Horn of Africa
I recently returned from a trip to Djibouti, Somalia (both Mogadishu & Somaliland) and South Sudan (with a brief transit of Ethiopia in the middle).
This trip was a long time coming. It was originally supposed to happen back in November 2025, but life got in the way. The original version of this trip was supposed to include Eritrea instead of Somaliland, and didn't have Djibouti at all. But an assortment of flight schedule changes results in the trip that I ended up doing.
Despite that, the stupid, pointless, destructive war of the US against Iran led to a lot of complications (flight cancellations & changes). I was originally supposed to fly Qatar Air from Djibouti to Mogadishu (Somalia), but that flight was completely cancelled in early April. I was originally supposed to fly Turkish Air from Juba (South Sudan) to Istanbul (and then home), but that flight was completely cancelled in mid-April. I was originally supposed to fly Ethiopian Air from Djibouti to Mogadishu, but they "delayed" that flight by a full 24 hours. They later also "delayed" the flight from Hargeisa (Somaliland) to Juba (South Sudan) by 20 hours. Ethiopian has been behaving very badly with "delays".
Depite all the flight drama, the trip went fairly well and was a fascinating experience in a corner of Africa that I'd basically never been to before (I visited Ethiopia itself back in 2017, but none of the surrounding countries).
Day 1
Zero issues getting to the airport. Security was busy, but fine. The lounge was not super packed, and had a decent selection of food, including japanese rice crackers on the wet bar. My flight boarded early, and was done 15 minutes before departure.
It was a weird 2/3 seating config. I was on the 3 seat side, and had no one sitting in the middle. The plane was very warm. We landed a few minutes early, then taxied forever. I had to clear passport control, but it was the automated booth, and went quickly. The lounge was maybe half full, but didn't have many good food options.
Then i found the chocolate cream puffs dipped in chocolate and all was forgiven.
While waiting for my flight to Djibouti, I received email from Ethiopian Air that my flight next week from Djibouti to Mogadishu had been 'delayed' by 24 hours. Thankfully I already had an extra day (due to the infrequency of flights), but it was still annoying that I needed to adjust my hotel bookings a week in advance. At 22:25, I headed to the gate, where it was chaotic. I'm not sure what I expected for passengers on a weekly flight to Djibouti, but this was not it. Huge families, military dudes, business white guys, random people in traditional muslim attire, and what looked like college kids on spring break. CDG really shuts down at night. There were just 4 flights departing after mine at 23:20, and then nothing until morning. Despite all the drama at the gate, the flight was more than half empty, including 2 empty seats beside me.
The flight was fine, and I managed to sleep a bit. We landed on time at 07:28am. Unsurprisingly, the airport is tiny. There were a lot of random military planes parked along the side, plus a row of MSF & WFP tiny planes in a row near the terminal. The stairway down to the tarmac was old and swayed a lot as everyone walked down. The hot, humid air hit hard as I stepped out of the plane. It was another 10s of walking to the terminal, which looked like a creepy fortress.
There were 3 separate lines inside the terminal, VOA, eVisa & residents. The line wasn't too bad, and they were fairly efficient stamping me in. I made a quick stop at the ATM, which oddly dispensed both USD and Djibouti Francs as options. My guide found me, and then we drove into the city to my hotel (Ras Dika) to drop my bags.
The car claimed that it was 94F at 8:15am. After checking in, we drove out to a huge shopping mall with a supermarket to buy food for today. We got a lot of water, bananas, dates, a huge bag of ice and a bagette with tuna.
The guide also had a thing in a cup with a janky lid that could best be described as a Wendy's Frosty, but yogurt and still liquidy. He tossed everything into an old, beat up cooler. Of course the Frosty later leaked out onto everything and made a dusgusting mess.
Then we drove to the harbor, and got in a small boat, out to Moucha Island. There were quite a few oil tankers sitting far out into the harbor. The ride out to the island took about 30 minutes. The water was fairly calm. Once we got about a kilometer away, it got really shallow, and I could see the bottom.
The island is kinda big (several km across), and is a mixture of sand beaches, and rocky coral cliffs with a few clusters of buildings. The beach where we docked had umbrellas and chairs, with some random birds hanging around. I was the only visitor.
My guide said that lots of people come on weekends, and most tourists visit in winter when its a bit cooler.
