Day 31: Wadi Halfa

So I ate my first Sudanese meal last night, and my first for about 24hours. The kitchen in the hotel would be Gordon Ramsey’s nightmare, he’d have a heart attack. Everything is dirty, there is no hygiene standard. But, when in Rome... So I have a beef and potato stew. It’s very tasty, reminds me a bit of the Irish stews mum makes, although mum does tend to put meat in her stews as well as the potato! No matter, on my delicate stomach I’m more than happy.  And, I feel so much better after a nights sleep, things are good.

Rob and I stroll into town (the town doesn’t have tarmac roads or any pavements) and grab a tuk tuk to the other, better looking, side of town. The driver is brilliant, speaking no English, he takes us to outside his house so we can see where he lives. We laugh a bit, and make the action for food, spooning from a plate into our mouths. He takes us to another house, perhaps the nicest house in town (it’s like the others). Hmm, this isn’t working. Then we realise they don’t have cutlery, and motion hand to mouth, he gets it! And drives us to a hut in the middle of nowhere. This doesn’t look good, but having been poisoned once, I’m game for anything. There’s only one thing on the menu, rice cake and crisp roll, so looks like we’re having that! And, it’s blinking marvellous J We ask for a couple of cokes, he says they’ll be five minutes. But, we spot him slicing up fruit, putting it in a blender, and then adding water. And the water isn’t from a bottle.

Whilst this is going on, a local guy says hello. His name is Joseph, he speaks a little English and explains his sister lives in Florida. He seems  like a nice guy.

Rob and I make a plan, when the drink arrives, we’ll pay, and then just leave the drink. But Joseph won’t let us pay, saying he’ll pay for our meal. Cripes, this’ll look really bad if he pays and then we don’t drink the drink. I assure him it’s OK, we’ll pay. He says ok, but wants to at least buy our drinks. There’s a classic standoff as he’s trying to give me money for the drinks and I’ve got my hands up politely refusing. This would never happen in the Egypt, what a contrast! I place my hand on his shoulder, and say it’s so kind, but the drink will make us ill. It’s an odd situation, but it’s smiles all round as we depart in the tuk tuk, back to the hotel.

We’re just waiting on the barge to arrive from Aswan with our bikes now, and that may be two more days yet. And this is a very quiet town. Population, perhaps two thousand, and it looks like not many people have a TV. You’ve got to be really careful with the bottled water too, Rob grabs us a couple of bottles from the shop, when we go to open them, his has been clearly tampered with and probably filled with tap water. Not the best for sensitive western bellies! And recently an English guy was caught with a beer and received 40 lashes, might stay dry for the next week or so...

  Can’t wait for those bikes to arrive!