Egypt is a fantastic country with utterly wonderful people but I was really looking forward to a change of scene and discovering Sudan. I didn’t know much about the Sudan other than the people are very friendly, the roads are crap and it’s pretty hot. So far, Sudan has totally lived up to it’s reputation.
The people really are very friendly and just like Egypt, people we see on the road will give us thumbs up, wave, say hello or wish us luck. I’m not sure if they know what we’re doing or just that we’re doing something, and they’re all for it. The support we’ve had from the local people is really touching.
The best way to describe nothern Sudan is to look at the photo at the top of my blog. We’ve basically cycled through about 500km of desert roads and tracks that look just like that, basically it’s a very large expanse of nothing but very barren but beautiful desert.
We’ve passed through some interesting villages which are all spread out along the road. The houses all seem to be of mud brick construction and seem fairly spacious. I’ve only glimpsed inside some of the houses but they seem to be incredibly tastefully, if simply decorated. I certainly wouldn’t mind living in one of them (if it wasn’t for the utter remoteness of them).
The main challenges I’ve faced in Sudan so far have been the heat and the off road cycling distances. 120Km off road would be a very challenging distance for a ride in the UK, but in these temperatures and day after day, it’s really tough. A large part of the route so far has been off road and this is significantly more challenging both mentally and physically than riding on tarmac. The “roads” really are crap in nothern Sudan and barely qualify as roads as westerners would normally think of them.
We’ve been cycling through a major road construction project, which I guess will link the port of Wadi Halfa where we arrived in Sudan from Egypt with the capital, Khartoum. Generally, we’ve been cycling on the dirt / dust track used by road construction vehicles that runs either side of the main road under construction. The road construction project has made navigation difficult for the Tour d’Afrique staff as the new road has altered some of the distances and land marks. The various trucks that are being used to shift construction materials also kick up huge amounts of dust which can reduce visibility to a few feet.
The road / track we’ve been taking follows the path of the Nile and as a result we’ve been absolutely beseiged by these little flies (I think they’re fruit flies). If you’re cycling at less than 10kph, the flies catch up with you and they get in your eyes, up your nose and in your ears. They’re truly horrible. Fortunately I’ve discovered that a “buff” (head scarf tube thing) plus sunglasses is a useful defense against them, otherwise I would have gone mad very quickly.
Sudan (or at least Dongola) also now seems to have good internet and mobile phone coverage.
Day 8 Luxor to Idfu
A nice easy 117Km into a slight headwind. The people are generally very friendly but it can get very tiring waving and shouting hello to hundreds (literally) of people as you ride along.
Adults and small children are always friendly and delighted to see us. Almost everybody waves to us or shouts “Welcome to Egypt”. I love these people 
. Sadly, some of the people aren’t so friendly. Essentially young boys from the age of about 10 to 18 can be quite aggressive, challenging and essentially stupid. We had stones thrown at us, a few people were spat on and there were several times when I felt midly menaced by groups of male teenagers. I guess it’s a testosterone thing ?
Whilst I always felt totally safe in Egypt, even in some of the very poor areas some of these incidents made me appreciative of the security and protection we’ve had provided by the Egpytian police and soliders. Really, just to prevent us from being annoyed by children, rather than protecting us from any serious danger.
When cycling through the towns, you do have to keep your wits about you. You can spot the potential troublemakers a way off. They’re hardly subtle about their intentions. One little bugger who must have been about 8 years old had a piece of rope with a large knot on one end and a large stick on the other which he tried to throw into my front wheel as I passed him and a large group of about 20 kids. He missed, but I skidded my bike to a stop and turned round and shouted at him. At the speed I was going, his stupidity could easily have badly injured me or my bike and ended the trip for me. The little bugger ran off but the rest of the kids were shouting at me and I was shouting at them. Pretty ridiculous really since I couldn’t understand them and they couldn’t understand me. I think they probably got the message that I was pretty angry.
We camped in a football stadium in Idfu. Supposedly, there were showers, but I wasn’t going to brave them. They were digustingly filthly. The worst so far. Egypt seems to have combined shower and toilet cublicles and these were very brown at the edges with miscellaneous dirt but also had identifiable “brown splatters” all over the walls and door which reached up to eye level. Who can tell how this happened ?
Day 9 – Idfu to Aswan
For some reason, I didn’t make any notes about this stage so I can’t go into too many details. The route was 118k following the Nile all day into Aswan. Aswan seemed like a pretty sophisticated city with lots of hotels and a very beautiful waterfront by the Nile. There were lots of multi-decked Nile cruise ships moored up, presumably waiting for the tourist season to get into full swing.
I remember missing the turning for camp, which was in the grounds of a currently empty boarding school somewhere near the edge of the city. I ended up cycling up to the Aswan Dam before turning around and subsequently finding the camp. I cycled past some kind of university and was midly “menaced” by some of the male students.
