It is late, too late actually when we finally approach the border. The sun started setting half an hour ago and if we have learned something from travelling Africa it is never to arrive at borders too late. This time this plan didn’t really work out and we decided to wing it. We drive through a busy street with shops, horses and park in between some donkeys. The first people to approach us are always the hasslers, fixers and money changers. We quickly push through and arrive at the customs office. A friendly young man on the Ethiopian side helps us out and clears our cars rather quickly. He wishes us a great travel and tells us to watch our backs in Sudan. This is not the first time someone tells me this. Somehow it happens quite often that people in the border area are not that fond of their next door neighbours. 

When we arrive in Sudan we immediately feel welcome. A gentleman in a small dusty office sticks his hand through the window to receive our four passports. He goes through them quickly and stamps the entry visas before handing them back. Dusk has set in when we get out of the office and people point us in the direction of Customs, which looks abandoned and closed by the time we arrive. We’ve heard terrible stories about the Sudanese customs procedure and mentally prepare ourselves to have everything, and I mean everything, taken from our cars for inspection. We park in between pick ups set up to carry heavy military firearms. 

When we walk in the place really looks abandoned and we are lucky finding someone in the back who speaks a little English. He immediately knows what we are there for and runs out to get his supervisor. We are put in an office to wait and are offered tea, coffee, softdrinks, water and everything else they know the English name of. 

Ten minutes later a group of Customs officers arrive with the guy who received us up front. They quickly go through all the paperwork, take a quick look at the car, but more out of curiosity than actually inspecting it, offer us more tea and when we kindly thank them we are free to go. 

We find our way out of town and after ten kilometers we take a strong right, off the tarmac and into the bush. For another 10 minutes we battle through bushes and sand until we find a nice riverbed to set up camp. After our Ethiopian wild camp experiences we find ourselves a bit worried. Before setting up the tents we walk around the cars in silence to see how many people are hidden behind the trees watching us. When after half hour, still no one has showed up, we are confident enough to set up camp. The next morning we are woken up by a large herd of cattle passing the riverbed just a couple of meters from our car, being led by a shepherd with a torch who has probably seen us, but takes no further notice of this odd set up.

Fully awake now, we pack up and get ready for a long drive all the way to Khartoum. 

We get stopped at numerous roadblocks along the way where it is hardly possible to see the difference between an official police officer or an undercover police officer. We soon find out that we better respect them just as much and we hand out our passports every time we are being asked for it. It is late in the afternoon when we arrive in Khartoum and covered 500 km easy that day. Somehow Khartoum is an expensive place to stay. We looked for camping options and cheap hotels with parking, but nothing really came up. That leaves us only one option: the German Guesthouse. This place, obviously run by Germans, is a welcoming place for overlanders and offers the option to park (and camp) outside on the streets, while using the facilities of the hotel. For the next couple of days we really find ourselves living on the streets of Khartoum, and surprisingly enough our nights are really good.

During the evenings Sudanese people walk passed our car while we are cooking out on the streets and all they do is greet us, which to us is still mind blowing. After Ethiopia we are used to, even in seemingly deserted places, to have people come up to us, stand 3 meters from the car and stare at us like they are watching TV. 

Over the next couple of days we spend way too much money on official documents, exchange our dollars for a very lucrative rate, have a great night at Papa Costa’s and experience Sufi dancing on a Sudanese cemetery. 

We are happy to leave Khartoum and are heading northeast towards the Mussawarat and Naqa temples. In between we find a great wild campsite in a dry riverbed. We make some tea and soon find out we set up camp too close to a village and within no time we are surrounded by camels and locals. They finally leave when the sun sets and we manage to pack up before they return in the morning. An early start gets us to the Naqa temples and later the Meroe pyramids. 

It feels really special camping next to monuments from around 2000 BC!

That evening we look out over the Meroe pyramids. It is a collection of almost a hundred pyramids and it is one of the most spectacular sites in Sudan. Every pyramid symbolizes a grave, so it can also be seen as a big cemetery. Most of the pyramids are missing their tops because of a 19th Century Italian archeologist who found gold in one of them. Early morning we visit the site and wander among these ancient buildings. 

 

As soon as the temperature rises we get into our cars and head towards Karima. A small shack on the side of the road is our stop for breakfast. When we get out of the car we can smell the overwhelming Diesel fumes and there are big trucks parked everywhere around us. We find some plastic chairs and get a plate of Ful served. Ful is a typical Sudanese meal and consists of  mashed overcooked beans with peanut oil served with flatbread. Not too interesting, but nutritious and combined with some fresh vegetables it can be made into a decent meal. 

We are still traveling with our friends in their Landrover who are getting quite nervous when we find three fuel stations which are out of Diesel. By that time we covered over 330 km from Khartoum and we still had another 270 to go to the next town. Approximately 30 km before the nearest fuel station we find ourselves on the side of the road getting Diesel from our second tank into the Landrover for it to be able to make it. 

We find a great camp spot next to the holy mountain of Jebel Barkal, which we climb in the morning. We decide to trade the desert for the Nile and camp directly next to it for the next night. After a quick swim with some locals we set up camp and we soon start to spot the first scorpions. The yellow Nile scorpions are small, but one of the most poisonous around. The mosquitoes and the scorpions make us get in our tents quite early and we drive to Old Dongola the next day. 

