14 April, Thursday Willie’s 56th birthday in Sudan
Who would have ever guessed that we will celebrate Willie’s 56 birthday in the Nubian desert in Sudan! I make a unique birthday card with desert stones in the sand. We gather around it and each one of us has an opportunity to share special wishes with Willie. I asked Hugo to speak for Sammie and he said he cannot, because Sammie has an angelic voice and no one can speak for him!
From Wadi Halfa to Khartoum is almost 900 km and most of it is through harsh desert terrain. We leave earlier than usual to see how far we can get before the heat overcomes us. We have no air conditioner in the car. Willie filled the Freon in Egypt and we had pleasant interior conditions for a sweet almost 3 weeks and then as it leaked out, hot air surged back! I wish this was the beginning of the sweet 3 weeks.
As the kilometers on the clock rise, so do the degrees on the thermometer…to a no-word-for-it 49 degrees! The effect on us is quite remarkable. We go through stages:
Stage 1: we feel uncomfortable, sweaty and we voice it
Stage 2: The heat, like a vice-grip, slowly clamps down on our brains; discomfort soars beyond any other physical emotion we’ve ever experienced. We cross into a zone where, for survival, you give in trying to fight what you experience and go with it – like riding a wave… Your body shuts out anything you don’t need for survival: no hunger, no energy, no curiosity for new surroundings, sights or sounds. You become very still, breathe shallow and you don’t talk. All we do is take sips of water – by now hot water, every now and then.
Stage 3: Survival trance accompanied with thick silence
We have found an effective way to keep Sammie comfortable and being able to cope with the heat by sponging him down every 15 minutes or as soon as his fur starts to dry. He also lies very still and looks at us with those gentle brown eyes.
Kilometer after kilometer of arid desert plains fly past the window; scattered here and there little brown-building, sand-saturated village. The only color comes from mosques and minarets which stand like bright beacons in the brown everything else. I am mystified by the fact that people can actually make a living in these beyond-words harsh conditions. I realize that I have a heightened sense of distress and I’m probably not as objective as I could be, because generations of Sudanese people have been born and raised in these conditions…quite remarkable.
There is no ways that we want to camp or stay in this heat and Willie decides to bite the bullet and see if we can make it to Khartoum in one stretch. We reach the outskirts of the city by 6:30 – and slowly crawl with peak traffic, donkey cars, horse-carriages, motorbikes, tuk-tuks through a crammed outdoor market. What a sight we must have been – 4 glassy-eyed, listless white peoples with a black dog half hanging out of a monstrous vehicle. “Welcome in Khartoum; Welcome in Sudan; Where you from? Give me money, “surrounds us as far as we move forwards inch by inch. The boys and Willie greet everyone, make small talk with passengers in other cars, shake hands and stay patient. I sit in the back seat, protected from view by tinted glass windows, from where I can watch the frenzied activity without being hassled. I guess this is what celebrities and VIP’s must endure every time they venture out in the public eye? An interesting observation we make is that the traffic is much quieter than in Egypt: almost no honking which is to be appreciated.
We finally milk out of the traffic and drive over the bridge where the Blue and White Nile come together. Our camping site is at the Nile River Sailing Club. We are drenched and tired, but very thankful that we’ve made it safely through close to ‘hellish’ conditions.
The car and everything in it are steaming hot – all the canned goods, food, drinks are cooked. We are not hungry, just very thirsty and enjoy the cold water and sodas that we bought. We eat very little and stretch out on top of our sleeping bags hoping that it will cool off some during the night. Hugo is not feeling well when he goes to bed and we are not sure what is wrong.
What a Happy birthday, Willie!
Who would have ever guessed that we will celebrate Willie’s 56 birthday in the Nubian desert in Sudan! I make a unique birthday card with desert stones in the sand. We gather around it and each one of us has an opportunity to share special wishes with Willie. I asked Hugo to speak for Sammie and he said he cannot, because Sammie has an angelic voice and no one can speak for him!
From Wadi Halfa to Khartoum is almost 900 km and most of it is through harsh desert terrain. We leave earlier than usual to see how far we can get before the heat overcomes us. We have no air conditioner in the car. Willie filled the Freon in Egypt and we had pleasant interior conditions for a sweet almost 3 weeks and then as it leaked out, hot air surged back! I wish this was the beginning of the sweet 3 weeks.
As the kilometers on the clock rise, so do the degrees on the thermometer…to a no-word-for-it 49 degrees! The effect on us is quite remarkable. We go through stages:
Stage 1: we feel uncomfortable, sweaty and we voice it
Stage 2: The heat, like a vice-grip, slowly clamps down on our brains; discomfort soars beyond any other physical emotion we’ve ever experienced. We cross into a zone where, for survival, you give in trying to fight what you experience and go with it – like riding a wave… Your body shuts out anything you don’t need for survival: no hunger, no energy, no curiosity for new surroundings, sights or sounds. You become very still, breathe shallow and you don’t talk. All we do is take sips of water – by now hot water, every now and then.
Stage 3: Survival trance accompanied with thick silence
We have found an effective way to keep Sammie comfortable and being able to cope with the heat by sponging him down every 15 minutes or as soon as his fur starts to dry. He also lies very still and looks at us with those gentle brown eyes.
Kilometer after kilometer of arid desert plains fly past the window; scattered here and there little brown-building, sand-saturated village. The only color comes from mosques and minarets which stand like bright beacons in the brown everything else. I am mystified by the fact that people can actually make a living in these beyond-words harsh conditions. I realize that I have a heightened sense of distress and I’m probably not as objective as I could be, because generations of Sudanese people have been born and raised in these conditions…quite remarkable.
There is no ways that we want to camp or stay in this heat and Willie decides to bite the bullet and see if we can make it to Khartoum in one stretch. We reach the outskirts of the city by 6:30 – and slowly crawl with peak traffic, donkey cars, horse-carriages, motorbikes, tuk-tuks through a crammed outdoor market. What a sight we must have been – 4 glassy-eyed, listless white peoples with a black dog half hanging out of a monstrous vehicle. “Welcome in Khartoum; Welcome in Sudan; Where you from? Give me money, “surrounds us as far as we move forwards inch by inch. The boys and Willie greet everyone, make small talk with passengers in other cars, shake hands and stay patient. I sit in the back seat, protected from view by tinted glass windows, from where I can watch the frenzied activity without being hassled. I guess this is what celebrities and VIP’s must endure every time they venture out in the public eye? An interesting observation we make is that the traffic is much quieter than in Egypt: almost no honking which is to be appreciated.
We finally milk out of the traffic and drive over the bridge where the Blue and White Nile come together. Our camping site is at the Nile River Sailing Club. We are drenched and tired, but very thankful that we’ve made it safely through close to ‘hellish’ conditions.
The car and everything in it are steaming hot – all the canned goods, food, drinks are cooked. We are not hungry, just very thirsty and enjoy the cold water and sodas that we bought. We eat very little and stretch out on top of our sleeping bags hoping that it will cool off some during the night. Hugo is not feeling well when he goes to bed and we are not sure what is wrong.
What a Happy birthday, Willie!
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