On 11 May 1862, Alexine Tinne, Henriette Tinne-van Capellen and Adriana van Capellen left Khartoum, after having obtained, with the help of Thibaut, a steamer belonging to Prince Muhammad Abd al Halim, one of the relatives of Saïd Pasha, the former governor general of Sudan. Louis de Tannyon, employed as an engineer on Prince Halim's steamer and also as his French huntsman-in-chief, acted as captain of the steamer. The price of this rent was 25,000 French francs, the equivalent of £1000. The large dhahabiyya they were able to hire with it had once belonged to Alfred Peney, a French doctor in Khartoum who had died the previous year on an expedition with Andrea Debono at a point above 4° latitude up the Nile. In this boat a large quantity of clothes, books, Alexine's drawing materials, some examples of her photography, and presumably her photography equipment (her camera and all that was required to process photographs) was packed. With the four boats being dragged by the steamer, they would search up the river for a suitable residence during the wet season. Having left Khartoum, they were at first delighted with this part of the river, as it was different from that above the town, comparing it with ‘Virginia Water, near Windsor’.

During their ascent up the White Nile, two problems arose that were to present themselves to Alexine far more intensely the next year and would become decisive for the results of her stay in Sudan. While talking about their journey up the Nile, the Tinnes in Cairo were well-informed about the chance of becoming seriously ill in and beyond Khartoum. To travel around either of the Niles meant also that one had to face the increasing hostility of the native people who were trying to defend themselves against the raids of private armies maintained by Arabian and Western traders. From Khartoum, travelling upwards meant that the phenomenon of slavery would occur more frequently. Having followed the course of the river to the 13th latitude, Alexine sent a letter to her niece Jetty from a place called ‘Montagnes des Dinkas’ or Jebel Dinka (see foldout map) in which she mentions her actual experience of the slave trade that took place particularly in this region on an unhampered scale that was hitherto unknown.