I don't know what time it was but it was pitch black and I was woken up by a guy with some food. Seeing as I was up early I thought it was a perfect opportunity to have breakfast before I slept properly. He gave me two pieces of bread (like pitta) and ripped them both open and poured sugar into them. Don't get me wrong they were lovely and the generosity again was brilliant but trying to sleep when you've just had (no exaggeration) a quarter of a pint of sugar is pretty hard!
My plan was to cycle under the stars and get some morning cycling in when its cooler. My alarm went off at 4:30. Pitch black still and it was surprisingly warm but I wasn't ready, another hour would do me. I got up at half 5 and set off just before 6 still in the darkness with my headlight showing me the way.
Fewer cars on the road then normal and they all gave little quiet toots as they made their way to the gold mine. I would've made good ground but I got distracted by my camera and played around a little to see if I could capture myself riding under the stars...I couldn't, but will keep trying
The sun rose at around 7 and it didn't take too long to hear up. Today felt the hottest day so I was pleased to have put a few miles in before lunch. I stopped for breakfast at a busy rest stop. Ful was on the menu so I just had to deal with it if I wanted to eat! This time it wasn't too bad as in Egypt, they used salt and pepper but I would encourage parents to start their kids on ful. Firstly because its cheap, its just a mushed up array of beans and secondly, its that boring and tasteless they would jump at the choice of eating carrots or peas or even parsnips!
I was a bit bloated but I knew i had to ride it off. I had another over 100km day to do today and I wanted to get to Dongola early just so I could chill out before it got even hotter. I had my first experience of wild African dogs shortly after breakfast. There were four of them about 50m away barking at me. I think they were calling to see if I wanted a race which I accepted and got my head down and started gunning it. They noticed my change in pace and started to run closer to me and increased their pace also. As they came closer and the barks became louder I soon realised that these boys were stacked! They were African after all, one of them had bigger quads than me, I was never going to win! I needed to do something quick as the ful was making its way back up, could I throw up on a dog? I decided to slow down and resorted to barking back at them. My bark is worst than my bite but they didn't know that and they were shocked to a halt and I peddled away victorious. (By victorious I mean still alive)
Throughout the whole ride I don't think I could've got into a bad mood if I tried. Everybody was so happy and smiling with thumbs up and the reactions to myself, Nigel and Beirdre were amazing. I got into Dongola around half 1 and the busyness of the tuk tuks and the people walking around wasn't unpleasant at all. Lots of people were calling out in English and having a laugh and as I asked many people for directions I felt very welcomed and comforted.
I needed a bank and a hotel. I initially tried to ring my contact, one gentleman offered and tried to ring him on his phone but there was no answer so despite the good help, I had to find a hotel myself. It felt strange not having a tour guide like I had in Egypt almost everyday! I found a hotel called "Lord hotel" it was called "Lord" because that's probably what most people exclaims when they saw the state of it!! I have no standards but i could compare it to where i stayed in Wadi Hallfa for 50 pound and this place was worst than the ferry's toilet, and he was trying to charge me 60 Sudanese pound. Jog on my friend, I found another very nice place but that was 120 pound a night. The man at the desk said, "if this is too expensive then there is a nice cheap place called ulu" he wrote the name down in Arabic on a post it and I soon found it about 100m from the main market. It was 30 pound a night (4gbp) and it was a country mile better than Lord and fairly decent by most standards.
I had a square room with two beds and a fan. The walls were about 2 feet either side from the fan so it was like being in a jet engine. The hotel manager was a top bloke, very happy guy and chilled out, he even jumped out on me from behind the toilet door when I was on my way to the shower. The shower was cold but its what I needed, the sun was getting to crazy temperatures. My body then clocked the toilet and the message to brain said it was time to comfortably unload after 3 days. It was whilst I crouched that I had my first African cockroach experience. An African cockroach is about the same size as an average woman's fist. I didn't know whether it could jump but I certainly did when I saw it peak out from below me.
I would be lying if I said I didn't aim for it but it hid around the edges. The flush didn't even see it off either, it must just hang out around the rim scaring the living day lights out of unsuspecting customers.
After showering and sort of washing my clothes in the shower (the air dry took seconds) I had my usual walk around to sus out the joint. There isn't anything in Dongola, just a market place. I walked around to met some kids and other locals. The kids came up to me and shook my hand and then walked and carried on their games. You have to teach our kids to shake hands, these were no older than 7 and doing it to me mid street game.
I established my card doesn't work in their ATMs which could pose a problem but will see for sure tomorrow when Ivan talk someone. I returned back to the hotel to watch some football with the manager and his cousin. The cousin made me some dinner which was ful but he had mixed some bread in it and other spices so it tasted strangely better. The raw onion and chilli powder did almost dissolve my tongue but it was nice o him to make it anyway.
I was pretty tired and my legs were still aching so I didn't even manage the whole game before I retreated to bed. My wish for a good ride and a good ending came true. Tomorrow I will chill out, find the Internet cafe and hopefully sort out my money issue.
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