Chill Wind And Football

"Mostly sunny and delightful" is the weather forecast for Khartoum.

Two days ago there was a strong wind, that almost whipped up into a sandstorm, and lasted for about 24 hours. It blew away the warmth. Now we can expect 17C to 34C. The change feels dramatic. Its actually chilly at night, we don't need the ceiling fan, and we need to cover with a sheet to stay warm in bed. Already I miss the heat. Before, everything I touched felt warm - the doorhandle, my shirt from the closet, the floor - now they feel cool.

At the weekend...Saturday - we made our first excursion outside of Khartoum to our friend's farm. A secret location hidden in a labyrinth of barely used tracks. Barbecue under a mango tree (not laden with fruit). Good to be outside of the city for a few hours. On Friday - we had lunch with some great people - from the Spanish Embassy and new UNV recruits. Then dinner with more friends, to celebrate 3 years working in Khartoum. An unusually sociable weekend, with new friends from Spain, USA, Sudan, Cuba, Lebanon, South Africa, France, Italy. Meeting so many people from all around the world is one of the big pluses in our Khartoum Chapter.

Above the noise and aircraft, donkeys collecting metal and plastic for recycling, sellers shouting their wares - the car horns are tooting excitedly. Tomorrow the eyes of the world will be looking at a football pitch here in Ombdurman, as Egypt plays against arch rivals Algeria. Here everyone is waving the the Algerian flag, from cars, from tuk tuks, walking in the street. Lets hope there aren't riots.

Tuti Island

In Sudan, Saturday is Sunday.

As the museum was closed, the icy chilled aircon taxi dropped us to thaw in the 40C+ sunshine near the bridge to Tuti Island.

We first went into the super modern El Fateh Hotel, otherwise known as the Gadafi's Egg - for its shape and owner or vice-versa. At the top of the tall building is a cafe, where you can have expensive coffee while enjoying the views of Khartoum and the Nile just below. un?Fortunately it was also closed, so we just had the free views without the coffee.

Our Bradt guidebook says you reach Tuti Island by ferry boat. Not any more. There's a big new empty bridge with just enough traffic to erode the peace of the village. There are some things

that are lost with progress. With so many places polluted by traffic, having 'no access' can be a precious commodity. There are at least four villages in Switzerland whose sell this as luxory, with cars excluded mere humans can enjoy the roads to themselves (unless they get run over by silent electric cars). Anyway... that's progress... on the mainland river bank they are building more Eggs and dubious Dubai towers.

Tuti Island that lies in the middle of the Nile, where the two branches of the river meet.

It was quite a nice rural walk. Shady lanes through trees and small fields. Seriously the shade is a delicious respite from the sun, another precious commodity. Canals of flowing water pumped up from the Nile. No traffic noise, until we got to the north tip, our objective, to the point where the Blue Nile and While Nile meet. They are both brown. At that point you hear the rumble of traffic from the busy bridge that joins Omdurman to Khartoum 2.

[I miss being able to go for a walk. I tried to walk in our neighbourhood here, but quickly got worn out with the heat and the traffic noise. No pavement. No shady lane. No river Wye.]

Despite the intermittent shade we were soon facing dehydration, and exhaustion from the heat, as we headed back south, towards the Egg on the horizon. Friendly voices called to us as we walked past... a tree under which several people are quietly resting, some sleeping, some joking, big clay pots of drinking water, and a young lady with a beautiful smile making hot drinks. I discovered that I don't know how to pronounce coffee in Arabic, all attempts failed, resorting to English immediately understood. But this was Greek style coffee with a twist of spice: cardamom, cinnamon and pepper. Served in a glass, difficult to hold without scalding fingers. Delicious drink. Restful place. The sound of drums and chant drifting across the river, possibly from the Sufis. That pause under the tree, everything just right, a magical quality. We were recharged and ready to face the heat again. On the way we saw mangos for sale, just SP1 each, two big bunches of rocket (that is really good here) and we bought tomatoes, also cheaper than usual, and the guy was so pleased he gave us extra stuff for free: a handful of green chilis, some spring onions, and something else we didn't recognise.

So, I'm glad the museum was closed last Saturday.

Red Sea Blues

Now back in Khartoum. The Red Sea seems a million miles away.

Beautiful deep Blue hue I haven't seen before, sometimes reminiscent of the Aegean.

We did ten dives last week. I could happily dive every day, but that will only happen if we live near a reef.

The coral reef around Marsa Alam, is apparently similar to reef further north in Hurgada and even up to Sharm El Sheik, but with less divers, has good coral, intact, quite a lot of fish, though the warm water means less fish and bleached coral. Apparently also Sudan has similar reef wildlife but suffers from bombing -- the unbelievably stupid fishing technique that uses bombs to kill ALL the fish so they float dead to the surface and are easy to collect, but it wipes out the whole fish population including babies and all species and it destroys the reef; it is extremely short-sighted; this also happens in Indonesia where they use bombs and also poisons to kill the fish.

The first few dives saw us regaining the skills after a break of a

few months without diving. Then we got into the flow of it, as it becomes more effortless, flying quietly in the three dimensional submarine world. We even did a swim-through through a maze of semi-closed tunnels that was exciting, and got over my phobia of entering and enclosed space; but it was crazy almost head-to-toe at speed, group of 7 or 8 divers, careful not to kick the walls with fins, or knock the roof with the tank, then later, outside the tunnel around big rock cnayons, 'saving' our dive instructor who pretended to panic then as the dive finished we all had to pile into the small dinghy, a pile of bodies and equipment, in a race to the leave the marine park before closing time, 3pm, or face a €3000 fine and imprisonment for the captain; we were 1 minute late and the coastguard was onto us, but they let us off.

We snorkelled with dolphins. Two brief encounters. Our captain sighted them, we intercepted them, jumped into the water, snorkelled above them, as they fly at speed, about eleven of them. I'm dubious about the ethics of this intrusion on the dolphins at one of their favourite places, but I guess it is only brief, and the humans are only there for a few hours each day.

We're now certified Rescue Divers. New skills: to recognise signs of problems before they happen and identify stress before it turns into panic, to help yourself or other divers to the surface and out of the water, practised surfacing without air, and engaging to help a panicking diver without jeopardising your own safety. All good fun and worthwhile.

At the embassy in Cairo we met a guy who cycled there from Sweden, was continuing through Sudan, aiming for Cape Town. I am humbled. It seems very brave to cycle the desert roads, through extreme heat, but he wasn't worried about that, but about the bureaucracy of visas and permits, and he's read that in Ethiopia people can be quite hostile and throw stones at cyclists, and worried about camping in Kenya with its reputation for violent robbery. Hopefully we'll see him here in Khartoum.