Tuesday, October 9
2012: Fly LAX to Frankfurt via
Newark
I was off again on my third trip this year with some of the
same members of the Advantage Travel & Tours group. This time the travel was to visit the Horn of
Africa and Indian Ocean island nations.
Given the option by Cathy Prada of flying either via Paris on Air France
or Frankfurt on United/Lufthansa, I regretfully selected the Star Alliance
flights over the Sky Miles flights.The initial flight in my four flight odyssey to my first visit was a 06:59 departure on United from LAX. I was picked-up by a GoSedan car service at 0400. Therefore I had only limited sleep for the dual “Red-Eye” flights I was scheduled to take.
The drive to the airport was my first time to travel south
on the 405 since the “Carmageddon” week-end and the removal of the old
bridge. Unfortunately, the construction
was still ongoing and we found that the ramp from the 101 to the 405 was closed
until 06:00. My driver took the Haskell
exit into Encino and hoped that the Ventura Boulevard ramp to the southbound
405 would be open. He was not very
familiar with the area in Encino and drove past the onramp which was on the
other side of the Boulevard. When I
pointed out his mistake he was going to do a U-turn under the 405 bridge but
saw a police car parked down the block so he took a left turn on Sepulveda and
out of sight of the Police car executed a U-turn. When we drove passed the Police car I noticed
that it was empty. It was probably
parked there in the dark to scare people from not doing a U-turn if they missed
the onramp. At 0430 in the morning the
trip to the airport was fast even with the ramp closure.
I checked my bag to Cairo because Lufthansa did not have an
interline agreement with Kenya Airways which I was flying on from Cairo. That caused a little hitch at the check-in
since I didn’t have an Egyptian visa. I
had to tell the agent the long story on how I was supposed to fly to Eritrea
but the visa approval was not sent to the Eritrea Embassy in Washington DC
until Monday morning and since Monday was Columbus Day the Embassy was closed
so at the last minute Cathy Prada had to schedule me on to Khartoum, North
Sudan, the original second stop on 14 stop tour. I had paperwork for the North Sudan visa
which had the wrong date but between that paperwork and the email from Cathy I
was able to convince the United Agent to print my boarding passes and tag my
bag to Cairo.
The first flight left on time. I was seated next to a young lady flying to
Ireland on vacation with a female United Airlines pilot. They were boarded at the last minute (most
likely on the pilot’s pass) and had to sit in middle seats several rows
apart. (Just hours before departure I
had checked the seating map and it showed the seat next to me as vacant) The plane was one of the Continental
B-737-800 which had pay for TV at each seat.
I hate this arrangement because they don’t offer a music or air traffic
control channel that I like to listen to when I am reading.
The flight ended in Newark where I had to switch terminals
to get the Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt.
Fortunately there is a bus service in Newark that connects terminals
without having to exit take the Air Train and pass through Security again. In the three hours (1500 to 1800) between
flights I attempted to talk to Robin but couldn’t reach her. I spent the time in the Lufthansa Senator
Lounge based on my Star Alliance Gold status.
The flight loaded on time and I was seated near the back in the middle
section with two empty seats next to me.
After dinner around 23:00 EDT I attempted to sleep. I had no trouble falling asleep but after two
hours my left leg started to ache and it woke me up. I had to walk the aisle and stretch it before
the pain stopped and I was able to sleep another hour.
Wednesday, October
10, 2012: Fly Frankfurt to Khartoum,
North Sudan via Cairo, Egypt
It was a 7.5 hour flight to Frankfurt arriving at 06:45 where
I had a five hour layover before my flight to Cairo. I spent the time in the Senator Lounge
catching up on email and attempting to nap.
The flight to Cairo departed from a gate at the very end of
one of the terminals at Frankfurt. There
were a lot of people traveling with kids; wheel chair passengers and passengers
needing extra time to board. As they
were processing that group there was a couple that looked a little young for
needing extra time to board but the wife was complaining of back pain and they
sort of bullied their way to board early.
