Visiting Sudan’s nr 1 tourist attraction

We set off North towards Shendi from Khartoum at lunch time feeling well-rested, happy from all the good food and wow(!) my clothes were smelling so gooood! It was great to be on the road again and we looked forward to a night under the stars! As we left Khartoum behind it became even more dry and barren and we both loved the solitude and vast open spaces around us. Here we stopped for a quick break.

The wind was blowing from the front and we completed the 230km to the Meroe Pyramids in about four and a half hours. The Meroe Pyramids are Sudan’s top tourist attraction and it was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in June earlier this year. The site has more than 200 different pyramids all in different sizes and excavations revealed evidence of important, high ranking Kushite burials from 800 – 280 BC, just to give you an idea of how old it is!

Also interesting to note is that all the pyramids’ tops are broken off thanks to Giuseppe Ferlini, an Italian treasure-hunter who in 1834 found treasures in the top of one of the pyramids at Meroe. He continued to break down all the tops only to find that none of the other pyramids had any treasures. What a terrible legacy to leave behind!

As we arrived at the pyramids an Arab with camel arrived and before I knew I was up on the camel and off we went!

It was my first time on a proper camel – and I loved it! It is quite a process to get up and down and you have to hold on very tightly to the saddle as the camel folds itself into a crouching position. Luckily I had my bike gear on as it is quite high up in the air :o)

In the background you can see the outlines of some of the pyramids, an awesome sight!

After my test drive on the camel, we left to find a camping spot for the night behind one of the dunes. The Motomias did well in the sand – there is no real road so you just choose a path which is much easier than riding in someone else’s tracks. In some places the sand was softer and we had fun paddling through it.

And some sand spinning too:

This is where we chose to put up our camp. It was just us and the desert!

Just over this dune is a great view over the pyramids. Here you can see the view from the top.

The wind was blowing and there was quite a lot of sand (as expected in a desert) so I chickened out opted for sleeping in the tent, but Fran wouldn’t miss sleeping outside for anything in the world so he has curled up on my porch outside… nice!

I am thinking now: If I was a rich woman I would buy myself a camel, a desert and a small off-road motorbike… wouldn’t that be grand? g’night!