Late afternoon we eventually made it ashore. We took Tilly and dingied to the small island. There was no pontoon or anything really where we could fix her. At some spot there were tyres lying over the rumble and a line was fixed in the bottom, where we tied up the dingy. We landed in the midst of ruins. Debris is everywhere, not only at the little island of old Suakin, but also on the street enclosing the harbour. There is barely any construction which can be recognised as a building. Every single one is damaged, even the mosques. On board I have been wondering that I couldn’t here the muezzins call for prayer. Now I saw that he is calling without a mic, just like that. The people are living in, shacks would be an exaggeration, between the debris. On the street we have been meeting mostly men and kids, but barely any women. Everybody was very nice and welcoming, smiling and shouting welcome or assalamu alaykum in our direction. We were walking through the dusty streets, not so sure any more, whether we indeed wanted to eat ashore. Even if there was meat we wouldn’t order it, the chance to catch something appeared high. Eventually, we had the courage to enter a hut and I was relieved when the guy served fried fish, bread and unopened bottles of Sprite. It was delicious.

In the morning we went to the farmers market and purchased tomatoes, carrots, some kind of cucumbers, potatoes, onions, bananas and melons. It was quite an experience to see how the people work. Weighing one kilo tomatoes with the same stone as 2 kilo potatoes. Education indeed seem to be neglected, we couldn’t convince a shop owner, that we gave us too much change. Also Moyas fuel tank has been filled already, the captain has been working hard with multiple jerry cans.

The events of Khartoum are leaving us widely untouched. The only thing we noticed of the presidents step down and the military take over was that social media are blocked and some internet pages censored. If I haven’t been reading the news I would have no clue about the current proceedings. All is well. No worries.