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The Nile for the second time …
This time the meeting was less traumatic than in Ethiopia, no downhill and uphill of 22 km, but simply a bridge guarded by two bored policemen.
Sudan is definitely flat, if it were a woman few would turn around to look at her on the road, but since yesterday, a bit after Al Qadarif, the wind appeared, strong blowing from South to North, today too after the first 25 km of truce it accompanied me for long stretches sideways, at times from the front, and for about ten kilometers he bothered to push me … in Sudan you drive on the right side like in Ethiopia … the wind managed to push me down from the tar three or four times … tomorrow to go to Khartoum you turn right towards the North … hopefully I understood correctly where it is coming from … because I would like to do a great stage … before to dive myself in the North Sudan where the Nile, the desert, villages with camp beds, will challenge me greatly …
Today I was not lucky with the supplies, I did not find a bakery like yesterday, nor yoghurt, a formidable thirst drencher for these climates … water becomes immediately hot … not warm … hot … the only solution I found to drink it is to make it a hot beverage … so I put soluble coffee or tea inside … but when you have in the mouth the dribble soggy mush typical of the cyclist close to dehydration … the hot beverage does not give the same relief of a iced water or coke … moreover the washed-out brown of the coffee after various water top-ups arises the policemen’s suspicion who think it is beer … illegal in Sudan … could I possibly be cycling under these conditions drinking beer?
Arrived at the hotel, I assaulted the bar of the generous and thirst drenching fruit juices, then I placed an order for dinner of maccheroni and Nile fish, exceptional fish … maccheroni eaten just for survival spirit … when I asked for an ice-cream or a fruit salad … the waiter asked me ‘Since when have you not eaten?’
In my same hotel the Sudanese national team is also here, but I did not have the time to socialize because due to the heat or to Ramadan or the two of them they train in the evening.
Tomorrow I have to take out again the Danish sun blocks of Michelangelo, which I was not using since Tanzania, in theory we are in the rain season and Khartoum should be a very rainy area … as a matter of fact on the road there are many water puddles, the color of mud, which the women use to wash clothes that unexplainably come out clean as if they had done the laundry with mineral water, the children use them to wash themselves and to have fun like in swimming pools … and the animals to drink …
Sleeping in villages has the advantage that it makes you wake up early, in the hotels without alarm I would get up in three days …
Migreh N 14° 05 E 34° 56,666’ – Wad Madeni 14° 39,954’ E 33° 52,026’
143 km