August 17, 2008
Only in Sudan #1
Only in Sudan...would you have to dodge shotgun pellets on your evening jog.
We were half way round Khartoum race course when the pick-up came racing up on the inside lane. A man was standing up in the back chatting to two veiled women sitting on the bottom of the truck.
It was only when he got closer that we saw he was carrying a shiny grey pump-action shotgun. A flock of birds scattered as the truck braked hard. Then we saw what he was really aiming at - a pack of city dogs. They sprinted off and the pick-up followed in and out of the race course lanes, along the boundary wall, then back on to the track. Every so often he cracked off a shot that echoed back off the wall. Then the driver saw another pack and he was off after them again.
It would have been different if it had been a huge national park with acres of open land to shoot around in. But this was a smallish horse racing track, hemmed in with buildings, with a football match going on in the middle and about 15 joggers doing the rounds on a Sunday night.
Another strange thing was that we were the only ones who found it strange. Every time the pick-up weaved between another set of evening strollers to fire off another volley, we were the only ones who jumped.
Posted by aheavens at August 17, 2008 5:23 PM
Comments
You don't seriously expect us to believe you were jogging?
Posted by: wonderchops at August 18, 2008 2:12 PM
I had some really weird things happen to me in Sudan. It upped the ante for what I consider surreal actually, but nothing quite like that ever happened to me.
Posted by: Tom at August 18, 2008 6:45 PM