Another visit into the Nubian desert

On Sunday we decided to visit some temple ruins in the desert. I will post about them shortly.

A ride into the desert, what more could we wish for...

As we turned off into the desert, we rode up behind another vhehicle, the only other vehicle in the desert.

...except to meet up with some really friendly people in the [only] vehicle ahead

Yes, it's true. At last we've met up with some really friendly people here in the Sudan. We "met"  in the desert on Sunday. I've mentioned in posts that when we approach expats  in Khartoum, we're always met with non-committal replies and often downright unfriendliness. We pulled up alongside a double-cab pick-up. I wound my window down, and the driver of the other vehicle did the same.

Turned out to be two lady teachers from Khartoum and a young Ethiopian gentleman. They were scouting for territory to bring their pupils camping in the desert. The two women were AUSTRALIAN. Whoo-hoo. And SO friendly. They asked us to follow them as they only had a two-wheel drive vehicle. The day before they'd camped up at the Meroe pyramids which I posted about last week. Their vehicle got stuck and they had to do a lot of digging and pushing to get out. Riding in convoy with us, they said they felt much more reassured. At least we'd be able to pull them out if the need arose.

We were so thrilled to meet up with other people and the older teacher, Robyn has been in Khartoum for five years already. She is a mine of information on which restaurants give discount, and which supermarkets have the best value for money. She also said she'd let us know when they had talks on cultural issues in the evening at the school and that we were welcome to come.  

The other young lass, Izzy has just arrived in Khartoum and brought a cat with her from Thailand. Soon She and I were deep in conversation about the red tape surrounding moving your pet around Africa. (Or the world, in her case)

A sneak preview of the first temples we visited up ahead of the Landcruiser

New friends we met in the desert: Robyn (Australian), Getenet (Ethiopian) and Izzy (Australian)

Lunch was salad - stuffed pitas in the desert

Great joke here: Robyn was asking Grant if he'd brought some biltong (spicy dried meat much like jerky) from South Africa!

For more of other people's worlds, click here

The Arabic word for friends is 'Şdqāʼ  (pronounced Sadeeka)
The Arabic word for vehicle is Mrkbh (pronounced Murkba)