Wadi Halfa

“ Natives wear bunches of smouldering grass twisted round the head to keep off the fly.
White ants also are both numerous and most destructive between Dalgo and Korti.
Chief towns. Halfa.Halfa (Wadi Halfa) , comprising “The Camp” and “Halfa town” is the capital of the Province of Halfa, [44] which extends along the Nile from Faras Island (N. lat. 22° 10′ approximately) to Abu Fatma. It is also the present headquarters and terminus of the main line (Sudan Government Railways) to Khartoum, as well as of the branch to Kerma. There are extensive railway workshops at the Camp. ”

“ It is a small village, utterly destitute of supplies. The sterile desert extends to the very margin of the Nile. Altitude 1,040 feet above sea level. Desert perfectly flat. Deep sand. Major-General Hunter attacked and took the place from the Dervishes on the 7th August, 1897. (Vide p. 254.) The railway reached this point from Wadi Halfa on 31st October, 1897. It is now a watering station for trains, with modern bathrooms for tourists, etc. It is the residence of the Mamur and inspector of the Monasir and Robatab Districts. It is also proposed as the junction of a branch line to Merowe. ”

“ Going eastward from the Koubba of Nebi Gasser, we soon reached the broad Wadi, which still brings water down from the hills. It may be crossed either close to the sea-shore, or at a shallower spot not far distant. To the left of the Wadi are many vegetable gardens, with numerous wells. The large palm wood lies to the right of the Wadi, and stretches down nearly to the sea. The trees generally are of slender dimensions, but of gigantic height. The scene altogether is one calculated powerfully to stimulate the imagination. The solemn stillness which prevails it is impossible to describe. ”

“ The boundary between Egypt and the Soudan, settled by the Convention of 1899, runs along the twenty-second parallel; not far beyond this is the frontier town of Halfa. There is no mistaking the signs of British rule. The whole place is rigidly clean, an extraordinary contrast to the filth of the Egyptian villages. The streets are well laid out and scrupulously swept, and shady avenues of trees are springing up. But at present Halfa is not particularly interesting, except as the railway terminus of the Soudan. It is twenty-eight hours to Khartoum. ”

“ About three kilometres below the gully containing the spring, Wadi Hamida reaches an opening whence one can either go south-east for two kilometres to the easy pass of Bani Sana, or north-west through a gap in the longitudinal ridge which encloses the wadi on the left. Wadi Hamida itself, however, keeps straight on its course past Gebel Geror, and joins Wadi Baueiwai south-east of the hill of Ti-Keferiai. The heads of Wadi Hamida contain a fair amount of vegetation, but its lower parts are more barren and very sandy. ”

“ It lies actually not far from Helouan⁠—a few miles at most beyond the Solitary Palm, where slopes of undulating sand mark the opening of a strange, enticing valley called the Wadi Gerraui. And it is enticing because it beckons and leads on. Here, amid torn gorges of a limestone wilderness, there is suddenly soft yellow sand that flows and draws the feet onward. It slips away with one too easily; always the next ridge and basin must be seen, each time a little farther. ”

“ Wadi Elemikan is the name given to an ill-defined system of drainage channels meandering over the plain south of Gebel Abu Gurdi. It originates on the main watershed, and at its head there is a very easy pass over into the Wadi Lahami, which descends to the sea. At this point, which is 590 metres above the sea, the watershed is ill-defined, being a sandy plain; but while to the west the plain continues with only a slight fall, to the east it soon gives place to rugged country through which narrow wadis descend rapidly towards the sea coast. ”

“ It is merely a few shallow pits sunk in the wadi bed, yielding water drinkable only by camels. An iron beacon two metres high has been erected on a low bank close to the well, and will enable the well, which is itself inconspicuous, to be easily found.
Wadi Naam, a great tributary of Wadi Hodein coming from the north-north-west, originates about ten kilometres south-east of Gebel Zergat Naam by the union of the Wadis Abu Seyal, El Fil, and Um Bisilla, and courses south-south-east for about forty-nine kilometres to its junction with Wadi Hodein. ”

