Dec 28, 2013
Hotel: German Guesthouse; Khartoum, Sudan ($80)
Sudan loves its bureaucracy. You need a form for this and a form for that. You must register your visa within three days of arrival, which costs another $30-$50 (depends which exchange rate you use). Officially permits are required for taking photos, which come with a long list of banned subjects (bridges, train stations, government buildings, beggars..). I was only in Sudan for two days so arranging my photo permits would have taken time I didn't have. Luckily the Acropole Hotel was also able to prearrange my photo permits after I sent them the copy of my entry permit and passport.
Breakfast was already out early this morning, soft bread, nutella and hardboiled egg. I grabbed a banana and extra egg to take along for lunch. The driver was already here at 6:20 so we set off to the Acropole Hotel to pay the fee for the car. At $220 it was expensive but much cheaper than other quotes I had gotten from other companies. The price of petrol jumped considerably the past few months in Sudan after they changed the fuel subsidies. The Acropole Hotel gave me a pile of photocopies of the photo permits and a brochure describing the sites at Meroe, very useful!
We crossed the Blue Nile on the rail+road bridge and headed out north of town. The Meroe pyramids are about 3 hrs north of Khartoum. The sun was just rising as we left Khartoum behind and drove along the flat, dusty road lined with shredded tires. The road parallelled the Nile on its eastern shore. Along the way were several checkpoints where the driver handed the guards one of the permits. There were also old signs of volcanic activity.. large piles of granite boulders (like kopjes) I slept most of the way there and we arrived at the Meroe site about 9:30.
Sudan Sunrise
Meroe was the capital of the Kush kingdom, roughly 500BC-300AD. Like Egypt, the rulers were buried in pyramids, though their style is different. The ones in Meroe are much smaller with steep angled sides. The Egypt pyramids predate the ones in Meroe by over 2000 years. The Meroe pyramids are also in much worse shape despite being newer.. many of them were destroyed by an overzealous Italian treasure hunter in the 1800s.
The entry fee was 50 SDG and there were already a few trinket sellers setup outside the gate. Once inside there was a guy with a camel offering rides. Why not.. I hadn't ridden a camel in ages. I negotiated down from 50 to 30 SDG and we set off across the wadi to the southern group. The pyramids were built up on hills in the barren desert. Spent awhile wandering around the southern group before getting back on the camel to cross over to the larger northern group. That appeared to be the end of the ride as the camel driver wanted money then. I didn't have change so gave him 40.. he then asked another 10 for his friend who had walked along with us. Uh no, I said 30, I gave you 40... give him the 10 from that. Sigh. The travel guidebook for Sudan said 'not a camel tout in sight' at Meroe... obvious that is changing.
The northern group was fabulous.. 30 or so pyramids stretched out across the side of the hill. Some of them had been 'restored' with cement to show what they would have looked like. The pyramids had inner chambers covered with carvings of hieroglyphs and Egyptian gods. The amazing thing is I pretty much had the place to myself.. there were only two other tourists there. It was also quite warm for it only being 11AM.
Finally after spending an hour and a half or so at the pyramids we drove off to visit the Royal city nearby the banks of the Nile. There were several cars of tourists arriving as we left. This was a disappointment as there really isn't much left. From there we drove back to the town of Shendi for lunch. Had a filling meal of bread, roast goat and fuul. This was a busy reststop with busses and trucks all here for meals and bathroom breaks.
The next stop was at Musawarrat es-Sufa, another Merotic city 30 kms east into the desert down dusty tracks. I'm not sure how the driver knew where to go with all the crossing tracks, but he pointed at his head and said GPS. There were two places here, a lion-headed god temple and the main city full of elephant pens and various chambers. Somehow I didn't have to pay an entry fee here, it should have been 50 SDG.
It was a bit late by this point.. we were supposed to go to Naqa, another city not too far away but the driver asked if I wanted to go to the Nile cataract. This sounded more interesting so we set off for there. Turned out to be a good decision. Arrived about 3:30 at the site of the 'cataract' where the Nile drops through rapids. There are teahouses and boats here for rent and many locals were here enjoying themselves. I negotiated a boat for half hour for 100 SDG, down from 150. The boat could have held 20 or more people but just held me and the driver as he ran the boat down the rapids and then raced back up them again. The 'rapids' were just a small area where the river narrows, it's faster moving but there isn't whitewater or anything like that.
It was an enjoyable (and cool) half hour riding along the banks of the Nile. I kept hearing this steady thumping noise and finally realized it was gas pumps all along the banks pulling water up for irrigation. We finally headed back to Khartoum arriving around 6PM.. it had been a long and rewarding day!