The needle of
our compass points to the south when we entered our Landcruisers,
towards Djibouti. In the early morning, we left MAssawa, leaving
civilization behind. We pass by at an old tank cemetry, witnessing
one of the longest struggles in african history.
We see some
old train wagons from the 20's here, too, left by the italian colonialists
who built the the stunning railway from Asmara to Massawa.
After driving
through semi-desert areas, we entered the wild rocky regions.
We meet ostriches
and camels again and again. Our goal: Reaching Assab this night,
after 600 hard kilometres, not allowing us to drive fast.
After 200km,
we drive alongside the coastline, astonished about the view from
the cliffs.
We are welcome
in a village, self-called "hotel" on the road to Assab.
Can you see the beds in the background? The woman prepares traditional
eritrean coffee for us, and we relax for a while.
We continue
our trip and meet 4 Afar men, trying to get their camel out of a
mud hole. After uselessly trying it with a rope on the landcruiser,
we finally dragged the animal out of the hole together with the
afar men by our hands.
We drive through
a black, black moonscape.
You can cleary
see the flow ripples of the lava,
that dug evrything
underneath during the big eruptions in the mid of the last century.
Everwhere around us we find warm-coloured volcano cones, making
us feel very small.
The volcanic
hills in the sea creata a dreamy scenario.
The beaches
are full of shells and interesting things.
We reach Assab
in the late night, and some of us are happy to sleep in a hotel
bed, feeling save after striving throught the endless width.
 
But Assab is
a dead city, since there is no longer any trade on the paved road
to Adis Abeba. The biggest port of Eritrea remains orphaned in the
southernmost part of the country.
Bleached paintings
on the wall tell a story of gone busy days. Even the oil industry,
promising economic wealth, was not able to keep the people in Assab.
The refinerys are closed these days.
We discover
the oldest catholic church of Eritrea, built by italian missionaries,
years before Eritrea became a colony.
Pater Yoseph
tells us from his plan to renovate the church, inviting us to a
cup of tea and showing us Assab from the rooftop of the old mission
building.
We are on the
road again, still heading to the South, towards Djibouti. We see
war cemetries, the dead corpses only covered by volcanic stones.
A strong storm is blowing, and our faces are peeled by the sand.
Our goal is Halib, at the Ba'ab el Mandab, the Gate of Tears.At
the same time, we see the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea.
We cross the
dangerous salt pans only with a local guide, checking the ground
in front of us, otherwise we could sink easily with our Jeeps into
the many mud holes. We got stuck with both cars, no chance to continue!
After 1 hour of heavy work, we freed ourselves and went back.
After we left
Assab behind, we stopped at a great white beach with huge palms
along the shore.A strong wind doesn't allow us to snorkel with good
visibility. The palms are the houses of the Afar fishermen here,
they just put some more sticks and textile around the trees. We
collect nice shells and snail houses at the beach, see an old turtle
shield and hit the road again after enjoying delicious water melons.
From the road
you only see a big sand dune, but behind, there is a pretty fisherme's
village, located on a deep water bay. We decide to camp on the beach
here, and the vocanoes in the bay look like in Oceania. The colourful
ships are worth a camera shoot.
We are tired
at the end of the day, full of intense impressions of this archaic
landscape and the people who are able to live in this hard environment.
In the early
morning, we sit in our cars again, when will we see Massawa again?
We are still amazed by the different kinds of land formations, making
us feel so small.
We meet desert foxes and jackals in the dusk, then one of our cars
breaks down, having flat tyre.. Working together, we handle the
situation and are able to continue our trip.
In the night,
we reach Massawa again, and it seems that we woke up from a beautiful,
but intense dream.
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