Sussing Sudan

[JohnM]

Slipping on the nosebag right now.



Have to love inflight WiFi...

 

[kermatu]

Slipping on the nosebag right now.

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Have to love inflight WiFi...

Where's the vodka?!?

 

[JohnM]

Nah - call me strange but Dom’s my thing!

 

[JohnM]

Lining up a tasting of all five reds on offer to have with the grilled tenderloin and cheese to follow.

They stuffed up the Savaterre - it’s the Pinot, not the Shiraz, so I’ve moved it to the far left of the lineup. Otherwise, they are in list order.

@Daver6, are you paying attention? (for once ).

Just nosed them. Not unexpectedly, the three New World stand out for fruity volatility, while the French have that restrained musty aroma.

I shall muddle on...

 

[JohnM]

The steak was dry and overcooked - not dreadful, but off the pace. It’s the common problem with steak in the air.

I’m still contemplating the red wines. Altitude is messing with things. The Sophia, which intuitively I expected to stand out, is good but not a clear winner.

Usual story - the heavy-duty Australian Shiraz comes over full and strong and with incredible length in the air. The character just stands out. But - is it a really pleasant wine relative to the others? I’m not so sure.

The typically exceptional EK F cheeseboard is the only way to sort this out.

And so it proved to be.

All very good wines. But in the end, by a short nose, I put the Chateau Olivier as my preferred all-round red.

All a bit of fun to pass the hours...

 

[kermatu]

Don't think you've actually given us the reds list?

 

[JohnM]

After a nap, a shower and a sojourn down at the bar with the J riff-raff (Dom personally delivered), back to my rightful 1K place for a further Dom gargle and, unusually for me, a dessert. It was verrrry sweet. Couldn’t think what else to have. Oh well, I’ll run and surf it off at a PERfect beach tomorrow .

 

[JohnM]

After a nap, a shower and a sojourn down at the bar with the J riff-raff (Dom personally delivered), back to my rightful 1K place for a further Dom gargle (FA insisting I finish the bottle - and who am I to argue with a woman... - it’s never worked in the past ) and, unusually for me, a dessert. It was verrrry sweet. Couldn’t think what else to have. Oh well, I’ll run and surf it off at a PERfect beach tomorrow .

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[Antoallison]

After a nap, a shower and a sojourn down at the bar with the J riff-raff (Dom personally delivered), back to my rightful 1K place for a further Dom gargle and, unusually for me, a dessert. It was verrrry sweet. Couldn’t think what else to have. Oh well, I’ll run and surf it off at a PERfect beach tomorrow .

View attachment 145936

You chose a white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake by the look of it ... White choc is usually pretty sweet but the champers would have cut through that !
PS - It’s going to be hot in Perth on Monday ..beach sounds like a good place to be. I have enjoyed reading Sussing Sudan.

 

[JohnM]

After a nap, a shower and a sojourn down at the bar with the J riff-raff (Dom personally delivered, thankfully ), back to my rightful 1K place for a further Dom gargle (FA insisting I finish the bottle - and who am I to argue with a woman... - it’s never worked in the past ) and, unusually for me, a dessert. It was verrrry sweet. Couldn’t think what else to have. Oh well, I’ll run and surf it off at a PERfect beach tomorrow .

View attachment 145936

 

[JohnM]

I either ran out of data or there was a glitch that didn’t post the last pic. Anyway, home sweet home now. Thanks Greg and his Audi Q7 for the EK CD ride from the airport.

 

[RooFlyer]

Wondering if its the in-flight wifi or the dom that's giving us this trip report in triplicate.

Hopefully there's a bit to follow on the stuff between the flights

 

[JohnM]

I think the inflight WiFi connection was flaky. It lost some stuff that I thought I had posted.

Ah well, I tried.... The things that I do for you lot....

 

[JohnM]

Don't think you've actually given us the reds list?

Here you go, mate.

 

[kermatu]

I think the inflight WiFi connection was flaky. It lost some stuff that I thought I had posted.

Ah well, I tried.... The things that I do for you lot....

Impressed with the effort. Personally I hate the fact that wifi is becoming more and more available. Fortunately I'm very naive and just assume "flight mode" means no contact with the rest of the world.

 

[JohnM]

Impressed with the effort. Personally I hate the fact that wifi is becoming more and more available. Fortunately I'm very naive and just assume "flight mode" means no contact with the rest of the world.

I give it a crack for some fun and to see how good it is (conclusion: not very). Also, as I am retired I don't have the issue of wanting to dodge the office cr@p . Happy days .

 

[kermatu]

I give it a crack for some fun and to see how good it is (conclusion: not very). Also, as I am retired I don't have the issue of wanting to dodge the office cr@p . Happy days .

Sadly I did have to use it for about 30 minutes on one recent EK F flight but that was my own stupidity for not doing something earlier in the day. Otherwise, I've been successful at going dark to date.

In October I sampled all the same reds you did, other than the Two Hands one. My favourite was the Chateau Pontet Canet Pauillac. Easy drink which went well with most dishes.

Anyway, looking forward to your Sudan pictures.

 

[LadyC]

Waiting to read more about these whirling dervishes (and the rest of the trip of course!)

 

[JohnM]

OK, back to the TR proper which I’ll do day-by-day of the trip.

Day 1

The large sweeping loop in the Nile, that shows more clearly on the satellite image has been an important region in Sudanese history.






The planned first thing was to visit the National Museum, a few hundred metres along the road on which the hotel was located. Typically, the leader would give a briefing on where we were about to go and what we would be seeing on the trip, followed by time in the museum. However, it turned out that it was a holiday for the prophet’s birthday and the museum was shut. We ended up doing the museum visit on the last day and the briefing became a re-cap. It worked equally well if not better, as far as I was concerned.

We then crossed the Nile to Omdurman, the old capital, but now just a contiguous part of greater Khartoum, simply on the west, rather than east, bank of the Nile.

We visited the tomb of Mahdi, the Sudanese leader of the late 19th century revolution against the British and their subsequent evacuation by General Gordon. We then headed NW initially on the sealed road, taking to the Western Desert after lunch. Most of the desert driving was freestyle off-road, navigating by GPS, as there were no clearly developed tracks.



Loading the eskys with ice before leaving Omdurman. An old bicycle crank made a good ice axe. We had five vehicles: two LandCruisers and three HiLuxs. The crew was the leader, the five drivers and the cook. For the 14 pax, it was 4 to a ‘Cruiser and 3 to a HiLux, with daily rotation between and within vehicles.

We were soon into wide open spaces. Colourful trucks reminded me a little of India.



Stop for lunch at a shelter where the crew could prepare and serve the food. The meals were simple but very good, fresh and tasty. A beetle species that kept popping up, even in the most barren sandy locations.

 

[JohnM]

A stop for a fuel top-up before heading off-road. The colourful truck overtaken previously was transporting camels. The mosques in Sudan are typically modest in size, even in the large towns, with tall, slender minarets which I rather liked the style of. Unfortunately, rubbish - notably plastic bottles - is strewn everywhere.




And into the desert.



Typically, we would arrive at a camp site around 1700h (sunset was about 1715h) but because of forgoing the museum visit on the first day, we were about an hour or so early. It was a good spot at the base of a large sand dune, and the extra time made for some climbing on the dunes and photo opportunities. It was about two nights from full moon.





Crew preparing dinner. We reckoned they must have been using laughing gas, from the loud and boisterous laughter that emanated from the ‘kitchen’ each night. Cheerful bunch. The vehicles were formed up to create a windbreak around the table, but we only had one very windy night.