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.

Places to stay along the route:

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).

Other:

·         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.

Yours in Africa,

Riff-raff