Thul, Sudan - Sunday 11 February 2007 - Arrested by SPLA

We managed to leave Malakal on Saturday as planned. The pontoon came just before midday and although small, it managed to take us across to the other side. As a tips for other travellers into the interior of Southern Sudan, be specially careful that you avoid rainy season.

Also make sure to stop at every millitary camp to get permission to travel on. We were stopped on Saturday and put in "house arrest". They took all our papers and the car keys and wanted approval from the milliary commander. He was very understanding and permitted us to continue our journey, with escort. We did about 130 kilometres on Saturday before we were forced to stop due to a bridge that was bombed. So now we are looking at ways to get across that obstacle. The locals have tried to make a bridge parallel to the original one, with threes and branches. After a closer look at the architecture , I decided it was not safe enough for us, so we will try to figure out what to do on Sunday.

There is a battalion of SPLA soldiers close by, but they wanted 500 US Dollars to give us a hand, so we will try to engage the locals instead. We camped by the swamp together with our three armed SPLA friends. The challenge tomorrow will documented on Monday.