Our long ferry ride came to an end yesterday when we arrived in Wadi Halfa, a small border town in northern Sudan. We plan to spend a few days here, as we wait for our trucks, which are to arrive on the barge. So far, we’ve had quite an interesting time here; here’s a taste:

The Ferry Ride to Remember!
I have never seen such a busy ferry my entire life. Getting into the ferry was a struggle as people were pushing each other in all directions; some were carrying large bags, others were carrying boxes with all kinds of merchandise. This ferry only leaves once a week from Aswan to Wadi Halfa and as expected, when it leaves, it leaves with a whole lot of people and merchandise. People travel from Sudan travel to Aswan to do business where they buy lots of goods that they bring back to Sudan to sell. Everything from computers, television and furniture to food boxes and clothes were being loaded on the ferry. At the ferry entrance, things were moving so fast, people were talking so loud…We all had no idea what was going on. A massive humanity. Under the brutal Nubian sun, temperatures flared and fists flew as people were pushing and pulling, trying to get themselves and their merchandise on board the vessel; it’s one of those scenes you can never forget. The ferry ride itself was smooth, although long, in my opinion. We all caught a few hours of sleep, although there was a lot of activity on the ferry with people talking and moving around on the different levels. There are several classes in the ship; we were in first class, on the second level. Below us was the coach class, filled with people sitting closely together on the passengers seats. On the open deck, there were no chairs to sit or sleep on; people secured small spaces for themselves. It was a first come first serve; that’s why people were shoving to get through so that they could secure their place. We made some Belgian friends who were on the deck. They didn’t have enough space to sleep so they squeezed into a lifeboat to catch a few hours of sleep. Their sleep only lasted one hour; a security man found them sleeping and kicked them off the lifeboat. The washrooms were so bad that I made sure I only made one trip to the bathroom in the 20 hours that I was on the ship. I’m sure the ship was very old; you could tell that it had been through thousands of trips. I wonder how much longer it will last.

When we arrived in Wadi Halfa, we were on the ship for another two hours waiting. We found out that in one of the cabins, an old man had died. No one knew how or when he died. We all had to wait for the doctor to arrive and for the body to be removed before all the passengers could get off the ferry. But once again, people were moving everywhere! There was so much pushing as people from the first class, the coach class and the deck all made their way to the one exit door. You really had to struggle to get yourself out of there; everyone was in such a rush. Some people were even offloading their luggage from the windows.  Once we got out, we had to find a truck to load all our gear in and head to the customs section where we spent another two hours or so trying to get our paper work ready. Amongst us four people, we have something like three big bags of equipment and five large duffel bags with our personal stuff, so you can only imagine the amount of carrying that we’ve been doing. Since our trucks did not accompany us on the ferry, we wanted to know when they would arrive and we got no straight answer. The answer we always got was “Inshallah,” meaning God Willing they will arrive. I just got word that they actually just arrived. Shaunna and Ben have left to go pick them up and the plan is to leave Wadi Halfa early tomorrow morning (October 5th), heading southwards.

The Wadi Halfa Hilton – or lack thereof!
Now, our hotel is another story all together. The first hotel we were taken to was a very small hotel with no rooms. The beds were placed in the open courtyard and people would sleep under the sky. It may sound like fun but not for us because the equipment we have needs to be in a secure spot. We asked around what the best hotel was and we were told that there are only three hotels in town and all of them are the same standards. We joined our Belgian friends at the hotel they were staying at; the Deffintoad Hotel. This hotel had rooms, beds and a fan on the ceiling. With only one room available, they squeezed four beds in the room along with all our luggage. Talk about team bonding! With each of us on own beds, we all tried to sleep the night away. Shaunna and I struggled quite a lot, although Ben and Mike seemed to be in dreamland. Half way through the night, the electricity went off so the fan stopped working and it was unbelievably hot. We are in the middle of the Nubian Desert here in Sudan so you can only imagine the heat. I think all the water we drank the day before, it was all lost in sweat. The room has one window which when opened, doesn’t allow for much air circulation as it faces a closed corridor. But on the ceiling, there is a very small window opening. All night through, all I could imagine was insects coming in and crawling onto us but then I realized that if they did, I’d just have to get used to them. The hotel people are very welcoming and nice, they all want to know about Canada, the weather and what the Expedition is all about.

Eating…the Expedition Africa way!
Our dinner situation was also a very interesting one. We came to Wadi Halfa with a box of food, filled with everything from peanut butter and crackers to pasta, pasta sauce and cheese. Ben made friends with one of the local restaurants on the street and they allowed us to use their pots and their stove to make our pasta and sauce. We had some very tasty pasta, very filling actually. But ask us how we ate the pasta. Well, when we did our big shopping in Aswan, Shaunna and I bought everything from food, bowls and cups but forgot to get some cutlery. So among the four of us at dinner last night, we had one spoon. But we made it through; we took bread and ate our pasta and sauce with the bread; what a creative team we are! I don’t know what we are doing for dinner tonight but we’ll figure that out when the time comes; at least we bought some spoons today.

What now?
Luckily, our government guide arrived just two hours ago. He will stay with us while we are in Sudan. He was meant to get here yesterday from Khartoum but his train ride that usually takes 20 hours took him 48 hours. Why? Well, the train broke down twice so they had to switch to different trains. Now that our trucks have arrived our journey continues and we’ll have more stories to tell along the way that you do not want to miss. We’re all looking forward to spending a few days at a Nubian village on our way to Khartoum.
Till then, greetings from Wadi Halfa, in the Nubian Desert in northern Sudan.