Sudan Travel

By Rail

Most of the major cities and towns in Sudan are linked by rail.

By Boat

Sudan has over 4,000 km of navigable waterways; nearly half of them are useable all year.

By Road

Most of the roads are little more than dirt tracks made impassable after heavy rains. A paved road exists between Khartoum and Port Sudan on the Red Sea.

By Air

Airlines:
Sudan Airways has services throughout the country and operates scheduled international flights. Several foreign airlines also fly into Sudan.

Getting Around Sudan :

While there is a good rail network in Sudan, the rolling stock is fairly old.

Trains run from:

Wadi Halfa (on the Nile, near the Egyptian border) to Khartoum.

This line branches at Atbara, for trains to Port Sudan (on the Red Sea).

From Khartoum, the train runs south to Sennar, where the line branches (east) to Kassala and Port Sudan, and (west) to Kosti, Nyala and Wau.

To get to Wau, leave the Nyala-Kosti line at Babanusah. This section was often sabotaged by the SPLM (Sudanese People's Liberation Movement).

As for schedules.....

Wadi Halfa to Khartoum:

Trains are meant to connect with the steamers at Wadi Halfa, although you might find yourself waiting a day or two.

Trains are supposed to depart Wadi Halfa in the late afternoon, on Thursday and Sunday.

North from Khartoum, trains are supposed to leave early mornings on Sunday and Wednesday, the last we heard.

Trains are crowded (there are even people on the roof) and take around 50 hours -- if they don't break down.

More interesting than travelling to Khartoum by train, is to follow the course of the Nile.

Trucks leave Wadi Halfa for Kerma (15-30 hrs), then it's another lorry (or shared taxi) to Dongola (2 1/2 hours).

Cross over the Nile and continue on to Karima (7-10 hours), or take the steamer (if the river is high from August to December) -- two sailings a week, if all goes well, and the journey takes 3 days.

From Karima, you can get on the train for the 36-hour ride to the capital (Wednesday and Sunday). There are also buses -- via Shendi, Atbara and Abu Hamed -- twice a week, which take about 24 hours.

Khartoum to Kosti:

Train schedules are erratic in Sudan but rumour has it that a train leaves Khartoum, for Nyala (via Sennar and Babanusa), on Mondays.

Again, you might want to do the trip in stages -- by road. Trucks leave from the souk in Omdurman.

Khartoum to Kosti takes about 4 1/2 hours and another 4-5 days to Nyala.

From Kosti, there are buses to El Obeid and (by bus or truck) onto Kadugli (5 hrs) -- an interesting, little town in the Nubian Mountains.

Buses and lorries run from Kadugli to Babanusa (via El Fula).

Khartoum to Port Sudan:

The rail route to Port Sudan, via Sennar and Kassala, is miserably slow.

Trucks and buses leave from the Shabi souk (in south Khartoum) early in the morning to Wad Medani, Gedaref, Kassala and Port Sudan.

The journey to Kassala -- where the Port Sudan buses stop for the night -- takes around seven to nine hours.

Weather in Port Sudan:
Five day weather outlook for Port Sudan.

Sudan -- Language and Culture 

The official language of Sudan is Arabic, and English is also widely spoken.

Before the displacement caused by the civil war, the northern two-thirds of Sudan was an area of Islamic culture, while traditional cattle- raising customs remained strong in the south.