“ Wadi Huluz is a long winding wadi, mostly shut in by high rock walls, draining the high mountains round Gebel Hamata and coursing north-east for a distance of over seventy-five kilometres to the point, near Gebel Um Suerab, where, turning sharply eastward, it enters more open country and takes the name of Wadi Gemal. The slope of Wadi Huluz averages fifty metres per kilometre for the first ten kilometres from its heads in the mountains. In the next ten kilometres the slope is much flatter, being twenty metres per kilometre. ”

“ Lower down, the wadi broadens out considerably, with a sandy floor in the middle of which low dark hills rise like islands. About thirteen kilometres below the head, an important feeder, the Wadai el Nom, comes in from the north-east. This wadi drains the south-east flanks of Gebel Nugrus and the west flanks of Gebel Hangalia; it contains rock basins holding water for some time after rain, and leads to a steep winding pass which enables one to make a circuit round the great granite mountain of Gebel Nugrus. ”

“ The sand moves on, leaving the palms crippled or dead. I have heard so much of the vegetation and grazing, and date trees, verdure, luxuriance, etc., of the Wadi El Gab—it never existed. Ruthless, and judging by events, not altogether unavoidable, neglect, has diminished the little there ever was. We know it carried a large head of camels, goats, and sheep, at least so it was supposed; but, barring goats and a few donkeys, the herds of the Kababish had to roam “for forty days in the wilderness” towards Darfur and Kordofan, and northwards to abreast Mahass and Sukkot, for their food. ”

“ Though there is no permanent settlement, it is seldom that many days elapse without Arabs coming to the place to water their animals, which graze in the adjoining wadis. Many roads converge here. To the west, a track leads to Bir Abu Hamamid. To the north-east, a track leads up the Wadi Sheikh, across Wadi Abu Hamamid, and by an easy pass near Gebel Marasan over the main watershed into Wadi Huluz. To the south-east there are several alternative routes by which one can journey over easy passes north of Gebel Kahfa on to the plain of Selaia and down the Wadi Lahami to Berenice. ”

“ Wadi Habliai, which heads in an easy pass about three kilometres east of Bir Um Bishtit, and runs northwards for about ten kilometres to join Wadi Ibib, is a broad sandy and rather barren wadi draining gneiss hills; the hills on the east are much lower than those on the west, and their feet are swathed in drift sand. ”

“ The view from the hills above—about 2,500 feet—is splendid, all the Yafei mountains and the Goddam range ending at Haide Naab, and giving place to the higher mountains of Rekab and Ghiuda. We descended, but not much, into the lovely Wadi Hadda, full of trees smothered with a kind of vine with thick glossy indiarubber-like leaves; then we went on straight up Akaba Hadda to the huge plain of Mis'hal, full of villages, but ill-supplied with water. There are only some very bad wells for the cattle, and they have to fetch drinking-water from afar, from Ghenab and Lammas. ”

“ The moon had sunk into the Libyan wilderness; the eastern sky was red. The dawn drew out that wondrous sweetness of the Desert, which is as sister to the sweetness that the moonlight brings. The Desert settled back to sleep, huge, unfathomable, charged to the brim with life that watches, waits, and yet conceals itself behind the ruins of apparent desolation. And the Wadi, empty at his feet, filled slowly with the gentle little winds that bring the sunrise.
Then, across the pale glimmering of sand, Henriot saw a figure moving. ”

“ At this point the country becomes more open than in the gorge-like Wadi Huluz. To the north is a mass of low granite hills, some of which have remarkable shapes, with a great deal of drift sand, while to the south are the higher dark hills flanking Gebel Um Suerab. Among these surroundings the wadi pursues a winding course, with a general north-easterly direction, receiving the Wadi Um Suerab lil Gemal and the Wadi Durunkat as tributaries from the south. ”

“ The detail restored to him his consciousness of the immediate present, and, stooping, he gathered up the rugs and overcoat and began to make preparations for the night. But the appointed spot, whence he was to watch, lay upon the summit of the opposite cliffs. He must cross the Wadi bed and climb. Slowly and with labour he made his way down a steep cleft into the depth of the Wadi Hof, sliding and stumbling often, till at length he stood upon the floor of shining moonlight. It was very smooth; windless utterly; still as space; each particle of sand lay in its ancient place asleep. ”

