From Hargeisa, Somaliland, we caught a shared taxi, a station wagon, the back was loaded with two mums with babies on their back and two men. The back seat had four people and John and I were crammed into the front seat by the driver. The bags were loaded onto the top and we headed off for the Wajaale border town. The main street was under construction and the rest of the place was dirty and dusty with lots of makeshift stalls lining the roadsides. We were told by our travel friend Andy that we would have to pay $20 US for an exit tax but the man in the immigration office stamped us out of Somaliland and wished us well.
Several touts directed us to a bus that was quickly filling up and when we were five people squashed into the four seats across, with more sitting on the entrance steps, we headed off. Passed through lots of police check points where we all had to get out. At one stop the police wanted to check my backpack on the roof. I had padlocked all my zips so he couldn't get in and after undoing buckles and lifting off the lid he gave up. The boy who loads the roof had the job to watch the checks and then zip everyone's bags up again. Some police women checked all the plastic shopping bags that were left inside the bus and even frisked some of the women passengers. Later we heard about an Italian man who was taken away from his group to a small shed where he was asked to pay a bribe, at this same check point. We continued a few kilometres and were checked again. Before each town and after it we were also stopped.
Not far from our destination, Jijiga, Ethiopia, we could smell a burning smell and we had to stop and replace a wheel bearing. Luckily they had spare parts and it was all done in no time.
At Jijiga, we changed to a large bus just as it started to get dark. We left with a few empty seats but picked up people along the way. We drove through some towering rock mountains that looked like someone had piled giant rock sculptures on top of the pinnacles and cliffs. It was a smooth trip on a sealed road.
In Harar we found a hotel near the bus station and had to walk through the crowds of women selling fruit, vegetables, food, and clothing along the street. We were able to eat at the restaurant and look down over the market area below.
Harar is a World Heritage site with a walled city. In just one square kilometer, there are 368 alleyways, 87 mosques and shrines, as well as shops, houses, and government buildings.
One of the five old city gates.
One of the lanes with a bougainvillea bush.
One of the circles in the old city where these old taxis have died and look forgotten.
Some people have painted their places in bright colours while others are left natural.
It took four men to lift this bag of grain onto this man's shoulders, then off he staggered.
One of the strange things that happens here, is the night feeding of hyenas by some of the men in the town. According to our guide book, 'it's not a touristy show, it's a tradition'. We met people who had to pay to see the show and saw tourist posters showing the men with entrails in their mouth that the hyena took from them. It was pretty expensive and we had seen enough hyenas in our travels so we didn't bother to go. One of the local touts who wanted to be our city guide told us they feed them so that they will leave the farm animals alone. During the Epiphany celebrations the hyena don't come to eat as the locals give them food when they slaughter animals for the feast.
There is a lot of qat grown in the area so in the afternoon the men sat around chewing the leaves. The city centre is very pleasant and clean. There are wide streets with huge jacaranda trees providing greenery and shade. At night there were very few street lights in parts of the city but it felt safe to walk about. In the evenings we met up with Carlo from Italy, who lives in Nepal, and an Australian woman who gave her boys to her ex-husband and will spend two years doing tours in Ethiopia.
We found a pleasant restaurant with a huge choice of dishes and were able to see the news of the devastating earthquake in Christchurch, NZ. The internet services in Ethiopia are woeful so we could only check on the internet when there was a connection and then we were lucky if we stayed connected for longer than 15 minutes at a time.