When I boarded just after the Business Class group there was a commotion
on the Air Bridge and the Purser running back and forth between the cockpit and
the gate agent. The woman was loudly
complaining to her husband when she boarded the aircraft that she was ill. The crew decided that they didn't want to
take the risk and have to make an emergency landing on the way to Cairo so they
asked her to get off the plane. She
started screaming that she wanted to go home and would not leave so Security
had to be called to remove her. It delayed
our flight by forty five minutes. The
flight was smooth and I had an empty seat next to me and dozed off a little.
My flight arrived at 15:20 in Terminal 3 at the Cairo
Airport. My next flight was scheduled on
Kenya Airways at 23:25 out of Terminal 1 which is several miles from Terminal
3. I proceeded to the Transit Desk to
find out how I could retrieve my checked bag and proceed to Terminal 1 without
having to acquire an Egyptian visa and passing through Passport Control to
Baggage Claim.
It proved to be a hassle since the agent at the Transit Desk
thought I should have checked my bag to Khartoum until I told him that
Lufthansa didn’t have an Interline Agreement with Kenya Airways. The agent told me to wait and after a while a
more senior looking agent in a black suit arrived and checked my papers, then
wrote down my baggage tag numbers and told me he would retrieve my bag.
After a while a porter arrived with my bag and asked for a
tip. I was so tired and fumbled for
money and found only a $20 and a $1 dollar bill in my wallet. I gave him the $1 and he didn’t look happy
but realized that I wasn’t going to give him a $20. I opened my bag and changed shoes to my
walking shoes (On long flights I wear sandals to compensate for my feet
swelling at altitude).
I waited for further instructions when a group of Saudis
arrived with a female Egyptain Airways Guest Relations Agent. She checked my paperwork and told me to
follow the group to a bus stop that would take us to Terminal 1, over 1.5 miles
away.
Once we arrived at Terminal 1 which was an older, smaller
terminal we were directed to the Transit Lounge where we had to pass through a
security screening. My checked bag
showed I had a pocket knife and that upset the screener but when I told him it
would be checked he let it pass. Next a
Security Agent asked for my ticket and passport. I gave him the e-ticket and North Sudan visa
request. He was confused that I didn’t
have a visa in my passport so he told me that he needed to talk to the Kenya
Airways Agent at 1900. I was free to
exit the Transit Lounge which had a TV blaring a speech by the Egyptian
President on. I left my checked bag
behind the agent’s desk and proceeded to find a place with free Wi-Fi. I was directed to the third floor and there was
an English Pub where I could plug in my laptop and cell phone with free
Wi-Fi. I ordered a beer and a sandwich
which cost $12, and connected to the internet.
One of my emails was from Kenya Airways forwarded from Cathy granting
the Cairo Agent the authority to board Edna and I without a North Sudan visa.
At 1900 hours I returned to the Transit Lounge and
discovered that Edna Erspamer had arrived.
She had flown in from Paris with Lynn Bishop (my roommate on many
trips), Linda Marshall and Terry Wharton from our Antarctica South Georgia and
North Korea trips. Also with them was
Neal Pollock who I have traveled with to Iraq and last year’s trip to
Africa. They all had their Eritrea visas
approved and were fly on to Asmara, Eritrea out of Terminal 3. When I checked with the Security Agent about
checking my bag he told me to wait until 2100 hours, so I told Edna about the
English Pub on the third floor and she moved her bag next to mine and we went
back to the pub where she had a sandwich.
She told me about her flight from LAX which I now wish I had
taken because:
1.
The flight didn’t leave LAX until 15:50,
allowing for a good night sleep before the flight
2.
The flight was on an A-380 which I have not had
the experience riding in.3. It would have allowed me to vote that morning at the LA County Voter Registration Office.
At 21:00 we returned to the transit lounge and were told
wait 5 minutes several times and eventually a Kenya Airways Agent arrived and
took our bags and returned with the baggage tags. We then were directed to Gate 3 and waited
until 22:30 to pass through security again and board a bus to the
aircraft. I was able to doze off for an
hour on the flight until they turned the lights on to serve a dinner. I took only the roll and dessert which was a small
cheesecake. The flight was only two and
one half hours.
Thursday, October 11,
2012: Arrive Khartoum, North Sudan
We arrived in Khartoum at 03:05 and were bussed to the
terminal. As we entered the arrival hall
we were met by a guide from the local Travel Agency. The guide directed us to a special line where
we had to pay US$150 to obtain a visa.
