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 | Wadi Halfa' Transportation | Tips 1 - 3 of 3 |  |
Popular Transportation | Miscellaneous Transportation Tips | All Tips (3)  | |  |  | Ferry to Egypt | Tip Rating:    |  |  | |  |
There is a somewhat tired-looking ferry that takes passengers over to Aswan once a week...it leaves Aswan on a Monday, arriving the following day, then makes the return trip whenever the train arrives from Khartoum. There is a first class, which consists of a few cabins (apparently quite comfortable, so I'm told), but most choose to go second class (I prefer to call it steerage!), which means sitting on a hard bench in a stuffy crowded lounge, or marking your own little patch on deck and sleeping under the stars. One meal (plain fuul, bread, cheese and tea) is included in your ticket, but as the trip is a long one, bring supplies with you. Not much to see en route, although the ship passes by Abu Simbel, so make sure you are on deck at that point as the views are impressive. Some immigration is carried out on board the ship...but be warned, getting onand off the ship is chaotic! And before disembarking in Wadi Halfa, DON'T FORGET YOUR YELLOW CARD, or you'll be screeched at by the customs officials!
Tickets are bought in a hidden office in Aswan, at the port in Wadi Halfa, or through some travel agents in Khartoum. Leave a Comment Theme: Ship/Boat
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| | | | The train to Khartoum | Tip Rating: | | | | |
Moving on from Wadi Halfa, you have a choice of buses or the famous train (watch Michael Palin's Pole to Pole...things have not changed much since he did the trip). The train sounds like one of those trips that are just begging to be done...but the reality is a slow monotonous and very uncomfortable ride through endless desert, stopping at some godforsaken outposts before joining the Nile at Abu Hamed. Nothing to see, nothing to do, nowhere to sit...it is a gruelling trip all the way to Khartoum, so I suggest you break the journey by leaving at Abu Hamed, Berber or Atbara, and continuing by road. For a rough idea of the speed of this ancient locomotive, it chugs along between Atbara and Khartoum in over 10 hours, while a minibus does the same journey in 4. The whole trip takes around 36 hours, give or take a few for break downs, emergency stops to pick up passengers who fall off the roof, and to clear the tracks of sand or animals.
The train can be very busy, especialy around either Eid, when practically the whole of Wadi Halfa heads south to celebrate with family and friends...if you can, book a seat well in advance, or you'll end up sitting on the floor.
The train is supposed to meet the boat, so if the train is late, the boat will wait and vice versa. Leave a Comment Theme: Train
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on October 17, 2004
Wadi Halfa'
