Somaliland - another unrecognised country

From Harar we drove to the border with Somaliland, which we'd been warned could be a little chaotic.  We started badly as the guides didn't realise that a few people standing beside the road just before the Ethiopia exit barrier were there to check luggage, so we re-entered Ethiopia from no-man's-land to get our luggage searched.  Well, apart from me, who somehow got overlooked, but everyone else had to put their bag on the ground to be opened and given a cursory search.  Then back around the barrier to walk across the short stretch of lawless no-man's-land until we could enter Somaliland.  We'd been told to hold tightly onto our possessions and not engage with any of the 'helpers' who would offer to carry our luggage across for us, and we all did as we'd been told.  But this didn't stop one man running up to one of our group to try to steal her shoulder bag - he didn't get it, so snatched her hat from her head and ran off with that!

Thankfully for those who had to get Visas on Arrival there were also no issues.  I'd got my visa back in July at their London diplomatic mission, but always feel a little nervous when I see those fingerprint-recording machines, as my fingerprints are too shallow for many of them to read.  We tried for a while but eventually the border guard gave up and just waved me through anyway.

The next bit of admin was to obtain local currency, so once in the capital, Hargeisa, we were led a block from the hotel to a street corner where a number of men sat with large piles of currency.  I'd hoped to change my remaining Ethiopian currency here (found out too late that Ethiopia currently has a shortage of hard currency and so their banks are not allowed to buy back unused Ethiopian birr), but they were only giving half of what the currency should be worth, so I turned to my stack of US$ bills.  Thankfully one of the other tour group members was heading back to Ethiopia at the end of the tour and so bought my unused currency.

Hargeisa wasn't very exciting (although I did enjoy the visit to the camel market), but the highlight of our time there was a very rewarding unscheduled visit to an area outside the city where restaurants send what remains of their camel carcasses after they've removed all of the meat.  Apparently some 180 carcasses a day are dumped here.  It doesn't smell, as anything edible left on the carcasses is eaten up quickly by scavenging wildlife.  This ranges from giant ants to a very large group of marabou storks, and then just before dusk falls, the larger scavengers - warthogs, jackals and hyenas - move in.  We were surrounded by camel skulls - enormous, so I had to satisfy myself with a tooth to put in my luggage.

After Hargeisa we drove to Laas Geel, to see the numerous and very impressive cave paintings (mostly of cattle, with strange decorations on their throats) that date from some time around 3,500 - 2,500 BC.

From there we continued to the coastal city of Berbera.  I was in the closest seat to the front of the bus (the American, Adam, strangely managing to sit at the back without getting car sick...), as I seemed to be the only person happy to sit where one could hear the driver and security guys bantering and playing music on their phones.  It was almost impossible from there to hear any conversations going on amongst the group behind, but I was happy in any case to just look out of the window at the scenery all day.  Which meant I was totally unaware of all of the discussions amongst the group about our apparently threadbare tyres and broken suspension - apparently we were at serious risk of an exploded tyre, rolling bus, death and destruction ... but I sat there completely oblivious and enjoying my day!!

Berbera was lovely.  It must once have been a beautiful town, but now the people make their living in and between the ruins of all of the buildings destroyed by Siad Barre's forces in the 1980s.  It is sad to see such destruction, and that much of what remains is crumbling away, but the port is important, and currently being invested in internationally, so hopefully some of the economic benefits from that will filter through to the people in the town.

It has beautiful beaches too, but if you've ever tried swimming in an abaya (the country being currently subject to Sharia law and so I had to be well covered) you will know that the beaches are not at present going to attract many tourists!