They took our picture right there for the visa. I had to remove my glasses and with messed-up
hair, a two day beard and bushy eyebrows my picture looks like Andy Rooney from
60 Minutes. Despite the wait to obtain
the visa we still finished before our bags arrived on the carousel.
The guide delivered us to a rundown Taxi that took us to the
Acropole Hotel in the center of the city just a couple of miles away. The Lonely Planet describes the hotel as
follows: “This hotel, the first choice of journalists, reeks of history and
intrigue, and although its youthful days are long gone, its old-fashioned charm
means it’s still the most memorable place to stay.” The hotel describes itself as having been “established in 1952 through the hard work
and vision of the late Panaghis Pagoulatoes from the Greek Island of
Kefalonia. The hotel began with just ten
rooms a rooftop garden where fine Greek, European and Local specialties were
served for dinner. The Annex was added
in 1954 with another 40 rooms. ….
During its reign of
five decades Acropole has passed through different stages of easy times and
witnessed also some hard times, especially through the chronic drought, famine
and floods. But the hardest time of all
was in 1988 when terrorist attack blew off the main building killing seven
people and injuring several others.”
The attack was directed at the number of NGO’s and other foreigners that
stayed at the hotel. The building was
never repaired and the hotel was reduced in size.
When I exited the cab and entered the building I was
confronted by a long set of stairs two stories up to the lobby. There we had to fill out several forms (one
for the hotel registration and one to obtain a permit to visit the Begrawiya
pyramids. We were assigned rooms 35 and
36 on the top floor terrace. We had to
walk through part of the kitchen to get to our rooms. The room was large with a huge two room
bathroom. In order to plug in my CPAP
machine I had to string an extension cord across the room from a power strip on
the desk which was plugged into a socket in the bathroom that also powered the
small refrigerator.
It was almost 05:00 when I went to sleep. I didn’t set an alarm and woke from a sound
sleep at 10:30. After a shower and shave
I walked down to the lobby and checked my email on my cell phone and read
several news lines on the cell phone.
Soon, a distinguished looking gentleman entered the room and introduced
himself to me as Makis (Mike), one of the sons of the founder of the hotel and
now along with his brothers George and Thanasis owns and manages the hotel and
travel agency. He explained the schedule
for the next day then and asked if I had eaten breakfast. It was now close to noon and I told him I
slept through it. He asked me if I drank
tea or coffee. In a few minutes a porter
arrived with a tray with a dish of scrambled eggs, toast, tea and cheese.
I thanked Mike, ate the breakfast and returned to my
room. Edna knocked on the door and told
me that she had eaten breakfast at 08:00.
She also gave me a newspaper that explained the current situation
between the North and South Sudan. In
Addis Ababa last month they signed a document titled “The Nationals
Agreement”. It agrees to allow the
citizens of each country “four freedoms” in the other nation: freedom of
residence, freedom of movement, freedom to undertake economic activities, and
freedom to acquire and dispose of property.
The agreement does not firm up the border line but it does allow the
south to ship its oil through the north again.
It is a very interesting turn of events.
At 14:00 Edna asked me to join her for lunch. They had a nice buffet of Spaghetti
Bolognese, roasted veal, mashed potatoes and peas.
After lunch I returned to my room – read, listened to a book
on tape, napped and wrote in my journal.
Dinner was served at 19:00.
Before dinner Edna had a Scotch on the patio and we examined her camera
that had stopped working. It turned out
that her batteries were dead. She had
recharged them but I guess they had reached the point of not holding a
charge. I put in a fresh set and her
camera started working again.
Dinner was a nice broccoli soup, chicken with mustard sauce,
potatoes with rosemary and mixed vegetables.
I wrote in my journal and retired about 21:30.
Friday, October 12,
2012: Tour Khartoum, North Sudan
At 01:30 I was awakened by a phone call from Judy. I had been in a deep sleep and fumble around
to find the phone. She was calling on
her Skype card to my cell phone number rather than my laptop which I had left
on in case she did call to it via Skype.
I was happy to hear her voice and to learn that her doctor had
determined she was doing OK.
