January 22nd to 27th, 2015 - Wadi Halfa to Nile Camps to Dongola to Dead Camel Camp to Desert Camp - Approx. 600 km with two rest days - Passed the 2,000 km mark

(To me) Sudan equals hot, tan-coloured desert at least until now.  Yesterday, while riding my bike thermometer was reading 44.6 degrees.  It felt better to be riding because you would get a breeze (even though a hot breeze) than to be standing still.  There are few features in this desert, the odd pyramid-shaped dune or incompetent bedrock and some mountains very far off in the distance.  There are dead camel carcasses all over the place; for some reason they don't remove or bury them.  I think they dry out and remain there practically for ever.

The Sudanese people are very honest, helpful and friendly.  The men wear white tunics with maybe a vest over top.  The women are seldom seen but when seen are generally covered head to toe and in dark colours.  Donkeys are the mode of transport in the rural areas.

Yesterday, we stopped in a village market to have a cold coke.  I felt like I was in an Indiana Jones movie.  Donkey carts loaded with supplies, men in tunics walking around doing business, sometimes holding hands, laughing and greeting.  The butchers had fly covered goats hanging in the hot sun, waiting to carve off sections.  Other doors had piles of beans, lentils, tomatoes, and all shades of spices. The place was filthy.  Garbage was strewn, parts of  animal carcasses, flies everywhere, and general filth.  There was one thing missing, women; I was the only woman in sight.  I assume the dinner time topic in many homes that evening would be the indecently dressed, disgusting American (so they thought) white woman on a bike with the nerve to come into the market place with all the men.

Its 4am and I was just outside.  The sky is incredible; it looks thick with stars.  One of the riders studied astronomy and gave us a tour of the night sky.  The crescent moon lies horizontally rather than vertically, like at home.

The biking days since our rest day in Dongola have been very long (+140km each day) and hot but without much grade.  Today will be the most climbing +500m, it will be noticed especially since it promises to be hot again and I'm getting tired.  

I still love the trip and all the sights, I'm getting quite use to no toilets or showers in the desert.  I will stay in a hotel (I hope) in Khartoum (we will arrive the day after tomorrow).

Best Sight: A parade of camels being ushered in a single line through the desert.  A couple of camels stopped to watch us pass by on our bikes.