Welcome to Sudan!

Crossing the border from Ethiopia into Sudan was pretty easy. It was nice to feel wanted in a country for a change! When we reached the Sudanese side, the border guards were even taking photos of us – either because they don’t get too many tourists or because we look like a weird bunch – probably a bit of both to be honest!

We’d had to ditch our alcohol supplies though as Sudan is a dry country. Apparently you could get up to 40 lashings here if you’re caught with alcohol – not really worth it if you ask me! It was also Ramadan which means you can’t eat or drink in public from sunrise to sunset which took a bit of getting used to.

Our first impression of the country was how friendly people are here, welcoming us to their country, and we would soon discover they are some of the friendliest on the entire African continent.

All of us were very happy to be here.

Before sunset, we found a bushcamp behind a rocky hill. Jo, Amy and I decided to sleep on the truck with Kristy and everyone else set up their tents. After dinner – felafels with couscous and plum sauce (for the vegos) – we all went to bed pretty early.

Not long after, it started to drizzle. Initially it didn’t cause much of a problem. However, at about 2.30am a massive storm struck. Rain was coming in through one side of the truck so we let down the tarp on that side, but not long after, we had to shut the tarp on the other side too. The thunder and lightning was intense and it really started to pour down. The truck began rocking and I couldn’t sleep. We were concerned about everyone else who was outside in their tents and I flashed my headtorch out over them to check if everyone was ok. It seemed most people were awake judging from the glow of their headtorches inside their tents, but generally ok.

Shortly thereafter, however, Oli ran up the truck steps and came to sleep on the truck with us. He couldn’t hold his tent down properly on his own. Then, within about 10 minutes, Shaun and Karen ran up the truck steps as they were nearly airborne in their tent. Ian came up after them, initially just to get his rain jacket but then when seeing the crowd already on the truck, aborted the mission to save his tent and saved himself instead. We were worried about his tent-mate, Tom, whom Ian left on his own, but he came in as well during the night, though none of us heard him. I must’ve managed to get back to sleep at some point despite starting off with four people on the truck and ending up with nine!

Morning came around far too quickly and everyone had the horrible task of dealing with the chaos of their tents and wet sleeping gear. Shaun and Karen’s tent suffered the worst fate as it blew 15 metres away into the creek bed that was dry when we arrived, but now had a river running through it. They found it completely caked in mud – both on the inside and out – a ‘fun’ cleaning job that would have to wait for Khartoum.

We were all the most worried about getting the truck out of the mud. Nev did his best but ended up getting bogged just before the river that had sprung up overnight. We then had to take the sandmats off the sides of the truck, lay them down, and get Nev to drive across them inch by inch. Some of us tried to divert the stream with rocks but there weren’t enough rocks and there was nowhere to divert the flow to. We kept sandmatting and digging with spades and shovels and I was even using my hands to dig away the mud in front of the tyres. We were stuck there for about an hour and some locals and a policeman turned up and offered their help. But finally after much digging, sandmatting and pushing, we managed to get it out. We all cheered. But our work was not yet over – we then had to wash the spades, shovels and sandmats which was a difficult task as the mud was caked on.

When we left, the land was a muddy mess though – oops! Our feet were covered in mud too and many of us had thorns stuck in the soles of our feet – we couldn’t have worn thongs otherwise they would’ve been sucked off by the squelchy mud. Nev later told us it was the worst he’s ever been bogged. On the bright side, at least we set a new record…!

One thing we were definitely happy about was hitting the tarred road to Khartoum. We’d lost a fair bit of time so we had breakfast on the road and stopped only for lunch. When we finally came into Khartoum, we all stared out of the sides of the truck with curiosity. It was weird seeing all the restaurants and cafés closed for Ramadan. At first glance, to me Khartoum felt a little like the Emirates, but with a slight African feel.

At around 5pm, we arrived at the Blue Nile Yacht Club – which was only a slight step up from the Sailing Club in Pointe Noire, Congo. Joy. Not what we really wanted after such an ordeal last night. But as Kristy would say, sometimes you just have to ‘suck it up’.

Oh, and to top it all off, we found out that last night’s storm was the worst one they’ve had in 10 years! Welcome to Sudan indeed…!