I am honoured to be able to open a topic about the
Sudan! 🇸🇩
And I'll do so reporting my recent trip to northern Sudan (November/December 2022). I had laid my eyes upon it months ago but, after having been in contact with the agencies since, I was surprisingly rather lucky to be able to take part in it! It seems that there simply are not so many people interested in the
trekking-flavoured itinerary I had selected, and November/December is still not the highest season (December/January is, apparently). The starting program was
this, but ours was a version without the northern extension, and what follows is its actual realisation:
- Day 0: flight to Khartum over Istanbul (with usual delays and race from gate A to gate F to catch the connection, i.e. traversing the whole airport, which is
big), late arrival
- Day 1: relaxed visit to Khartum (with guide) while waiting for the other travel companions to gather
- Day 2: long day of road trip towards the north, camping in the desert near Old Dongola after a visit to its cemetery part ("beehive tombs")
- Day 3: morning visit to Old Dongola (TWHS), then attempt to visit Banganarti (TWHS), then rather confused day through the desert never too far from the Nile and villages, and finally camping amidst big dunes
- Day 4: late departure, visit to a Nubian village, on to Karima, there visit to al-Kurru and Gebel Barkal (WHS), staying at the rather luxurious Nubian resthouseū
- Day 5: morning visit to the area of Gebel Barkal, then to the crumbling pyramids of Nuri, then farewell to civilisation as we crossed the Nile steered towards the Bayuda desert (which is part or overlaps with the Al Hassania national park TWHS), camping near the Atrun crater
- Day 6: hike at dawn on the rocky hills and in the crater, later at
Ḥūš aẓ-ẓalÄm (~ hoosh addalaam) "the dark places" (so I was told and so I transcribe, but maybe "the dark monsters"?!), impressive volcanic formations in the Bayuda desert. After that long, long transfers through the sands until a crossing of the Nile and evening arrival at the tented camp at Meroe (also property of I.T.C. Sudan)
- Day 7: whole, somewhat lazy, and hot, day at Meroe (WHS), enjoying both sunrise and sunset, again night at the camp
- Day 8: visit at the "other part" of Meroe, then passing by the town of Shendi, then on to Muá¹£awwarÄt aá¹£-á¹¢ufrÄ' (component of Meroe WHS) and camping in the desert/arid savannah
- Day 9: having had the fine idea to walk from Muá¹£awwarÄt to the temples of NaqÊ¿a (Naga) (component of Meroe WHS), we started a little late, but we came to the end (ca 20kms). Siesta, visit to the temples and camp nearby
- Day 10: transfer back to Khartum with stop and short boat tour at the sixth cataract, last pic-nic right in front of the National museum, then dervish ceremony in Omdurman
- Day 11: visit to Omdurman and Khartum (with guide). On an anecdotical side, annoyingly, coming out of the arena of Nubian wrestling in the late afternoon I got my phone stolen. Nocturnal flight back to Istanbul for my "Turkish extension" of this trip...
Our group was small: 6, that is, 5 plus the tour leader of the travel company. The staff was numerically nearly equivalent at 5 (three drivers, the guide and a cook; this inevitably leads all my friends to label this trip as "colonial" -_- ). The guidewas a young local archaeologist and very competent: I was very satisfied. We also ate very well and everything was perfectly organised. Now, the genesis of the itinerary was quite complicated: I first contacted the
I.T.C. Sudan, not only because they are Italian, but also because they seem to be rather dominant in Sudan as far as tourism goes (e.g. they own the Karima guesthouse and the fixed-tent camps at Meroe and Tombos, which are very good options); then I was redirected to an Italy-based company (Shiruq) which was proposing the same itinerary (
Tra quiete e luce "Between stillness and light") on behalf of I.T.C. with departure on November 30th. But there were no other participants, so as late as the middle of October (!) I was re-re-directed to actually the same again itinerary by this English one-man travel company
Fitzroy, starting on the 23rd, and so I could go. But the masterminds and the ultimate organisers are always and only the people at I.T.C.
I tried to to ask for an extension (Red Sea or Dinder national park or even the north we had not visited), but it was nearly impossible as a lone traveller; no other person would have taken part in it and the costs were prohibitive and with a senseless cost/benefits ratio (more than 1000 per day...). In their opinion, it was also not possible to let me try to do this more independently. Partly I think they are right, but partly I think they just have different travel styles in mind. Anyway, I just rerouted my flights back home so as to have
some days in Turkey. I am still annoyed at having "lost" the north with Sai, Kerma, Soleb... but well, it just means another trip to Egypt and down south from there becomes necessary.