Travelling Tim

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January 27, 2007

Dispatches from Khartoum

Surprising news from Khartoum: the Sudanese are the friendliest people in the world! This may not be startling information to the residents, or to previous visitors here, but to me it has come as a very welcome surprise. Everyone I meet in this wonderful country is so pleased to see me, so pleased to greet me, so keen to chat, and so welcoming. I must have shaken 100+ hands per day since I have been here, and have been invited for many glasses of the lovely local tea.

Since my last blog entry, we have had a number of new people join the truck for the section from Cairo to Khartoum. Some flew in from a Dragoman truck in West Africa, whilst others flew out from home. We currently have new people from Australia, UK, and the US, making a total of 18, 6m/12f. I was sorry to lose some good friends made since Tunisia, but that is the way of things for a traveller. Lets hope we meet up again further down the road. After Khartoum the balance will change again as some leave and others join. The split will equal out to 11m/11f, with an average age of 48.

What a lot has changed in Egypt since my last visit in 1990, 17 years ago. Many more people are visiting, and the infrastructure is being changed to cope. This was most noticeable around the pyramids of Giza, which now have roads and car-parks straggling around them, like the noose around the neck of a hanged man. The Sphinx is fast disappearing to wind and pollution, which hangs over the city like a cloud. It was great to leave the dust, the smoke, and the 1000s of pink and sunburnt package-tourists behind, and head out away from the Nile to travel through the Black and the White Deserts to the east of the Great Sand Sea, then down to Dakla Oasis, and the privilege of a visit to the recently discovered 'Golden Mummies' there. Will it become another 'Giza' eventually? I hope not, though the locals would no doubt welcome the benefits of an improved infrastructure.

After a visit to the splendours and antiquities of Luxor, I made my first ever flight in a hot-air balloon, and what a location to do it - over the Valley of the Kings, the Valley of the Queens, and the Temple of Hatshepsut. The trip had an almost magical feeling to it, as we drifted in silence to watch the dawn light up the ancient treasures of this ancient land, and to show the intriguing depressions in the desert that may one day lead to new discoveries. A sight of the famous Colossus of Memnon reminded me of Shelley's famous poem, said to have been inspired by Ramses II's huge statues. Here is that poem, for those who, like me, cannot quote it from memory...

Ozymandias

I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said -- "two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert ... near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lips, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings,
Look on my Works ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Moving further south into Upper Egypt, I travelled down the Nile to Aswan by a traditional felucca. It was wonderful to have the time to sit back and watch the birds and wildlife - luckily no crocodiles in that section of the river, so I was able to have a memorable swim at dawn whilst watching the sun rise over the east bank. Back to the hustle-bustle of the tourist trade briefly whilst in Aswan, then all disappeared as we boarded the local ferry MS 'Sinai' that travelled overnight across Lake Nasser and past the rescued temples of Abu Simbel - another production of the prolific Ramses II.

What a change from the modern conveniences of Egypt it was to land at Wadi Halfa, and feel that the Middle East had now finished, and that Africa, for me at least, had well and truly begun. Wadi Halfa is one of those 'just what am I doing here' places, with the word 'basic' an impossible exageration for any thought of 'facilities', but startling as it was, the friendliness of the Sudanese people immediately showed itself, wiping out any hesitation we may have felt at the most basic of eating-places, or the boarding house with its holes in the ceiling.

We travelled from Wadi Halfa down the Nile, visiting the little-known pyramids of Meroe and the Temples of Kush. A comparison with Giza is a world away - not so big, but so much more special, as we camped nearby to watch a sunset and sunrise over these ancient ruins, quite alone apart from occasional desert fox. Cobra tracks spotted in the sand - luckily none visited my sleeping bag as I slept under the stars that night!

Khartoum is a very different place from other, smaller towns in Sudan, but the friendliness persists in the capital as elsewhere. We visited the souk at Omdurman, the shrine to the Mahdi, and were privileged to share time with followers of the Sufi sect of Islam as they danced and chanted in their own special way. What pleasant memories I have of this country. In a few days time we will leave to travel into the Ethiopia, and up into the highlands. The current weather in Sudan has been balmy, with even night-time temperatures reaching 28 degrees. I have a feeling that I will need both sleeping bags again shortly!

Posted by travellingtim at January 27, 2007 03:29 PM