The
Infamous Wadi Halfa Ferry!
This is
how overlanders on the East side of Africa have been moving between Egypt and
Sudan since the completion of the Aswan high dam on the river Nile back in
1971.
The paved
road South from Cairo stops at Aswan where the big dam is and then the backed
up waters of the Nile that form Lake Nasser become the transport route for the
remaining 300Km or so to the Sudanese border town of Wadi Halfa. From there the
paved road resumes and the route goes South to Khartoum and on to Ethiopia etc.
About two thirds of the lake is in Egypt and the other third is in Sudan. There
isn’t a huge amount of traffic overland here (either local or tourist), so the
route has been limited as far as I know to just one sailing of the ferry for
passengers in each direction each week, and there is a different vessel (a
barge) that does the same run for cargo and vehicles… And its been like this
for decades!... And the ferry and the barge have suffered the same abusive
treatment and semi-functional maintenance as everything else here for decades,
and as you would expect this has made the ferry “less than comfortable and less
than reliable” J But, it’s the only way, so
overlanders keep doing it and the web is full of records of their tales of
suffering and woe J
But lo, Some
years ago Egypt set about starting construction of a new paved road along the
side of the lake down toward the Sudanese border… This progressed at a slow
rate but the overlander crowd has been watching and waiting with baited breath
for a time when they could avoid the old ferry crossing… and that time seems to
have been lingering just beyond the horizon for the last year or two! And the road construction was completed
months ago, as was the toll booths and customs/immigration buildings, and a
short barge/ferry to cross the Nile to link the two roads… And its seemingly
been ready for months now… but still no traffic! And just this month they had
an official “opening ceremony” for the new road and traffic started flowing …
but it was only open for locals (Sudanese and Egyptians) and not available to
overlanders… But it looked like this could happen at any moment and so until I
got to Wadi Halfa in Northern Sudan I really did not know if I would enjoy the
speed and comfort and convenience of the new road or, the atmosphere and
experience, and suffering and delay and hastle of the old ferry/barge system…
And it
turned out that the road is still unavailable to Overlanders and I got the
pleasures of the Ferry and Barge… And while I will not be the last moto
overlander to take the ferry by any means, Im certainly among the last to have
no other option J
So, whats
all the fuss about anyway?
Well, you
see, the battered old ferry takes about twenty four hours to make the 300Km
run. And the ferry is in pretty rough condition and is always over crowded with
local travelers as well. And for most overlanders, being out of their vehicles
and trying to survive cheek-by-jowl with a hoard of Egyptians and Sudanese is
shall we say na “challenging and unpleasant” experience. The ferry does have
some “first class” cabins to allow those with the means to have at least some
private space and a bed to lay in, but the “first class” part is rather euphemistic
and the cabins are hot and smelly and expensive and cant be locked so there are
few people that actually choose to use them… And that means you are left with a
very crowded public hall with hard unpadded wooden bench seating and nowhere to
sleep. And of course everyone brings excessive amounts of luggage so all the
isles and halls and companion ways are strewn with luggage and people. And of
course the locals all behave just like they do when on land and dispose of
their waste by simply dropping it wherever they happen to be, and everyone
spits and smokes constantly and, well, you get the general picture… But don’t forget
to factor in the stifling heat of the Saharan sun on a steel hulled ship (of
about 50m in length)… mmm sounds like a fun 24 hours right! J
So, I
figured I was in for some real suffering and mentally braced myself accordingly…
And… It wasn’t actually that bad J… It was definitely very
uncomfortable, and I got all of about an hours sleep scrunched up on a bench
seat. It was definitely not great with all the litter and smoking and spitting
habits of the locals, but the real suffering was largely limited by the simple
fact that they had semi functional air-conditioning in the main cabin space…
The inside temperature didn’t get above thirty degrees or so and it made all
the difference. They also had a fairly functional cafeteria and cold drinks
available whenever you wanted, so, for me the main point of suffering was that
there was no space to lay down and sleep… But it wasn’t a “living hell” as I
had more or less come to expect… actually quite manageable J
The other
factor that helps a lot is that in the last couple of years a couple of guys
who “help” overlanders get through all the bureaucratic immigration and customs
processes for the crossing have got pretty organized… These guys are called “fixers”
and at every land/sea border everywhere in the developing world there are
dozens of them who confront and confound tourists as they arrive at the borders
to attempt a crossing… And in general these fixers have a terrible reputation
for lying and cheating and deliberately preying on tourists to get as much money
as they can from them… And the Aswan/WadiHalfa crossing was in past times a
real “doozy” of a crossing… It takes lots of bureaucracy on both sides of the
border and all the documentation and communication is written and spoken in Arabic
with little or no English/French/etc… And that’s a recipe that makes needing to
use a “fixer” a must for most overlanders… But, as I said, a couple of these
guys (one guy in Sudan and one guy in Egypt) eventually got smart and started
working together… and they decided not to screw every traveler for as much as
they could get but rather to be consistent and reasonable in their fees and to
do what they said they would do… They still don’t have control of the time it
takes to get things past the actual authorities (because that’s what the
officials still get to control) but with their consistent fair behavior, it’s a
value proposition that overlanders cant resist… And Id say that for the last
year or two they have captured about 90% of the overlander business… And it
only took a couple of decades for them to figure it out ! J So, the other major potential headache for me here
was also relatively easily solved.
And so, I
arrived at Wadi Halfa on a Monday afternoon and was met by Mazar. He took my
passport and Carne and went off and did his thing. The next morning at 9am he
came and collected me at the hotel (and it was quite a crappy one too… not much
option here in the back country of Sudan) and we headed over to the port where
I commenced the waiting phase… It took till about 1pm before I could head on to
the ferry and I don’t really know what Maza did during most of that time but Im
pretty sure that most of it was spent chatting here and there with everyone in
any sort of official position… He knows them all and makes sure he stays very
friendly with them all too… It takes him 90% of his time in friendly chatting
and only about 10% of his time in any sort of “doing”… That’s what a fixer does
though.
So, then
I was installed on the boat and said goodbye to Mazar, and commenced waiting
phase two… which went till about 6pm when the ferry finally pulled away from
the dock and we set off North. Then there was waiting phase three which took
till about 12noon on Tuesday when the ferry finally arrived in Aswan. And so
everyone got all their crap off the ferry and I waited till most people had
left before I wandered off and was met by the Egyptian fixer Kamal… And the
same sort of thing as before happened, though somewhat more quickly this time…
lots of chatting while I waited for a while. But soon enough I was at a hotel
(another quite crappy one I must say though there are at least other options if
I want here) and was able to have a shower and some food and lay down on a
quite comfortable bed… Though I admit that I am in fact afraid to touch the
hideously filthy carpet throughout the hotel with my bare skin!!
… But Im
only halfway here!... My motorbike I had to leave in Wadi Halfa… Mazar will
load it onto the barge when he can… The bare was there at the dock but was
still fully loaded with cargo from the voyage South and no one was looking like
unloading it soon. I assume there were customs and protocols to follow and in
due course things would happen but it looked incredibly slow and inefficient to
me (pretty much as you would expect). So, Im here in Egypt and my bike is in
Sudan. I expect the bike to take three to five days to catch up with me and
then there are still the Customs/Carne details to be dealt with… but that’s what
Kamal is for.
So, for
now I sit and wait in Aswan… Halfway to Egypt!