After the call I dropped back to sleep and didn’t wake until
05:30 just as the VP Debate was ending.
I watched the critique on CNN, then showered and shaved and at 07:30
went to breakfast. Edna soon joined
me. She had watched the debate and
didn’t think there was a clear winner, just a definition of each side’s
approach to government.
At 09:00 I took a thirty minute walk around the local
area. What a contrast between this city
and North Korea. The city has piles of
trash along the gutter on every street.
Everything is covered with dust and the side streets that are not well
traveled are covered with dirt. I
couldn’t tell in they are paved under the dirt.
Even the main streets parking lanes are covered with dirt. Since it was Friday in a Muslim country there
was very little traffic and very few open shops. There were a number of women selling coffee
and tea along the side of the streets.
About ten minutes from the hotel I encountered a new Mall that Thanasis
told me would open at 10:00.
I was soaking wet when I returned to my room and wrote in my
journal. At 11:00 I ventured out again
and visited the Mall. It was new with I
estimate less than 50% occupancy. I
walked up three floors on escalator stairs that were not in operation. The top floor had a food court but there were
almost nobody eating. I then walked down
to the basement where there was a large Super Market, again with very few
customers. I guess the locals really
abide by the Friday Muslim traditions.
On this walk I was listening to a book on tape so the time seemed to go
faster than my earlier walk.
At 13:00 I met Edna at lunch which was Mousaka, Veal
casserole, salad and fruit cocktail for dessert. I then return to my room and read some
literature about Sudan.
The rest of our group arrived from the airport at 14:45 and
after they checked in we piled on a tour bus with six other hotel guests for a
city tour.
Sudan was once the largest country in Africa (now the third
largest after Algeria and Democratic Republic of the Congo) and is one of the
least visited countries in Africa.
Consumed by civil war for 50 years in various parts of the country,
Khartoum and the northern part are finally sufficiently peaceful to receive
western tourists.
The first stop on the tour was the National Museum. It holds many treasures of Sudan’s ancient
and medieval past including Pharaonic stone carvings, several large stone
statues of Kings (Nublan – Sudanese pharaohs) that are similar to Egyptian
museum statues. It contained full sized
reproductions of ancient temples, Egyptian influenced tombs, pottery and
metalwork from old empires such as the Kushite and Meroitic periods. On the second floor we viewed many fine
Christian frescoes.
From the National Museum we rode to the Republican Place
Museum which is housed in the former Anglican Church. Inside was a chronological series of displays
that traced the history of the formation of the country of Sudan from the
revolts during the colonial period and English and Egyptian rule. It was well presented and easy to follow the
history up to Independence. It did not
cover the recent split off of South Sudan.
Outside the old church building were several buildings with
glass walls displaying the automobiles the leaders of the nation and visiting
dignitaries rode in starting with a 1924 Rolls Royce up to several newer Rolls
Royce’s, a Lincoln and a Humber.
The next stop on the tour was the Sailing Club which is
housed in the El Malik gunboat that is now land locked near the river. The Al-Malik is one of Kitchener's gunboats
that were used during the Battle of Omdurman.
After retiring from government service, she was handed over to the Blue
Nile Sailing Club and used as its headquarters.
By the late 1980s, the El Malik was suffering from
corrosion, and the possibility of sinking.
Ironically, a massive flood in 1987 washed ashore the gunship and it
sits land locked about 20 yards from the river.
It is still an operational clubhouse where you can hire small boats to
cruise or sail along the Blue Nile but it is in terrible shape. I guess the club’s offices were on the second
deck but the latter to the second deck was made of wood and several steps
missing and others rotted to not convince men to explore the second deck. The El Malik has historical significance but
it is not a sight to enjoy seeing.
From the Sailing Club we crossed the bridge to Omdurman and
had a good view of the merger of the Blue and White Nile Rivers. We stopped at a fort along the river that was
built of mud and straw during the Mahdia war.
In 1884 Mohammed Ahmed, an apprentice boat builder, declared
himself to be the Mahdi or Savior of the people of Sudan and began a revolt
against the Khedive of Egypt, the ruler of Sudan, and his Egyptian garrisons
across the country. The revolt was a Jihad, or Muslim Holy War. The Khedive
resolved to evacuate his garrisons from Sudan and leave it to the Mahdi.
