A Guest Posting on Another Cycling Blog

I've just written a short piece on Amaya William's excellent World Biking blog about the top 5 reasons to cycle China, so if you're interested, click here to have a look. My friend Kyle Henning, who cycled recently from Africa's lowest point (Lake Assal, in Djibouti) to the foot of Kilimanjaro, which he subsequently climbed on foot, also wrote a piece on the top 5 reasons to cycle Djibouti. Enjoy!

Shot Down by the Yemenis in Djibouti

Djibouti, Mar. 9

I've just walked out of the travel agency that the Yemeni embassy uses to process tourist visa requests. After no news yesterday, the guillotine dropped this morning on my hopes of visiting Yemen this year. The foreign ministry said that given the security situation, they wouldn't issue me a tourist visa. Would have been nice to know that from the outset, saving me a couple of nights in grotty Djibouti!

So my travel plans are a bit up in the air. I think I will probably end up back in Ethiopia, cycling as planned to the north, trying not to murder any irritating stone-throwing kids. Part of me thinks I should fly up to Dubai, or even to Bahrain for the Grand Prix, but I can't really decide at the moment.

The trip to get here from Hargeisa was considerably longer and even less pleasant than I had feared. After three hours of pointless waiting around in Hargeisa, picking up passengers and cargo, our overloaded Land Cruiser bumped off around 7 pm on Saturday night. We drove through the night, crammed into every nook and cranny of the vehicle: the driver and two passengers up front, four passengers in the back seat (I was wedged next to the fattest woman in Somalia, so space was a serious issue) and five unfortunates in the cargo space in the back. The cargo on the roof rack stood a metre and a half tall, and on top of it rode the driver's assistant. There was no asphalt, and we followed vague cross-country tracks right out of Hargeisa. We stopped once for food, and at 3 am we came to a crossing of a pretty significant river so we stopped and waited three hours for daylight to come. I tried to sleep on the ground, but it was too cold. I was a sleep-deprived zombie with aching knees by the time we got to the Djibouti border post at Loyada at 12:30, only to find the frontier closed for siesta until 4 pm. It wasn't until 7 pm that I was trudging the streets of Djibouti with my pack, going from full hotel to full hotel.

Djibouti has an air of seedy tropical decadence that's enchanting for about 12 hours and then just gets annoying. As much garbage on the streets as Somaliland, and about 10 times as many beggars. Lots of soldiers of various nations, lots of seedy nightclubs and hookers, decaying colonial buildings in the downtown, everyone stoned on chat, the smell of broken drains and decaying garbage. However, it costs $35 a night in the cheapest hotel, so not someplace to linger if there is nothing keeping me here!

I will post more from wherever I end up next, most likely Addis (if I can figure out a way around the Great Firewall software).

Peace and Tailwinds

Graydon

PS By the way, my travelling guru friend Kent Foster has just sent me a great link to a guy who makes a living from writing a travel blog (Nomadic Matt). Kent is all excited about trying to make some money from his excellent website, and now he's got me thinking about it too. It would be better than a real job!

PPS An interesting article on Somaliland's quest for recognition as an independent country.