Saturday 29 March (day 29)

In the morning we packed the car and left our shady tree heading north only to come back in the evening to the same spot again… The bridge to Dongola is being built as we type and we could take the ferry. As we drove North out of Dongola the Nile was on the right along with green nion fields, ush date palm groves and wheat fields.  On the left side desert.  Not so much as a bush growing, nothing but sand.  There was no road really just some tracks in the sand and space.  You just drive.  Sometimes it is vast space occasionally winding around electricity poles and sometimes the sandy space funnels into small roads winding between the mud brick houses. "on coming traffic" can approach from any angle and there is no etiquette about pulling over to your side of the 'road'.  It should be easier to drive with no rules and no road but it seems more difficult. On the west side of the Nile are many archeological sites and according to the Bradt guide we could take a ferry back near Kerma. After driving north along the Nile for two hours we should be near the ferry. We asked a car full of guys wearing green uniforms for the Pontoon, ferry, to Karma. They replied a long story in Arabic and all of them pointing north, they continued the story and then pointed towards the Nile, and as they rapped up their story they all pointed towards Dongola. Clear enough we needed to go in the last direction and ask again. A boksi , taxi-truck, came to our rescue, or not, and a bunch of old guys were willing to drive in front of us to show the way. After 20 minutes the boksi stopped to get food or so and we asked them in our best Arabic if they were going to Dongola or Karma by ferry. Well, you can imagine the reply and we continued to find the ferry ourselves. When we came to the ferry the old guys were just in front of us, but when we ferry itself came to shore it was clear that the would never hold a car (photo). Here the water level was too low for the big ferry which we could see sitting on the other side of the river for the last 7 days. We had to go back to Dongola and decided to go back to the campsite we left in the morning. At night new bugs tried to terrorize the camp, huge spiders came running into the light and out again (repeatedly). This called for the special suits!