Sudan

We left Khartoum and proceeded to the ancient Meroe pyramids at the edge of the Nubian desert.









Some tombs were possible to enter and what has remained was amazingly preserved, considering it's been around a couple of decades.

This is our first bushcamp in the desert:







Amazing, eh?

In the morning, we went back to the Meroe pyramids to enjoy them in the morning "coolness" (95 degrees). I let the truck go ahead and rode a camel there instead.



See ya later!

We had quite a few drive days in the desert. There is no road but there are an abandoned set of train tracks that we used as a reference point.




A day in the life...

I loved sleeping out under the stars with only my grass mat, pillow and sleep sheet. The landscape was so vast and the sky was so full of stars. One of the best things were the moon rises, when it would be dark as anything and a glowing light would start to show behind the mountains. Then the moon would poke it's head out and illuminate everything until you could see almost as well as during the day- which made going to the bathroom at night slightly annoying.




Yes, sleeping outside was so peaceful- until I saw this:


A creepy creepy crawly.

It's not a spider, it has ten legs but it's not a scorpion either. I just know I wouldn't want to wake up to it on my face. But I slept outside anyways! Supposedly they don't like our body heat anyways.

We had some fun with sand too!



Just keep digging, just keep digging...




Ready to get driving as the run is rising.

We got quite sandy as the days went on so this got to be common:



Boo!

We met up with the Trans truck ahead of us to catch the ferry from Wadi Hafa to Aswan, Egypt. The two trucks went on a separate barge.





Chilling out in the "cool" shade.

I really loved Sundan. I was sad when we had to leave, especially cause we left on that ferry- more about that in the next post. Shukran Sudan!

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Khartoum

What do you envision when you hear "Sudan"? Heat, desert, calls to prayer at 4 in the morning? You'd be correct but I certainly didn't expect this:





Our first night in Khartoum, it rained and poured so hard that the city was a river by morning. All African storms so far have been intense but brief, lasting only a few hours. But this went well into the next day! Our taxi ride to the camel market the next day might as well have been in a boat.

It was okay though because anything that did get soaked only had to be in the sun for a few minutes before it dried. That sun was roasting.

In Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, I saw the convergence of the Blue and White Nile, to make the river that flows to Egypt and out to sea. But the bridge it flows under was occupied by the military. They let us on it, but no pictures allowed!

It is Ramadan at the moment for Muslim people. During Ramadan, you don't eat or drink during the day but only when the sun is down. So at night the cities come alive but during the day, it makes it hard for us non-Muslim people to find lunch. Also, it is taboo to drink out in the open, which is hard to resist after walking around town in the hot sun.



Market

The last check off the list for Khartoum was to stock up on water and supplies for our week long stretch of Nubian Desert. Fingers crossed!


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Lalibella, Axum, and Gondor

In Lalibella, we went to the largest monolithic churches in the world. They were all carved from one rock in the 12th century.





These two pictures were on either side of an entrance. It's interesting how the same thing is portrayed so differently:


Mary and Jesus



Mary and Jesus





Other cultures have built churches high to be closer to God. The idea behind carving into rock is that Jesus was buried in rock, in his tomb, only to rise three days later. They commemorate that by carving deep down.

In Axum, there is a church that is said to have the ark of the covenant. Ummm, yeah right, sure thing. Instead, I saw some cool old stuff.





And bought a basket from this cute little lady.



All in all, Axum wasn't amazing.

But Gondor was pretty cool. It is described as 'Africa's Camelot' except, ya know, this one is real. Being so old, I was amazed by how intact it all was.








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Bahir Dah

We left Addis, definitely not my favorite city, and had one nights bush camp before Bahir Dah.

We camped by a river. That night, a great storm hit and the river started flooding fast. People had to move their tents to avoid being swept away. And the rain pounded away into the night.

That night and the next morning, we had a few guests. We gave them some truck tea to warm up. They had big umbrellas and big guns.













At the morning progressed, around 7:00, we started getting lots of curious visitors so it was time to pack up and get a move on.



