The "Road" To Sesebi

The tarmac road almost went to Dongola (gotta love the names here). In Dongola we picked up our inspector, Abir, a slender and very kind Sudanese woman. Between her and our drivers (Saif and Aimad) it seemed there were very few people along the route they didn't know.

We left the tarmac and went off road.

I was astounded to see that a lot of the time we were doing up to 85 km/h on desert sand. There are much used tracks (trucks and other four wheel drives but also the pick-up truck taxis and busses) which are very soft in places. Being in the second car we were left in huge clouds of sand sometimes. Aimad slowed down but kept a good pace going although in one case  we only managed to stop in time when a small accacia bush scraped our bumper. Makes you wonder what kind of bush would want to live in middle of the road, the Sudanese deathwish bush.

The Road To Sesebi

We left the Acropole, early in the morning. A convoy of four Landcruisers, two going  to Sesebi via the Westbank of the Nile where there is no proper road and two via the Eastbank where there is no proper road either although that "no road" seems to be easier to travel than the one on the West Bank. The first leg of the journey went over tarmac through the desert. It cuts of the big bend in the Nile to the east.

First stop was to buy some bottled water in Omdurman souq, there wouldn't be any further up north. Then dozing of in the car while accacias (only 4 of the 72 different species according to our residential (carridential?) botanist Alan), huge termite mounds of red clay, small goatherds and the occasional camel whizzed by the windows. 

A few hours later we had breakfast at a sort of truckers stop with a huge mosque (Alan's posing in front of it) with all four cars. Lemonsellers taking it easy, bowls of fuul and lentils, bread and tea later the group split up. Here the tarmac road also ended.

Khartoum City 1

While waiting for the registration and permits we had a chance to have a quick peek at Khartoum. On our way to NCAM (the National Committee for Archaeology and Museums) we wandered down the corniche and saw where the White Nile meets the Blue Nile and you can really see a smaller strip of dark to north and a wider lighter area in the south. Unfortunately no pictures were taken because of nearby bridges (a big no no when it comes to photographing in Sudan) and because I didn't bring my camera along.

Ran into some other nice things tho. The little (well it's not so little but it looks that way) blue and white building known as Gadaffi's Egg. A deluxe hotel and business place built by the Libyans, the son of Moammar to be more exact.

And a company that has numerous activities and isn't afraid to announce it.

It's a very new city and has made space for buildings and streets. everything is wide. Houses are generally low. There aren't many shops although a new mall has been built recently. There are a lot of cars but nowhere near the amounts in Cairo and they don't honk very much.

The city itself is divided. Because of the inverted Y shape there's a series of cities. In the fork of the upside down Y is Khartoum 1, 2 and 3. Not very inventive or imaginary but very clear. The airport lies in the middle of these sprawling numbers. Streets in the newer parts have numbers, not names. 

North of the fork is the northern area, usually designated industries and most likely garages etc. A few residential areas and lots of empty spaces. The area to the west/northwest is Omdurman with a large labyrinthian souq (as muslim cities should have, not the wide westernised shopping streets Luxor and Aswan now so falsely boast).

Omdurman is the part where the Ma'adi lived and is now entombed. For further reference; watch the movie "Khartoum"  with Sir Laurence Olivier as the Ma'adi. 

The Acropole Hotel

We spent a few days in Khartoum at the Acropole Hotel. Every country where archaeologists have worked in the early 20th century seems to have a hotel of reputation where archaeologists and others of that ilk seem to flock. It reminded me a bit of the Baron Hotel in Aleppo, a certain amount of charm, lots of faded atmosphere and a very skewed cost to quality ratio. It's nice enough and has one extremely important factor; George the owner. A very suave and polyglot Greek who runs the hotel with his brother, his wife and brother's wife. George is also one the most capable fixers in Sudan. Although that comes at a price, a high price.

Kate came back from paying our room bills and George's "expenses", slightly pale, shakey and in dire need of good drink. Unfortunately Sudan is dry, extremely dry. People at the airport have anything resembling alcohol (and a fair amount if things not resembling alcohol) is confiscated immediately. So not only do you pay through the nose, there is no compensating numbness thanks to a stiff drink. Although there might not be enough alcohol to make you forget how much you had to spend on the Acropole and George.

To Khartoum

The Sesebi season started well, Pam (Rose, one of the dig directors and all round good egg) at the airport check-in counter staying calm, outwardly at least, and the Egypt Air manager telling us that without any kind of proof of visa, I could not board the flight. Pam likes to be very much on time and thanks to me, 2 day weekends in the Khartoum Civil Service (especially the visa department) she had to wait to the very last minute before checking in. Phone calls to George, the owner of the Acropole Hotel and general fixer for problems (at a price, a large price) confirmed that the visa was on it's way but stuck in traffic. The invitation letter from NCAM (the National Committee for Archaeology and Museums) Kate (the other dig director and good stick as well) sent me via Email and which I had on my iPhone, did not impress anybody.

Closing time for check-in and I was eventually allowed to depart without visa. 

