Days 53 & 54: Ethiopia

Day 53

In the daylight we discovered that the seams of the fuel tank were sodden with diesel. One of the waiters in the hotel knew a mechanic and so we arranged for him to come and see the problem and give us a quote for removing the tank and welding the leaks.

It took two mechanics two hours to remove the nineteen year old tank from the rusty fixings of the undercarriage, and once we had drained it and removed the bottom shield, six of us stood around the tank with a piece of chalk circling the dozens of holes, just like being stood around a pub quiz machine playing spot the difference.

The garage only had the electrical welding equipment and not the better oxygen based welding guns, and so the job was only really a temporary fix until we could either get it re-welded somewhere else, or preferably get a new fuel tank.



Day 54

With the Landrovers fuel tank back in place we drove up into the Simian Mountain National Park with our compulsory local gun carrying park scout who couldn’t speak a word of English. The park is home to over 6000 gelada baboons and after only a hours drive we spotted a couple of hundred at the side of the road.

We got out of the car to go and walk amongst the baboons and sat down watching and taking photos. The baboons were not intimidated by our presence, and would come within touching distance of us so long as we made no sharp movements. After a while we resumed the drive upwards to over 3,300m above sea level. We got out for another longer walk around the park seeing the amazing scenery including the Geech Abyss, a 2000m shear face of rock that dropped vertically from beneath our feet into the valley below.

We drove back to a campsite near the entrance to the park where we knew a few of the other overlanders we had met on the ferry would be camping that night. We cooked dinner on a campfire before the sun went down and I eventually got the guitar out to play a few songs to give us something to do once the sun had gone down.

Days 51 & 52: Ethiopia

Day 51

Away from the desert in the Ethiopian highlands the heat was once again bearable, and the sun shone down as we took a walk around Gondor to the Royal Enclosure, a walled area of the town with numerous remnants of castles and palaces dating back four hundred years.

In the afternoon Nathan was interested in watching the Manchester United game on the TV, so we set off on a walk around Gondor to try and find somewhere to watch it. It turns out the Ethiopians are crazy for the English Premiership and it wasn’t long until we found a hotel where they had the game against Everton on the big screen in front of around a hundred Africans and two Welshmen drinking a cheeky afternoon beer.

After the game we drove up to another hotel on the top of the hill to see the view and sample the local food. We tried the fasting food which consists of a large flat sour kind of pancake with numerous dips and vegetables on top. We weren’t overly impressed with the sour bread, but some of the dips were really tasty.



Day 52

To reach the Simian mountains towards the north of the country involved a long four hour drive on gravel roads to the ‘base town’ of the mountains called Debark. The suspension and steering on the Landrover were taking a battering, and the dust storm that was created by the back wheels was churning up dust into the small gaps in the rear door, covering everything inside with a horrible layer of dust.

Once we had found a hotel we decided to check that the Landrover was OK. The day we arrived at the Ethiopian border we had discovered a small leak coming from the fuel tank. Initially we had thought that the local youths who were hassling us for cash near the border had sprayed Diesel over the tank in some sort of scam, as they all appeared to know where there was a good mechanic once they had alerted us to the problem.

We took a closer look in Gondor to see there was actually a slow leak, but on another inspection in Debark, the tank was leaking around ½ litre (a pint) per hour. The sun was going down, and so we placed a bucket under the tank until the morning when we would try and get it fixed.

Days 49 & 50: Sudan & Ethiopia

Day 49

We returned to the Ethiopian Embassy before 9am, filled out the forms, and submitted our application. After waiting over an hour and a half, the visa officer called over Nathan asking questions about our trip, and then mentioning that she couldn’t issue us a visa as the photos in our passports were too old.

We argued politely that our passports were 8 years old, but still valid for two years and had been accepted by every other country we had passed through so far with no problems. We argued that whatever picture was in our passports, they would always be old, whether it was one year or nine years, and that they are still valid, but the stubborn woman seemed incapable of reason in her thinking and she insisted that we needed new passports to obtain a visa for Ethiopia.

The other option for us was to visit the UK embassy to get a letter with an official stamp from them explaining that the passports should be accepted. If we didn’t get our visa that day, we would have to stay in Khartoum all weekend. We found the British Embassy, but it only opened at 11:00am. The Ethiopian embassy closed at 11:30am, and we knew it was going to be tight.

We each managed to get a letter from the British Embassy which cost us each $100/£65/€75, but we had no other option. We returned to the Ethiopian Embassy at 11:45am, but were luckily still allowed to get the visa processed. One letter and two hours later, and we had our visa. Thankfully we knew we would be out of the unbearable heat of Khartoum the next morning.