A great desert track following the Nile of the west side, navigating through sand dunes and an oasis here and there takes us to Dongola. We are very much looking forward to Dongola. In Moroto, Uganda, we met a diplomat who insisted we stay with his family when visiting the Dongola area. An offer we can hardly refuse and are happy to take! 

When we arrive in Sudan we immediately feel welcome. A gentleman in a small dusty office sticks his hand through the window to receive our four passports. He goes through them quickly and stamps the entry visas before handing them back. Dusk has set in when we get out of the office and people point us in the direction of Customs, which looks abandoned and closed by the time we arrive. We’ve heard terrible stories about the Sudanese customs procedure and mentally prepare ourselves to have everything, and I mean everything, taken from our cars for inspection. We park in between pick ups set up to carry heavy military firearms. 

When we walk in the place really looks abandoned and we are lucky finding someone in the back who speaks a little English. He immediately knows what we are there for and runs out to get his supervisor. We are put in an office to wait and are offered tea, coffee, softdrinks, water and everything else they know the English name of. 

Ten minutes later a group of Customs officers arrive with the guy who received us up front. They quickly go through all the paperwork, take a quick look at the car, but more out of curiosity than actually inspecting it, offer us more tea and when we kindly thank them we are free to go. 

We find our way out of town and after ten kilometers we take a strong right, off the tarmac and into the bush. For another 10 minutes we battle through bushes and sand until we find a nice riverbed to set up camp. After our Ethiopian wild camp experiences we find ourselves a bit worried. Before setting up the tents we walk around the cars in silence to see how many people are hidden behind the trees watching us. When after half hour, still no one has showed up, we are confident enough to set up camp. The next morning we are woken up by a large herd of cattle passing the riverbed just a couple of meters from our car, being led by a shepherd with a torch who has probably seen us, but takes no further notice of this odd set up.

Fully awake now, we pack up and get ready for a long drive all the way to Khartoum. 

We get stopped at numerous roadblocks along the way where it is hardly possible to see the difference between an official police officer or an undercover police officer. We soon find out that we better respect them just as much and we hand out our passports every time we are being asked for it. It is late in the afternoon when we arrive in Khartoum and covered 500 km easy that day. Somehow Khartoum is an expensive place to stay. We looked for camping options and cheap hotels with parking, but nothing really came up. That leaves us only one option: the German Guesthouse. This place, obviously run by Germans, is a welcoming place for overlanders and offers the option to park (and camp) outside on the streets, while using the facilities of the hotel. For the next couple of days we really find ourselves living on the streets of Khartoum, and surprisingly enough our nights are really good.

During the evenings Sudanese people walk passed our car while we are cooking out on the streets and all they do is greet us, which to us is still mind blowing. After Ethiopia we are used to, even in seemingly deserted places, to have people come up to us, stand 3 meters from the car and stare at us like they are watching TV. 

Over the next couple of days we spend way too much money on official documents, exchange our dollars for a very lucrative rate, have a great night at Papa Costa’s and experience Sufi dancing on a Sudanese cemetery. 

We are happy to leave Khartoum and are heading northeast towards the Mussawarat and Naqa temples. In between we find a great wild campsite in a dry riverbed. We make some tea and soon find out we set up camp too close to a village and within no time we are surrounded by camels and locals. They finally leave when the sun sets and we manage to pack up before they return in the morning. An early start gets us to the Naqa temples and later the Meroe pyramids. 

It feels really special camping next to monuments from around 2000 BC!

That evening we look out over the Meroe pyramids. It is a collection of almost a hundred pyramids and it is one of the most spectacular sites in Sudan. Every pyramid symbolizes a grave, so it can also be seen as a big cemetery. Most of the pyramids are missing their tops because of a 19th Century Italian archeologist who found gold in one of them. Early morning we visit the site and wander among these ancient buildings. 

As soon as the temperature rises we get into our cars and head towards Karima. A small shack on the side of the road is our stop for breakfast. When we get out of the car we can smell the overwhelming Diesel fumes and there are big trucks parked everywhere around us. We find some plastic chairs and get a plate of Ful served. Ful is a typical Sudanese meal and consists of  mashed overcooked beans with peanut oil served with flatbread. Not too interesting, but nutritious and combined with some fresh vegetables it can be made into a decent meal. 

We are still traveling with our friends in their Landrover who are getting quite nervous when we find three fuel stations which are out of Diesel. By that time we covered over 330 km from Khartoum and we still had another 270 to go to the next town. Approximately 30 km before the nearest fuel station we find ourselves on the side of the road getting Diesel from our second tank into the Landrover for it to be able to make it. 

We find a great camp spot next to the holy mountain of Jebel Barkal, which we climb in the morning. We decide to trade the desert for the Nile and camp directly next to it for the next night. After a quick swim with some locals we set up camp and we soon start to spot the first scorpions. The yellow Nile scorpions are small, but one of the most poisonous around. The mosquitoes and the scorpions make us get in our tents quite early and we drive to Old Dongola the next day. 

A great desert track following the Nile of the west side, navigating through sand dunes and an oasis here and there takes us to Dongola. We are very much looking forward to Dongola. In Moroto, Uganda, we met a diplomat who insisted we stay with his family when visiting the Dongola area. An offer we can hardly refuse and are happy to take!