Sunday 30 March (day 30)

We left our campsite driving on the east side of the Nile going North to Kerma.  5 Km before Kerma we wanted to see the Deffufa a huge mudbrick building thought to be one of he oldest remaining man-made structures in Sub-Saharan Africa.  The guide book makes it sound as if you can't miss it!  Well, you can.  After driving around the narrow "roads" (more like spaces) between houses we stop and ask for directions.  We get them.. in Arabic… but always with a smile, and we head in that general direction.  We stop and ask a couple of more times and luckily stumble (by almost driving into his yard) a man who speaks some English.  He tells us to drive back to the school, take a left to the river and take another left, then really, we can't miss it.  All the buildings and houses are surrounded by high mud brick walls and we can't tell where the school is.  We take a guess and turn left and a car starts honking behind us and the man gets out and shouts – "that's not the school! Keep going" and he takes us to where the school is and directs us left.  We manage to find the Deffufa!  They are in the process of excavating the site and constructing a museum.  We pay the standard Sudan historical site fee of 20 NSP per person and have a look around.  It is amazing to know that such an ancient structure is still standing but there is no info and not guide so we have to guess a lot at the history.  We move on to the Kerma market.  We park the car and take a wonder around in search of lunch and some oranges.  It is busy with spices, meat, coffee, plastic toys, shoes, clothing on sale.  It is packed with people an donkey carts.  We find a falafel stand and a baklava stand and place an order take away.  The baklava is sold by the KILO not by the piece!  At first this seemed extravagant but we have adapted to it and there is never any left over… sooo good!.  The guy selling oranges finds us and then we are ready to move on.  The baklava is gone before we make it out of town and we start on the falafel sandwich.  The road is winding along the Nile through small villages.  Multiple houses are within large walled compounds and swept clean.  The houses and walls are mud brick the color of the earth except for brightly colored and patterned entry gates to each compound.