Overland Eritrea - Guide and Travel Tips
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Camping Accommodation |
Overland Eritrea Tips |
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When in Eritrea …
Eritrea’s the
youngest country in Africa and still bears a lot of
scars of the battle for its independence from
Ethiopia. Land mines are still lurking beneath the
surface, especially in areas near the borders. Some
minefields are clearly marked but others are not.
There are also plenty of shot-out tanks, trucks and
armoured vehicles strewn around the countryside. But
apart from this Eritrea can count among the nicest
countries in Africa.
Eritrea is one of few African countries that takes
full responsibility for its future. What this
country is doing for itself is admirable,
particularly in view of where it had to start. If
you didn’t know, you’d never guess that it was once
part of Ethiopia. You’ll understand once you’ve
visited both.
Overlanding
Camping
Accommodation
Eritrea:
· Eritrea is big-time bush camping
country. If you’re doing the route from Djibouti to
Massawa, there are no campsites or hotels. The only
trick is not to park on a land mine and in some
areas this means you camp on the track you are
driving on. River beds should be avoided because
mines get washed into them during the rains. Rocky
ground is good for camping on if you can get there.
- Massawa – there are several hotels almost
side-by-side. We stayed at the cheapest one, the
Coralo Hotel (N15°36’10.2” E39°28’00.1”), only to
wash clothes and get a real shower. The mosquitoes
nearly carried us away and we had no sleep at all.
- Asmara – there are plenty of hotels and pensions
in every price range but not a single spot to leave
your vehicle. No camping either. We simply drove 5 –
10 km out of town every night on the Keren side and
bush camped a few 100 m off the road (N15°24’46.3”
E38°54’16.5” and N15°23’37.8” E38°54’27.5”). The
locals ignore you even if you have chosen their main
pasture as your campsite.
- Keren – we stayed at the Sigilia hotel
(N15°46’44.0” E38°27’23.0”). 65 Nakfa for a room
with a huge bathroom. Big courtyard where we parked
the Landy.
Attractions
Eritrea has no specific attractions to go to that
come to mind. The main attraction is for a traveller
with wheels: almost all the roads are very scenic.
The highlight, no doubt is the back route from the
Djibouti border via Assab to Massawa – takes a week.
The road from Massawa (sea level) to Asmara (2400 m)
winds its way through some well vegetated mountains
– take three times longer than you expect because of
the trucks and the turns, even though it’s tarred.
Off the other side of the plateau towards Keren the
road (also tarred) is equally winding but the
terrain is much drier. The other roads you’ll have
to see for yourself. Be careful of driving on the
beaches – one fellow traveller had a four-day ordeal
extricating his Landy from the mud (north of Massawa). |
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Overland Eritrea Tips:
· Exchange rate: $1.- = 13.55 Nakfa
· The exchange rates for traveller cheques are very close to those for cash,
making Eritrea yet another country in which TCs are a friendly commodity.
· Asmara looks like it dropped in from a different continent. It is clean.
There’s an army of street cleaners that does duty in the morning. You’ve got
to see this place to believe it. After the filth of Djibouti town this is a
real eye-opener.
· Coffee shops are quite the scene in Asmara. Good coffee, good cakes and
very cheap. You could be somewhere in a small Italian town.
· Pizzas are good in Asmara but many restaurants only fire up the pizza oven
in the evening so you may be out of luck for a lunch pizza. With the
exception of Pizzeria Napoli that served delicious pizzas all day.
· The Internet is cheap but extremely slow. The phone lines are so outdated,
they probably still use Morse code. Save your surfing for Djibouti or
Khartoum. For once the British Council’s Library is not the answer.
· Eritrea is one of few countries we’ve travelled that realises that the key
to a sound economy is good roads, not more repairs to tyres and suspension.
Expect the roads to improve here rather than deteriorate. There is plenty of
road building activity going on.
· Fuel is cheap in Eritrea: 5.70 Nakfa/ litre for petrol on average. It gets
more expensive towards the Sudanese border.
· Land Rover spares are non-existent in Eritrea. Ditto for SAE 90 gear oil.
· You will need to keep 25 Nakfa to pay some form of road tax when you leave
the country. It’s a mystery to me why this is only charged upon leaving, but
so it is. If you only have dollars left you may be in for some long
negotiations or a drive back to the nearest town.
· When you leave Eritrea at Talataashir (N15°10’14.4” E36°30’24.7”) be sure
not to follow the road. Sounds strange, but the road comes to an extremely
abrupt end and we ploughed into thick acacia bush at 60 km/h. Immediately
after the border post there’s the faintest of tracks leaving the road to the
left – take this one. After several km of winding through thick sand and
acacia veld you get to the Sudanese border post, Alapher (N15°13’16.2”
E36°28’18.9”).
· The border to Ethiopia was closed to all so you can only get in or out via
Sudan or
Djibouti or by boat. It looked like hostilities between Eritrea and
Ethiopia were about to get serious again because of some dispute about a few
patches of desert and/or the port of Assab. Follow the news or keep your
fingers crossed if you wish to visit Eritrea after March 2002.
Information from
Riff Raff
Overland Expedition 2001 with Thomas and Bridgett |
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