5th - 7th April 2009, Lake Nasser, Egypt to Sudan

We saw the journey from Egypt into Sudan as one of our biggest obstacles on the trip, but with the help of a very nice man called Mr Sallah who worked for the Nile River Valley Ferry Company, the process was made a lot easier. After booking the ferry tickets in the morning (E£2452 for the Landy, E£286 each) we spent the rest of the day dealing with the relevant bureaucracy that would enable us to leave the country. This included waiting 2 hours while an "official" with a desk on the pavement decided whether we had commited any traffic offences, and reluctantly handing over our Egyptian number plates. The day was made a lot more bearable as we were doing it along with 4 other brits who we met in the Ferry office (Andy, JJ, Ed and Charlotte), who were travelling down through Africa visiting various football related charities, and who luckily enough enjoyed a kickabout at any spare moment!!

Monday marked the weekly departure of the ferry, so we headed over to the ferry port for 9am as instructed by the ever helpful Mr Sallah, and after taking about 1 hour to get through immigration we were told that we'd have to wait around until that evening until we could load the Landy's onto the separate barge that takes the vehicles. As it peaked at 45 degrees in the afternoon, it seemed a long day, but we managed to secure a nice spot on the top deck of the ferry, letting us sleep under the stars.

The ferry finally set off about 6pm, and as the crossing could take anywhere between 16 and 24 hours we settled in for the long haul. The ferry was fairly uneventful, and as we said goodbye to Egypt we had one last glimpse of amazing Egyptian architecture in the form of Abu Simbel as the ferry drifted slowly past.

The ferry arrived in the Sudanese port of Wadi Halfa at 11am, and after a brief immigation interview we were off the boat and being greeted by the friendly local customs officer Mr Magdi, who insisted that we all stay at his Nubian home until the barge carrying our vehicles arrived the next day.

  Mr Magdi could not have been more hospitable, welcoming us into his home like old friends making us a delicious meal of Falafel accompanied by his own brew of tea (which even I drank).

Being at Mr Magdi's was a good opportunity to relax after the long ferry crossing and to make sure the vehicles were ready for the infmoulsy bad roads of North Sudan.

  (me and Andy enjoying a quick snack)

8th - 10th April 2009, Wadi Halfa to Khartoum, Sudan

  Yolandy, Lady Jane and Red Robin enjoying a bit of attention before the long desert drive south.

After picking the vehicles from the port in the morning we left the dusty little desert village of Wadi Halfa and started on the road south. Although after a few Kilometers the road quickly turned into nothing more than a gravelly sand track stretching on for the next hundred miles. Coupled with the soaring heat now reaching the mid 40's this was turning out to be a bit mor daunting than anticipated. Managing maximum speeds of only 20 mph was extremely frustrating, but this did allow us to enjoy our beautiful surroundings and say hi to some of the locals.

A brief glimpse of tarmac before the gruelling offroading began.

Finding a place to camp for the night was not a problem given that we were in the middle of an overwhelmingly large desert, and given that there were 3 vehicles we felt safe.

We were up early and went into a local village for some breakfast and supplies. Over breakfast the Daughter of the cafe owner insisted we go back to her home to meet her family. The generosity of the locals really astounded us, with the family even being a little upset when we said we couldn't stay the night as we needed to get on with the driving!!

So we continued the offroading, occasionally passing through the odd village where children would rush out to wave at us or ask for pens!! The roads became more and more testing, with surfaces varying from soft sand to hard corrugated stone that threatened to shake to Landy apart. We even had to break out the shovels in some parts to fill in the unpassble trenches that split the road.

Another long day of driving in the now unbearable heat was rewarded with some magnificent scenery, and the simple achievement that we had made it to Dongola where we would get a local ferry across the river Nile. Again we camped in the desert just outside the small town of Dongola.

Soon after Dongola we hit tarmac again, where I was quite excited to see a Combine!! ahhh home. Once we hit the tarmac it was all plain sailing, with the 200 or so hot tedious miles to Khartoum flying by. We quickly found our way through the mud-built suburbs and into the city centre where we camped at the Blue Nile Sailing Club (US$15 a night).

11th - 15th April 2009, Khartoum to Gallabat, Sudan

The previous few days had taken their toll on us and on the Landy, so we decided a few days in Khartoum would be needed to sort everything out before heading south to the Ethiopian border.

   One of our main priorities was to find a garage to sort out the steering that had come a bit loose, and to do some welding on the roof rack to strengthen it as the combination of the roads and the weight of the roof-rack had torn it apart.

Despite the 50 degree heat of the city, our few days in Khartoum were a real revelation. Contrary to all news reports and other peoples accounts, the city and country as a whole is inhabited by some of the most generous and friendly people you could hope to meet. Examples of this range from locals stopping you in the street to welcome you to their country and reassure you that the News does not give an accurate account of their country, to a Museums tour we got from a young student trying to perfect his English (so, thanks to Mohammed).

After getting the steering seen to at the Land Rover Dealership on the morning of the 14th, we left the city at 12pm and started the long uncomfortble drive to the Ethiopian border, camping just outside Gederef just of the road, and continuing to the Ethiopian border the next morning.