Day 50

It appears that we left Khartoum at the right time. The heat that weekend apparently soared to a freak high of 50 degrees Celsius! Instead of being stuck in an oven, we were on our way to the Ethiopian border, with two new shock absorbers which had had managed to fit the previous day after the embassy fiasco had unfolded.

After around 2pm we had arrived in Gallabat and proceeded to stamp out of Sudan. Another problem of the visa fiasco and the Landrover repairs was that we had very little money left, and in Sudan we were unable to withdraw money from their cash machines. Luckily the border crossing into Ethiopia cost absolutely nothing. We completed all of the documentation procedures whilst being hastled by about ten locals wanted to help us, then asking for commission, but we crossed the border post (a piece of rope between two wooden sticks) for no cost at all.

The day turned out to be the longest drive of the trip, and we arrived in Gondor in the dark to find a hotel and go out into the town for a meal, and our first beer in 12 days. It was longest I had gone without a beer for 5 years, and as it slowly trickled through my stomach and into the liver, I was no longer ill, the loss of appetite had returned, and the shaky hands had stopped. The two meals and four beers had cost us less than £3/€3.50. We had arrived in Ethiopia.

Days 47 & 48: Sudan

Day 47

Glad to get out of Khartoum, we left the campsite without paying as no-one was ever there to take any money from us during our stay despite us constantly asking who we are supposed to pay. Trying to find the way towards Ethiopia was tricky with no road signs at all (not even in Arabic) and so finding the way through asking local people was like trying to play a game of ‘hot or cold’.

After stopping to ask directions in Wad Medani, a local who could speak English said he would show us the way if he could get a lift as his house was on the way. His house was in a small village just outside Wad Medani on the main road to Gedaref, and when we dropped him off he invited us into his house for a drink of tea, and even offered us the use of his bath or the guest bedroom if we wanted to have a quick afternoon nap! This for us summed up the general kindness and hospitality of the brilliant Sudanese people.

We wanted to get on the road again and get to Gedaref so that we would be close to the Ethiopian border the following morning. Once we had arrived in Gedaref, Nathan was reading a guide book which stated that visas could not be attained at the Gallabat border, and after checking on the internet we realised it was correct. We would have to return to Khartoum to visit the Sudanese Embassy.



Day 48

We didn’t relish the though of returning to Khartoum, but it had to be done. We knew that getting the visa would take a day, and that we would really need to get the rear suspension fixed – even with a bodge – as it was getting worse and worse. We set off early and arrived in Khartoum after midday, arriving at the Ethiopian Embassy to find that like all embassies it was shut for the afternoon.

We thought that might be the case, but knew we still had one day before the Muslim weekend in which we could obtain a visa, and the guards at the gate informed us it would only take two hours.

The next job was to find a hotel (as honest as we normally are, we didn’t want to return to the Blue Nile Sailing Club to pick up the bill) and to get the Landrover fixed. Returning to the Industrial Area we stumbled across four more Landrover spare shops, and found a guy who said he would be able to fix it the next day after we had obtained our Ethiopian visas.

Days 45 & 46: Sudan

Day 45

The plan in Khartoum was to try and fix the Landrover, but after searching the internet we couldn’t find any parts dealers in Sudan. Needing to look at the problem ourselves we decided to take one of the wheels off to get better access to the rear suspension, but the wheel nut spanner was old and simply bent as we tried to release the nuts.

We then took a walk into the city centre to find a new spanner for the job, and after asking in one garage, he directed us to the industrial part of the city where there was one Landrover parts shop. Sadly they didn’t sell the bushes and washes required for the suspension fix, and so we thought the best thing to do was to wait until we reached Addis Ababa in Ethiopia.

That evening in the Blue Nile Sailing Club we saw another Landrover parked next to ours. It was a Series I, which we guessed was over 40 years old and we got chatting to the owner Beverly (male not female) who was from the UK and travelling around Africa having sold his house. This guy was quintessentially English, and we initially thought that he must be ex-military (even nicknaming him The Brigadier), but he was an electrician from Derbyshire.

That night a few other people who were camping had told us there was a talent competition at a local Italian restaurant, and so I took along my acoustic guitar from the Landrover. Some of the talent on show was shockingly poor, but even my rendition of Cannonball by Damien Grey was not good enough to beat a local rapper who sang about his love for Sudan being similar to his love for women. After the talent content the night was rounded off by two local bands who performed some Sudanese rock music.



