Nearly Stranded in Senafe

Last weekend me and Ali decided to travel to Senafe which is quite a distance from Asmara located in the UN security zone just 25km from the Ethiopian border. We got a travel permit to go there but didn’t manage to get the historical permits you need to actually visit the interesting historical sites located in the area around Senafe. Regardless we decided to go anyways. It was one heck of a journey. We got to the bus station around 10am, but didn’t actually leave Asmara till 12noon, as in Eritrea you must wait until the bus is completely full till you leave! We got to Adi Keyh at 5pm and decided to get off as the trip was becoming a little unbearable and so we thought we’d find a hotel, dinner and do the last leg of the trip the next day. The next day we did the last hour of the trip, after numerous military checkpoints and finally got to Senafe. It was worth the trip, as Senafe is a beautiful town with remarkable mountains, hills, valleys, and people. We headed out to see the only historical site you can visit on foot ( a mere 2km walk from the town) its called Metera- the remains of an ancient city which had a one time thousands of years ago been the starting point for underground paths to Addis, Axium or Quaito. As we didn’t have the proper forms it took a bit of negotiating but in the end we got to see the site. We then tried to make it back to the bus station in order to catch the last bus to Asmara, but were unsuccessful, as we arrived 10 minutes too late.We were told that if another bus were to fill up we would go, but otherwise we would have to stay the night and take the bus back tomorrow. As I had an important meeting today(Monday) in Asmara I had to be back, so we decided to hitch-hike. One water truck, one military truck, and one Italian filled SUV later in the end we thankfully made it back to Asmara before 8pm. It was close but we were nearly stranded in Senafe…