The route moreover was said to be unsafe due to the predatory habits of the Arab tribes living along parts of its length.
-Incidents on a Journey through Nubia to Darfoor, 1881, F.S. Ensor, Describing a proposed railroad along the Wadi al-Milk
Other than Billa Ali, we had no trouble from other tribesmen along its length. In fact the well workers at the Mahtūl Flats were very polite and didn’t try to gouge us on the price for filling our troughs. But then again, if the railroad had been built in the 1880s, there would have been no need in the 1980s for any camels or well workers at all in the Wadi al-Milk.