Ferrying into Sudan - 23rd January 2008

The ferry from Aswan to Wadi Halfa was absolute chaos. It is uncanny to think that this is the main port of entry into Sudan. We are talking African public transport at its maddest! The level of overcrowding on that ferry was an adventure in its own stead and words simply cannot do justice to the mayhem on board. We were told that the ferry was to leave sometime after 12 – we left the harbour sometime after 8. And in those eight hours the contents of dozens and dozens of trucks were continuously loaded onto the ferry. People were sleeping everywhere – on bags, next to boxes, cuddled up to strangers.

The six of us spent the night on the top deck on the floor of a walkway behind a shield of bags. Six of us in a space less than four meters wide and not long enough to warrant straight legs without ankles being at serious risk from passing footsteps.

At two pm the following day we finally stopped – docked in Sudan. The sight greeting us was pretty daunting: desert.

We had met the Tour d’afrique cyclists on board the ferry and they turned out to be extremely helpful and friendly. From them we gathered that Wadi Halfa the town was a 5 kilometer cycle in from the port. Next to us on the ferry, cramped amidst the chaos, with identical therma rests and gas stoves, were three Swedes. During the course of the evening we got chatting, and found out that they were cycling from Sweden to Beijing, in attempts to make the Olympics by 8 August!