Khartoum: Tuti Island

Today, Monday, Walid was kind enough to organize a minibus (called amjad) and driver for me, as I want to visit two museums.  Mahassin can't come, as there are steps at the museums and she will not be able to get around. A pitty really.... but Sumaya, the neighbour is coming with me....She is a very nice lady, I remember her from my last visit. This means I have to practise my Arabic....ahlan wa sahlan....

The driver picks us up at 9 am. The amjad is an experience (no air conditioning) open the window.....  We drive across the Nile to the Sudan National Museum....

St Matthews Catholic Cathedral, Khartoum

And no... this is NOT the Burj Al Arab in Dubai, we are in Khartoum remember....  this is the Burj Al-Fateh Hotel, Khartoum

But the museum is closed on Mondays.... well I guess my guidebook got it wrong....
Then we drive to the Ethnographic museum, but that is also closed on Mondays... oh well a good start! Well planned Sabine.  However, we are close to the new Tuti bridge and so we drive to Tuti Island:

Tuti Island  is an island in Khartoum where the White Nile and Blue Nile merge to form the main Nile. It is surrounded by the "Three Towns": Khartoum (the capital of Sudan), Omdurman (the largest city in Sudan), and Khartoum North (also known as Bahri, a large industrial center). Despite this, Tuti is home to only one small village (founded in the late 15th century), with grassland being the main makeup of the island. In the past the only approach to Tuti Island was via several ferries that cross the river every so often, but now the Tuti Bridge, a modern suspension bridge, has been completed it is used instead.


Pristine Tuti Island lies at the heart of Khartoum's most famous beauty spot where Mahas tribesmen have lived for centuries, isolated from the cacophony of Khartoum, Omdurman and Bahri, only a short boat ride away.

Tuti Island is mainly agricultural and where Khartoum gets most of its supply of fruits and vegetables and therefore, you can find many farms situated all around the island, many of them still using manual methods of farming. You will find acres of green fields and lime groves.

Its eight square kilometres (three square miles) of fertile land are covered in citrus orchards, vegetable farms, gorse hedgerows and narrow muddy lanes where donkeys and rickshaws are the main source of transport.

The building of the Tuti Bridge has sparked development projects on Tuti Island, primarily by Tuti Island Investment Company, which plans to turn the Island into a state of the art tourist resort. These ideas have caused controversy, with the locals wishing to protect their village from becoming a tourist destination.

Sumaya and Sabine

Our amjad minibus....

Open air restaurant under the bridge on Tuti Island...

We go for a drive around some of the island to see the farms and village etc...

Aaahhh, lots of goats....goats....

Zir = earthenware water pots

Not sure whether this was the Blue or White Nile.... beautiful in any case...

They were making bricks here by manual labor.....

And onto the Dinka Suq we drive, right across town... along the Nile corniche, where there are some hotels and the presidential palace.... they close the road along the palace at night ... security reasons I guess...

You see a lot of donkey carts around town.....

Some traditional huts...

We drive through the car accessories area... interesting...

And there, across the road is the Suq Ed-Dinka... you have to be suicidal to cross the roads here in Khartoum (a bit like in Cairo...) traffic is very heavy and steady and nobody stops for anybody... so, close your eyes and run.....and pray!

Suq Ed-Dinka is a by-product of the Omdurman squatter camps. The souvenirs are made by internally displaced people from the south who live in the camps. In order to make a living they carve wood plates into artefacts which they sell to foreigners.

They have beautiful artefacts, and bowls and jewellery.  But unfortunately, they sell everything extremely expensive.... I want to get a bowl, but it's above my budget, so I settle for a keyring.  When I want to pay, I give them Sudanese Pound, but everyone keeps saying no I can't use these and then they show me the notes I can use.  Turns out, that I still have old Pounds from before the split from the South.  There was some fraud happening and the North changed their Pounds.  I got upset, as I still had 60SP from my last visit, which I now can -literally- throw in the bin.  And the joke is, the only difference between the old and new Pounds is the colour!  Oh well - that's life...

And right next door is the 'toilet' suq.... everything you need for the bathroom....

And back over the Nile to Bahri and home....

I told Mahassin our adventures and what she missed out on.  She should have come with us.... we know for next time!

We spent the evening at home... no visitors today.  So we sit and talk and relax.

What a wonderful day!

Sabine, Dougal, Lionheart