Over our evening meal - dehydrated Duck a` l'Orange, the taste rather modified by the smoky flavour of water boiled over an open fire of dead date palms - we looked back on a good day's work and were particularly pleased that the Sudanese people, renowned for their friendliness and hospitality, had lived up to their reputation: they were always happy to see us, the long-distance lorry drivers passing by with whoops of encouragement. But none of them could believe we really intended cycling to Port Sudan.

Our biggest concern now and throughout the expedition was where we would find sufficient water. With daily temperatures ranging from 35-45 degrees C we had to drink about 10 litres a day to avoid dehydration.

Food was less of a problem. We took a small amount of dehydrated food with us for emergencies but survived, in the main, on a diet of bananas and 'ful'. Ful is the Sudanese Staple diet not unlike baked beans, although rather lacking in taste.

TORMENTED BY THORNS

The next two days were gruelling. An uphill gradient and strong headwinds that blew relentlessly all the way extracted every ounce of energy. To add to our discomfort, water-holes were less frequent too.

To make matters worse we had seven punctures between us. Keen to camp once more beside the Nile and be close to that rarest and most precious of commodities, water, we cycled through a maze of thorn bushes. In all the countries I have visited I have never come across thorns quite so grotesque. Just millimeters wide, they were 3-4in long with points as sharp as needles.

With the sun setting on the third day and after what seemed like a never-ending stretch of road (one of those dream-like bits of track where you can see your destination but it never seems to get any closer) we arrived in Wad Medani, 116 miles from Khartoum.

(click to enlarge)