Arrival in Khartoum where it was still quite hot (about 30° at 5 pm) was different, but not much. We had to wait for my visa to get pasted in my passport and get stamped. So some minor waiting there. Taxi drive to the Acropole showed Khartoum to be a sprawling city with wide streets flanked by single story buildings, few trees and lots of red sand everywhere. Sort of like the outer 'burbs of Luxor but then much bigger. 

An African feel to everything as well.

At the Acropole Kate and Alan (Pam's hubby and my pole monkey for the season but actually a very accomplished paleobotanist and overall nice guy(with a slightly odd sense of music)) were waiting. As was part of the team of Amara with whom we were to travel up north.

The geologists Judith and Graham and an adult student, Nick, were still to arrive at 4 am that night.

Sesebi, Sudan

This is where I will be staying the next three weeks, if all goes as planned; Jebel Sese, near Delgo, North Sudan

Getting ready for Sudan

In preparation for the Sudan campaign, the day after tomorrow, part of my time has been spent running around Cairo trying to get vaccinations, visa, permits, clothes etc etc. Particulary getting vaccinations is a treat.

In the Netherlands there are a few places to go and where you can basically get all you need. They usually are pretty backlogged and require appointments weeks in advance of departure.

Cairo does it topsy-turvey. You go in the office, sometimes like the one in the picture, say what you need (in my case Yellow Fever), plonk EGL 73 on the table (equivalent to € 10!!), bear your arm and get jabbed. Within 3 minutes you're standing outside with a nice pale blue stamp and several scribbles in your vaccination passport.

The big trouble is finding out where to get the vaccinations. My booster shot for Hep A went fairly easy, a huge complex called VacSera in Mohandiseen, open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This system is slightly different, it is the same as in large stores like Omar Effendi and other shops; you go to the counter, tell them what you want, they write out a receipt which you bring to the cashier, pay up and in this case get the vaccine with included sterile needle in a refrigerated package, go back to the counter or room where you had the receipt filled out and have them insert the needle into your flesh. This whole endevour took about 7 minutes.

In both cases the actual innoculation only took minutes, finding out where you get them took days, almost a week. Yellow fever wasn't done at VacSera and the only indication I got where I could get it, was; "Midan Giza, near Giza Train Station". After driving there with my on-call taxidriver, Ramadan and me trying desperately to explain what I needed, he asked around. On Giza street I had to get out, follow some bloke through all kinds of alleyways, buildings and courtyards to end up in an office on the ground floor of the building above, way in the back. I actually think it was a different building. Not very reassuring, I can tell you. And 3 minutes later I was done, in the taxi, driving back to Zamalek. 

I'm so glad the vaccination's valid for 10 years, don't want to have to imagine doing that every year.  

So tomorrow I'm off to the Sudan for 3 weeks. I say this with confidence though there is a small chance I will be back the day after tommorow; I do not have a visa yet, it is supposed to be waiting for me at Khartoum airport. Since the other team members are all British, they got all theirs from the embassy in London. The very easy to get visa to get became more difficult to acquire. Since I could not part with my passport, I went for the embassy here in Cairo.

Internet research (there's a contradiction in terms) showed it was either extermely easy or almost impossible. So giving it a go, went to the embassy  just before Christmas because that was when I was sent the letter of invitation from the Sudanese Institute of Archaeology and Museums. Without this any kind of action would have been futile.

After having filled in new forms-the ones for the London Embassy were not accepted and having copies made ( Two pound please) I went to the plexiglassed counter, had quick chat with the guy behind it where I was going (I come from Dongola, it is very nice there, much nicer than rest of Sudan) and handed him my pack of papers and a €100 note. 

This is when the problems began, it was $100 and they had no change so I had to go change it at a bank. Bank 1 only helped accountholders, Bank 2 did not exchange money (what kind of bank is that), Bank 3 same thing, Bank 4 took the Euros and changed them into Egyptian Pounds and took 15 minutes, after me explaining that I needed Dollars, not Pounds to tell me that they couldn't do that. Bank 2 did that....NOT. 

When I finally managed to get the Euros changed into Dollars the embassy had closed. Went back the next day after being in touch with Kate Spence, the person in charge of all Sesebi paperwork and asked how long it would take. Bukra, the infamous "tomorrow" or "manyana" was the answer, with the always confidence inspiring "Inchallah" after it. 

Other tourist sitting in the passport office of the Sudanese embassy told they had been coming back for five days in a row after being told it would take 5 days. So they were on day 10 and I did not have that time. Kate opted for another option, George of the Acropole Hotel in Khartoum. He would arrange to have the visa waiting at the airport and I would have a copy sent to me.

This morning George mailed me and asked for the flight details, a second signature was missing and couldn't be gotten before tomorrow morning. Even Sudan has gone over to the 5 day workweek for civil servants, recently. The visa would be at the airport. I just needed to tell the people at Egypt Air, when asked about the visa, or lack thereof, that I would be responsible for buying a ticket back to Cairo if things didn't work out. He assured me they would though.

How reassuring.

This by the way is where I will be for the largest part of the season, Jebel Sese, near Delgo