And so with the border painfully close, I sat in the middle of the Sudanese desert sun with a nose that glowed blistering scarlet; and with a fully laden motorbike and sidecar that had just come to a unexpected and worryingly shuddering halt.
The Beit Bridge border post into Zimbabwe strikes fear into the hearts of many. The key, we found, is to inspire more confusion by saying, 'No, we have no vehicle, we are going through on bicycles.
Motorbiking through the incredibly dry conditions of the roads in Mauritania, in the Sahara Desert.
Here's how to get through Beit Bridge from Zimbabwe in less than an hour.