Through the desert and back!

Last Saturday I got the opportunity to travel to Assab with my new German friend- Martin(a photographer here temporarily for work). The trip we did was an incredible ride, we traveled in total 1500km, through the region of Dankalia, which according to the Lonely Planet –is one of the most desolate places on earth and known as well for being one of the hottest places on earth, as Dankalia is for the most part completely desert, but borders along the beautiful Red Sea. Luckily for us, December is the coolest time of the year for this area, but it was still super hot (about 40 degrees). The ride was pretty slow, as the road is about 90% unpaved, and in some places hardly driveable, but Keedan, our trusty driver, did a good job and we managed to get to Assab in 2 days time. Along the way we stopped in many small villages, for tea, coffee, lunch, supper, or for the night. The "hotels" in these villages were very simple, offering simply a cot under the stars, and a bucket of water to wash yourself with. In the morning at dusk (5am) we woke up to sounds of chickens, goats, and donkeys - which really gave you an amazing feeling- that life in some parts of the world is still this simple.

The first village we slept in was Galieo, which probably had around 70 or so families. On a Sat. night in Galieo the thing to do was watch the community TV, which was placed outside. People sat on coke case boxes, or in the sand and watched ERI TV the one local channel Eritrea has. I did not partake in much of the TV watching, but did however tune in at 9:30pm for the 15min English newscast that is on every night. (a far stretch from the National back home, or Jon Stewart's Daily Show- which I really miss!)

Assab, was a pretty run-down city which by its appearance had at one time been a booming port city, however, nowadays it looks a little like a ghost town. We didn’t do much in Assab, but visit the NUEW office, and go swimming at the beautiful beach in front of our hotel, and drink a couple ZIBIB at a cute little reggae bar downtown.

All in all, it was an amazing adventure to actually drive through the desert, swim in the red sea, and see tons of camels, a couple ostriches, some foxes & gorillas. But most of all the time spent with the people in the villages was an amazing experience, most of the people along the road from Massawa and Assab are from the Afar ethnic group, and they are incredibly hospitable and friendly- leaving us with great memories.