After sweating in the heat for nearly 3 hours, I decided it was time to go back. The water was a bit choppy on the ride back, bit not awful. I was back at the hotel by 13:45m and got to enjoy the room's 20C AC (it won't get any colder, but it feels heavenly compared to the 37C outside). It is so hot here that all the sinks only have 'cold' water, and it still comes out of the tap very warm. I ended up taking a nap in the late afternoon for an hour or so. For dinner I went to an Ethiopian place (La Fontaine) around the block from the hotel. I sat on their rooftop terrace and heard the call to prayer, plus lots of street activity. I'm right in the center of everything. I got goat tibs & mango juice. The tibs came with enough injera to feed a family of 4. They were decent. The mango juice was delicious and must have been made from at least 8 mangoes, it was easily a liter. After dinner, I wandered around the area for a few minutes. Lots of small shops, tons of people walking around, and I saw 3 cats.
Day 2 + 3
I slept until my alarm at 7:45am. No real hot water in the shower, but it was very warm 'cold' water. Breakfast was nuclear orange 'juice', a chapati with dal, a small omelette & tea. I departed the hotel at 9am. First stop was the Casino supermarket for more water and breakfast for the guide & driver. They had a huge counter selling french pastries, sandwiches & drinks, that was very busy.
Thankfully, the Landcruiser had working AC, because it was very hot outside already. After that we started the long drive west. We passed the huge shipping port, and drove parallel to the railway that runs to Addis in Ethiopia. Lots of trucks on the road hauling freight to Ethiopia. The road was in ok condition for a while. Scenery was very arid & rocky with small plants and some thorny accacia trees. We saw herds of goats, and a pack of baboons. About 2 hours in the road started to degrade badly. At one point we cut across a flat, dry lake for 20 minutes to detour around some very destroyed road. Just before noon we stopped for lunch in Dikhil. It was fine, but nothing special.
As soon as we departed, all vestiges of a paved road ended, and it was just sand, gravel & rocks for the next 3 hours to Lake Abbe. The scenery was ok. We had a few weird rain showers for a few minutes multiple times. There were random camels & ostriches.
As we neared the lake, there were huge rocky chimneys, and gazelle, foxes, and egyptian geese. We stopped beside a boiling stream for a bit. The lake is huge, and split nearly in half between Djibouti & Ethiopia. The camp was not quite as primitive as I was expecting. There was solar power, drop toilets, and even (coldish) showers.
My hut even had a ceiling fan. They served tea after I arrived (jusrt before 5pm), and we watched the sunset across the lake. Dinner was spaghetti, sauce (with chunks of squash in it), a split chicken breast, a 'salad' made from canned peas & canned tuna, and fresh orange wedges. There was a group of 4 at the camp from a French film crew that had the weekend off from filing in the capitol. They spoke fairly good English.
After dinner, I attempted to sleep in the stone hut (that had a ceiling fan & light), but it was too damn hot. I ended up dragging the cot outside. It was a bit less hot, plus there was a hot breeze. I slept fitfully. But the breeze stopped around 4am, and noisy swarms of bugs descended.
It was like some biblical plague, and I gave up trying to sleep. Everyone else was up for the day by 5:30am to catch the sunrise over the lake.
We drove about 5 minutes back into the chimney area, then walked. Most of the ground was crusted with salt. There were boiling pools, flamingos on the lake and smaller birds darting around. It was pretty, but also hot already. I was back at camp just before 7am, for breakfast. Breakfast was sad and disapointing, just bread & jam, with tea/coffee.
We spent most of the morning driving back much of the route we came yesterday. We stopped briefly to get lunch, where I had a chicken with curry mayo sandwich, which was ok. Around 13:30 we arrived at Lake Assal, the lowest point in Africa. The lake is nearly 40% salt, and has multiple salt islands, plus the perimeter is thick, white salt.
Of course, it was very hot & humid too. After that, we drove for another 2.5 hours north to the camp. Some of the drive was along the coast north of the capitol. Eventually we turned onto an insane mountain road. It was steep, very rocky and narrow.
We passed through a village up in the mountains, drove on a dry river bed that was more rocks than anything. The Bankoule camp was perched on a hillside above the (currently dry) river. It was fairly primitive, with no electricity (there was solar powered lighting).
There were a bunch of goats & chickens wandering around. The one nice thing was the 650m elevation made it noticeably less hot. I got a warm shower, which felt nice after nearly 2 days. Dinner was pretty good, mostly in contrast to the previous night. There was a real salad of tomatoes, potatoes & shredded cabbage with a vinegrette.