Considering its age the fort with holes for riflemen was in
remarkable good condition, not so was a rusty paddle wheel boat on display in
the same area. We rode past the remains
of the old gates of Omdurman on to Mahdi’s Tomb. We needed to take our shoes off to walk
around inside but the building had many windows and I observed the tomb from
many sides through the windows.
It was then close to 18:00 and our last stop and the hilight
of the tour – The Dervish Dances at the Al Nil Tomb. Sheikh Hamed Al Nil was a 19th century Sufi
leader of the Qadiriyah order (tariqa) and his tomb is the weekly focus for
Omdurman’s most exciting sight: The famous dancing and chanting dervishes.
Each Friday afternoon before sunset adherents of the tariqa
gather to dance and pray. The ceremony
starts with a march across the cemetery to the tomb of the Sheikh and the
dervishes carry the green banner of the tariqa wearing robes of a patchwork of
green and red topped off with leopard skin chunky beads and dreadlocks. The patch clothing represents the Ansar’s
denial of material wealth as did the Mahdi, who is reported to have only one
outer garment at a time.
During the dancing Judy called over Skype but I couldn’t
hear her over the chanting and drums.
When the sun set we returned to the hotel and had dinner at 19:00. Dinner was Vegetable soup, veal and the Veal
casserole from lunch. Mike addressed the
group and gave us the schedule for the next several days. After Mike’s talk I returned to my room and
finished the day’s journal.
Saturday, October 13,
2012: Tour Khartoum, North Sudan
I had breakfast with Lynn, Edna, Linda and Terry. Terry has a new DROID phone and asked for
help in several areas. Its operating
system was more advanced than on my DROID 3 but I was able to figure out what
he needed. He also has an iPAD and was
having trouble with it. I helped him
solve some of the problems but could not find his Hotmail Contact folder.
At 09:40 we started out on our tour for the morning. The first stop was the Omdurman Camel Market
about a forty five minute drive from the hotel across the White Nile River near
Tuti Island where the White and the Blue Nile Rivers converge to form the Nile
River, through the city of Omdurman, into the desert and then over sometimes
dirt roads. When we got off the bus to
take pictures at the Camel Market, we were greeted first by a young man
offering camel rides and then by older men wanting handouts or cigarettes. Linda took up the offer for a ride. She was wearing a bright yellow shirt and
that coupled with her blond hair drew a large crowd of on lookers. She looked startled when the camel stood up
but the ride was slow, gentle and lasted less than five minutes. We followed her and one man in particular
kept begging for a handout. He even
tried to board our bus when we started to leave.On our way back to Omdurman we stopped at the Cattle Market. Terry and Linda were the only ones to get out of the bus to take pictures. I have seen enough cows herded together from my days living in Nebraska that I didn’t think the heat and dust were worth taking pictures of this herd. We rode back into the city of Omdurman and through the Omdurman Old Capital souk (market). It was huge and is the largest souk in Sudan. It was great to see the different stalls from the air conditioned bus. The travel was slow as the bus pushed through the crowded streets. On many occasions the driver had to get vendors to use a pole to lift lines strung across the road to clear the bus roof rack. We rode down many alleys and enjoyed the sights and sounds. After about twenty minutes we got off the bus and walked through a covered alley. We stopped in several stores in the alley and came out near the bus which was parked a block from the opposite end of the alley.
From the souk we rode across the Nile to the city of
Khartoum North where we stopped at St. George Church complex. Inside a courtyard were two church buildings
and a one story building in between. St.
George Church is an impressive building with twin steeples to our left and a
silver dome to our right as we faced an entrance with St. George on a horse
slaying a dragon. The other church had
two modern style steeples with a rounded top.
Both churches had a form of Coptic Cross (four equal lengths with flared
ends) on top of the steeples. We
attempted to enter the Church to our right but the care taker on duty could not
find a key to the massive wooden front doors which were decorated with the same
cross. I had seen someone walk up stairs
to the side of the doors so as the care taker tried one key after another I
climbed the stairs and found the door open to church hall with pews and an
altar. The others followed and a young
man appeared and told us the building served two church sects: Coptic Orthodox
and Copic and St. George Church building also had two levels serving different
denominations. I learned later that it
is a Coptic compound with various sects conducting services in the four
sanctuaries. (There are large Greek Orthodox and Catholic
Churches in Khartoum.)
