Eritrea
This is another old/new page. My trip was in December 2000. I was living in Cairo at the time, working for the British Council as an English teacher. It was pretty cold in December so for my three week holiday I was looking for somewhere quite warm and a little bit less “Islamic”. I chose Eritrea.
Asmaran Christmas
17 Dec 2000Those unfamiliar with Cairo will not realise that it is pretty cold in winter. The builders of my apartment block obviously didn’t realise it either as there was no heating and the wind was whistling through my (closed) windows. It was coming up to the Christmas break and I was wondering where I could go on holiday that would be warm but not too far away. I presumed seeking warmth meant going south so perusing a map, I quickly ignored…
Keren & Nacfa
18 Dec 2000Mon 11th. Time for some bus travel – to the second city of Keren. At the bus station it was a bit of a scrap to get on but as an honoured foreigner I was shown to a seat. In Keren I checked in at the Sicilian Hotel, a pleasant hotel with an attractive courtyard bedecked in bouganvillea, in fact I had noticed a lot of this growing in Asmara as well – it brought some colour to an otherwise…
Tesserai & Agordat
20 Dec 2000The following day was another early start, this time due west to Tesserai which sits on the border with Sudan. I’m not sure why I went. Why not perhaps. the Eritrean plateau is dry and dusty but as you might expect nearing the Sudanese border takes it to another level. Also never mind Eritrea had recently had a war of independence the road was lined with refugee camps filled with Sudanese. There were also loads of checkpoints. Mainly composed of…
Massawa, Adi Kay and a few days back in Asmara – this time it was Christmas
30 Dec 2000Wed 20th December 2000. This time it was the fairly short trip to Asmara. In fact, when I arrived I noticed a bus to Massawa was about to leave so I hopped on that one and was soon heading off the plateau and down 2500m to the shores of the Red Sea. They say this road goes through three seasons in two hours. I can believe it because the blue sky was blotted out as we descended through clouds and…