Sudan and South Sudan: From Wadi Halfa to Juba (Summer 1969)
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During the summer 1969,
I went by boat from Marseilles to Alexandria in Egypt. From there I traveled
mostly along the Nile River down to Juba (now the capital of South Sudan), by
train and by boat. At that time southern Sudan was already in turmoil and I
had to fly from Juba to Entebbe in Uganda. From Aswan in
southern Egypt I took a boat on Lake Nasser (the lake created by the Aswan
dam) to reach Wadi Halfa
in northern Sudan. From there an old train brought me to Khartoum across the
desert of Nubia and then another train further south to Kosti.
In Kosti I boarded a boat on the Nile for Juba, a
one-week trip across a huge waterlogged swamp. In 1969, the
southern portion of this trip (mainly between Malakal to Juba) was part of
Sudan. Since 2011, it is part of the newly independent country of South
Sudan. |
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On the boat from
Aswan to Wadi Halfa. The
boat was actually an assembly of 5 to 6 smaller boats, with one providing
propulsion and the others equipped with passenger cabins.
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Arrival in Wadi Halfa, a quite desolate
place.
The train station in Wadi Halfa.
From Wadi Halfa the train did not
follow the Nile, but crossed the desert of Nubia straight toward the town of
Atbara. The desert was flat and extremely hot, and the train was very slow,
probably not faster than a running man.
Train station in
Khartoum.
Fruit stand in
Khartoum.
Man drinking tea and
policeman in Khartoum.
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In 1969 Khartoum was
mostly an administrative city (and may still be today). A more vibrant and
atmospheric town was Omdurman, just across the Nile.
In the town of Wad Madani located on the Blue Nile.
In Wad Madani, a nice man, who thought my trip was dangerous,
offered me an amulet. He demonstrated the efficacy of the amulet, a wristband,
by putting a scorpion in his hand.
Like the boat on Lake
Nasser, the boat from Kosti to Juba was also an assembly
of several smaller boats. For most of the trip the White Nile runs through a
flat marsh and has no river banks. It floods quickly in the rains and carries
much vegetation with it. In some places, navigating across this vegetation did
not seem easy. The boat made no long stops along the way, except in Malakal.
All photos below were taken from the boat.
Villages along the
way.
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In
Juba.
