NorthCape-SouthCape:
060119
The water pipe
Nightlife in Wadi Halfa is rather limited, but there is no need to
get bored. We, or rather Lukas, decided to smoke a water pipe of a
different tobacco last night, a pipe to make you happy. “Lucke”
had found a place he had seen during the day and where a whole regiment
could be entertained.
Possibly it was the tobacco or the fact we hadn’t eaten, but
I definitely felt the effect. Possibly this tobacco has not been analysed
and approved by the tobacco-making industry in a place like Sudan.
It’s a dry country and we are eager to get somewhere for supplies
of B-vitamines.
This is downtown Wadi Halfa.
Mobile phones don’t work here but at Kingtel in the middle of
the town there are five booths for local calls and one for international
calls. Prices are OK, for a dollar a minute you can call your wife
or why not someone who can update you on the stock market.
Cars and bikes finally arrived with the boat to be dragged violently
through customs. Exciting experience during the afternoon, to be compared
with… I don’t know what.
We had a brutal start in the real Africa. Washboard of a specially
ugly and aggressive sort.
The side-effects were not long in coming. The second version of the
luggage rack for the spare fuel broke on all three bikes. Lemon warning
number one for the day. All three skeletons were reduced to future
fossiles near the White Nile. I was told that neither I nor Håkan
Hammarstedt can manufacture anything to be attached to a bike in Africa.
Many have tried and many have failed and learned the same lesson as
I have now.
We rode until it was dark and still only got 125kms. Although we didn’t
start until four in the afternoon. This picture of Ian travelling
against the horizon is a symbol for the dream of winning over the
elements and get through Africa.
The debut for the cars was no less brutal, bolts unravelling and Umeå
Van Service special shock absorbers that broke after 50kms. General
lemon warning number two for these so-called special shocks for the
Silverado, costing about 1000 Euros and holding 50 kilometres in Africa!!!
/PG
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High
Performance Riding
www.pgdakar.com |
Per-Gunnar
Lundmark
Fjällbonäs 15
933 91 Arvidsjaur |
Per-Gunnar
Lundmark
Eva.PG.Lundmark@swipnet.se
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Updated
2006-01-21
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