Jebel Uweinat Expedition, Sudan March, 2024 Participants:  - confirmed    - tentative  Trip Status:  CANCELLED

The exact dates and itinerary will be finalised after consulting with participants. The plan is to spend 9 days at Jebel Uweinat, partially visiting known areas, and partially exploring some remaining "blank spots". Depending on the composition of the group, some one or two day treks may be made to the upper parts of the mountain. We will also have the opportunity to visit some of the principal Nile Valley monuments. Khartum will be the point of departure. The following is a tentative itinerary, to be finalised as we get closer to departure time, considering also inputs from partcipants:

Day 1. - Khartum

Most international flights arrive into Khartoum in the small hours of the morning. Following arrival, we will need a day to sort out the police registration, travel and photo permits mandatory for all tourists. The process is pretty straight forward and predictable, but only possible on working days, exact departure dates will be fixed with this in mind.

I will also need the day to purchase and pack supplies while the permits are being prepared, and load the vehicles. The rest of you may use the opportunity to see the Museum, the only thing of interest in town with numerous Egyptian and Meroitic oblects, and a number of reconstructed Egyptian temples in the garden moved from Nubia.

Accomodation will be in the one of the mid-range Hotels in Khartoum.

Day 2. – Khartum - Soleb

In the morning we will start out along the recently built tarmac road direct from Omdurman to Dongola, and continue to Soleb on the west bank about 150 kms North of Dongola. We will visit the temple (the finest ancient Egyptian monument in Sudan) in the afternoon (or the next morning), spending the night at the lovely former excavation house not far from the temple.

Day 3. - Soleb – Camp on Selima Sand Sheet

In the morning we will pick up some fuel and water, then start our desert trip proper, cutting accross the Selima Sand Sheet towards Uweinat along the quickest and easiest route along a generally flat sand sheet. All things going well we should cover about a third of the roughly 600 kilometre distance, in a best case scenario camping among a belt of dunes about 100 kilometres West of Selima Oasis.

Day 4-5. – Camp – Jebel Uweinat

All things going well, after a day and a half we should be at our base camp in Karkur Talh by lunchtime on the second day.

Days 6-11. Karkur Talh

We will use Karkur Talh as the base for six days, possibly splitting our party on some days to make the most of our stay. With the Karkur Talh area being the richest valley in terms of both rock art and vegetation, there are many options on what to do:

• Spend two days visiting the innumerable known rock art sites in the main valley, one of the richest rock art areas of the Sahara, including the magnificent group of shelters discovered by the 1968 Belgian expedition.
• One day in the side branches of the southern valley, also covering a few remaining blank spots in the area.
• One full day from our campsite to the rock art sites in the western branch discovered in February 2003, a good 5.5 kilometre walk in each direction on generally flat good terrain.
• Visit the "Winkler" sites in Karkur Murr, possibly continue to the upper springs and return to camp along the direct route (a long day's walk)
• Make a three-day trek to the Hassanein Plateau (starting from the western branch), seeing some very remote but spectacular sites

The exact daily itineraries will be fine tuned as we progress, depending on the wishes and abilities of our party.

Days 12-14. Karkur Talh

Another three days along the southern side of the mountain, including a trek up to the main cluster of sites in Wadi Wahesh, and some other fine sites.

Day 15-16. – Uweinat – Soleb

Two full day's drive back to Soleb along the easiest route towards the Nile.

Day 17. – Return to Khartum

A full day's drive along the tarmac road to Khartoum.

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