Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
By the time Ash had released me from his bear hug, Will had reached into his pack and
produced a small gift. When he opened his hand, a single pack of condoms was sitting in
his palm. 'Emergency water carriers,' he declared. 'That's the only use they'll get out here.
Well, you did say you wanted some company crossing the desert, didn't you?'
I'd lived with Will at university in Nottingham years before and we'd travelled the
world together ever since we'd both joined the army. Will had become a doctor and, when
he wasn't on operations with his unit, or on exercise in some far-flung part of the world,
he was always on the lookout for another adventure, so it was hardly surprising that he'd
used up his annual-leave allowance to come and keep me company.
'Can't have you crossing the Sahara on your own!' he said with his usual dark humour.
'You need me here in case you pile in . . .'
At a canteen in Atbarah, I introduced Will and Ash to Moez. Awad and Ahmad were con-
tent to camp outside the town, but we decided to make the best of what Atbarah had to
offer before the long desert crossing would begin. Atbarah is a major centre for railway
manufacture in the Sudan, and has the air of an industrial town - but it served the best
chicken and liver I had tasted in weeks. As we ate, Moez got to explaining the way ahead.
'The river bends west, but then it reaches the Meroe Dam, and the reservoir behind it.
We have to avoid it at all costs.'
'Why?' asked Ash. Ash was a travel writer, with a knack for getting ridiculous assign-
ments, and the urge to quiz Moez a little further was instinctive. 'I thought we had to stick
to the river. Aren't those the rules of your expedition, Lev?'
'They are, but . . .'
'Listen,' said Moez, 'it isn't that simple. The Meroe Dam's only five years old, but
they've been talking of damming the river here, at the fourth cataract, for decades.' The
Nile traditionally has six cataracts - places where the river is noticeably more shallow,
broken by rocks and giving rise to white-water rapids - between Khartoum and Aswan
in Egypt. 'It's the most powerful dam in the country, and also the most destructive. Al-
most fifty thousand people were displaced to build it - that's as many as the High Dam in
Egypt.' Moez's face was tightening in anger at what the government had done. 'Nobody
in the government listened to those people. They'd rather not have had the electricity than
be forced from their homes . . .'
I could tell he was about to say something he'd later regret, so I decided to interject.
'The importance of that dam to Sudan can't be overestimated. It practically doubled the
amount of power in Sudan. And that means . . .'
Finally, Ash understood: 'You mean there'll be army there?'