I also remember going to MacDonalds in Aswan, which is right on the waterfront. I really like eating the local food and supporting the local business, however MacDonalds had free WIFI internet and absolutely fantastic pristine “proper” toilets
Being an Egyptian tourist area, Aswan has the full suite of Egyptian tourist scammers. Apparently western tourism is significantly down this year and so what tourists there are get extra plagued by people trying to sell them boat rides, taxis or take them to their favoured restaurant.
Day 10 – Convoy ride to Sudan Ferry
The day started with a short 17km ride in convoy to the ferry. We passed over the Aswan Dam and then looped back across the Nile via another dam called “High Dam”. We soon arrived at the dock but had been warned that the trip to Sudan would involve a lot of waiting around whilst the ferry was loaded and unloaded. We were not disappointed.
We arrived at the ferry terminal around 11am, boarded around 1pm and eventually set sail around 6pm. There was also some kind of mix up with our ferry tickets. We were all supposed to have “first class” cabins but the mix up meant that not enough cabins were available and so some of us had to stay / sleep on deck. Initially this did not seem like a problem as there was plenty of space (if not much shade) on deck. However as more passengers boarded the deck filled up and things became very cramped. People began to argue over space but unlike in the UK, these arguments were entirely good natured in that there was never even a hint that they would escalate into violence. The locals were very willing to share their food with their neighbours, I think as a strategy for keeping things friendly in very cramped and difficult conditions. Utterly decent people, the Egyptians and Sudanese I’ve met so far. Much more friendly than people in the UK.
Our group got ourselves a space in some shade under a life boat, where I eventually spent the night trying to sleep on the steel deck of the boat. This was cold and uncomfortable but at least there were some impressive stars.
The only critiscm I would have of the locals is that most of them were shockingly carefree about disgarding their rubbish over the side of the boat into the lake. It clearly hadn’t remotely occurred to them that there is anything wrong with this. Actually, the same is true of many of the non tourist towns where the sides of the roads a covered with litter.
Day 11 – Arrival in Sudan
We eventually arrived in the mid afternoon. I was expecting it to be HOT but strangely it was actually quite chilly. I wrongly assumed this meant we would get a gentle introduction to riding in hotter temperatures.
It took ages to get off the ferry, as we first had to wait whilst some minor “big wig” and all his considereable luggage was unloaded onto pick up trucks. Clearly not everybody in Sudan is poor.
Eventually we got off the ferry and into the customs area where we had to complete 4 seperate forms with essentially the same information before being allowed into the small port town of Wadi Halfa.
From there, it was a short cycle ride through Wadi Halfa to the local football stadium where we were camped for the night. The TDA had arranged for someone to meet us there so that we could change some dollars into local currency – very convenient.
We also changed our bike tyres to something suitable for the “road” conditions in Sudan (we’re allowed to bring 2 additional sets of tyres on the support vehicles)
Later we went out for dinner at one of the 3 local restaurants. I don’t think there was particularly a menu as such, but the food was good and cheap – although I couldn’t quite face the goat, with the meat still attached to a piece of spine . I then surprised myself by enjoying a “shisha” pipe which the locals use to smoke a mixture of tobacco and fruit oils – in this case “grape”.
Day 12 – Wadi Halfa to desert camp
Our first days riding in Sudan, today would be 115Km through the desert. The first 70Km were high quality tarmac (or pavement in TDA speak) with occaissional patches of no tarmac. Strangely, the Sudanese seem to build their roads in a patchwork fashion rather than starting a one end and building the road to the other. Go figure !
The fat knobbly tyres I now had on my bike significantly reduced my top speed and increased the amount of effort required to cover the distance. As the sun got higher in the sky, the temperature continued to increased until it became like cycling in an oven. Once the paved road gave way to off road track, forward progress slowed to a crawl. The dirt tracks are a combination of sand, corrugations, gravel and very occaissionally hard packed dirt. The packed dirt is almost as easy to ride on as tarmac but the corrugations, caused by oscillations in the suspension of vehicles are a killer. The bumps seem to be at the optimal frenquency to perectly jarr your joints and internal organs. Truly horrible to ride on. The sand requires more energy and concentration to cycling through, but at least it isn’t bumpy (mostly).
With the temperature approaching 38C, I was crawling along and eventually got caught up by “the sweep”. The sweep is a TDA staff rider who rides behind everybody else and carries a mobile phone incase of problems. We rode along for a bit and also stopped for a much needed cold “orangeade” from a local shop.
Another problem with the heat (apart from the fact that it’s hot) is that there is no shade, so there is very little escape from the sun – you just have to keep on keeping on. I was very relieved when we cycled into camp. I had drunk 8 litres of fluid today.