Spaghetti (which is growing tiresome), sauce with chunks of squash, and onion & chicken kababs. Dessert was canned pineapple (or annanas as I was reminded). My guide asked what time I wanted breakfast, and I told him 8am, assuming that i'd maybe get to sleep later.
After that, I went to my wooden shack, onto the thin foam mattress under the mosquito net, and attempted to sleep.
Day 4
What I didn't fully realize last night when asked what time I wanted for breakfast, was how early it would be noisy. Just after 4am, the damn rooster started. Before 5, someone turned on a generator. A swarm of what sounded like bees started buzzing very loudly around 5. And then noisy people were talking just after 5am. I sort of cat napped until around 6:30am, and then gave up. The weird thing is that I never heard the call to prayer from the village just a kilometer away. Overall, I slept much better than at Lake Abhe, because I was exhausted, it was less hot (but still rather humid), and the net kept all the insects away from me. Btw, at the lake, the mosquitos definitely feasted on me while I attempted to sleep outside, as my feet, hands, arms and head are covered in bites.
The camp has two cats. I tried to be friendly with them. One was afraid to come near me. The second came over, but as I held out my hand, it swatted me, and ran away. No claws, thankfully.
After breakfast we went for a walk up river with one of the elders. There were random goats, camels & cows in the river. Along the banks were terraces with gardens, plus huge wild mango trees.
Eventually we entered one of the gardens, which had a huge deep well, and tons of fruit trees (limes, pomegranite, mango, papaya) and vegetable plants (peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, corn, cabbage, squash).
We returned to camp just before 10am. Lunch was pretty good. Another salad, rice with sauce, and split chicken breasts. They also got out a spicy sauce, made from the garden peppers. It was just the right amount of heat.
The guide hates spicy food, and claims only the 'older generation' like spicy food.
We drove all the way back on the awful mountain road, and headed towards Tadjoura (and picked up a guy walking the awful road in the heat, out of pity).
After dropping the guy off, we drove another 40 minutes out to Plage de Les Sables Blancs, which was supposed to be this amazing beach on the Red Sea coast.
Somehow, the road to the beach was worse than the mountain road from earlier. The beach was 100% not worth the drive out there. It was fine for a generic, clean sandy beach.
Not fine for having my organs rearranged, and of course being very hot & humid. I spent maybe 5 minutes, and had enough. Once back in Tadjoura, we swung by an ATM surrounded by goats just hanging out.
Definitely the weirdest ATM experience, but I did get the money I needed. Then a few more minutes to the hotel, Le Golfe.
When we pulled into the parking area there were multiple military vehicles, and lots of guys in fatigues milling around. Kinda weird/creepy, but I guess normal as my guide didn't seem phased.
Thankfully my room has working AC. Unfortunately, the wifi only works in the hotel restaurant, which is no where near my room.
This morning, I refilled my water bottle and put into my backpack, but apparently failed to close the lid securely. Over the course of the day, 1L of water leaked out and soaked nearly everything. All the cash, the visa printouts, electronics. The cash is fine after drying. The printouts are mostly ok, although a bit warped and some minor ink smeared. My yellow card is sorta ok, but had some smeared ink. Hopefully they'll accept it to enter south sudan. The electronics are bad. One power adapter shorted out, and one power bank is randomly turning off & on. I think the rest might be ok, but i haven't been able to test everything.
Day 5
Last night, I set the AC to 16C and it was glorious. The bed was all springs, but I was glad not to be sweating all night, or fumbling with mosquito nets & buzzing insects. I was still up for the day at 6am for no reason. Breakfast was the usual bread, jam & coffee. We left at 9:30am, and did a tour of the city of Tadjoura. It was basically the usual stuff, the fish market, meat market, vegetables, a few mosques, old cemetary, and the old pier where Arabs bought slaves. Afterwards, we did the 3 hour drive all the way back to the capitol. Traffic got bad once we got to the outskirts. They dropped me off at the hotel just before 13:00, and we agreed to meet at 19:30 to get 'good' Indian food for dinner.
I ended up going around the block to a small shopping mall (with AC) for lunch where I went to CTR Chicken (basically kfc). Despite trying to order in french, the woman insisted on english (which i guess says a lot about my french). Dinner was fine? It was proper indian food (a really huge menu). I got mutton curry, stuffed kolcha and a lime mint juice. While the food did have spiciness, it was very clearly the same chopped up peppers that I had in the mountains 2 days ago. Basically the wrong kind of heat.
