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.