TDA - Days 22 to 27

Sudan

We entered Khartoum in a convoy traversing the city and the Nile to reach our campsite. The outskirts of the city reminded me of the villages we had passed through the days before: the same small flat mud-houses; it was just the density that differed. It looked like a labyrinth of houses with the paved road cutting straight through it. We were cheered by lots of people on the roadside as we were riding accompanied by the deafening sound of the police car sirens.
It felt weird and I couldn't help thinking how along history conquerors or liberators have entered cities and places in similar ways: in a huge convoy
with lots of protection and with the local people gathered along their way. At least that's an image we're used to seeing in movies :-)

Unlike any other city I've been to so far I did not get to explore Khartoum. I rested, cleaned the bike and spend too much time in the internet cafe. But I
managed to upload some pictures and upload the blog. And this was the last spot where there was a fast internet connection and access to blogger.

We left Khartoum shrouded in haze and pollution and headed South towards the border with Ethiopia crossing some more desert. It was much hotter during the day and the mornings were not freezing anymore.

The first night we camped next to the Nile and it was extremely refreshing to go in for a swim. Many locals came to the shore and sat there enjoying the peacefulness and beauty of the sandy beach at sunset. It's everywhere the same: people are attracted by beauty. That evening I had a minor ant invasion on my tent but I won the battle.

As we were nearing the border with Ethiopia the landscape started to change and so did the villages. We saw more and more straw and mud huts cylindric in shape with a conic roof. They looked like a collection of hats from above; we had climbed up a hill in the afternoon to get a sweeping view of the landscape. The hills looked quite bizarre in this otherwise flat expanse. The land was cultivated on large areas and it was harvest time.

There are lots of images of unique beauty that stuck to my mind : the shepherd sitting at sunrise on a tree stump surrounded by the magic glow that backlight offers; the cattle herd running in the morning light across the dusty terrain raising dusts of clouds; the children in their uniforms going to school in the early morning; the women carrying their babies on the back; the men weaving baskets under a shed in the warm afternoon sunlight; the man grinding grains in a traditional wooden grinder; the man milking the cow at sunset; the beautiful woman with the orange headscarf standing in the doorway at sunset; the pointed roofs of the huts; the rocks and the shape of the hills.


The last day in Sudan the landscape changed dramatically. The terrain became more and more hilly and the vegetation reminded me of savannah images I had seen. "Where are those giraffes hiding?" I kept asking :-)

Clearly there was more water here in the soil and the land looked more fertile. In the warm sunset light I could spot goatherds and their flock of goats sitting under old gnarly trees in the shade.

We entered Ethiopia over a small bridge. The formalities were simple and things went very smooth. Entering Ethiopia meant also entering a country where alcohol was not prohibited and for some of us the joy over a cold beer - after 2 weeks of thirst, heat and abstinence - was probably greater than over the refreshing shower.