Day 6
I slept until 8am, which was nice. Breakfast was actually a sorta weird buffet. It had a potato beet salad, chapatis, injera, honey cake, and dal. The Whatsapp group for my Somalia tour was created. 9 people, plus the guide (English, currently lives in Taiwan). Of the 9, 7 are male, 2 from US, 1 Canadian, 1 Australian, 1 Singaporean, 1 Hungarian, 1 Italian, 1 Swiss, 1 British).
I ended up going to a supermarket for lunch, and had ice cream & dates (separately) for lunch. I spent the entire afternoon relaxing, which was nice. For dinner, I went to what the internet claimed was the best pizza place, Pizzaiolo. Granted, there aren't many dedicated pizza places, and lots of the combination pizza + burger + shawarma + whatever places. I got a St. George beer (from Ethiopia), and the 'all meat' that had bacon, ham, sausage and cheese, plus mushrooms too for some reason. Also they had glorious AC. The pizza was ok, but the cheese was a little weird texture. The beer was ok, and brought back memories of my time in Ethiopia 9 years ago.
Day 7
I woke up at 6am for no reason. I had breakfast and killed time until I left for the airport at 9:45. I read some horror stories about how awful the airport was, but it wasn't half bad. It had AC, but the wifi was broken. I had to clear fake security (including removing my sandals) to enter the terminal. There was no line to get my boarding pass. Emigration demanded to see my Somali evisa for some weird reason. At 10:40am, they opened the gate area, and forced everyone through another round of security. They were unhappy with my backpack, pulled everything out, inspected my shaver very carefully, then gave me an OK. They didn't care about my 2 unopened bottles of water. While waiting, a group of French Marines walked right past security and out of the terminal. There were 2 sorta overweight tattooed guys with US Marines hats and shorts on my flight. Boarding started 45 minutes before departure, and was done in 10 minutes. The plane was maybe 25% full. We took off 10 minutes early. The flight was fine. We landed and it was a damn bus gate. Plus we had 2 VIPs in biz class who got a limo at the plane. That held up the bus. Ended up spending nearly 30 minutes waiting on the plane before the bus showed up. Thankfully the terminal was the most dead i've ever seen. I flew through security (with shoe removal drama), and then got to my (bus) gate about an hour before departure.
They boarded the bus on time. They were inspecting visas for all non-citizens, but oddly didn't even look at mine. Including me, just 36 passengers. There was a woman in a wheel chair that they literally refused to assist boarding the bus. Random passengers had to carry her onto the bus, and up the stairs to the plane. She collapsed into one of the biz class seats, and the crew scolded her for not walking back to her seat in row 25. The worst part, most of the biz class seats were empty, so they were being cruel just for the hell of it. Shortly after closing the doors, the plane violently lurched forward, spilling biz class drinks. The crew acted as if this was perfectly normal. Its as if the tug driver screwed up, or something crashed into the plane. The flight thankfully was fine.
As we landed in Mogadishu, the Red Sea was on one side, and a huge UN compound was on the other side of the runway. Plus UN vehicles were patrolling, and most of the planes on the ground were either UN or WFP. Zero issues getting stamped in (the guy welcomed me 3 times and gave me 30 days). The terminal is a huge, noisy, hot, humid warehouse. I found the local guy easily, and I was ready to go. But then ge told me that we had to wait for the bag of a person who flew in this morning, because their checked bag was left behind in Addis. 40 minutes waiting in the heat for their stupid bag to come out. Finally we were ready, and nearly out of the airport, when the guy realized that he left his laptop in the terminal, and we had to go back.
Driving to the hotel gave me Afghanistan vibes. Lots of armed people everywhere. The 'car' that I was in had bullet proof glass & doors. Huge blast walls everywhere. The hotel was behind 3 layers of armed security & gates. The hotel is fairly nice, and opened just 6 months ago. I ended up having dinner with the Singaporean women. She's done a lot of Rocky Road tours.
Day 8
I slept ok, but not great. The power went out briefly several times during the night. Every time the power came back, the AC made this music sound that woke me. I woke for the day at 6:30am. Breakfast was a buffet with hummus, scrambled eggs, chicken with peppers, a salad with tuna & chopped peppers, and tea that tastes like 1000 cardamom pods.
