Today is History Day...cast in sand!

Hearing the alarm go off at 5:55 am is a startling experience, but it was breakfast at 6:30 am and ready for our pick-up by 7:00 am sharp. Today was history day and we were going by Land Cruiser a few hundred kilometers north of Khartoum to visit the ancient ruins of the City of Meroe. Meroe sort of appeared around the 6th Century BC, but no one is really sure where its residents came from to start this community which lasted until about 400 BC. The pictures around our hotel had us interested and we were all set to go. It was about 8:30 am when our rides and fellow travellers were ready to leave. It was one last washroom break and off we went. If you saw the washroom facilities along the road to Meroe, you would try to empty every possible source of potential toilet need. We did not succeed!

Our two hired Land Cruisers, eight passengers and two drivers reached the desert sands of the northern Sahara desert quickly, but we had our trip interrupted briefly when our vehicle blew a rear tire. After driving for close to two hours, we left the paved road and headed off across the sands of the Sahara. We had no way of knowing how the drivers determined the route, but we eventually reached our first target - the pyramids of Meroe. These several pyramids of various sizes and shapes had had their tops taken off by treasure seekers several decades ago, but the area is an archeological bonanza with about 30 pyramids nestled in amongst the ever changing sand dunes due to the wind. We took several photos, of course, and then boarded 8 sturdy galloping camels and raced our way back to the Land Cruisers. Wayne came in first, Kim second while Gary and John kept our hosts company behind. John's camel was so small he was almost able to mount it from the ground as if getting on a horse - but they bonded well.

We left the pyramids, at times referred to as the cemetery area of Meroe (as the pyramids contained bones of people from the ancient city) and headed off to other remains of the city. First, however, we stopped at a roadside picnic area and had lunch. Dr. Wageeh had told us that he would bring some vegetables and things to snack on. When it was laid out before us, we had hot pasta, fish, sliced meat, cheese, kaiser rolls, fruit, soft drinks, etc. etc. etc. This is where we had our first experience with the ancient art of eliminating human waste into a hole in the ground the size of which required an uncanny sense of aim while holding one's breath to avoid the eruption of our newly devoured lunch at the same time due to the accumulating odours left by the last several hundred visitors to the hole and its non-ventilated enclosure.

We then visited the Apedemak Temple at Naga - part of the ancient city of Meroe which required a lengthy drive over non-maintained ruts in the desert. All of these sites we found quite sensational and we marvelled at how little anyone knows about these ancient ruins and how few people visit them. Except for the odd tourist here and there, we were the only visitors getting our bodies sandblasted by the blowing sand and high winds as we wound our way through areas that were very well preserved in some cases and in utter ruins in other.
We also visited the area known as Musawwarat, also part of the Merow area, and walked amongst pillars and stone walls, statues and wall carvings all eminating from a few centries BC.

As we headed back to the main road from Northern Sudan to Khartoum we wound our way along the desert trails with the two drivers trying to out-wit each other. Our driver had the last laugh as the other Land Cruiser bottomed out and got stuck trying to re=enter the highway over a sand bank that was just a bit too high. We were able to get him pulled out and we headed back to Khartoum and arrived just in time for a hot shower to remove the pounds of red desert sand that was caked on our bodies, have supper, check our e-mail and go to bed.

Tomorrow is a big day for the Khartoum YMCA as the new computer lab at the Khartoum YMCA school, supported by our Northern Ontario YMCA's, is officially opened.