214 km by bicycle I do not think I have ever done them … 
I slept well on my bed under the stars, I blew up the sleeping mat too, and I slipped myself in the sleeping bag and put the panniers by my head to protect myself from the strong wind.
I could not get too annoyed with the wind blasts during the night, because I foresaw that they would help me during the day … Before starting off I wasted half an hour trying to activate internet on my Sudanese sim, but without success, it seems that we have a different blackberry … there is a common thread pooling all the customer call services in the world … the family who hosted me bids me farewell with beautiful smiles and a tea.
The departure is rocket like, it is fresh, and up to Tam Tam I find a couple of Cafeterie which allow me to keep sufficiently hydrated, the few small trees which were there are always more sparse until they disappear, the houses are no longer there and the torrid heat increases, the thirst becomes the only primary need to fulfill, the body feels the need of water everywhere, the sun is high on top of me for a few hours and the 47 kilometers separating Tam Tam from Um Al Hasan, the next village where you can buy something to drink, seem to be never ending … you wish the evening could come immediately …
In Um Al Hasan I find only two small bottles of 500 ml of water, which I finish in a few seconds, plus some lemonades and orangeades of second choice, very sweet and not much thirst drenching, I opt for the lemonade which I mix with the tea … at this point Multaga is 67 kilometers far … some of which towards West, hence against the wind, I have to get the reserve bottles which I have in the panniers, I dilute the lemon tea, I try to drink a bit every three kilometers, but it is not enough the heat covers you, the back and the shoulders are hot enough to cook a fried egg … twenty kilometers from Multaga I find a small house, with a wooden thatched shelter which projects an inviting shade, I find refuge in it for twenty minutes, until my temperature lowers enough to start off again, without fear to faint …
Today the water containers are few, and are only in the populated centers where there are also the kafeterie, from afar I spotted many which ended up not to be there …
Seven kilometers from Multaga I find the police station, where they offer me ice water which I cannot refuse, the ice water wakes me from the torpor I ended up in the last kilometers, I drink, I make myself wet, I drink and wash again … when I am about to leave … I notice out of the corner of my eye, under a shelter, a policeman with a laptop connected to the generator by meters of cables … could he have internet? … yes … I ask if I can please send an email … so overcome the shock of the Arabic key board I manage to send yesterday’s article … from the middle of the desert …
This night too the bed is the same, the camp bed with the bed base made out of laundry strings to hang the clothes, the cafeteria is full of life the food is ok, I drink about five liters between water and mango juice in three hours, I fall asleep like a baby the moment I lay down, there is nice music which goes on for the all night until 5,30 when I wake up to take advantage to the max of the morning fresher hours … all the other camp beds around me have disappeared but the ones of the managers of the cafeteria … with Ramadan there is more life at night … here on the road during the day you can hardly see anybody … differently from the other countries I passed the road is not a very frequented place or a center of aggregation … people during the day if they can lay down on camp beds and carpets … they ration the energies in the shade … the heat regulates the rhythms of life …
Here when the big buses overtake me, other than the usual warm caress which makes you gain a couple of kilometers per hour on the speedometer, they spray you with the water from the air conditioner … the more modern buses are closed with the air con others older have only iron bars and on glass … the heat is always the same …
A driver who could mumble three words in English, and you could see he was sad not to be able to communicate what he knew on the places and roads from here to Wadi Halfa … paid the camp bed for me … this is Sudan …
Sheppards’ house along the road to Al Dabbah N 16°15.994’ E 031°50.671’ – Multaga 17° 95.521’ E 31° 22.589’
214 km