Sudan: bloody expensive

The night before we got the boat to Sudan I was starting to feel a bit foggy. Like my head was filled with cotton wool. By the time we got on the boat I was dizzy and spacy. I put it down to the once-a-day malaria medication kicking in. I had a mental night of being a bit of a drama queen (sorry Mick) and in the morning totally lost it. The boat was only half full but the 300 passengers and all there luggage seemed to take up all available space. Loading and unloading was a hassle but the guys got all their bikes and kit on and off without loss. They also got through the malarky that is customs and immigration while I floated about in a daze on the spongy concrete floors and watched my peripheral vision bend and warp. I'm still taking the medication, hopefully it was just my body adjusting. If it happens again I'll stop. I can not afford to go through that again.

The 'road' was soft sand, it was really difficult to maneuver. one of the Nicks stopped in front of us with his super-duper brakes and Mick's bike couldn't brake fast enough so we had to go around crossing ruts in the sand. We both came off - into very soft sand at a very slow speed - checked the bike, fine, checked ourselves also fine. It was then that my head started to clear (fast) and decided it was better Mick didn't have the additional 80kgs weighing him down. So asked him to drop me off at the train station and I'd buy him a drink in Khartoum (capital of Sudan, half way down a really huge country). The front wheel of his bike still could do with a few improvements, so he decided to get on the train too.

2 nights and one day later we are in Khartoum. Most of the North is barren desert, occasionally there are settlements of mud brick houses, children riding about on donkeys, men in ridiculously white robes and women in colourful saris, litter of torn plastic bags. Everyone smiles, everybody seems to genuinely want to help, share, welcome, joke and befriend.

So really in Africa now. Haven't seen a fully functioning toilet since crossing the boarder. The one in the train was too foul to take photos of. I have a pretty hard stomach for these things but I was gagging. The train was cramped and very dirty. There are a lot of thing I need to adjust to. The biggest problem that I'm looking at is the cost of living. from what I can see prices are equal to Europe. We just checked into a hotel to get a good sleep and so I could clean my clothes and scrub up before contacting the volunteer organisation, it is 55 US dollars for a twin room. This internet is 2USD per hour... how am I going to survive on only 100 USD per month?