Day 46

After another unsuccessful look for parts for the Landrover, we returned to wash the Landrover for the first time of the trip, and the brown bodywork was once again returned to it’s former blue colour.

We drove out to where the Blue Nile meets the White Nile to see the difference of the colour as they meet. It was interesting to see, but not as spectacular as people had made out, the Blue Bile looked blue, whilst the White Nile looked as brown as the Landrover before we washed it. We returned to the camp and sat down with the brigadier who was telling us of his trip and route through Africa, picking up some very helpful information on where to stay and which roads to take.

It was our last night in Khartoum, and the Blue Nile Sailing Club had a music night with more local bands on. Two of the Swedish cyclists who were on the ferry had just arrived and I sat down listening to the music whilst they told me of their journey from Wadi Halfa. After only 20km they had punctured two tyres, been involved in a road accident and then damaged the rear hub of one of the bikes, getting the bus to Khartoum where they could get replacement parts (which we eventually heard cost over €2000/£1900!).

Days 43 & 44: Sudan

Day 43
149miles/240km

We awoke to find that the mosquitoes in the hotel had enjoyed a bite to eat the previous night - even though we had mosquito nets on. We hit the road once again and took the opportunity to stop for food and tea in a few of the settlements along the way.

Our destination was the Jebel Barkal, a series of Egyptian Pyramids just outside Karima. We took the Landrover off-road the long way around to the pyramids, and the suspension wasn’t sounding too good over the bumps.

The plan for the night was to camp in the Nubian Desert, the complete wilderness of Sudan offered an ideal place to find a spot in the middle of nowhere to get out the rooftent, set up a campfire and cook the evenings meal. We enjoyed a full roast with vegetables and gravy before getting some sleep.



Day 44
185miles/298km

The journey to Khartoum would take us past another site with temples and pyramids, but we completely missed the turnoff, and we ended up miles away travelling quickly towards the capital. We decided to carry on and set up camp at Blue Nile Sailing Club where we intended to stay for a few days.

The food in Central Khartoum is the most unvaried selection I have ever witnessed. The choice is between Falafel, Fuul and kebabs, and after too much of all three along the way through the Arab world, we didn’t have much of an appetite. Plus, we couldn’t wash poor food down with a beer as Sudan has banned alcohol with Sharia Law being the legal system.

We did manage to find a wide selection of pirate DVDs for very little cost for sale in the city centre, so we spent the evening sat outside in the still over 30 degree heat watching movies on the laptop next to the River Nile.

Days 41 & 42: Sudan

Day 41
1miles/2km

With the barge taking longer than the ferry we had two days to kill before getting the Landrover back. The previous night me Nathan, Jack and Ryan had played (and beat) the locals in a game of football, but other than that, there was nothing really to do in Wadi Halfa.

We spent the morning completing immigration registration and getting a photography permit, and then we chilled out in the shade drinking Pepsi and eating the local food. After returning to the hotel, we heard a knock on the door from one of the other drivers who had a 4x4 on the barge telling us the barge was arriving and that we should go down to the port to unload it.

We knew we couldn’t complete customs formalities until the morning but we arrived at the port to see the barge coming in before each of the vehicles was driven off the barge, half onto a floating platoon, then onto some ramps, and finally onto the pier. We just couldn’t understand why there was so much trial and error from the port workers in the method of creating a ramp when they do it every week, but after four different approaches, the last Landrover was driven off a now lighter and more buoyant barge making the last decent the largest drop, but probably the smoothest of all four.



Day 42
239miles/385km

We awoke to complete the customs formalities, where the police took away all of our music CD’s into a small room for inspection, closed and locked the door behind them, and shut the curtain so that we couldn’t see what they were doing. Very strange, but perhaps they were hoping we had some pornography that they could watch.

With the roads ahead being newly tarmaced, we got a quick bite to eat and resumed our journey south. It turned out that the new roads that had been financed by the Chinese were better than most A-roads in Europe. The tarmac was smooth with no speed bumps to catch us out, and it even had cats-eyes either on both sides or just in the centre.

We stopped off at a few villages along the way to get some food and drink, but it wasn’t long until we had reached Dongola. We thought we had seen the end of the annoying Sudanese paperwork when we had left Wadi Halfa, but when we checked into a hotel for the night we found out we needed to go to the police station to get permission to use a hotel! Passport, VISA, South of Khartoum Permit, Photography Permit, Hotel Permit – what will we next need permission for??