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Provided By: Muslim Harji
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harji@videotron.ca     
 

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Travel Log - From Cairo to Cape Town
 

 

Update #4 - Feb. 4, 2006

Dear Friends and Family, and of course, my very special Mom,

we have reached Khartoum! What an amazing city! Compared to the dusty, sleepy villages and towns we have been seeing, arriving in this (paved.. phew!) metropolitan city is like a breath of fresh air! We arrived today, after a 30-km convoyed ride into the city. This convoy has to be the funniest one so far, because there were Sudanese police at the front, sirens blazing, leading us through the city. You would have thought royalty was coming to town! It was all I could do not to wave like the queen to the hundreds of people lining the streets watching us pedal in. Of course, this also opens the door for some more serious problems - there is no better way to highlight the fact that we are a large bunch of seemingly rich foreigners that are now camping with all our expensive equipment than to have the entire city know about it as we come riding in with the cops... Oh well, we'll see how it goes. We are camping on the grounds of the Blue Nile Sailing Club, a very chi-chi little yacht club with rich westerners and Europeans drinking soda on the waterfront. We are all a little out of place because we are extremely dirty, windswept and tired, not at all like the other club clientele. The spot is really beautiful, however, and is the site where the Blue and White Nile Rivers converge. Before coming here, I didn't even know there were two different colored bodies of water that composed the Nile! We have now been in the Sudan for about a week (I've completely lost all notion of date and time!) and would have written earlier at our previous rest day in Dongola but the entire city had only a handful of terminals and, horror of horrors, it was dial-up! They were asking for the equivalent of $13 USD per hour so we nixed that idea and decided to wait until Khartoum.

Northern Sudan has been a tremendous experience, filled with wonderful memories. First, let me tell you a little bit about the biking and then perhaps more about the things that really bring the Sudan to life for me in my mind. Biking has been brutal, plain and simple. After the paved roads of Egypt, we arrived off the ferry at Wadi Halfa, only to find dust, deep sand, huge rocks and potholes. I have now learned (and felt) the meaning of corrugated roads, much to my displeasure and discomfort (for those of you still lucky enough to not know what that means, it's when the road is made up of small mounds of hard-packed rock and sand that you ride like waves. It is THE MOST jarring and jerking you will ever experience, sort of like what happens when you stall a standard car, but non-stop for tens of kilometers on end). The roads here, if i can even call them that, are horrible for biking, but give us a true sense of what Africa is like. If the road by itself wasn't bad enough, the heat here is tremendous. Two days ago, it was 52 degrees Celsius as we biked, 30 degrees at night when we try to sleep. The conditions are really quite extreme, and although we are constantly drinking water, in one 30 km stretch, I drank 4 liters of water with another 20 kms ahead and no chance to refill my water bottles. This type of situation is not uncommon, as we consume massive amounts of water, but to stave off complete dehydration, we hitched a ride with some Chinese electrical engineers. Yes, you read that right, Chinese electrical engineers out in the middle of nowhere in the Sudan! We have seen relatively many Chinese people out here, all helping to bring Electricity to the most remote regions of the country, and while at first it was a surprise, now it has become a common occurrence. I have noticed though, that compared to Egypt (especially around the Red Sea - where all the oil excavation is being done), Sudan is not being as rapidly developed by outsiders. I could wonder aloud (very sarcastically) why nobody takes an interest in the Sudan, but i think that would be wasting my energy.

The heat is not the only extreme weather that we have gotten. Yesterday, in fact, we rode through a dust storm! This was a pretty amazing experience, if not a little tough on my eyes, which were constantly filled with sand. Riding in a dust storm is like driving in the fog. You can barely see more than a meter or two ahead of you and everything around you is a blur. The one big difference, of course, is that the sand and dust that were lifted off the floor of the Sahara (yes, we are riding across the Sahara Desert!!!) hit you all over, and it can be a little painful. It was just like one big long skin exfoliation exercise, but definitely a memorable experience.

