There’s a special heaven for Sudanese 10/04/2012

michnus

1st July 2012

We stayed at the National campsite for a week and then moved to Mally my old friend flat near the center of town. He has been working in Sudan for a quite long time. For now we enjoyed the luxuries of aircon and a big room with nice company. The bike parts would take a while to get to us and then customs still had to deal with it.

Osman, the man who helped us with the bike, invited us again for a meal. It’s hard to say no to him. He is really a very jovial type of guy. Always up with a joke and a laugh. We met up with some of his mates. They range from a Proff in English to a CEO of a very big cigarette company. It did not took us long to talk about the ‘water’ they are not supposed to consume. Low and behold, it seemed the 100 lashes for each beer, is a thorn in their sides but not enough to deter them from enjoying some locally made Date concoction. It’s vile tasting, as bad as Mampoer or Grapa but not as strong and I would have to consume litres of the stuff to drop my inhibitions.

In the end it turned out the middle upper class are much more open-minded that I perceived them to be. Even religion were talk about and they are not the hardcore followers they act to be.

One of our other rules is never to ride at night. It’s just not safe. Well, we broke that rule when we got invited again to dinner. With 35° heat in the evening we putter around with our normal clothes, no bike stuff. It’s just too damn hot.

Now, bear in mind most roads in Sudan are less than 10 years old, yes, oil paid for it. No lines, sand storms leaving a thin layer of sand on the road and road designs can go from four lanes wide pitch black road to two lanes quite easily. Half meter islands in the middle divert traffic in the same direction.

Doing nothing more than 30km/h-40km/h, on Elsebie’s bike fitted my bikes battery, we headed back to camp after a wonderful evening with a mixture of people. Elsebie was on the back, as I putter along doing my utmost best to stay clear of the Tuk-Tuk’s she suddenly pointed frantically to the unpainted island right in front of the bike. It was too late, as I touched the front brake the bike went down. It’s a typical parking lot fall. Tuck and roll, babe, tuck and roll.

Not far from the same musical talent as Cacofonix in Asterix and Obelix. We got up both looked okay and went on the camp. Once at the camp, we tended to our tar burns. Nothing looked to serious, the only wound that was a bit suspect was just below Elsebie’s knee cap. The size of a R5 coin, it did not look too bad. It was too small for stitches but we could not see how deep it was. The next few days she was a bit sore but the wound looked like it was sort off healing.

And, hell no it’s not because I had some Date water.

Time to hit the road, too much pastries can bring on a bad case of laziness.