Monday, November 2, 2009

Ethiopia to Djibouti to Europe





















ETHIOPIA TO DJIBOUTI TO EUROPE

We had a pleasant trip from Ethiopia to Djibouti with one stop over at Awash. We also spent a further evening about 120km before Djibouti City so that we could arrive in the “CITY” early in the day.

Djibouti, the whole city is about 10square km. It is so small that on our way in we saw a Massida Logistics truck on the road, just followed it and sure enough it brought us to the offices of Massida, where we met Odette, our contact who Warren Erfmann put us in contact with to do the shipping of our car & trailer. Odette had warned us of at least a 7day wait for our vehicle to leave, she really did her best and the help we received while there was outstanding. We were loaded and out of Djibouti in 5 days. Djibouti as a city is really small with almost no parking especially at hotels; all parking in the streets and that is really difficult, except during the hours of 12.30 to 4pm when the whole city closes. Not that you can blame them, temperatures are anything between 35-40deg all day. The humidity is almost unbearable and thank heaven that all offices, shops, hotel rooms are air-conditioned. But price wise it is unbelievable, especially coming from Ethiopia. Cheapest hotel room $40 US dollar. Beer $6 and food does not really get much cheaper. Anyway it was an interesting city and nice to visit a new sea, Gulf of Aden. Never saw any pirates or anything so exciting.

SOME STATS AT THIS STAGE.

TOTAL KM FROM SA TO DJIOBOUTI- 25056 - 13 COUNTRIES - 176 DAYS. PUT UP CAMP 46 TIMES AND SPENT 42 NIGHTS IN HOTELS (mainly Eithopia where not much camping is available)

I was very tempted and tried very hard to try and persuade Wolf to have our passage across the sea in a dhow to Yemen, but Wolf thought I was completely crazy and the only concession was to fly to Yemen on route to Frankfurt. This actually proved to be really reasonable and we were able to fly to Sana (the capital), have a night and full day in a hotel, with all meals included for $490 US. We spent our day in Sana with a super tour of both the new and old cities and also the surrounding area. The old city is absolutely amazing and a few of the buildings and churches reminded me so much of Lalibela in Ethiopia. The whole city is absolutely amazing, with most of the newer parts all being built with the same architecture of the old city. It is an absolutely amazing city for those of us who like buildings, churches etc. They have built a new mosque in the city, unbelievably huge and absolutely beautiful. Our guide could not tell us exactly how long it took to build but about 4 years, with hundreds of builders on site daily.

I really would like to revisit this country seeing more, The Arabian Horses, driving through the Haraz to the Kamaran Islands. The road from Sana through the windy mountains highway in the Haraz to the Red Sea coast is supposedly an amazing experience. Yemen’s diving is supposed to be really fantastic with the coastline of 2000km bordered by stunning coral reefs teeming with marine life. Anyway this was not to be for now, but anything is possible on our way back to SA.

We had a non eventful flight to Frankfurt arriving to a mere 5deg. From our 40deg in Djibouti to this was a real shock to the system.

Surprising the family was really super, and what a welcome we got.

Not much news will follow now as we will spend some time with family and friends and wait for our vehicle to arrive in Hamburg, this will be about 5th or 6th November

We have spent a bit of time, looking for “A Winter Home”, and have bought a Caravan, complete with gas heater. We also wait to hear when Frank, (our son-in-law) will need his next operation on his shoulder, we will stay “home” for this to look after Jim and after this will take off on our exploration of Europe. Not much time before Christmas, but do hope to see Berlin and some of the old East Germany cities