Ok....did not do this and regret it.....If you come by bus from Port Sudan you will get dropped off a couple hundred yards from the historic part that you have to pay a couple of bucks to enter. My driver took me right up to the front of the Kitchners gate where you pay the folks in the office to the right. Anyway the town itself is kind of a sleepy fishing village. Being a man (or whatever you want to call me) of the sea, I have a bit of respect for fishermen and seeing the kids fish off the rocks and the boats in various states of repair/use appeals to me.
Below are a few of the pics I was smart enough to take. If anyone else makes it our here please take lots of photos of this place which I think has some great visual appeal.
Cheers
Inside the gated city there is not as much to see as out front in the working part but it is well worth the couple of bucks to get in and see. I will include multiple parts to this tip to post as many pics as possible
The obvious attraction is the island itself...palace ruins where once a king lived with his 360 wives, Kitchener's old house, and some old buildings from Osman Digna's time (Osman Digna, for those not in the know, is one of the Sudanese heroes, having fought and died for the Mahdi against the British). Unfortunately, to visit, you'll have to pay 10,000 each, which works out as $4....now, I realise this is cheap by European standards, but nothing in Sudan costs this much, and I could not afford it as I earn a Sudanese teacher's wage. The man at the gate was not willing to bargain, even though I tried to reason that a contribution was better than nothing...I mean, the last visitor was three weeks ago apparently, so he can't make that much every day...but he was having none of it. Back on the mainland, you can sit in a cafe by the shore and watch the boats lazily float past with coral hoses in ruins as a backdrop.
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