Tea and Donuts in Dongola

Rest Day In Dogola

After leaving the internet cafe late last night (I tried to miss the rider rush!) I walked back to camp with two other riders. By midnight the streets of Dongola were empty and we were alone in the street with barking dogs - lots of them. We armed ourselves with a couple of bricks just in case we had to defend ourselves - we are certainly not worried about the Sudanese people because they are lovely but the dogs - that is another story. Luckily, the bricks were unnecessary! We arrived back to camp and found we were locked out - everyone, including the guard, was fast asleep. We had to climb the fence of the Dongola "Zoo" to get to our tents. I am getting used to sleeping in my tent - I have been calling it my "tent house" and look forward to getting in there at night.

This morning I woke up early to join the line for a chance to send a few more emails and to get online before the riders crowd the cafe. As the sun came up a few of us went to a tiny outdoor cafe to wait for the internet place to open. I love how civilized it is - the men join each other early for coffee, tea and little donuts cooked right on the spot in hot oil. They are rolled in sugar and they are delicious. I am not sure how the men feel about having women join them in their cafes but so far they have been very friendly and welcoming. I couldn't help but notice last night that the female riders from the TDA were the only women out after dark.

So this is a rest day in Dongola and since I have already done my laundry and updated my blog I will be off to find more food and hopefully just relax after cleaning my bike. I will try to write more often so that my blogs are more organized. Also you will have to look to the archive on the left of the blog and read in reverse order since I log my blogs in chronological order but the last day will show up as most recent - make sense? Anyway - I will just hope that you are all figuring out how to read my blog.

As I have said, the Tour d'Afrique blog is good way to check out what we are up to each day as they update more regularly and there is a rider who has come prepared with a whole tent of electrics and is able to update his blog twice a day! He takes lots of photos and the are amazing. He says it is lots of work and I could never do it but if you are interested check out his blog at:

http://www.africanride.blogspot.com/

Again I will try to get pics up soon.

Until next time!

jx