Waiting for the Truck in Wadi Halfa
I woke up pretty late at 10am in our prison like hotel. The rooms do not have any other features than three self-made beds, a fan, a lamp, a power outlet and a number of scratches on the wall. Not fancy at all but all what you need. The hotel also features a men and a women section but for some reason most of us received a room in the men section; maybe because we don’t wear headscarves. Actually, our hotel seems to be the best available one in town. The Dutch motorbike traveller Lorenzo told us that his hotel is just an open-air courtyard surrounded by walls meaning no roof, all beds in one space and no privacy at all. We’ve heard that there is only one hotel in town which is somewhat better than ours which is exclusively for the workers building the road between Sudan and Egypt.
The boat which ships our truck from Aswan (Egypt) to Wadi Halfa (Sudan) had not yet arrived. So I went for a “shower”. Since there is no running water in the hotel, I took a bucket and a pitcher and got some water out of one of the water tanks standing around the hotel. With this I went to a little room which is supposed to be the “shower”. I took the pitcher to get some water out of the bucket and splashed it over my body. Then I washed my body and rinsed it with some more water out of the bucket. What a refreshing feeling. I actually don’t mind the dust on my skin but the sweat so I will try to wash my body every 2-3 days while bush camping.
Some of the locals did not even use the “shower” but were washing and shaving themselves in the middle of the courtyard of the hotel.
The toilets in the hotel are interesting as well. Since there is no running water you need to hit a tiny hole in the ground. If you miss it there is a stick you can use to push your excrements into the hole. The smell in the toilet is also very intense so that you need to take care that you do not fall into an instant coma upon entry of the toilet.
We’ve spent the remaining day hanging around the hotel. There is actually not much to do in Wadi Halfa and it is very hot so that the shadow of the hotel room is most convenient. Since Sudan is a Muslim country the locals were using the courtyard of the hotel for their prayers. It is very interesting to watch although I personally cannot imagine to live in a country were religious acts are regularly performed in public. I’m also wondering how Muslims always know the direction they need to address their prayers to. Probably they have some kind of inner compass since on the ferry boat we watched them turning during the prayer when the boat was making a turn.
In the evening we went out for dinner to one of the tiny restaurants in town. As far as I can judge by now Sudan is for sure not famous for its cuisine. I had some beans mixed with oil and a tiny bit of cheese. The dish had a very strange smell so I was mainly eating bread which I was dipping into the dish. We also heard the boat with our truck arrived at 5:30pm and so we were looking forward to continue our journey tomorrow.
