24th November 08

Date: 24th November 08
Location: Gederef, Sudan
Weather: Totally hot, sunny and too hot! 39°c
Status: Into another capital city today….

Up at just before sunrise to witness the massive fiery ball breaking the horizon with Kees. His fanbelt gave up the ghost yesterday and needed replacing so we sert about it before the others appearedand half an hour later we were done.

No Kees occasionally likes to do things which are out of the ordinary and this was to be one of those mornings! “Ben I’ve always wanted to roll a huge boulder off the top of a hill and film it….are you up for it?” Of course I was!!

So we loaded a couple of bottle jacks into the backpack and he, Savannah and I set of up the large hill behind the trucks with the intention of causing a rather unnatural landslide…not recommended I know but very amusing potentially! We made it to the top in just over half an hour and positioned ourselves on the side facing the others below and after choosing a suitable boulder Kees placed the jack under the edge ready for the off. Brandon was filming from below and at the countdown the jack was pumped until the massive rock tilted enough to drop off the side of the hill and smash heavily down the slope until coming to rest at the bottom in a cloud of dust and crashing noises!

A very amusing episode and safe as there was no one else for miles around. Mum I know you wouldn’t approve!

We hit the road and made good distance along the long, featureless road with just the usual racing buses making up the other vehicles on the journey. The outskirts of Khartoum came into sight around three hours later and what a surprise it was!

Its probably the mot westernised North African city I’ve been to with great roads, signs and markings, loads of new looking businesses and vehicles of mainly less than ten years old! Our destination was the Alien registration office in the centre of the town and the traffic was pretty heavy so slow progress meant we didn’t get there in time before it closed….damn it again!

So back tomorrow for the paperwork which means we can be in the country legally at last! We headed to the Blue Nile Sailing club, a well known overlander hang out and found another Landie from Germany there. We had a good chat and enjoyed the view from the banks of the Nile before all heading out to dinner with a couple of guys called Roland and Ras, nutters and great fun as they took us all in the open back of their 1980’s Land Rover 90!

Came back and poached free internet from the wireless of the sailing club before heading to bed.

End of day location: Khartoum, Sudan
Distance covered: 308kms