Wadi Halfa was founded by a few Nubian families from the original Halfa who resisted the government's forced relocation. It exists today solely on the fact that it is the jumping point to Egypt via ferry.
The southern part of Egypt (mainly from the Sudan border to Aswan) is a restricted area and so you must take the passenger ferry and your car must be loaded onto the cargo ship in order to cross into Egypt.
One man in Khartoum told us we could go along the Red Sea coast, from Port Sudan up to the Egyptian border, but you need special permission to travel those roads and we've never heard any overlanders attempt this route successfully before. Sometimes, it is best to stay on the road most travelled.
Having already purchased our passenger ferry in Khartoum, this morning we sorted out a cargo ticket for Foxy.
Magdi Boshara, the local agent for booking both ferry and cargo tickets with the Nile Navigation Company, was a great help. Knowledgeable, competent and fluent in English, he is the man to see for getting all your documents ready and he is famous amongst all overlanders.
We explained to him our car situation. Due to Foxy's broken clutch, it was imperative that we drive her onto the cargo ferry. We didn't trust anybody else to do it. Magdi was very understanding and made arrangements with another ship to take us on Tuesday. Our passenger ferry doesn't leave until Wednesday and because the cargo ship takes 2 days to go up to Aswan, this meant both us and Foxy would arrive on the same day: Thursday. Perfect.
With most of our paperwork finished, the security officer came to Magdi's office to check our passports and register us into Wadi Halfa's records. While sitting under the whirling ceiling fan in the office, they asked us why so many foreigners come to Wadi Halfa but instead of choosing to stay in one of the local hotels, prefer to camp in the desert.
We said that in Europe and North America we don't have such an opportunity to camp in the desert and so we like to do that here. Basically, it's a novelty. He nodded his head but I'm not sure he fully understood why anyone would CHOOSE to sleep "like dogs do."
Although I prefer the solitude and beauty of the desert, plus the fact that you have your own pick of the perfect (non-smelly) 'toilet', with Foxy as 'sick' as she is and Matt wanting a room with some sort of cooling device (a fan, no air-con in this town), we moved into the Deffintoad Hotel in town.
We first checked several places out, but they were all pretty much the same. For a mere 7 Sudanese Pounds per person ($3.50 US) per night, you get a graffiti-walled room with a prison-like iron door that doesn't open or close properly, a string bed (I refused to use the stained foam mattress for fear of more fleas and bed bugs), access to muddy water and a smelly squat latrine.
"A bit much for a tin shack with sand floors and buckets of dirty lake water for washing in" says our rather honest guidebook, but it will have to do. What clinched the deal for us was the ceiling fan; you simply can't put a price on that. For Wadi Halfa, this is the equivalent of The Sheraton.
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It seems from about 10am to about 6pm, people go into hibernation mode and the streets are completely deserted like some haunted ghost town. But right after evening prayer, the town comes alive and everyone comes out in droves.
Tables and chairs are set up in front of restaurants, the televisions are plugged in and you can hear a cacophony of Arabic soaps and Hindi music videos from every street corner.
We watched Italy play Spain in the quarter-finals of the Euro 2008 while munching on falafels and sipping fresh mango juice with dodgy Nile ice cubes.
While Matt watched the second half of the game (which eventually went into overtime and then penalty shots, with Spain proving victorious), I went on a manic cleaning fit, scrubbing out the fridge and washing our dirt-and-oil-stained clothes. It is much better to do these sorts of things at night without the midday heat, even if it means draining your torch batteries.
Tomorrow we must try and find Mustafah, Magdi's cousin, who is reportedly the town's best mechanic.
Start: Bush Camp at N21 45.997' E031 22.269', Wadi Halfa, SUDAN.
End: Deffintoad Hotel, Wadi Halfa, SUDAN.
Distance Traveled: 0
Road Conditions: -
Temperature: 40+ degrees with a perfectly cloudless sky
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