Everyone met in the hotel lobby 13:00, and we split into 4 vehicles (one was police armed with AK47s). We drove about 20 minutes east to Liido Beach.
Lots of destroyed buildings and checkpoints along the way. The beach was packed and crazy with tons of children and adults playing in the surf.
There were tons of large waves. Then they announced we were going for a 10 minute boat ride. This janky boat was dragged onto the beach and everyone piled in.
I was concerned the boat was going to capsize every time we were hit by a large wave. Thankfully we made it back safely. We drove to the monument for the unknown soldier, which was built in 1964.
It was a concrete obelisk that had seen better days. After that, we drove to the Mogadishu Mall, which is the only mall in Somalia.
For some weird reason they led us around as if we'd never been in a shopping mall before. We went up the 10th floor, which had a coffee cafe, and we got to see a lot of the city as the sun set.
We drove for nearly 40 minutes to dinner, all because of traffic. It was supposed to be one of those traditional live music with dinner places.
But 5 minutes into the show, they blew a fuse, and we were left in the dark to finish dinner. I got camel meat, chapatis and camel milk to drink.
The meat was basically camel fajitas (with onions & peppers). The milk tasted like mildly funky cow milk.
Day 9
I was awakened at 5:30 to the sound of a very loud, fast plane. At first I assumed it was a jet taking off from the nearby airport. But when a 2nd loud, fast plane buzzed by barely 10 seconds later, I started to think they were fighter jets from somewhere, and I was a tiny bit concerned. Thankfully, that was it, but I was up for the day at that point. Our first stop of the day was the fish market. It was chaotic, with huge tuna & swordfish being hauled around & hacked up. Then we went to the old lighthouse ruins, which is also the beach where the fishermen land their boats. This was also crazy, as guys were hauling 150lb tuna & swordfish off the boats, and up a steep hill to trucks. After that we wandered around one of the original neighborhoods. Lots of narrow alleys, and friendly people. Next we went to the ruins of the Italian built cathedral. It was badly damaged (no roof, broken walls) during the civil war in 1993.
Lunch was actually pretty good. I got roasted goat, fufu, salad and mango juice. After lunch we drove for nearly 2 hours west of the city to go to a 'nice' beach for people to swim. So many checkpoints. The sky got cloudy during the drive and it rained lightly for a bit. The drive back took forever. There was a huge checkpoint where they forced everyone to get out and walk through while a dog inspected everything.
Dinner was indian food. I ordered chicken biryani and lemon mint juice, but ended up with mutton biryani instead. The group overall is fine. Laszlo the Hungarian made it clear that he hates group tours and normally books private tours with friends but none wanted to come along now. He's mostly been antisocial. The other American, Stan, is actually originally from Ukraine.
Day 10
I woke at 5:20am. I checked out at 6:15am, and was expecting to pay for the first night's dinner, but the guy claimed that I owed nothing. Everyone was getting into cars for the airport,
and suddenly the hotel is angry because I didn't pay my $15.75 bill. I handed them $20, and of course they can't make change.
I went back outside only to learn that the car I was using is not going to the airport. I found an empty seat in another car, and then the local guide told me that I took his seat,
and forced me to sit in the middle. We finally departed, and had 2 checkpoints before even reaching the airport where everyone must exit the car.
Finally we get to the airport perimeter, and its all walking from there. 6 checkpoints leading up to the actual terminal. Utter chaos in the domestic terminal,
but thankfully the local guide fetched our boarding passes. The security line sent all of us to a special immigration line, then back to security for the most lazy check of all.
Finally in the gate area we got some breakfast (scrambled tomato eggs with crepe like things).
We boarded the Premier Airlines 9:00 flight at 09:10am. The jet had no livery, and was likely older than I am. Some of the overhead bin doors were held in place with duct tape. The crew was wearing Jetways Airlines logo. Even though there were seating assignments, they seemed to be more suggestions than enforced. A woman with a lap child was already in my seat. The flight was fine? The dude next to me attempted to grab/use my hand sanitizer. They served a meal. One of the 2 restrooms was literally full of trash. We landed an hour late in Hargeisa. The VOA line took nearly an hour because the guard kept sending residents over to clear that line faster.
There are 3 more people joining the group. One Indian, one American (flight attendant in Philly), and an American born in Romania who now lives near the NY finger lakes. Lunch was fried chicken, salad, and sheep broth soup.
