Day 122
Sleeping location: Bushland 14.06N 33.58E, Sudan
Distance (km today/total): 100 / 9531
Estimated climb (m today/total): 200 / 61800
Progress: slightly less slow
Distance (km today/total): 100 / 9531
Estimated climb (m today/total): 200 / 61800
Progress: slightly less slow
Day in three words: Bye bye Nile
During the night I had my now-customary coughing fit, but this time with a twist, as I starting coughing in a dream then woke up to find myself doing it in real life. Still, the early bedtime helped and I felt a bit better by morning. Everything about the first couple of hours was the same as the last two days, and the only notable thing was being set upon by a very friendly, very loud man at a shop, who WELCOMED US TO SUDAN and HOPED THAT WE HAD A GOOD TIME. We stopped in the large town of Wad Madani for supplies and had coffee and a good chat with some friendly South Sudanese who had had to flee the troubles in their country. As we arrived a nearby rubbish bonfire partially exploded, scattering bits of hot rubbish everywhere, but we were the only people who seemed bothered by this.
After WM we were on a bigger road and the surface improved. After another couple of hours the road turned eastwards and we left the Blue Nile for good, having broadly followed it since Cairo 2500km ago. I say “broadly” because most of the time you only experience it as a distant stripe of trees and houses; the road doesn’t actually follow it that closely for risk of being flooded. From here we entered a landscape of fields rather than scrubland, with some small rivers here and there, although we haven’t seen a proper cloud for weeks so goodness knows where the water comes from. I felt better as the day progressed, but this was offset by the fact that it was getting very, very hot, probably around 40 degrees by early afternoon.
There were no cafes or good trees so we stopped in the shade of a thin tree in a field for some lunch. Whilst we were eating a herd of cows walked past us, then a herd of goats, then finally a herd of these strange sheep with long dangly tails. The last group had a shepherd who was friendly to us, and was in the process of offering us tea before he had to break it off because there were two sheep getting intimate behind him (our giggles gave it away).
A little before we started looking for a campsite I laboriously filled up all my bottles with warm clay jar water at a water station, and was then very amused to see that less than a km later was a checkpoint where Rebecca had filled up on clean cold water to her heart’s content. The soldier in charge here was friendly, and proudly showed off an incredibly tiny kitten that they seemed to have adopted. After the checkpoint the terrain changed and we were quickly able to find somewhere to camp amongst the suddenly ubiquitous thorn trees. We had to drag our bikes across a field, but once we were safely amongst the thorns we felt pretty secure. Dinner was instant noodles with a can each of peas and sweetcorn, which was surprisingly tasty. We are however beginning to wonder if these bizarre camp meals are only tasty because we’re really hungry by the time we eat them.
During the night I had my now-customary coughing fit, but this time with a twist, as I starting coughing in a dream then woke up to find myself doing it in real life. Still, the early bedtime helped and I felt a bit better by morning. Everything about the first couple of hours was the same as the last two days, and the only notable thing was being set upon by a very friendly, very loud man at a shop, who WELCOMED US TO SUDAN and HOPED THAT WE HAD A GOOD TIME. We stopped in the large town of Wad Madani for supplies and had coffee and a good chat with some friendly South Sudanese who had had to flee the troubles in their country. As we arrived a nearby rubbish bonfire partially exploded, scattering bits of hot rubbish everywhere, but we were the only people who seemed bothered by this.
After WM we were on a bigger road and the surface improved. After another couple of hours the road turned eastwards and we left the Blue Nile for good, having broadly followed it since Cairo 2500km ago. I say “broadly” because most of the time you only experience it as a distant stripe of trees and houses; the road doesn’t actually follow it that closely for risk of being flooded. From here we entered a landscape of fields rather than scrubland, with some small rivers here and there, although we haven’t seen a proper cloud for weeks so goodness knows where the water comes from. I felt better as the day progressed, but this was offset by the fact that it was getting very, very hot, probably around 40 degrees by early afternoon.
There were no cafes or good trees so we stopped in the shade of a thin tree in a field for some lunch. Whilst we were eating a herd of cows walked past us, then a herd of goats, then finally a herd of these strange sheep with long dangly tails. The last group had a shepherd who was friendly to us, and was in the process of offering us tea before he had to break it off because there were two sheep getting intimate behind him (our giggles gave it away).
A little before we started looking for a campsite I laboriously filled up all my bottles with warm clay jar water at a water station, and was then very amused to see that less than a km later was a checkpoint where Rebecca had filled up on clean cold water to her heart’s content. The soldier in charge here was friendly, and proudly showed off an incredibly tiny kitten that they seemed to have adopted. After the checkpoint the terrain changed and we were quickly able to find somewhere to camp amongst the suddenly ubiquitous thorn trees. We had to drag our bikes across a field, but once we were safely amongst the thorns we felt pretty secure. Dinner was instant noodles with a can each of peas and sweetcorn, which was surprisingly tasty. We are however beginning to wonder if these bizarre camp meals are only tasty because we’re really hungry by the time we eat them.
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