From the churches we rode across the Blue Nile River back
into Khartoum and stopped at the Sudan Ethnographic Museum. A fascinating little Museum that explores the
various cultures and traditions of Sudan's numerous ethnic groups. Displays range from intricate handicrafts to
models of traditional homes. At the
entrance of the museum was a map on the wall marking where all the different
ethnic groups reside in Sudan. The first
gallery has a huge (8 foot) war drum carved from a single piece of wood and
used by The Sultan of Yambio. In the
next gallery there was a full size model of a Nuba Kitchen with a woman on her
knees rolling bread dough. In the
opposite corner was a full size Kambala Dancer with Buffalo horn headdress wide
beaded necklace, and a beaded skirt and other assorted colorful adornments.
In the next gallery was a full size camel bearing a litter
for women from the Beni Amer, Kassala Area.
In the same gallery was a tent of the Camel Nomads of the Western Sudan
which was built from four camel hair carpets sewed together and cow hide
sides. In another corner was a tent of
the Baggara (cattle people). It was
shape more like a yurk but constructed of palm straw mats. Next to the tent was a full size model of a Pack-Bull
of Baggara Arabs. The bull was laden
down with all the house hold goods to support living in the tent. It was quite a sight and I hope (not for the bull’s
sake) I can witness such a sight.
Outside the building were three tall (16 to 18 feet) and thin statues of
native women along the side wall of the museum
After leaving the Ethnographic Museum we returned to the
hotel for a lunch of small cheese burgers, French fries, balsamic rice with
curry sauce and a chocolate sundae for dessert.
I spent the afternoon writing in my journal.
Sunday, October 14,
2012: Travel by SUV from Khartoum to
Meroe, North Sudan
I was up early to eat breakfast and then pack a small bag
for the trip north along the Nile to Meroe on of the cities of the Meroitic
Kingdom (750 BC to 360AD). We departed
the hotel around 09:30 in two 4x4 SUVs.
I was in the lead SUV with Terry and Linda with Omar as driver. Our route on a paved highway followed about
one mile east of the Nile. Around noon
we stopped at what looked like an abandoned roadside café only to find inside a
large room with table and chairs and a few patrons watching a TV set. The hotel had packed lunches for us and Omar
and the other driver brought in a cooler from our SUV, set-up a table and
passed out the lunches which consisted of a tuna salad sandwich and a tomato
and cheese sandwich, plus some fruit.
When we finished lunch and were about to board our vehicles
we heard a loud bang and saw that a double trailer truck had blown a tie. Omar remarked that the trucks use a lot of
retread ties which don’t hold up in the hot weather. I had noticed that the both sides of the road
all the way from North Khartoum were littered with tire treads and shredded
pieces of tires. They even outnumbered
the plastic bags and bottles that littered the desert along the highway. I have seen more litter and trash in other
countries but the highway was not neat and clean.
After we started on our way again Omar crossed the highway
and started driving across the desert in a northeast direction for almost an
hour to the ruins at Naqa. Naqa was an
ancient city at the foot of a sandstone plateau. Our first stop was at The Amun Temple. It was not
very well preserved but covered a large area surrounded by a wire fence. We entered from the north side and walked up
the remains of a ramp to the west. The
ramp turned into a walkway with six rams on each side and a Kiosk in the middle
of the pathway between the third and fourth pair of rams. The faces had been knocked off most of the
rams. There was a series of archways and
pylons which formed the temple. The
pylons had bas-relief images of the King and Queen and various animals.
We then rode a short distance to, The Sun Temple, a square structure with high walls with a lot of
figures inscribed on both the inside and outside. Nearby was another smaller structure with
large openings on each side. We spent
about an hour walking around the Naqa complex taking pictures of the ruins.
After leaving the Naqa site we continued to drive across the
desert to Mussawwarat-Es-Sofa where we stopped at The Great Enclosure, an even larger area than The Amun Temple. Mussawwarat
in Arabic means “covered in pictures” and the walls and columns in The Great Enclosure were certainly
covered in pictures. One of the
attractions was a statue of an elephant.