Afterwards, we drove an hour northeast to the Las Geel rock art site. Lots of cows, some humans and a few dogs. What I enjoyed more about the area was tons of flowering beavertail cacti, plus there were giant tourtoises. We drove to the city of Berbera afterwards, which took nearly 3 hours, mostly in the dark.
Day 11
The power went out at 5am long enough that the AC refused to power on again automatically. I was never able to fall back to sleep.
The group was doing a multi-hour boat trip this morning, just to go swimming. I opted out to avoid the inevitable sea sickness. Instead, I wandered around the port & old town area for about 45 minutes. Saw lots of cats, friendly kids, and old colonial era buildings in varying states of decay. Also, since tomorrow is Somaliland Independence Day, there are flags everywhere.
We spent most of the afternoon driving back to Hargeisa. Other than no AC in the van, and a long hot drive, it went ok. Everyone is partying in the streets tonight for Independence Day. We walked to a government run holiday supply store where they were selling hats, flags, umbrellas, towels, and all sorts of other items.
Day 12
I had to get up at 5am for the independence day parade. We walked a solid 20 minutes from the hotel, to a spot that had an unobstructed viewing point.
Tons of people were already lined up along the parade route. Also lots of armed police & military everywhere.
After sitting for 5 minutes, the police ordered us to move elsewhere because the spot was not approved for spectators. We crossed the street.
There was a large group of women & children near us that the police kept threatening to beat with sticks. Across the street was the male group,
and the police were actively beating them back with large water bottles, which seemed really dumb. It ended up being a long, slow military parade.
Every branch had people marching in formation, plus the police, fire brigade, ambulances, and even the coast guard had boats with guns pulled by trucks. The locals were very excited.
I was mostly bored. The crowd was very into it, chanting & cheering.
We ended up going to the hotel restaurant for lunch. I ordered a pesto pizza, but received a chicken pizza. It wasn't bad. They're running a scam where they were charging everyone 60 cents for bottles of water that they either never ordered or never received. Some people ordered various juices and were charged for the water in the juice, on top of the menu price. We got them to fix it, but it got pretty heated.
In the afternoon, we visited a bunch of stuff around Hargeisa. First was the British WW2 cemetary. It was pretty small, but well maintained.
After that was the national museum, but it was mostly photographs, and boring. Then we drove about 30 minutes northeast to this bizarre, creepy site where animal sacrifices are performed.
It had tons of animal bones all over, and a large blood lake. We drove back to the center of the city, and did a market walk which was actually nice as it was just stuff that normal people buy
(produce, meat, etc).
Day 13
I slept relatively ok, had breakfast and then departed for the airport. Or so I thought. Instead we stopped at the cattle market to see tons of cows, sheep, goats & camels for sale. Then we went to the airport where I enjoyed the deluxe security theater. Multiple security scans, where they opened both of my bags. they sent me to a tiny office for 3 guys to reassure me that nothing was wrong, and after a few awkward seconds finally returned my passport. I assumed that was it, but we were subjected to a manual baggage screening and doc check before entering the gate area. To board, we had to walk up a flight of stairs, do another doc check, then down a different flight of stairs, and a walk across the tarmac to board the very old plane. The armrest on my seat was broken in a half way up/down position. The flight had a bunch of Israelis, a lot of Somalis, Indians, and random other people. For an hour long flight, there was pretty bad turbulence both during take off and when landing. I amazingly did not get a bus gate for the first time when arriving in Addis. I flew through passport control and we walked to the transit hotel. The included lunch buffet was kinda sad. Ended up going to a chinese place for dinner. it was not half bad, and was full of chinese people.
Day 14
I sorta slept 8 hours, which is the most that i've had in over a week. The breakfast buffet was sad & weird. Boiled barley, chicken gizzards, other random stuff.
The airport was the usual crappy chaos. We had a bus gate and this flight was 100% full, and everyone seemed to have multiple carryon bags that consumed all the bin space early. Very weird mix of people on this flight, south sudanese, russians, european aid workers, chinese, and sketchy looking muscular guys with tatoos. Already 20 minutes late, the captain announced that we would depart maybe in 20 minutes due to 'traffic'. In 20 minutes we pushed back, taxied for 3 minutes, then sat without moving for another 20 minutes. We took off 75 minutes late for a 65 minute flight. The flight was fine.
