Author archive
19 March 2014
Above: On the ferry after a sleepless night. Another sleepless night I rose in the wee hours of the night and wandered around. There were people sleeping everywhere, both inside on the floors, and on the open deck. I went to the restaurant. The atmosphere there, like the rest of the boat was very friendly. […]
18 March 2014
Above: On the top deck; prayer time at sunset. Photo courtesy of Vincent Gelot. Sleepless Night There was plenty of snoring through the night, sharing a dorm with mature men. Cellphones kept going off too! It got really cold; I had three layers on my upper body, a rain coat and also longjohns under my […]
17 March 2014
Without breakfast, I took a tuktuk to Dongola’s station hoping to get a bus to Wadi Halfa. There were only minibuses and I didn’t fancy being squashed so opted to pay for an extra seat. I did keep the extra seat until close to the end of the trip when they picked up some extra […]
16 March 2014
I decided I needed a day “off” from travelling around. I had woken up around 0300 again from the cold even though I was more warmly dressed. I couldn’t sleep for a few hours then must have nodded off and woke again at 0930. I must have needed the sleep. I had thought of going […]
15 March 2014
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 […]
14 March 2014
I set the alarm for 0300 to allow plenty of time to catch public transport to the bus departure point. The hotel receptionist said that there would be minibuses running even at that time in the morning. Off to the corner opposite the minimarket, I went, just before 0330. I waited about 10 minutes and […]
13 March 2014
After breakfast, I went to buy my bus ticket to Dongola for tomorrow. I repeated my receptionist’s instructions to the tuktuk driver. It didn’t get anywhere; he took me to somewhere else to buy the bus ticket and then another, all to no avail. I returned to the hostel and got the receptionist to write […]
12 March 2014
I lazed most of the morning away playing with my newfound (but slow despite 3G) connectivity to the world. Soon it was time to check-out and kill some time before going to the airport at 1500 for an 1800 flight back to Khartoum. I managed to share a ride to Port Sudan airport with a […]
11 March 2014
The wind that had picked up yesterday afternoon was still blowing strong when I woke. I’m lucky I hadn’t elected to dive a day later. I would have been throwing up during the surface interval. Today I moved slightly down the coast to the town of Port Sudan. I’ve done all that I wanted to […]
10 March 2014
It was a very bad start to the day. They door lock wouldn’t respond to the turn of the key this morning. I tried it deep and shallow but to no avail. I needed to pee. I had to do it into a couple of 500ml empty water bottles. I have to thank my yoga […]