The flat, semi-arid plains stretching west and north of Gedaref are the city's reason for being. From late June the rains green up the grass, sorghum and sesame fields stretch to the horizon, and herders move their cattle, sheep, and camels across the savanna. By winter the harvest is in and the landscape turns straw-gold and dry.
A drive across the Butana, even just a few kilometres beyond the edge of town, is the easiest way to understand what Gedaref does. Watch for kingfisher-blue rollers on the telephone wires, the dome-roofed tukul huts of the farming villages, and the long lines of trucks coming in from the countryside loaded with grain sacks.