“ In the north the country is so arid and the rains so meagre that the water draining eastwards towards the Wadi Melh soon sinks into the sandy soil and disappears. Similarly, further south the Wadis, chief of which is Wadi Ko, draining the east and south-east of the Marra group and which flow generally in a south-easterly direction towards the Bahr El Arab, an affluent of the Bahr El Ghazal, seldom if ever discharge water into that river. ”

“ Breakfast at dawn, and made an early start up the Wadi in an easterly direction. The valley forks at about three miles, the south fork leading to Medisa, the north leads into the Munfia mountains, and eventually curls south-east to the Kohila water. The wind was north, so we started up the latter ravine. After clambering over the rocks for two miles we picked up some fresh spoor, which took us down a branch ravine leading south-east. We soon started a beast, but it ran down a precipice, down wind, where we could not follow, so we had to give it up, and pursue our way again up the main ravine. ”

“ Pursuing a course the prevailing direction of which is a little north of west, and collecting the drainage from numerous great wadis on its way, it debouches on the Kom Ombo plain and reaches the Nile at the same point as another great wadi, Shait, in latitude 24° 35′. The length of the main channel is over 260 kilometres, and of its tributaries probably more than twenty times as great. It drains an area of more than 23,000 square kilometres. Its average fall is about two metres per kilometre, but in its lower reaches its gradient is less than half this amount. ”

“ The drainage from the low hills on the Peninsula of Ras Benas, except for a small portion which joins Wadi Mukhit, reaches the sea by a multitude of small wadis, none of which bear special names. The hills being nearer to the south side of the peninsula than to the north, the wadis draining southwards are on the whole much shorter and steeper than those draining northwards, and the latter cross a sloping plain two or three kilometres wide to reach the sea. ”

“ After four o’clock we set out, and came down very gradually from the heights. In the Wadi Kalas there are again a number of wells, twenty-five feet deep, with very good rain-water. Here we encamped for the night, although we had only arrived there shortly after sunset. The animals were watered and the skins filled. The whole plateau is rich in trees and bushes, and is inhabited by men and animals. ”

“ The field on which this battle is waged is the region of the rapids.
Very few travellers who visit the lower valley of the Nile ever reach the rapids of its middle course. A few go beyond the so-called first cataract, scarcely one in a hundred passes the second. Wady Halfa, a village immediately below the second group of rapids, is the usual goal of travellers; only purposes of exploration, the passion for the chase, or some commercial enterprise, leads any one further south. ”

“ This immense height, towering over the mountainous landscape, we had often seen in our road when we had a clear view; and the accounts the Arabs gave of the fertile and well-watered Wadi Firân at its foot had made me desirous to make a nearer acquaintance. I had determined to ascend the mountain, and for this reason turned into the Wadi Rim, which runs into Wadi Selâf, into which Serbâl descends. When we had ridden a little way up this valley, we came to an old stone hut, which must have been inhabited by a hermit. ”

“ Only Abyssinia has a more copious rainfall, which makes its plateau more productive.
It had not been our intention to visit the Wadi Al Aisa, but to approach the Hadhramout by another valley called Doan, parallel and further west, but our camel-men would not take us that way, and purposely got up a scare that the men of Khoreba at the head of Wadi Doan were going to [92] attack us, and would refuse to let us pass. A convenient old woman was found who professed to bring this news, a dodge subsequently resorted to by another Bedou tribe which wanted to govern our progress. ”

“ I obtained the following names for the small anchorages north and south of Halaib, though I could not locate them exactly on the maps, as the sailors could not read a map sufficiently well, and the harbours themselves are mere gaps through the outer coral reef, not visible indentations of the actual coast-line. Starting from Bir Adal Deib and going southward, Mersa Abu el Qâsim is near the mouth of Wadi el Kiraf; a big tree forms a landmark for entering it. ”