27-Nov-2008 -- This is the 47^th of a series of 83 confluence visits during our voyage from Nigeria to Europe and back to Nigeria around the entire African continent. It all started on 28 January at 11N 5E.

Story continues from 24N 33E.

After 5 days of bureaucratic nightmares and hours of senseless waiting for one stamp, or an official to endorse one or the other document, we managed to clear our vehicles through customs; handed back the Egyptian licence plates and driving licences, loaded our vehicles onto a barge, got onto the local passenger ferry, and when the ferry eventually left, we survived the 20-hour long hopelessly overloaded chaotic trip, staked in the middle of tons of onions, electrical appliances, all sorts of other cargo and luggage, either in a cabin or somewhere on the deck to Wadi Halfa, Sudan. This is the real Egypt, away from the luxury Nile cruising ships and sheltered hotel resorts; very, very nerve consuming. All of us were glad to leave this country behind us.

In Wādiy Ḥalfā' it took only a couple of hours to get off the passenger ferry, offload the vehicles from the barge, and get all the other formalities done to enter Sudan. A real pleasure considering the Egyptian bureaucracy we had experienced the passed days.

From Wādiy Ḥalfā' we took the route along the railway line through the Nubian Desert. On the first day occasionally someone got stuck in the sand. On the second day we got as close as 10 km to the Confluence. We made a small detour and visited the Confluence. It was past noon when reached the place. It was still too early to set up our camp for the night and after we made all the necessary documentation and a photo from our group, we continued our journey towards al-Kharṭūm.

Continued at 18N 34E.