In Bahir Dah, on Lake Tana, we went to island Orthodox Christian Monasteries. At the first, there was a huge celebration going on. Crowds of people pressed together listening and responding to the prompts with claps and chanting in unison.

















On the inside were paintings from the 16th century.
















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A-MAIZE-ing!

One of my favorite African snacks. Roasted maize!



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Back into Kenya and Onwards to Addis

So if it seems like I'm jumping from country to country and back, I am! The route I followed was Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Uganda, then back into Kenya to complete the circle.

A sign confirming it! We travelled up much of the Rift Valley while in East Africa.




We drove through northern Kenya on our way to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. I really did love bush camping here.




Drive drive drive :)



Local ladies and their camels

Drive. Stop. Nala has a broken mirror. Fix with duct tape.







All better now!




First night bush camping.

We crossed into Ethiopia and immediately noticed how populated it all is. Some countries here you could go forever without seeing another village but here it was impossible to even find a quiet spot to pull over for lunch. Just village after village after village.

One stop was at what is known as 'the singing wells'. It is a series of key shaped wells dug in a valley. It is for the herders to get water for their livestock.


The valley




Down down down...







This is what bush camping does

Looking down into the depths of the well, I saw how low the water level was. What the herders do is form a conveyer belt and pass up buckets of water until it reaches the top. They are called the singing wells because as the work is done, everybody sings. And the valley is filled with music.

After five nights of bush camping, we made it to Addis. Shower time!

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Grade 5 White Water Rafting on the Nile

Leaving Rwanda, we crossed back into Uganda and stayed in Jinja. There, I went Grade 5 White Water Rafting on the Nile. And I survived Grade 5 White Water Rafting on the Nile. From now on I shall refer to it as Grade 5 White Water Rafting on the Nile because I'm very proud that I actually went Grade 5 White Water Rafting on the Nile. Grade 5 White Water Rafting on the Nile.

It was crazy and amazing and terrifying and SUCH an adrenaline rush.

There were 8 rapids in total. The first rapid had a water fall. WE WENT OVER A WATER FALL. I was excited until I could see it, then absolutely off-my-face terrified (which wasn't helped when we asked Peter, our guide in command, how long he had been doing this for as we had been rowing for about 15 mins, and he looks as his watch and says "About 15 minutes") and then we WENT OVER THE WATERFALL. I don't swear in life but, I'm not exactly proud to say, I remember repeating a chorus of "shit shit shit shit" as we were falling. But, at the bottom sopping wet and glad to be alive, I was laughing.

Most rapids were super scary but a blast, but one, (aptly named "The Bad Place") was one I didn't enjoy and wouldn't want to do again. We flipped first thing and then I got slammed in the neck and head with either the raft or a wave. Whatever it was, it felt like a brick wall. I was getting a bit panicky because I inhaled a good chunk of water and couldn't catch my breath because the water would suck me down again. But I did what I was taught and tried to take little breaths in-between being underwater and I eventually I got back on board. It was scarier than skydiving and bungee jumping and every other scary thing in my life put together. With an extra dose of scary. And scary whip cream and a scary cherry on top. You might have gathered that I was scared. Scared.

But all the other ones were the good kind of scary. They were hard but I didn't actually feel like I was going to die. They were fun! I enjoyed the challenge of it. It felt like being on a roller coaster. In-between the rapids we jumped out of the raft and swam along lazily in the Nile :)


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Rwandan Genocide Memorial

After trekking the gorillas in Rhungeri, we went to Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. It is the home of Hotel Rwanda and the Genocide Memorial which teaches of the causes, actions, and actors of the Rwandan genocides and remembers the million people who were killed and the millions whose lives were changed forever. The stories and pictures of the mass hunting of the Tutsi (and any moderate Hutus not willing to kill Tutsi people) were chilling and sobering.




The view of the actual Hotel Rwanda from where I stayed.



The Memorial



A mass grave with over 250,000 people's remains.




The place was full of symbolism. Even the fountain decoration showed elephants, the creature with a long memory, saying we will never forget.

Now, over a decade later, Rwandan people have stopped identifying themselves as Hutu or Tutsi but as Rwandan.



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