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uglyscot Says: The River Atbara is the last tributary to feed into the Nile. It is seasonal in that the volume increases from June until the end of September. Four times each decade there will be a high flood which causes devastation.It is pleasant to sit beside the river, even to watch...
mafi_moya Says: An interesting walk can be made around the old railway district. You can look round the old and crumbling station, and witness the chaos that a Sudanese train journey entails. There's also some unusual houses where railway workers used to live, little cottages with domed...
mafi_moya Says: When people talk about the river in Sudan they invariably mean the Nile - no wonder, given its tremendous size and importance. But the Atbara river is significant in its own right and, snaking off towards Ethiopia through Eastern Sudan, surprisingly large.As with the Nile...
maykal Says: Atbara in the dry season has wide beaches alongside the Nile where locals come to play football and sit with friends in the late afternoon.
maykal Says: Just take a walk around the Sikka Hadeed area (the railway quarter, which makes up most of the town), to see the strange architecture. there are no specific sights to see, but domed houses in rows next to British-built churches, mud-brick mosques and palm trees is fairly...
The Nile: No choice but avoid if possible
yurxlnc Says: Terrible.The service was unbelievably bad,. We were a group of two locals and 4 expatriats. We had been driving all day from Khartoum, and half the party were fasting because it was Ramadan. I won't describe the meal we had,but we were given two thermos flasks containing tea...
uglyscot Says: Nowadays getting to Atbara is quite easy as there is a new tarmac road from Khartoum which takes about 4 hours. Unfortunately it is also used by heavy lorries bringing goods from Port Sudan to Khartoum, which can slow things a lot. In the past Atbara was the main place for...
uglyscot Says: In the past the only easy way to get from Khartoum to Port Sudan was by rail via Atbara. Atbara was the HQ for the Sudan Railways Corp. The original rail system was laid by the British, and they made the bridge across the Atbara River which is still in use today for rail ,...
mafi_moya Says: By private transport: Easy! Whether approaching from north or south, just follow the road running close to the Nile.By bus: Best place to catch a bus is from the northern bus station in Bahri (Khartoum North). There are not-too-crowded minibuses, as well as the usual...
The slow train from Port Sudan
maykal Says: Every two weeks, a rickety old train puffs its way from Port Sudan through the Red Sea Hills and the desert to Atbara, taking at least 18 hours. While there are 1st, 2nd and 3rd classes, tickets sell out fast, so we ended up with a patch of floor space in the 2nd class...
maykal Says: Atbara is a suitable base for trips to the nearby Pyramids of Meroe, which are located just off the highway near a village called Bajrawiyya. take any bus heading to Shendi or Khartoum, and hop out when you see the pyramids rising from behind the dunes on your right after an...
The Train to Wadi Halfa and Khartoum
maykal Says: Every week, there is a train from Khartoum to Wadi Halfa, arriving there in time for the boat to Egypt, returning a few days later with newly-arrived apssengers off the boat. The trip all the way from Wadi Halfa to Khartoum takes in excess of 40 hours, is very uncomfortable...
maykal Says: Most visitors to Atbara treat the place as nothing more than a place to change transport, and try to leave almost as soon as they arrive. Many do not realise that atbara is situated where the Nile and the Atbara rivers meet, and that down by the waterfront are some great...
Plan a Atbara vacation with reviews, tips and photos posted by real travelers and Atbara locals
Atbara in the dry season has wide beaches alongside the Nile where locals come to play football and sit with friends in the late afternoon.
1 member lives in Atbara
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I've got some interesting experiences in Atbara. I'd love to share with you the 6 tips I've written, the 6 photos uploaded, and 0 travelogues I've created.
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Atbara- the former railway town
What can I say about Atbara? We arrived off the ferry from Ed-Damer and drove up the steep slope. People , cattle, goats were waiting to take their turn on the boat. As we crawled up the hill, what......
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Atbara was the centre of the Sudan Railways system, The workshops were there, as well as being the junction for the lines going north to Wadi Halfa and the Egyptian border, and east to Port Sudan. It...
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Have only ever stopped briefly in Atbara while passing through to somewhere else - it's that kind of place. There's not much reason to make a special trip here, but it is a very pleasant and quite...
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Lived there as member of Technical Assistance Team, CPCS, Canada for Rehabilitation of Sudan Railway 1989 - 1993
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