Watchit, All Eyes Are On You

It's too hot to move today. You shower and the water evaporates before it can even seep into your pores. I'm not even joking, but I wish I were.

There were less bugs last night, but with no wind whatsoever it was incredibly stifling in our tent. It is very difficult to get to sleep when you are tossing and turning in your own sweat, trying to avoid minimal contact with your partner, who is also tossing and turning in his own sweat. There is nothing romantic about it at all. ;)

After a leisurely breakfast of bread and coffee under the shade of some trees at the campsite, we took a public minibus 400 metres down the road and found refuge in an internet café.

But after an hour of relative fast connection, the power cut off unexpectedly. Everyone got up, paid and exited. We were the only ones left in the dark, packing up our laptops slowly and only until the heat from inside was too unbearable did we step out into the blinding light of day. Hot air gushed onto our faces, a bit like standing inches away from a furnace. We decided the only reasonable thing to do was to go over to the kebab and fruit joint next door (where we had dinner last night) and order some falafel sandwiches and mango shakes.

After lunch, we hailed a minivan-taxi, bartered a rate and then took a ride to the North Khartoum Railway Station where we got some information about buying a ferry ticket from Waldi Halfa to Aswan. The only way to cross from Sudan into Egypt (or vice versa) is to take this ferry, which goes only once a week. It is horrendously expensive at 950 Sudanese Pounds ($450 US) per car and 230 SDP ($115 us) for a 1st class cabin for 2 people, but there is no other way if you are determined to do a complete overland journey from Cape Town to London.

There are so many overlanders nowadays doing this same journey, either north or south, that when we stepped out of the taxi, there was a man already waiting on the steps. The first thing he said to us was: "You want boat ticket from Wadi Halfa?"

Incredible, it's as if the only foreigners he ever sees only come here for this reason. In any case, he greeted us amicably and led us into his small office, where a big fan occupied most of one corner. We found out we can't book a ticket until the start of that particular week you want to travel on so we'll have to come back Tuesday to buy our passenger ticket. And only until we get to Wadi Halfa can we actually book a place for Foxy on the cargo ferry.

Passengers are not allowed to travel with their vehicles and anyway, the cargo ferry arrives a day or two later in Aswan. Confident with our newfound knowledge, we taxi'd back to the kebab 'n fruit restaurant where we sweated, read and drank copious amounts of water and fruit juice. Still no internet connection, but the electricity came back on after a few hours.

Tonight we cooked up some Thai curry and rice for dinner and between the four of us, polished off 3 big mangoes, a can of pineapple, and a humongous watermelon.

While Chiho and I did the cooking and cleaning up, Christoph and Matt were busy getting dirty changing wheel bearings. We looked like a typical traditional family with gender-divided duties but hey, it works!

We all agree it's too hot to think, so much so that it actually stunts our judgment and decision making process. We are lethargic and astonished how people here can function on a daily basis. I can just imagine what Sudanese refugees to Canada must feel like during the dead of winter.

Matt and I are contemplating going the more direct route to Jersey, via Libya and Tunisia, instead of doing the Middle East and Eastern Europe. It will be hot anywhere we go since it's the height of summer all over, but we would probably save on fuel, hotel rooms (if we decide we simply cannot camp due to the extreme heat), time and most importantly, sanity.

It was close to midnight when we climbed into our tent, but the temperature was still incredibly hot. We conducted our tossing-and-turning-in-our-sweat ritual again, and finally fell asleep.


Start: National Camping, Khartoum, SUDAN.
End: National Camping, Khartoum, SUDAN.
Distance Traveled: 0
Road Conditions: -
Temperature: 44 degrees Celcius and not a breath of wind. Enough said.