"the former Gezira Province " a Al Wilayah al Wusta Travel Page by uglyscot

The trip from Khartoum to Wad Medani takes about 2 hours, though it depends on how heavy the traffic is as the road is the main route to Port Sudan. It is not the most attractive trip as the scenery is boring, mainly flat agricultural land, heavily polluted along the road with plastic bags. There are villages and towns with little of note except the style of mosque and the graveyards. Some villages have trees near them or even forests or orchards, others sit in the barren plain at this time of year when the harvest is over. From time to time the Blue Nile can be seen – this is clearest at Hassaheisa where there is a ferry across to the east Bank.
There are a few industrial areas :el Bagair , the original industrial area with agriculture as the base – glucose, flour milling and cooking oil for example. The newest area is Giad Industrial City constructed fairly recently with houses for employees. Cars are manufactured here. As you approach el Hassaheisa at Sadaga there is the Textile Factory , and in Wad Medani itself there is an industrial area. But it is better known for the Sudan Gezira Scheme.

Shops and cafes face the highway and people can be seen going about their daily lives. Sometimes there will be a market day and people and carts come from far and near. School children can be seen coming home about mid-day, and boys congregate to play football on their makeshift pitches. Men bring their sheep, goats and cows back from the fields or forests where they have been grazing can halt the flow of traffic.
Along the road too outside the Khartoum State boundary is a toll gate and another just before entering Wad Medani. There are also police check points fining unlicensed vehicles.

The road itself can be rough in patches although in recent years repairs and widening have been ongoing. The surface coming out from Wad Medani to Khartoum shows a clear drop in level from the heavily laden trailers and lorries. When the road was built , nobody expected such heavy traffic carrying such heavy loads. The road into Medani from Khartoum sees long trailers almost empty, swaying from side to side..