Abu Hamed to Atbara

Atbara, Sudan

 

On Sunday morning, I awoke yet again with hopes that I could find transportation to Kareima but yet again the train was still just sitting in the train yard with no locomotive. So, I decided to bail on Kareima and catch a bus south to Atbara, the next major town and from where I could arrange to either try again to head west to Kareima, or just continue south to Khartoum.

 

Many of the buses in Sudan are nothing more then truck chassis with make shift bus frames welding to them. In a weird sort of way, they look kind of cool, like big "monster buses" and provide the main form of transport in the north of Sudan where paved roads are non existent. I'd heard that the road from Abu Hamed south to Atbara was rough, but I sure didn't think it would be as rough as it was.

 

I ended up getting a seat in the last row and if you remember anything from riding in yellow school buses when you were younger it's that the further back you go in the bus, the bigger the bumps. The bus itself is packed with people. They actually have little fold down seats that occupy the aisle, so no space is left empty. The roof is loaded with all the luggage and a huge cargo net is draped over the top to secure it. For good measure, some people ride on the top, which might actually be more comfortable then being in the last row.

 

The only blessing about the seat that I had is that it was right behind the rear door, so there was no row in front of we, just a stair well. Looking at the other seats I don't think I could have physically fit in the space provided if a row had been in front of me. Of course, all good space must be used and this case, the person right beside me sort of got screwed when they placed a huge water drum right in front of him, then some kid claimed that as his seat for the ride! I guess I can't complain that they actually thought to put in some water just in case we got stuck in the desert, but thank god I had just enough stairwell in front of me such that the barrel had to screw the guy to my left... Poor guy.

 

As we got under way, it was immediately clear that this was going to be one long and extremely bumpy ride the likes of which I had never experienced before. Even when the bus goes slow, you got thrown around in the back like no tomorrow. I quickly lost count of the number of times that I got thrown so high that no part of my body was touching the bus! The first one or two bumps are sort of fun, taking you back to that yellow bus in grade school, but it very quickly wears old and it doesn't take long before a few locals are yelling something up to the front after each big bump. (Maybe telling the driver to slow down?)

 

No less then 30 minutes into the journey and trouble strikes in the form of a blown tire. It's the inner tire of the double rear set on the drivers side and it went pretty quickly. One big "bang", followed by lots of rushing air. You didn't need much help to understand what had just happened.

 

So, in the middle of the desert, it's time to change a tire. As I stepped out of the bus, I was in awe of just how in the middle of nowhere we were. 360 degrees around the bus and nothing but desert as far as the eye could see. It was right out of a movie, with a dozen or so people sitting beside the bus watching the tire change. A few other buses and lorries rumbled by, stopping to see if we needed help but were quickly waved on by our driver/mechanic. It was at least somewhat reassuring that the road had other travelers on it in the even we had more mechanical problems.

 

The tire itself didn't take all that long to fix, but someone decided that the front suspension also needed to be worked on so they swung the jack around to the front and after find some boulders to prop it up a bit higher, they started banging on the front suspension with a metal mallet. I'm no mechanic, but when you're standing in the middle of the barren desert and some guy is under your bus banging on the suspension with a metal mallet, I'm thinking that this might take awhile. In the end I don't really know what they fixed in the suspension, but after almost 1.5 hours, we were back "on the road".

 

The bumpy road, sand and never ending dust went on for the next several hours before we finally reached a "paved" gravel road, which compared to what we had been on was as smooth as butter. Apparently this road will extend all the way up to Wadi Halfa, "Inshallah". For now though, it only services the last hour or so of a 6 hour bus ride from Abu Hamed to Atbara.

 

As we got closer to Atbara, there were frequent stops to let people on and off who lived in some remote villages outside Atbara. In many cases, the bus would stop, someone would get out, a few people would jump off the roof, then the bus would start going again and everyone who had jumped off the roof would run to catch the ladder at the back of the bus to get back on the roof. This pattern repeated itself several times before pulling into Atbara.

 

Just outside Atbara, the bus had to pass a security checkpoint and of course the only person on the entire 50+ person bus that had to get off was yours truly. It's sort of strange when some plain clothed person opens the back door, looks at you, and says in broken English "get off". I quickly figured out, with the help of some of the other passengers, that this was just a security checkpoint, but you still get that "don't leave me here" feeling as you stand in the security office waiting for the officer to fill out your passport information as the the bus, and all its passengers, waits outside for you. 5 minutes later I was back on board and Atbara was the next stop...

 

Kenny