Once we landed in Juba, it was a short walk to the terminal. First was a lazy, cursory yellow card check. Immigration was fairly efficient, with a fancy photo + finger print machine. Then a lady checked my passport and demanded to see my evisa. Then in baggage claim I had to open both of my bags for a lazy inspection, and a small neon green 'OK' sticker on each.
Its quite hot & humid. We went to a nice place on the Nile for dinner. I got BBQ goat ribs with fufu and vegetables. It was really good. At this point 5 people from the Somali tour continued to South Sudan, and 2 new people joined (1 Kazakh, 1 American ). I've mostly been hanging out with the Canadian guy, Micah.
Day 15 + 16
I had a rough night. Kept waking with random aches. Found one of my pillows on the floor in the morning. Breakfast was actually a pretty good buffet. We left at 9am.
There are dedicated license plates here for NGO's and UN vehicles. Seems weird, and risky, as they could be a target of violence.
It started raining as we drove across the city, but stopped after a few minutes. We stopped at a supermarket to look for random stuff (mostly bug repellant, which they didn't have).
Once we got out of Juba, the scenery was green and mostly flat, with occasional small villages of round thatched roof houses. The road was in good condition for the first few hours. The checkpoints were terrible & slow. Most of the vehicles were huge oil tanker trucks heading north.
Around mid day we drove into a thunder storm, but thankfully it didn't last long. We stopped for lunch at the side of the road just after 1pm. It was pasta with veggies & meat sauce, and bananas. Two local guys wandered over, and they had really awesome hats, and were friendly enough to pose for photos. Then the sky opened up and we retreated to the vehicles while everything was packed up.
There was another hour of driving down a tiny dirt track to the village where we setup camp. The rain never let up, and it was kind of a muddy mess. Lots of kids visited and were very energetic & excited to meet us. They all wanted to pose for photos. We took a tour of the Dinka cattle camp. So much mud. There was a lot of organization to the camp. The goats and cows sleep in the tents with their owners. Everyone is very tall (both women & men). Its all a nomadic lifestyle, where the camp moves every few months. Just before sunset the rain stopped, and all the cows wandered back to camp on their own. A lightning storm continued for hours.
Our camp had a fire, but they also brought a generator to charge devices. The guides commented that because of the storm it was going to be 'cold' tonight (down to 20C). Dinner was pretty good. Pumpkin soup, avocado, rice, aubergine in tomato sauce, and chicken wings. Sleeping was not fun. It never really cooled down, and the humidity was miserable. Stupid donkeys made noise all night long. There were fireflies. The cows woke up around 4am, and that was it for me for the night. Birds & insects started doing their morning routine around 4:30am, and the dumb rooster woke at 5am. The sun was up by 5:30.
Breakfast was fried eggs, beef sausage and bread. We did another walk through the cattle camp, and then sat around killing time. We departed at 10am, and spent nearly 2 hours back tracking the route that we drove yesterday. Eventually we turned off the road, and ended up on a rutted, partially flooded mess of a road. For a while we could see the White Nile. There were lots of palm trees. Some of the puddles were a neon green color. One of the vehicles got a flat. A bit after 1pm, we reached the Mandari tribal village area. It had lots of squat round huts with thatched roofs. There was a square church with a tin roof. Lots of kids (some buck naked).
Lunch was (sorta) fresh catfish braised in tomato sauce, lentils and rice. It was crazy hot & humid in the afternoon, so we sat in the shade for a few hours. Around 15:30 we did a tour of the village.
It was much nicer than the Dinka cattle camp from yesterday. Very neat & tidy. We saw their homes, graves, grain storage, farm land (they grow corn, millet, okra, peanuts, and sorghum), well, and church.
Also there were two new borns, and they decorated the outside of the homes to celebrate. It was really a very nice experience overall.
Dinner was chicken in mushroom sauce, mashed potatoes and shredded cabbage. After dinner, everyone retreated to their tents to escape the mosquitoes. But the tents were very hot. I was drenched in sweat after a few minutes. I eventually fell asleep, but every time I woke to use the toilet I was covered in sweat. At 4am, it rained for a few minutes, and everyone had to close up their tents. Breakfast was boiled eggs, crepes, beans & fresh mango.