Near The Great
Enclosure was The Lion Temple
which had a guide that unlocked a large wooden door and showed us around and
pointed out the pictures and give some explanation of their meanings. He had a log book he asked me to sign and I
tipped him for his service.
It took us forty five minutes to ride back to the paved
highway and continue northeast for another hour and across the desert again to
the Royal Cemeteries of Meroe. The main attraction of our trip were the
famous pyramids that were erected above the royal tombs whose chambers were dug
out of rock. Unfortunately a treasure
hunting adventurer named Ferlini demolished the tops of the pyramids in the 19th
century in search for the treasures of the kings and queens of Meroe.
When we arrived at the entrance to the site we were greeted
by young boys selling souvenirs and a group selling camel rides. We entered a gate to the site and were
confronted by high ridges and dunes of sand. .
The sand surface could hold our weight so it was not too difficult to
climb up to the pyramids and explore.
There were about a dozen large pyramids along the ridge and another
dozen or so smaller pyramids down the slope.
As we climbed around taking pictures I came across a tour guide and he
helped explain the pictures on walls inside buildings that were called chapels
that were at the base of many of the pyramids.
We spent about thirty minutes exploring and taking pictures before
returning to the parking area and the souvenir vendors.
From the pyramids it was a short ride across the desert to
the Meroe Tented Camp where we spent the night.
The tents were square structures facing west toward the pyramids with
large mesh windows on the north and south side and a zipper flap entrance. There were two beds, a dresser with mirror, a
bench and a small table between the beds.
On the table was a lamp and on the wall behind the table an electrical
outlet that I was able to plug my power strip into for my CPAP machine and
chargers.
Behind the row of tents was a row of outhouses with flush
toilets and showers in each outhouse. A
large two story thatched roof building was about 20 yards away from the row of
tents. It had a porch facing west with
an excellent view of the pyramids. We
had a welcome drink awaiting us on the porch and we sat up there to watch the
sun set and have our dinner.
The camp had one other guest who turned out to be Frank
Reimer, an American from Livermore, CA that had been on my visit to Midway
Island two years ago. Since my wife’s
parents had lived in Livermore and my wife and girls lived there when I was in
Vietnam I had a lot of stories to swap with him. Frank had just come from a “touch and go”
stop in Mogadishu, Somalia and was going on to Juba, South Sudan next to
complete visiting all the countries in Africa and fall one place shy of all the
destinations on the TCC list. The
remaining destination was the British Indian Ocean Territory which main island
is Diego Garcia which is a military airbase off limits to visitors. He showed us pictures of his trip to the
South Pole. A very traveled man!
After dinner we returned to our tents. It was still very warm and we kept our flaps
open to catch a little breeze. I slept
like a log since it was similar to the warm nights in California. The power was cut off at 23:00 but my CPAP
battery served me well through the night
Monday, October 15,
2012: Travel by SUV from Meroe,
North Sudan to Khartoum, North Sudan
I was up at 06:00 and it was still very dark. I was able to shower, shave and dress in the
outhouse using the light from my flashlight.
As it got light out everyone came out of their tents to to a picture of
the sunrise. It was 06:43 before the sun
rose over the hills to the east of the camp.
After the sun rose we ate breakfast and left the camp at 08:00. About twenty minutes away we stopped The Royal City, a large area on the
banks of the Nile. It is surrounded by a
fence and we walked around for about fifteen minutes and saw just piles of
ruins but nothing very distinguishable.
We returned to the highway and rode for over an hour to the
6th Cataract of the Nile where we took a short boat ride on the Nile through
the Cataracts and then south for a thirty minute ride. After the ride they served us tea in a grass
cover hut near the boat landing.
From the Cataracts it was a two hour ride back to the hotel
in Khartoum and a nice late lunch. I
spent the afternoon writing my journal.
At 19:15 I went to dinner. The
other members of our group were already in the dining room and Mike had dropped
off the Sudan Departure Forms for us to have filled out before we left the
country. Dinner was baked chicken breast
with potatoes and mixed vegetables.
After dinner I packed and went to bed.
