not to expect anything to run smoothly (or quickly!) so were well prepared for the mayhem that ensued! We arrived at the port around 10am and after queuing through many checks got onto the boat around 11.30am. Everyone set up camp on the top deck and laid out roll mats and sleeping bags and proceeded to fashion sun shades out of sarongs knowing it was going to be a long journey! We spent the rest of the day on the ferry playing cards with the locals, reading and chatting whilst more and more people made their way onto the boat. By 6pm the boat was overflowing with people and boxes of tomatoes, blenders, microwaves and even the odd bed (one of the funniest moments was watching 3 Sudanese men struggling and arguing with each other trying to push a washing machine through a door that was never going to fit!). Finally at 7pm the ferry started its journey to Sudan across Lake Nasser (the second largest man-made lake in the world), I managed to get a little sleep in between fighting to keep my place secure and in between a couple of trips to the toilets stepping on as few sleeping locals as possible! By noon the next day the ferry had officially arrived in Wadi Halfa but in typical African style we managed to get off the boat by around 4pm after queues, passport checks and filling in yet more forms in a rather odd and inefficient system - all part of the experience!

After the madness of Egypt and after getting used to anyone who speaks to you wanting to sell you something or wanting “baksheesh” (tips), the gentler pace of Sudan is very welcome and refreshing. The first few days were amazing, we easily fell back into the bush-camping lifestyle (which was also welcome after hostels in Egypt - it gives us more sense of group work and the simpler traveling life) and making our way slowly through the roads (quite often they were not quite finished!). I also got to do my fist cooking day with my group of Dean and Leyla which was great fun and consisted of hitting the local market in Wadi Halfa to buy all ingredients for dinner, lunch and breakfast, making the most out of what was on offer to buy (I tried walking with the ingredients on my head like the locals but failed miserably!). I think we did pretty well to rustle up fruit salad and bread/jam, Greek salad with Humous and Spaghetti Bolognese (the dinner was even more of a triumph seeing as were we camping by the side of the Nile and were swomped with flies the whole time)! We also had a little ode to bonfire night with sparklers provided by Mel the tour leader as a surprise around the campfire and watching the shooting stars as our form of fireworks!

The first day we stopped at the side of a road outside a small village for a photo opportunity and were soon bombarded by about 8 locals who ran up the hill to greet us. They simply wanted to talk to us and ask us where we were all from and take photos of our big yellow truck! It was a lovely experience to be greeted with such excitement and welcome and the feeling that we made their day (and they certainly made mine!). The same thing happened in the next village we stopped at, the lads started a game of football on the streets with the local boys and shop owners came out to greet us and the local army man even brought his 4 year-old daughter out to meet us all. The other surprising thing to me is the quality of everyone’s English, even in the small villages the standard is excellent and much better than Egypt and if you make a little attempt at Arabic they’re more than happy to then speak in English just to have a conversation with you. Other lovely experiences greeted us on the drive through the country including us stopping to help out a pickup truck that had got wedged in the sand, dancing with the locals next to our truck by the Meroe pyramids (dancing to our truck song The Black Eyed Peas “I Got A Feelin’ ”!) and many games of football on the streets with the local children (and quite often adults alike!).

So our trip through Sudan has taken us from Wadi Halfa through the villages of Abri, Dongola, Karima following the Nile for several nights before hitting the capital Khartoum where the Blue and White Nile meet for a 3 night stopover. Khartoum is a real mix of old and new with the huge souks and busy bustling streets with tuk tuks and donkeys to businesses blocks in new buildings. We spent the days wandering around the streets, visiting the local museums and trying desperately to cool off in the over 40 degree heat!

It’s crazy to think we drove through a large part of Sudan in just 7 days and are now onto the third country of Ethiopia where I've done a three day trek in the Simian mountains along with a visit to Lalibela and I’m sure lots more adventures along the way (to be updated soon!)….

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Photos

Boat Trip
Me, Liz, Rahcel, Jo, Steve, Geoff