and then i left

the view from and of the nuba mountains. a small slice of them, anyhow.

well, here they are. the last few photos i took of sudan before i stepped on a plane just a few mornings later and left for ethiopia.

a little context: after heidi and i had left dilling, we kept heading into central sudan. we made it to kadoogli, a small town that we'd heard was greener than anything we'd seen yet. (that, of course, is not saying much.)

when we arrived at the bus stop, we found a town that had been overrun by international ngos. the surrounding area, the nuba mountains, are a central area of conflict in this huge country, and kadoogli offers a nice jumping off point.

we had to pay some $20 a night for accommodation, which, as i write this from my home in portland, doesn't seem like so much, but at the time was a huge expense considering our meager budgets.

all that said, the landscape surrounding the town -- which is what you see here -- was beautiful and unlike anything i'd seen in sudan. or really anywhere else, for that matter. we hiked some small mountains in the massive range, and wandered through hill-side villages. people would point us to the proper path that wove its way through their homes and to the top.

on our way back, a group of children found us, and helped direct us down the hill. the dogs, they said, were coming, and we should get out before nightfall. i'm not joking. not even a little.

there may still be some photos of sudan yet to come, but this really is the end of the bulk of them. i don't want to get too maudlin. so, i won't. but sudan, you were amazing to me.

stay tuned for pictures from ethiopia and mongolia and southeast asia. oh, and portland.


this, to me, looked like a baby baobab. i'm not sure it is. but i sure hope it is.






up there would be heidi, my travel companion and translator.