23rd November 08

Date: 23rd November 08
Location: Just short of the Ethiopia/Sudan border
Weather: Clear blue skies and sunshine, great for driving
Status: Moving on quicker than expected….

The perfect choice of location for the camp last night ensured an early rise with the sun blasting through the tents door, so after a quick bite of breakfast we hit the road again….or the road hit us again with more uncomfortable stony track after we’d cleared the initial 20kms of tarmac.

The route to the border passed through small villages and dusty tracks until we finally arrived at the border with Sudan. A hustling, bustling border post with the usual hassle of money changers on the Ethiopian side but once we’d got through no-mans-land the situation changed into a more orderly and logical Sudanese side.

We entered the immigration area and checked ourselves into the police station where we filled in the usual forms but they wouldn’t allow us to register there, instead we would have to head to Gederaf around 150kms into the country, no matter as we had three days to do it.

Kees and I sat in the customs hall waiting for the officials to stamp our carnets and after the obligatory coffee and tea session with them, had our documents returned all in order. We were happy to get on the move again and this time the tarmac lasted for the entire distance to the town of Gederaf!

We followed the gps through the streets to the police station, went in to see the female police chief and were told that the office was now closed as it was a Sunday and that we could either come back tomorrow or complete the registration in Khartoum at a reduced rate….we didn’t need to be told twice!

Another 75kms down the flat, featureless road we spotted a group of low lying hills off to the side of the road and pulled off the highway to make camp for the night.

End of day location: Past Gederaf, Sudan
Distance covered: 308kms