As I mentioned before on this particular trip I was traveling to Ethiopia, Sudan, and Egypt. Sudan has been a destination I have wanted to visit for sometime. Sudan or The Sudan as it is also known is the largest country on the African Continent. It has a wide variety of landscape and perhaps boasts the most diverse varying cultures in Africa. Nine different countries and the Red Sea border Sudan. I will stay are from writing in detail about Sudan and will leave that to the experts. The Brandt Travel Guide Book is a good source for detailed information about all aspects of Sudan.

Since I had never been to Sudan before I started my process quite some time ago to obtain my Visa. I had heard from a couple of people that it was a lengthy process to obtain a Sudanese Visa. I found out later that tourism in Sudan is in its virgin stages, so it was difficult for me to make contact with someone in Khartoum that could assist me with obtaining my Visa. I finally made contact with a guy named Midhat Mahir, he is a tour operator in Khartoum. Midhat did a nice job assisting me with the Visa.

Upon my arrival at Khartoum Airport, Midhat met me as he was to be my host and set-up my travels. I did not know what to expect in Sudan as we are all bombarded with negative news about the conflict in Darfur. 
I was pleasantly surprised at the friendliness and helpfulness I experienced with the folks I met in Khartoum. Every morning at my Hotel, I received a local newspaper in English and it seemed to me that no one was hiding the Darfur subject as the paper had daily articles about the situation.  

I spent five days in and around Khartoum seeing the sites and meeting local folks, as I love to do. In addition to Midhat, my other hosts were Midhat’s brother Moez and their college Walid. These three guys are Nubian, which is one of the oldest cultures in the area. The Nubian culture dates back to the ancient Egyptian days and before. One of the highlights for me in Khartoum was my motorboat trip on the Nile River. The Nile flows straight through the city of Khartoum and we traveled to the spot where the Blue Nile meets the White Nile. That is a definite famous historic spot!     

The next day Moez, our driver and I headed north along the Nile River. Since I had not been to this area ever before I wanted to take-in as much as possible and of course meet the locals. As we departed the Khartoum area our first stop was a beautiful farming spot along the River located close to the sixth cataract. The Nile is famous for its rich soil where just about any crops can be cultivated. From here we headed off road through the desert en route to the Naga Historic Site. Here we found two small Temples dating back to the time period of 800bc. I found that most of the Historical Sites I visited in Sudan were much smaller than the ones in Egypt, however my favorite part of visiting these sites was the fact that we were the only people at most of the sites. There is no mass tourism at all, so I could spend as much time as I wanted to and seriously take-in the sites. Also the pictures we took are fantastic because they do not have thousands of other people in them.

We spent the night camping within sight of the Temples!

The next day we headed north to a site called Moswarat also known as the Big Enclosure, featuring the Elephant Temple and the Lion Temple. At this site there was an excavation team uncovering and restoring parts of the site. As our journey continued we traveled through the desert again, off road, before arriving at the town of Shindi. It is a fairly large town and we happened to be there on market day, which is always exciting. As I looked around, I noticed I was the only westerner in the entire town, oh what fun!

From Shindi we made our way through the desert again on our way to what is probably the most famous Historical Site in the area the Pyramids of Merwe. The site has about twelve pyramids and if you get to one particular vantage point, you can get them all in one picture. These pyramids are much smaller in size than the pyramids in Egypt, but one can see they have their own very distinctive style. You may notice from the picture the tops of the pyramids are missing. Back in the early 1800’s an Italian Explorer was in the area and decided he would steal whatever treasures might be inside of the pyramids, he did so by removing the tops of the pyramids.

Our next destination would be the Pyramids of Nuri and to get there rather than take the main road we decided to go off road again this time traveling through the remote regions of the Biouda Desert. Traveling in the region gave me the same remote feeling I have experienced many times on my expeditions deep into the Sahara. The only folks we saw in this area were a few nomads living in the desert. We camped in the middle of this desert that night under the brightness of a gorgeous full moon.

The next morning as we continued our journey in the desert, on our way to the Pyramids of Nuri. Once again the Pyramids at Nuri are from about the same time period of about 800bc. There was quite a few people living in this area back then, in addition to the Nuri Site in close proximity you also have the Temple of Jebel Barka and the Tombs of El Krou. The word Jebel, translated Means Mountain. They actually built a large Temple into the mountain it is a spectacular site. Just a short walk from the Temple you can see the Tombs of El Krou and more Pyramids. There are three tombs open to the public, so we went down into the tombs. The vivid colors used on the walls and ceilings are still intact today and probably as vibrant in color as when they were created almost 3000 years ago.  

From this region we had about another half-day of driving in the desert before our next stop, which was the Nile River Village of Old Dongola. Upon arrival in Old Dongola, I got a feeling like this must be one of the most beautiful peaceful places I have ever seen. Everyone seemed to be real happy and at peace. Our objective for this day was to arrive at New Dongola, which is a fairly large town. It was about a three- hour drive on a road traveling next to the Nile. By now if you have read my journals you know I like to stay off the normal routes as much as possible, so I said to Moez, lets see if we can find a guy with a boat who could take us to Dongola on the River. After some real work, Moez found only one of two guys that had a boat that could do the trip. His name was Nasser; we followed Nasser to his home, it was situated next to the River.  

It is not easy to find fuel for the boat in the area, as there are no fuel stations. Nasser went to find enough fuel for the journey as we had lunch at his house. After a while he came back with the fuel and we went down to his boat. Nasser has two sources of income in the area, one is farming and the other is using his boat as a taxi ferrying people from one side of the Nile to the other. There are no bridges in the area!
So off we went, Nasser, his ten year old son Hamy, Moez and I. Nasser had done this trip several times in the past and estimated it would take about five hours, however between the motor quitting a few times and having to change the prop once, it took us six and a half hours, however as I have experienced many times throughout Africa, these guys can fix anything! It was a fantastic journey as we saw only one other motorized boat the entire way. The sun had just set as we pulled into Dongola.  

I spent the next two days in the area and then we made our way south back to Khartoum. I had one more night in Khartoum before boarding my flight from Khartoum to Cairo.

NOTE: I would not hesitate to recommend travel to Sudan; it is exciting, educational, non-touristy, and safe. If you would like information on how to arrange travel to Sudan, feel free to contact me at info@stevekrenzen.com