                                                                               
 

I am really loving the Sudan, however grim I may have made it sound so far. The tough weather and road conditions are tempered by the warmth and friendliness of the Sudanese people everywhere we go. One day, in the small town of Karima, we were invited into the home of a man we didn't know, who didn't speak any english at all. Being the cautious traveller, I was worried that this was going to be some sort of scam with a request for payment at the end, but we went in and sat down on the floor of a thatched little open-air hut surrounded by palm trees. After some small talk where, with some difficulty, we explained to them that we were on a bicycle expedition (only to get the same incredulous response), a young  boy came forward with an enormous tray that he put down on the floor. He uncovered four bowls of food - salad, a delicious curry-type dish similar to what my mom makes at home, beans (called foul, pronounced "fool") and a sweet vermicelli dish (like sev for all you Indians out there). Around the four bowls were round pieces of bread and we all sat there on the floor and ate together. The man also gave us a tour of his compound (including ahis home, a wheat-grinder, a kitchen and a women's section - there were a lot of them, don't know how many wives this guy has, but anyway) and also gave us fresh figs right off a tree. After all this, they just led us back into the street, we all said our goodbyes and they pointed us back in the direction from whence we came. No money, no payment, no nothing. It was just plain and simple hospitality, and he disappeared back into his home like this was nothing out of the ordinary. Everywhere along the road, many members of our group have experienced similar displays of openness and good will from the people in this country. In the Sudan, unlike in Egypt, when people invite you in for a "welcome tea", it really is for just tea and not "please have tea and now buy something form my store." It really is wonderful! So far, we have not felt the least bit threatened or in danger and although there is much civil unrest in parts of the Sudan, the people we have encountered have always gone above and beyond to make us feel welcome in their country.

After Khartoum, we will head off towards the Ethiopian border, towards a new country with new surprises. Unfortunately, this email has already gotten too long and i'm going to say goodbye for now, but we'll try to write again soon! If any of you would like to read past journal entries, you can find truncated versions of the originals on the Aga Khan Foundation Canada Website under Pedal for Hope. Of course, at the same time, you can also make your very valuable contribution to our cause, if you have not done so already, and encourage all your friends and acquaintances to do the same!

Much love,
Ayesha and Muslim

                                                    

Sunset on Lake Nasser… between Egypt and Sudan


“Biking has been brutal, plain and simple. After the paved roads of Egypt, we arrived off the ferry at Wadi Halfa, only to find dust, deep sand, huge rocks and potholes. I have now learned (and felt) the meaning of corrugated roads, much to my displeasure and discomfort). The roads here, if i can even call them that, are horrible for biking, but give us a true sense of what Africa is like. If the road by itself wasn't bad enough, the heat here is tremendous. Two days ago, it was 52 degrees Celsius as we biked, 30 degrees at night when we try to sleep. The conditions are really quite extreme, and although we are constantly drinking water, in one 30 km stretch, I drank 4 liters of water with another 20 kms ahead and no chance to refill my water bottles. This type of situation is not uncommon, as we consume massive amounts of water,”


“One day, in the small town of Karima, we were invited into the home of a man we didn't know, who didn't speak any English at all. Being the cautious traveler, I was worried that this was going to be some sort of scam with a request for payment at the end, but we went in and sat down on the floor of a thatched little open-air hut surrounded by palm trees. After some small talk where, with some difficulty, we explained to them that we were on a bicycle expedition (only to get the same incredulous response), a young boy came forward with an enormous tray that he put down on the floor. He uncovered four bowls of food - salad, a delicious curry-type dish similar to what my mom makes at home, beans (called foul, pronounced "fool") and a sweet vermicelli dish (like sev for all you Indians out there). Around the four bowls were round pieces of bread and we all sat there on the floor and ate together. After all this, they just led us back into the street, we all said our goodbyes and they pointed us back in the direction from whence we came. No money, no payment, no nothing. It was just plain and simple hospitality, and he disappeared back into his home like this was nothing out of the ordinary.”
 


Falafel Vendor on Street of Dongala Sudan
 



Connecting with Young people.. University of Khartoum Sudan


Enjoying Unconditional Sudanese Hospitality

 

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