Berbera, Somaliland

From the caves at Las Geel we continued on to Berbera on the Red Sea. There were several police check points along the way but as our armed guard spent three months at each one we didn't have to stop. He called to his mates and we continued on our way.

The houses in this area are thrown together with what ever they can find or afford.

We only saw one river with a tiny bit of water in it and only one small plot where vegetables were being grown.

Berbera is a container port that is also used by Ethiopia, which is land-locked. The town itself is not much. There are lots of very poor housing between the shipping company offices and lots of rubbish every where. Some of the once grand buildings are decaying and crumbling.

These wrecks sit in the harbour. One caught fire and all the cars in it were destroyed.

Berbera has a huge runway that was built in the 1980s as an emergency landing pad for the NASA space shuttle.

We drove out of the town area to Baathela Beach and checked into a hotel there. We had planned on spending two nights there but when we saw that some of the hotel was under construction with lots of banging and crashing we decided on one night only. There was a generator for the lights and air conditioning and it was only on for part of the day and night. It was much hotter than Hargeisa and each room had air conditioning but the rooms were tiny with no outlook so it would not have been very pleasant stuck in them.

The beach was deserted and stretched for miles. A Muslim lady with her long gown and head dress braved the coolish water. A few boys kicked their football in and out of the water and a few camels grazed on the dunes. We walked along the beach and saw lots of dead small mussels on the rocks. Our guide book described the white sands but we saw a lot of black sand right where the high tide hit the dunes so wondered if it was oil from the tankers and ships we could see heading for the port.

At the hotel is a British guy, Steve, who operates a dive business. He gets a lot of Non Government Organisation (NGO) staff coming for the weekend to dive here and at some off shore islands. This brings a lot of guests to the hotel but the place needs a lot more work to make it relaxing and enjoyable to stay at.

We were surprised to see long grass growing around the hotel and Steve told us that it was sold at the markets for animal fodder.

Steve told us that they did a survey of the locals in the area to see how many ate fish. They found that many didn't like it even though they had never tasted it. Eating fish for some of them was a sign of a weak person. We only saw two people with rods out fishing and it seems they don't take advantage of the cheap food source on their doorstep.

From here we headed back to Hargeisa for a night and then will take shared taxis to Harrar in Ethiopia, where we know the internet service is woeful.