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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]