Imagine yourself jostling a way through those souks, shadowy, dusty, clamorous, argumentative, past charm-hawker and water-seller…
-Last Letters from Hav, Jan Morris
Those souks- the ones I knew in towns like Umdurman, Massawa, Agades and Gao- were less noisy than dusty, except for the mangos and tomatoes sprayed with water to keep fresh. But the grains and dates, the sesame seeds and the groundnuts, they were dusty. I followed KhairAllah through the Dongola souk when we went into town to resupply and he bought dry mint and other sundries for the trail. No need to buy water, Dongola being on the Nile. But drovers always need a charm.