• Route change adds to the excitement

August 30, 2004

L to R: Azman and Halim discuss the route change in Sudan	The first Ya Humar Award goes to Sandro Arada (left)

Today is the first day of the team's PETRONAS Trans-Sahara expedition. There is a buzz of excitement in the air as we travel northwards in a convoy of 18 cars.

The first buzz was a caused by a route change. "Instead of crossing the border to Egypt at Halaib, we are going to cross the border by ferry at Wadi Halfa to Aswan," says Halim during the team briefing. The former route would have taken the convoy westwards towards Port Sudan and the Red Sea, but now it will pass through the Bayuda Desert instead.

"It will take the team 24 hours by passenger ferry, but the cars will be on barges that will take 48 hours," explains Halim, adding that this is the plan at the moment.

From what we have experienced this past week, Halim expects more changes, adding that the team will adapt to the situations as they come along. Halim is happy to be finally starting the expedition. The team is in good spirits - taking the delays and challenges in their stride.

The second buzz comes from the announcement of the first Ya Humar Award recipient - Sandro Arada, our local handler from Italy. The award is given to a team member who has done something foolish.

It seems Sandro was so excited about joining this expedition that he totally forgot about applying for a visa to enter Sudan! He only realised his folly in Frankfurt, where he was stranded for four days. Azman Baharuddin, PAT's Media and Public Relations Director had to bail him out from Khartoum. Suffice to say, we didn't see much of Azman for two days because he was at the Immigration office trying to get Sandro a visa.