SLOW ROAD TO CHINA
Trip Start
Jul 14, 2007
1
4
12
Trip End
Ongoing
TESENEY,
Eritrea
Thursday, August 9, 2007
I was told before I left Kassala that there was no point going early as I would get no further than Teseney in the first day,but the limited English of the people concerned and my own presumption that you can beat the system if you throw a few dollars at it,led me to rise at 7 am and be on my way to the border by 8-30am,(after some difficulty finding the correct bus station and eventually taking a taxi to a different station).Here I was asked a price I believed too high,of 20 Sudanese pounds to travel to the border.I had not kept back enough local currency,and had only 10 SP.No one would take dollars.I began to walk away to return to town to change some more,somewhat deflated.Then after brief discussion,they agreed to let me go for ten SP.
We set off in an open sided truck,about five passengers in all,rounding the famous granite rock that dominates the scruffy town of Kassala,without which this town would be completely worthless in the tourist stakes,and even with it,was not worth the all day ride from Khartoum,unless you were continuing to Eritrea,or Port Sudan
THE ROCK
.Within 45 minutes we stopped for breakfast,sitting in a shaded desert cafe,but surrounded by flies.A man shouted at me not to take a picture of the rocks as we prepared to depart.I sat in the front now,after getting dust in my eyes in the first part of the journey.We crossed an open plain ringed by hills on the horizon.The rocks continued to be prominent behind us.
We came to a border post,at which the other passengers left.After stamping me out of Sudan in a small office cabin,we continued across the plain ,just me and the plump,bearded Muslim driver,until reaching a checkpoint manned by several Eritrean soldiers,with a rope strung across the road.
I waved goodbye to my driver and was escorted on foot to the perimeter of Adibara village,and the customs hut-a charming circular mud hut with a wooden roof,typical of all those in this large village.
Formalities were brief enough,although they seemed to have the impression that I had come straight from Afghanistan,and only upon a second session several hours later did I establish the fact that I had been back in Britain for 6 months,and that the purpose of my visit to Eritrea was purely as a peaceful tourist.
In the intervenig period,it had become clear that the bus that was already stood waiting adjacent to the customs post when I arrived,had no intention of going anywhere in a hurry,although the supposed departure time kept shifting fom 2pm,to 3 ..then 4,and finally gone 5-15 before we left.Asmara in a day?Or at least to Barentu,to make the onward journey easier the next day? Forget it
ADIBARA BORDER VILLAGE
.There were redeeming factors,however.The villagers shrouded me with gentle charm,free water and teas,and conversation aplenty.Some of the children gave me a quick ride on their donkey,and then a crowd of men and children invited me to go and see the baby camel.I also watched,and tried to help,the village bedmakers at their work in the shade of a wooden set-to on the main street.
It was still a little galling to see the two people from the Kassala hotel turn up hours after me and to still be stuck in Adibara.
Worse still,I had no local currency.The best advice for this run is to keep enough Sudanese pounds to change to Eritrean currency.They do not take dollars,and I could not change these until I reached the bank in Teseney the following morning.Luckily,the Eritrean and Sudanese who had arrived from Kassala,paid my bus fare,and,when we arrived in Teseney,the hotel room for the three of us,and some food and bottled water,leaving me to repay them the next day.
Another redeeming factor in the delay was that by the time we travelled to Teseney,it was a wonderful time of day to observe the birds having their last feed of the day,giving me the best birdwatching session of the trip.All around us,a multitude of colourful species buzzed around,often flying alongside the bus in flocks,leaving one with the feeling of being in a giant aviary.There were Whydah birds with orange-red beaks and long tails,bee eaters with their sparkling blue,yellow,green and orange plumage,dark blue African starlings,and large birds with curving beaks like macaws,plus flocks of yellow and black finch-like weaver birds
BEDMAKER,ADIBARA
.The feeling of being in a real life safari park increased as we rounded the bend approaching Teseney and crossed a rapid flowing muddy waterfall,at the time of day when the nearby dam gates are open.My first sight of a muddy falls.
The two lads checked us into a hotel by the bus station,and we observed a rainbow sunset as we ate meat,bread and onions at an outdoor cafe on the square.Unlike most of the region,Teseney was mostly comprised of yellow cement coated mud brick buildings,and was a fairly unattractive place. We also had to traipse some distance in the dark to register at the local police station and get permission to travel to Asmara the following day.I was glad of the two lads showing me the way,and of their,admittedly limited,translation abilities.
Then came another first.My first time under a mosquito net.
Most of the guests slept outside under the overhanging roof around a courtyard.The rest overspilled into the open centre,including us.It was just about cool enough to sleep in the room,but the young lads started smoking in there,so I went outside.Next thing they followed me out anyway.Despite the ongoing conversation,fatigue got the better of me,and I was asleep by 9-30 pm,only to be woken at 1-10 am by the patter of rain on my face.All of us who were in the open centre dashed for cover,soon slumping half asleep into our beds back in the room,...without mosquito nets
WE WENT TO SEE THE BABY CAMEL
! A hotel worker was packing up the beds in the courtyard but would not give me a new net.I slept anyhow,alongside the two Daft Lads,who,half dressed were flat out asleep in no time,seemingly unconcerned by the health risk,as only the young and nonchalant can be(I admit to the partial plagiarisation of this line from a Spear of Destiny song,from the anarchic 1980's Rock scene).I submitted to my hunger for sleep.Over the next few hours I was twice woken,hearing the sound of mosquitos buzzing away as I woke.I lay awake and heard several more buzz close by.I hoped they weren't satisfying their hunger for blood by feasting,like vampires,on me. At 5-30 am I had had enough and went in search of a net.Struggling to erect one left by an early departing guest,I put the net inside the poles,so it brushed my skin.Worse still,when daylight came,I noticed two holes in the net.
The irony is that I had my own net,but the rings they are supposed to attach to do not exist in any African hotel rooms so far,and the locals tie their nets to bedposts.I could have done this with mine,but I didn't want to risk damaging it so early in the trip.
For the record,I lived to tell the tale,and have not contracted malaria in the incubation period! Rock on!
