Aswan - Wadi Halfa - Kharthoum 8 days 770km

 Aswan, Wadi Halfa, Abri, Dongola, Ed Debba & Khartoum

Until recently the only way to get from Egypt to Sudan was by ferry. I like a boat ride so I decided to wait a few days in Aswan for the weekly sailing.

I don't know if this was a good idea or not. It certainly was an experience.
I arrived at 11am for the 8pm sailing. I was too late to get any space on deck so I moved to just in front the bridge where the crew sleep. There wasn't a lot of shade but I did have space to lie down.

The loading of cargo continued until 7.30pm. Anything that you use in a house was loaded on. TV's, fridges,dryers, freezers, clothes, washers, dryers, food and even a kitchen sink all loaded through a single door. There were fights, disputes, yelling and at 7.30pm the boat stopped taking cargo. There were more fights as people didn't get what they wanted on board and we left at 8pm. By that time the cargo on the deck was stacked 6 feet high and there were trails you walked through to get to the back of the boat. All I could think was if this thing capsizes at least I'm going to be able to get out.

The boat arrived at Wadi Halfa around 2pm and I waited an hour before I took the bike down two flights of stairs and tried to get off. I had almost got to the exit and then I couldn't go any further. The man letting the people off had decided to start letting people back on again. Chaos ensued and after having people crawling all over me and the bike I lost it and started yelling. Everyone stopped, looked at me and I heard one voice say "crazy white man" then the madness started up again.

After getting off the boat there was a short ride to the town I meet up with Tim an Australian who was on the boat and we went to a lokanda. Its hostel type accommodation where they provide a bed under the stars.

The next day I was up early and back on the bike. It was good to be going somewhere but I hadn't really prepared very well for what was ahead. I knew it would be hot but the desert proved to be something else.

I had around 5L of water with me when I set off so I thought I would be good for the day. It was around 40 degrees and I had done 100km in pretty good time but it was getting hotter and around 1.30pm the cramp started. I didn't think much of it until about 10km later when it happened again. I made my way to the next settlement which was a mining camp and decided to have a break. As soon as I got off the bike both legs locked up and I fell over. 

Not for the first time I had under catered but this time it was serious. I couldn't walk without part of my legs cramping up. Quads, hamstrings, groin at different times, and at one stage my fingers too.

Some miners put me onto a bed at the back of the picture here and I lay there for 3 hours. Every time I moved some part of me cramped up. I drank water, 7-up, Pepsi and after 4 re-hydration sachets it got better. I had totally underestimated the heat and how much fluid and salt I would need. The miners gave me a ride to the Abri (20km) and I went to a hotel to recover.

It was Day 1 in the desert and I just had my ass kicked. I needed to re-think how I was going to do this.

I spent 2 days in Abri with Mr Maqshood at his Nubian Hotel eating lots of food with salt and drinking huge amounts of water. After the break I was still a bit sore but I was ready to go again.

I would clearly need more water so I got out the 8L bladder I had purchased for Africa, filled it with water and set off again. I was carrying about 10L of water with the drink bottles and some extra bottled water. This turned out to be what I would need for each day.
I also decided that riding the bike during the hottest part of the day wasn't a good idea so I would ride from 7.30am until around 12.30pm then take a break until 4pm then a hour or two before it got dark.

This is a water station on the side of the road. In the red clay pots is water of varying degrees of quality but they kept the water cool. These were commonly found along the road where people would wait for buses or where there was a small settlement. They are a great place to get out of the sun, have a nap and eat some noodles. I have to filter the water before drinking.

This is an abandoned bus shelter (I think). I made use of these to sleep in for 3 nights on the way to Khartoum.

The friendly locals at a roadside store getting ready to hand over the Pepsi.

Fixing a puncture where there was some shade.

After 6 days I had made it to Ed Debba and slept on the stretcher next to the blue barrel's.
I was helped along by a tail wind most of the way. Along the way I tried some biking at night when it was cooler. It went OK until I fell off doing a u-turn when looking for some shelter. I was hardly moving at the time, I just couldn't unclip my bike shoe fast enough to stop myself from falling. There was a fair bit of blood and a bit of a hole in my elbow but apart from that I was fine. It was just one of those things that happen when you are tired. 

From Ed Debba it was only 300km to Khartoum and I thought that would be done easily in 3 days but the desert had other ideas. I can carry around a 10L of water at any one time. This should give me around 7/8 hours of biking and have a bit left over to cook with. I was only eating noodles at this stage so I didn't need a lot for cooking.

When I woke the next morning the wind had changed in direction and strength, and what was going to be a comfortable ride to Khartoum had now become something totally different.
 
I set off at 7.30am and by 10.30am I had done 27km into a strong head wind. A man driving past stopped and gave me some bananas and water. I asked him where the next "cafeteria" was - a cafeteria is a road side shop with water/food. He said it was 100km but I didn't know if he meant 100k from where I was or 100k from where I had started as there was a bit of a language problem. 

I had a break in the shade by a cell phone tower and did the maths. I do a lot of maths on the bike, I am constantly doing distance/speed/time calculation's, but that maths this time wasn't good. At my current speed it was going to take at the best another 8 hours to get there and at worst another 11. This was assuming that the cafeteria was 100km away and not any further. I thought about it some more and carried on hoping that conditions would improve but by the time I had done 40km it was 12.30pm and I needed to get out of the sun.

I improvised some shelter out of an old collapsed house, ate some noddles and had a nap. I had been on the move for 5 hours and I hadn't seen a single inhabited building anywhere. I was more than half way through my water and I didn't know what was ahead, if anything, other than desert.
 
Riding a bike means you are making decisions all the time. Speed/food/water/distance/shelter/weather/road conditions and fatigue all need to be considered in the decision making process. Some of the decisions work out well and some don't but I hadn't come across a situation like this before and the decision that I made next was going to be really important.

Do I carry on or do I turn back?

All I could think about was a conversation I had with my sister Jenny before I left and the two things I promised her. First was to always wear a helmet and the second was to make decisions that keep me safe. 

I turned back. I wasn't happy about it and biked along the road yelling obscenities for 10 minutes. I biked back to Ed Debba and took the bus to Khartoum. If the wind hadn't changed direction, if I hadn't had two days rest due to dehydration, if the was a cafeteria closer I could have easily made it to Khartoum but things didn't go my way and I was on a bus. 

I found out during the bus ride it was 150km to the first cafeteria.

I took this photo just as I got back to Ed Dabbah. The desert had kicked my ass again and I wasn't happy about it. After this I went behind the building (it was a petrol station) and used the water I had left for my first shower in 3 days.


Since then I have had a few days in Khartoum waiting for the Ethopian embassy to open again after the festival of Eid. I got my visa today and its back on the road tomorrow. 

I have unfinished business in the desert.