It wasn’t a surprise that I’d feel cold in the wee hours of the morning. After all, it was cool yesterday when I arrived at 1100 yesterday. I woke to put on an extra top and longjohns.
I had good intentions of getting going early to Karima, 2 hours away by van. It didn’t happen and I didn’t set off till around 0900 to the van station. Fortunately, I grabbed the last seat and we were off immediately on the ride through the desert.
We arrived at 1130 and I grabbed lunch; fuul naturally as there’s often little else unless one hunts quite hard. I found the river afterwards and was interested in finding these old steamers that have been abandoned by the river. They’re quite cool to climb on and explore apparently.
Walking north, where they should be, I didn’t find anything like that. I did see a largely submerged frame of some kind that didn’t look remotely beautiful or interesting. I turned back and met a Dutch couple (both cabin crew) who were looking for the same so I repeated my efforts with them. We didn’t have any success so I gave up and went by tuktuk to Jebel Barkal, which was the main purpose of my visit.
The man gave me his details and he turned out to be an extremely well-travelled individual by the name of Boris Kester.
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- Karima town.
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- Karima town.
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- Karima town.
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- The old steamers were nowhere to be seen on the Nile.
Jebel Barkal is a monolith which is flanked by what was probably the impressive Temple of Amun back in 15th Century BC, and also some pyramids from 3rd Century BC. I was lucky it wasn’t too hot a day as there was quite a bit of walking in the desert.
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- Jebel Barkal, the mountain itself.
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- The Egyptian ruins at Jebel Barkal.
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- The Egyptian ruins at Jebel Barkal.
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- The Egyptian ruins at Jebel Barkal.
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- The Egyptian ruins at Jebel Barkal.
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- The Egyptian ruins at Jebel Barkal.
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- Jebel Barkal, the mountain itself.
It was about 1500 by the time I got back to Karima town by tuktuk. We kept waiting for enough people to fill the van back to Dongola. It was a long wait of 2h20 before the van company decided to go with some empty seats.
It was after 1930 by the time I got back to my room. I had hoped to be back in the heat of the day to enjoy a warmish shower but the time spent looking for those steamers and the subsequent transport delay ruined my great plan.
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- At the van office, waiting for the van to fill up with passengers on the way back.
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- At the van office, waiting for the van to fill up with passengers on the way back.
