Julius Plenz – Blog

Reisebericht Sudan

Die letzten beiden Wochen habe ich nichts gebloggt, weil ich an einem kleinen Projekt geschrieben habe, das nun endlich fertig ist: Mein Reisebericht Von Kairo nach Khartoum über die Sudan-Reise.

Der Bericht ist eine hoffentlich amüsante und interessante Zusammenstellung von Erlebnissen; ich habe mich bemüht, auch Leuten, die noch nicht in Afrika gereist sind, zu vermitteln, wie das Leben dort abläuft.

Falls ihr's lesen wollt, plant ein bisschen Zeit ein: Es sind über 150 Fotos und ca. 40 DIN A4-Seiten Text.

posted 2012-04-30 tagged egypt, sudan and life

I'm back

I'm back from Sudan! – After six weeks of travelling in the desert, mostly taking cheap sleeping options and uncomfortable local transport it is a huge relief to have these certain luxury items again: Water from the tap (which you can drink!), a hot shower, a washing machine and a nice bed.

I wrote a travel diary and will use excerpts to write up a travelog with some photos from the journey. (This will take some days, naturally.) Already I tried stitching together a panorama image of Marawi, taken in the first morning light from the top of Jebel Barkal near Karima. It's a very typical pattern which you can see anywhere along the Nile: a few hundred meters of fields, then the main village, a tarmac road – built by the Chinese, mostly – and then: hundreds of kilometers of desert.

It is shivery-cold here in Berlin; already I miss Khartoum's every-day-above-40°C weather.

posted 2012-04-10 tagged life and sudan

Travelling up the Nile

I'm so excited! Tomorrow afternoon, together with a good friend of mine I'll board a plane to Cairo, Egypt. There, we'll try to acquire visas to enter Sudan. Essentially, we will travel up the river Nile from Cairo via Aswan, Wadi Halfa, and Atbara to Khartoum. If we have time, we'll also visit Port Sudan. In total, we have six weeks of time on our hands.

I hope I'm prepared well: I've been learning a bit of Arabic at university for the past two semesters; also, I've been reading the Sudan Tribune the past few months to stay up to date about the situation there. – Other than that, it's the usual stuff you should bring: insect repellent, anti-malaria tablets, water purifier, sunblocker, a good book and a (paper) notebook. Oh, and they don't have ATMs in Sudan, so it's all cash. Better hide it well. (Correction: There are no ATMs for international CCs like Master, Visa oder AmEx. For the local banks, there are quite a few.)

I had to cut down on my initial travel plans, which would have led from Cairo to Dar es Salaam (via Khartoum, Juba, Kampala), crossing five countries in total. This is not feasible any more, however, due to the high tension and violence in Southern Sudan (especially in the Abyei region). – On the upside, it'll be a rather relaxed journey now!

In Khartoum it's 36°C right now... – See you in April!

posted 2012-02-23 tagged life, nile, egypt and sudan

Sudan und die EAU

Interessant. Der Sudan hat um Mitgliedschaft in der East African Union gebeten. Interessant, weil der Sudan sich die letzten paar Jahrzehnte nicht im geringsten darum gekümmert hat, jetzt aber nicht mal mehr eine direkte Grenze mit dem nördlichsten Mitglied, Kenia, hat – und weil der Sudan damit dem abtrünnigen Südsudan zuvorkommt – die haben nämlich noch nicht um eine Mitgliedschaft gebeten, obwohl sie ein vornehmlich christliches Land sind, direkte Grenzen zu EAU-Mitgliedern haben und den wirtschaftlichen Vorteil dringender brauchen. Spannend.

posted 2011-09-29 tagged sudan and africa

Southern Sudan's Secession

I am closely following the secession of Southern Sudan. It is a very intriguing situation – the birth of a new state.

Information is scarce about this topic. The Sudan Tribune provides some insights, but most quality coverage is done by Al Jazeera here. Some facts to consider (quoted from here):

Eritrea, Libya and Iran have already stated they won't recognize Southern Sudan as a state. Most western countries probably will, as plans are persued to open embassies in Juba. (Juba has just been getting a new international airport – I wonder how much fuel they keep on stock to operate it just with generator power?)

posted 2011-07-07 tagged sudan and africa

Linkdump

Al-Jazeera-Linkdump:

posted 2011-07-02 tagged somalia, nile, africa and sudan

Straßen im Sudan

Man kann sich nur schwer klarmachen, wie verlassen und unterentwickelt manche Landstriche in Afrika sind, vor allem abseits der Küstenlinien.

Angesichts der Abstimmung über die Abspaltung des Südsudan, die Anfang Januar stattfand, sieht man das aber wieder sehr gut. Al Jazeera zieht einen anschaulichen Vergleich:

UN helicopter crews will assist organisers in picking up ballot papers from the remote countryside of a vast, underdeveloped region which has just 40km (25 miles) of paved road for an area the size of France and Belgium combined.

Heftig, heftig. Siehe auch diese Auflistung von Ländern, sortiert nach Straßendichte, auf der der Sudan auf Platz 168 von 175 liegt, vor Mali, Niger, Tschad (genau so sehr Wüstenstaaten wie der Sudan) und – Grönland.

posted 2011-01-31 tagged africa and sudan