Back from the Horn of Africa

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gardener

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Hi Everyone,
I'm back from my trip to Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti. Unfortunately I don't have a lot of Dive reports, but I'll tell you why.

First, in Djibouti we felt that everyone there was trying to get as much money as possible for doing as little as possible. We had problems there from the get-go, and Djibouti is realtively expensive since everything there is imported, so we lft for Eritrea as soon as possible.

Second, Eritrea. What a beautiful place! I could have stayed in Massawa for 2 weeks easily, but didn't have the time. Unfortunately for our diving, the president of Libya, Kadhafi was there the same time we were and had most of the port closed off for 2 days. Our only option would have been to go to the outer islands. Since there are only a couple of companies with boats out of Massawa it would have been prohibitively expensive. If we had had a larger group or more money we would have done it in a heart beat.
I will say that independant travel in the horn of Africa is not for sissies. Massawa was great, but, has mentioned has little tourist infrastructure. All the hotels were full, so we ended up camping at the Eritrean Dive Center compound. Everyone there was extremely nice and helpful and they did everything they could to try to get us out diving. I think they were as dissapointed as we were.

I plan to go back to Eritrea and spend about 2 weeks out on the islands exploring. I will probably plan to camp and take everything I need as far as equipment, food, water, etc. with.
If this isn't your cup of tea, there are other options. Live aboards, resorts, etc.

The Eritreans in general were extremely helpful and nice. We were 2 women traveling alone with no place to stay and we had absolutely no problems there, other than the usual minor harrassments.

Let me know if you want more info or if you'd like to see a picture of President Kadhafi!
 
Thats a shame about the diving, but its ounds as if you had quite an experience anyway.

I thought getting to the islands was quite difficult because of unexploded ordnance on the shores etc ?

Hope you get the chance to go back and explore those Islands, sounds like a classic adventure.

Conor
 
Hello,
I am sorry you didn't succeed with diving in Eritrea. I know the problem you mentioned about the costs of the boats. Its not very well organised, but the people are very helpful and nice. We are working together with them. I would like to invite you for your next trip to Eritrea to join our dive tours to the Dahlak islands. We are organising dive trips with traditional fishing ships, stay 5 days on the islands, make a lot of dives, offer a real adventure trip and have always international divers with us. :) Just contact me or/and take a look on our website www.eritreadivers.com.

Doris
 
Thanks Doris,

I will definitely be making another trip to Eritrea as soon as I replenish my bank account. Eritrea was very beautiful, friendly and quiet.
Money is my biggest limiting factor. I would rather camp for 5 days than stay at a hotel. It's quite romantic I think. I will definitely keep your web address handy and send you a PM when I know when I might be able to go again.
Thanks again for the great offer.
Heather:)
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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