Day 13 – Desert camp to desert camp
Today was a 112Km day with the first 60K being off road and a race section. I was very quicky at the back of the racing pack and then just as quickly they were out of site. As the sun got higher and the temperature rose, my pace got slower and slower. I am having real problems dealing with the heat.
I passed through some villages and spoke to some of the locals. Some of the kids will flag you down. The adults are all very friendly but the kids just seem to want sweets or pens or maybe to ride my bike. (Sorry, but no chance). At one point a group of kids tried to sell (or maybe give) me a puppy – I don’t think they’re very clued up on the practicalities of cycling across Africa.
Lots of the men are called Mohamed !
We are really out in the middle of nowhere, but the people here are not backward at all. For example, they know what my solar panel is and what it is for, which surprised me.
Getting to the lunch truck at 60K was bloody hard. I was crawling along in the heat and whenever I stopped to rest or find shade I was beseiged by the horrible little flies that try to crawl up your nose and in your ears. Arrrggghh. When I reached the lunch truck, it was pretty comical as everyone there was swatting themselves as fast as they could. I pulled my buff completely over my head to protect myself and fed egg sandwhiches in through a tiny gap.
At this point, I absolutely exhausted by the temperature, road conditions and flies and wasn’t sure I could make the remaining 52Km to the final camp. Persuaded by the fact that apparently the remainder of the route was good quality tarmac, I set off. When the lunch truck caught me up 15Km down the road, I was very, very tempted to flag it down and take the truck the rest of the way to camp. I was exhausted. Unfortunately, my conscience wouldn’t let me quit.
I survived the rest of the afternoon my mentally dividing the last 40km into 5k sections and completing each 5k (and half of 5k) as a seperate challenge. Eventually after about 3 or so hours of exhausted cycling, I arrived in camp quite late.
We camped by the Nile, where it was possible to swim and wash, however I was simply too tired to bother. The fly problem at camp was also worse than at lunch and everybody was sat around with their heads covered in scarves and sunglasses or whatever they could find.
Day 14 – Desert camp to desert camp
As expected, today was phenomenally tough. 108Km completely off road. I was going OK until the sun gets up, but as the temperature rose I lost all energy and my pace slowed to a crawl.
The bugs, which had blissfully disappeared at sunset were back in force at sunrise and throughout the ride if your speed dropped below 10kph they would attack. If you stopped, you were beseiged by the the little f*ckers 
.
The trail was tough riding with short steep uphills and equally short steep downhills covered with boulders. There was the usual corrugations and sand and with the temperature, my progress was extremely slow.
By 40Km’s I had decided that I wasn’t going to complete the ride today but would try and make it to the lunch truck. At times I would get off and walk through exhaustion and frustration. The demoralising effect of the heat, the road corrugations and the f*cking flies meant that I had just had enough.
I made it to the lunch truck and got my bike loaded onto it’s bike carrier straight away just incase my mis-guided conscience tried to get me back on the bike for the afternoon. My EFI status is now well and truly blown but I honestly didn’t care. Talking to the other riders, the afternoon riding was extremely hard and I had already gone past my limit.
Spending the afternoon on the truck was a very humbling experience as I hate giving up and whilst there were quite a few other people on the truck with me, many people made the entire distance. Credit to them because it was a bloody hard days cycling after many other hard days. Having some time on the truck to rest and think improved my morale and I’ve stopped thinking about whether I should catch the next flight out of this from Khartoum.
To all those people who said I was mad to do this trip, now I know what you were talking about.
Day 15 – Desert camp to Dongola
Awoke to a very strong tail wind, no flies and only 87Km to ride to Dongola and whole rest day with no cycling. Life is good.
The ride started with what was supposed to be an “open convoy” across the desert to prevent people from getting lost in the dozen or so criss crossing paths to the main highway. This didn’t really work out as nobody followed the very simple instructions we were given about making sure you could see the rider in front and behind, but we all made it across anyway.
I found that my legs were pretty strong, for the first time on the trip, probably as a result of getting a rest on the truck and what with the strong tail wind I was flying along. At one point I reached 51kph on the flat on hard packed dirt.
We quickly reached the lunch truck for an early lunch. After lunch I pressed on for the final 45km to the ferry which would take us across the Nile to our campsite at Dongola. I found myself near the front of the pack and I went all out to be one of the first to arrive at camp. A new experience for me . Today wasn’t a race day but I suspect that if it was, the other racers would have been trying that much harder and would have blasted past me, however, really I’m competing against myself and today was my strongest ride so far.
We are currently camped out in Dongola zoo which is very nice but no longer has any animals. I am taking it easy although I do need to go and buy some food, do some laundry, buy a mobile SIM card, update my blog and also change my tyres back to road tyres for the next 4 days road riding into Khartoum.
We’re going to be averaging about 145Km per day for the next 4 days which considering the temperature will be fairly challenging, but at least there won’t be any corrugations and hopefully no flies.