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I went South from Khartoum to the Uganda border 16 months ago.
It was "interesting". In hindsight I think I missed Ethiopia, but was still a different ride. i was on a bike. Thru Sudan I was travelling along with a couple German brothers in a Landy. Pretty rough road to the Uganda border the last 2/3 of the way from Khartoum. OK on a bike but slow with a vehicle. There's not much to stay at past the North/South "border" except some very expensive places for the expatriate/UN people. However we got befriended by the people at Minetech, a land mine clearing operation. And stayed in their compounds. They have two camps, I need a map to remember the names. Sorry. Be very careful about photos in the South. The permission you get in Khartoum is not recognizd there. This was before the vote/referendm, I dunno what it's like now: probably worse with respect to things like that. We had a very helpful guy in Khartoum help us out with the permission to travel South called Midhat Mahir Mobile : +249 (0) 912253484 Mobile : +249 (0) 121313101 Sudan Tour & Travel | Mashansharti E mail : midhat.sudan@gmail.com : Midhat@tour-sudan.com : Midhat@hotmail.com ; sudan.tours@gmail.com ; toursudan@gmail.com : mashansharti@gmail.com : mashansharti@yahoo.com : globtours_sudan@yahoo.com His brother is at Wadi Haifa. By the way, be careful about the ferry to Wadi Haifa. You need to make sure you book it ahead of time and then ring the guy a few times to confirm you are coming for sure. Otherwise if you are not there 2 days befoe it leaves he gives away your booking. With me it left on a Monday I think it was and he expected me there on Saturday morning. I caled to say I WAS still coming but he still gave my berth away so I was in 2nd Class until there was a last minute cancellation. And yes is no problem to rough camp except be aware of land mine issues. And best not to camp near the North/South border either. People VERY uptight there. Alan Jarvis |
Sleeping in Khartoum
Dear all,
good, clean and friendly place to stay is this: "German Guesthouse Khartoum (Michael Rentschler)". It is not far away from the Airport. You can find the guesthouse on Facebook, as written above. Michael gives good advice, has a weekly barbecue etc. Lalli |
Touring Ted,
In Khartoum trying to find the mechanic mentioned, but your waypoint is miles south west of Khartoum. Could you kindly check it? N 15,5741 E 32,5774 Also the phone number doesn't work - Sudan is +249 not 246 etc.... |
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That information was off his facebook page. You're best just contacting him on Facebook. He speaks English. Perhaps that number was his mobile !!! Sorry mate. I don't know what else I can do..... |
ok thanks mate, number doesn't work etc. Got a friend who facebooks to send him a message.... waiting ;)
Could you describe how to find the workshop? Anybody else.....?? Many thanks from 43 degrees in the shade Khartoum ;) |
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Hi, I checked Ted's waypoint, it's correct I think. (My daughter lives in Khartoum but is in London at the moment so can't help directly) Did you enter it correct? It's decimal degrees. It's on Bashir Elnefeidi Street 70 mtrs north of corner with Abdalla Al-Tayeb Street. Entrance a few metres down a side street I think. (These are GoogleEarth street names. Names are a moveable feast in Khartoum) If you look on a map or googleEarth it's due east of the southern end of the runway at the airport, between airport and Blue Nile. Here's a screenshot. There are Tracks4Africa 'spanner' signs as well. Hope that helps. http://i1263.photobucket.com/albums/...ga/Farbest.jpg |
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His workshop is a few metres down a side street next to a large PIZZA restaurant. He owns a GPS so I'm pretty sure that his co-ordinates are correct. |
Many many thanks to the pair of you, I should be able to find it tomorrow morning with that map and my (oh so wonderful 3G) internet stick/laptop and small brain memory capacity ;-)
Something is off with the cooling of the landy as well my as extra electrical fans relay/fuse/wiring having rusted away, so I need to get it fixed asap in this heat and I can't afford to drive around for hours trying to find the place with my basic Arabic. So thanks again..... the hubb and many of the people on it make travel much better ;-) :-) For reference, in Garmin BaseCamp on OS X (Garmin software on OS X is rubbish by the way) it doesn't seem to accept that format for a waypoint and sticks it 30km south west of Khartoum and then changes all the numbers to zeros. I don't understand all the different formats, so if anybody could convert it to the following format so I can just type it into my Garmin 278 tomorrow it would be greatly appreciated... I need this format: N15 33.830 E32 31.814 Many thanks from the heat of Khartoum! |
Right, it's
N15 34.446 E32 34.644 Drink lots of water! beer All the best. |
Thanks again for the help guys, he is a SUPER SUPER guy and has been a huge help and now a good friend. Also many of his friends have been great to meet.
Good mechanics and a really friendly place. If you are strapped for cash you can camp in his workshop area, even putting your mattress on his desk at night under the fan etc. If you breakdown anywhere in Sudan, give him a call and he will organise something for you... His number +249912304675 (he is slow to respond to Facebook or email, so call or text) |
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