We departed just before 9am, and made good time until we reached a checkpoint that initially refused to let us pass. There was a lot of screaming and pointing. They ordered us to park off the road, and then searched all 3 vehicles. At one point, one of the security goons threw a rock at the local guide and knocked out a tooth. Then a other goon ran to get gun. It was never clear why there was so much hostility, as this checkpoint is normally just about bribes. We spent over an hour waiting.
Just before noon we pulled into the Mindari cattle camp. It was pretty similar to the first day's Dinka camp, and we finished touring it in 10 minutes. Yet the itinerary called for us to spend the rest of the day and tonight there, which was dumb. I questioned why we couldn't finish driving back to Juba (its less than an hour away) and spend the night sleeping in a real bed with AC. We ended up voting and all but 1 person wanted a hotel. We still ended up sitting around the camp until the cows returned at 5pm. But just after 6pm we drove back to Juba and got to the hotel.
Four of us decided to walk to an Indian place, Spicey Herbs, for dinner. It was actually pretty good. I got garlic naan, kedai paneer and avocado juice, all for $15. In fact the total bill for all 4 people was $60.
Day 17
I slept really well, and was up for the day at 7:30am. I had breakfast and relaxed the rest of the morning. The entire group met at 2pm for a city tour.
The first stop was the tomb of the father of the city of Juba, a chief from the 19th century named Jubek. Next stop was the tourist market, which thankfully was fairly small. After that we went to an Eritrean church and then a catholic church.
Then we went to a White Nile river front bar for drinks. It had live music which was nice. I got mango juice and a pink lady.
Dinner was the river place we went to at the first night. I got a pizza, and it was really good
Day 18
Woke up at 5:30am, got a shower, and then a quick breakfast before checking out. The airport was crazy bonkers. There were thick crowds everywhere. Just getting inside required pushing through a crowd,
then security nonsense. The checkin counter for Kenyan Air was completely roped off, and we had to ask permission to approach. They attempted to force me to check my bags, but i refused.
I had to show my boarding pass to a random guy at a desk to get a wifi voucher. A guy was controlling access to passport control, letting 'special' people pass first while holding back others.
After waiting a few minutes they permitted me through, where there were 4 long lines. Of course the line I chose turned out to be the slowest.
They took my prints again, and demanded the print out of my visa that someone took from me when I first arrived. He accepted the version on my phone. Security had 2 bins for stuff,
forcing everyone to share. All while security people kept yelling at everyone to hurry up. There were 4 'gates' (really just rooms of chairs). We were told to enter gate 1.
After waiting there for 5 minutes a lady screamed some boarding announcement, and tons of people rushed to the front. Seemed way too early for my flight and of course it was for UgandaAir.
A few minutes later they told everyone remaining to move to gate 4 instead.
The inbound flight arrived 25 minutes late from Nairobi. I was happy that it arrived at all. Boarding involved showing my boarding pass when exiting the terminal, showing it again plus passport before climbing the stairs to the plane, and showing it a third time when entering the plane. The flight itself was surprisingly pleasant.
Barely 75 minutes and we got full meal service (with a choice of beef, chicken or veggie). Landed only 7 minutes late, and got a real gate with a jetway, or so I thought. We reached the terminal only to be directed down a flight of stairs back onto the tarmac, then walking literally to a different gate. Then back up the steps, finally entering the same terminal, only to be ordered to complete an online Ebola screening. Except that the website crashed due to 'too many' people using it. So they decided to demand yellow cards instead, which made no sense whatsoever. Finally in the actual terminal, I looked for the lounge. A helpful sign said it was at gate 17 'level 2'. Except that the elevator at that gate only went down to 'level 0'. After walking past a few more gates, i finally found the up elevator, and got to the lounge to wait ~11 hours for my flight to Amsterdam. The lounge is fine, not amazing, but definitely far better than waiting in the gate area.
Ten hours in a lounge is a lot. At 22:35 I went to my gate. It was a long hike. I got interrogated about where my final destination (Amsterdam), how long i'll be there (I live there), do I have a resident card (yes), can we see it (sure?), how was Juba (hot), how long was I in Juba (4 days), where is my exit stamp from Amsterdam (there is none, its electronic), then why did you have a stamp in February (because they were stamping back then?). Then she took my passport and spoke to someone else, and finally returned it. jeeebus.
Of course wifi didn't work at all from the gate. The flight was fine, and I got home early on Tuesday morning.
All trip pictures are posted HERE.
A GPX map track from the trip is:
