Trip Reports - ERITREA- A retrospective trip report

I’m not sure if it is the done thing to write up a retrospective trip report- after all, my visit to Eritrea, a small country in the Horn of Africa, was nearly 10 years ago. In addition to this, the real gems of the trip had little to do with air travel. Despite this, it was such an iconic trip in my life that I feel it outweighs the reasons not to write it; it was a unique visit to a fascinating country which barely brushes the consciousness of most western travellers, and I believe it deserves some air time with a greater audience. Sadly the country has become increasingly autocratic more recently and travel outside of the capital is quite restricted compared with the time of my visit.

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Background
Most of my travels at that time in my life had been in Africa and that continent has always had a special place in my heart. A couple of years before I had travelled down from Ethiopia down to Botswana overland and I was curious about Ethiopia’s neighbour, which had gained its independence from that country only 9 years before, following years of brutal civil war. Accordingly one of my friends and I plotted a couple of weeks trip, only roughly planned and very much fluid depending on the situation on the ground when we arrived.

Getting the visa was a pretty straightforward process, and in little time the London embassy had issued the necessary paperwork.

Eritrean Visa

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Flights were quite restricted with the choice between LH, SV and EgyptAir. The latter seemed to have the most options and the best price, and we headed on in Y from LHR-CAI in a 777 then a 737 to Asmara the capital. I won’t go into much detail except to say that it was rubbish- I’m not sure if they have improved their product over the last 10 years or not. I was also most unimpressed to find that it was a dry airline as I do enjoy the odd beer when travelling long-haul…

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Eritrea- a brief history
Eritrea existed as an independent state up until the invasion of the Italians in 1890, and facets of Italian culture exist in Eritrea up until this day. The Italians were eventually evicted from Eritrea by the British Army during the Second World War (the fact that my own grandfather was a part of that mission added additional fascination for me). The British administered the territory until the early 1950’s whereupon Ethiopia annexed the country under mandate from the UN, which became a source of great resentment among the Eritrean population who were to suffer greatly under the yoke of Ethiopian colonialism. So began a 30 year fight for independence perhaps most brutally when Ethiopia was under the governance of the dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam. Mengistu was supported by the Soviet Union who provided weapons and training while the Eritreans had to rely on minimal support from diaspora around the world and captured weaponry from the Ethiopians. It was a classic case of David versus Goliath as Ethiopia was eventually defeated allowing Eritreans to gain their hard fought-for independence.

Asmara
Here is a revelation. Asmara is an absolute gem of a city. In fact, it is one of my favourite cities in the world. Why, you ask? Well here we go- it has a great climate (it sits at an elevation of 2325m), and is extremely clean, safe and friendly. Every morning crowds of people come out with brooms and brushes, and put some real elbow grease into cleaning up all of the pavements. Nairobi it is not.

Our Hotel

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Clean Asmara Streets

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Next, there is a great amount of Art Deco architecture. At times you could almost imagine you are in Miami! There is a superb ‘pavement culture’ with cafes spilling out for afternoon coffee drinking. There are cinemas bedecked with Roman statues and neoclassical architecture, and prices are very cheap.

Iconic Architecture

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Our hotel was fairly comfortable and had a good bar. Best to stick to imported beer though- the Eritrean brew is virtually undrinkable. Eritrean food is pretty much indistinguishable from that in Ethiopia. This is somewhat an acquired taste- everything is served on a sour fermented pancake called Injera and the accompanying sauces are very hot; but I have to admit to being a fan personally.

Injera

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Market stall

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Another highlight of the visit to Asmara was a trip to the ‘tank graveyard’. This is a huge field filled with hundreds of captured Ethiopian tanks and armoured vehicles which are slowly rusting away. Lists of instructions in Cyrillic on the inside of the tanks belies their Soviet origin. Tourists are, strictly speaking, not allowed to go to the tank graveyard but the local taxi drivers seemed perfectly happy to drop you off, it was totally deserted and what a surreal experience it is when you are there!

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Heading out of Asmara
The number one aim of our trip to Eritrea was to attempt to reach the village of Nakfa, up in the mountains of North Eritrea, and the spiritual heart of the country. So iconic is this small place that the national currency is named after it. The reason? Nakfa was the heart of the national resistance movement during the long war with Ethiopia and the site of some of the fiercest fighting. Nowadays it serves as a kind of living museum to a modern war, and constituted one of my most interesting ever trips.

Nakfa currency- you get a lot of them!

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Getting there was not going to prove to be easy. The UK foreign office was somewhat ambivalent about the wisdom of a trip there but did not warn against it outright so we opted to go for it. We started with a trip in a shared minibus to the city of Keren, north of Asmara, and this was accomplished fairly painlessly over paved roads. Keren itself was okay. There was quite a good camel market and a relaxed, very dusty air. We were lucky to find that whilst there was only one bus to Nakfa every 3 days, that there was one departing at 5 am the next day.

Keren City

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Bright and early the next day we got our bus. What a journey that was. The bus was incredibly decrepit, packed to the gills with unfriendly men who looked uncannily like Osama Bin Laden, and the call to prayer was blaring out at top volume over the bus speakers. As two white guys it wasn’t exactly easy to blend in. Added to that that the road rapidly degenerated into one of the very worst I have ever been on- and that is saying something, and it would be fair to say that it was a miserable 10 or so butt-pounding hours.
There were rewards however. Principally, the historic sight of a huge column of bombed-out tanks in a narrow, deep river valley. Apparently the line of Ethiopian tanks were headed up to the front line at Nakfa when the lead tank ran into a mine planted by the Eritrean resistance fighters, drawing the column to a halt. The narrowness of the river valley prevented the column from moving any further past the ruined lead tank. Fearful of the tanks falling into Eritrean hands the Ethiopians bombed their own soldiers with MIG jets, and the carcasses of the vehicles and their unfortunate occupants still lie among the desolate scenery.

The bus from Hell

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The Road from Hell

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Nakfa itself lies at the top of a mountain with commanding views of the surrounding scenery. The village itself has little to see other than very friendly curious locals who invited us each night we were there to dinner in a different person’s house. What is really exceptional is a visit to the battlefields nearby.

Nakfa Village

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It is extremely important to go with a local guide as some areas are still full of mines and it would be potentially lethal to wander about without someone who knows where the minefields are.

The Eritrean Flag

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Nakfa Kids

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The strategic location of Nakfa meant that it was never captured. It was, however remorselessly bombed by MIGs. As a result of this, and rather like the Viet Cong, the Eritreans built a vast subterranean network of tunnels housing schools, hospitals and living spaces for the whole population of freedom fighters. There is a striking sense of claustrophobia imagining life in these tiny rooms, tunnels and trenches for many months on end. The battlefield itself is strewn with bombs, bits of ordinance and human bones; a chilling but fascinating piece of history and always in my memory.

Minefield

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Entrance to underground city and trenches

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Underground

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Scenes from a recent war- this freaked me out a bit...

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Back to Asmara and down to the coast
After three amazing days in Nakfa we heard of a lorry headed back to Keren and bargained a ride down in the cab, which was to prove to be a huge improvement over the ‘Al Quaida’ bus.

Nakfa- the machine-gunned mosque

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Me on the local transport

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Once down in Keren we were easily able to get a ride back to Asmara for a coulple of days of rest and recuperation. Our next target was the coastal city of Massawa. This is only about 70 miles from Asmara but the trip involves a precipitous road from the highlands down to the Red Sea coast.
Some distance from Asmara is the town of Nefasit, and above this sits a monastery, perched high up in the surrounding mountains. This is a stiff hike and we secured the services of some local guys to guide us up there. An interesting trip but sadly the clouds came in when we reached the top so there were no views from the monastery itself.

View over Nefasit

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Traffic jam- Eritrean style

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Massawa
Massawa is the main port city of Eritrea and is said to be one of the hottest places on earth. I can believe it- it was in the low 40’s C when we were there and it was not even summer! It is quite a pleasant place, with a rather Arabian feel to it, in contrast with the Christian-feeling highlands.

Massawa City

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Off the coast of Massawa lie the Dahlak Islands. A few are inhabited, and it is possible to go on overnight trips to them, although piracy nowadays might make you think twice about this. We were surprised to find a diving outfit, surprised as there really were no tourists we saw in the country aside from UN personnel having days off. The equipment seemed well maintained and we headed off for a couple of unbelievably good dives. So good I think due to there being very little fishing or commercial pressure. The reefs were absolutely pristine compared with the Red Sea in Egypt and the density of fish life had to be seem to be believed. It was also a chance to see some of the islands of the archipelago up close.

Dahlak Island

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Conclusion
From Massawa it was back to Asmara for a day or two before our trip back to LHR. An added bonus here was a long layover in Cairo where EgytAir took us on a free tour of the pyramids- a nice bonus for the end of the trip!

I hope you have enjoyed this trip report despite it being a) out of date and b) nothing to do with flying(!) Please let me know if you have any comments.

Wonderful report. It's always nice to get a detailed glimpse of a less heavily traveled destination. Keep up the good work!

Great report, I have wanted to go to Asmara for a long time! I have heard the city referred to as "Little Roma", for the Art Deco Italian buildings and the many Italian cafes, coffee houses and gelato bars.

Also I have heard it is among the most reasonably priced designations in Africa, a small place that is impeccably clean. Based on your pics it does seam to be the cleanest capital city, perhaps in all Africa! ^

Amazing, what a trip! Great report.

Great report! It's nice to read about travel to a unique destination.

Now this is an adventure! Thanks for sharing this fascinating report with great pics. By the way, I happen to like Ethiopian food as well. ^

Great report. Thanks for taking the time to put this together. Really interesting read.

Fabulous trip report.. Thank you so much..

Wow, amazing report.

Looks like a beautiful country but with such a sad history.

Thanks for sharing. I very much enjoyed this unique report.

Superb and fascinating report.

Thankyou.

A very interesting report. I enjoyed reading it very much. Great pictures as well.

Interesting Trip Report. Thanks for an inside look at an exotic place I don't expect to be able to visit in my lifetime. I understand that in recent years the Eritrean government does not allow freedom of religion and is persecuting evangelical Christians who seek to worship outside of state controlled religion and there have been violations of human rights.

Great pictures for an unusual travel destination!

Many thanks for all the positive comments. It was indeed a great trip. Sadly, the country does seem to have become increasingly authoritarian in recent years, but that is unfortunately nothing unusual in this part of the world...
If nothing else though Asmara is a really fabulous city and worth a visit in its own right if you ever get the chance.

Zanskar

wow... great pictures and report... Eritrea is on the trip destination list when I make it down that way again.. but getting a visa is increasingly difficult I hear.

In both text and photos, this is an absolute gem of a report. Thanks for that and I'll look forward to more from you - past or present. ^^

Agreed.

It's a treat when you get the exposure to a part of the world that you might not get the opportunity to visit. Thanks for taking the time to post all those photographs.

My favourite part was the tank graveyard and the machine gunned mosque.

GREAT TR! It's too bad that you did not get to go down and cross the border into Ethiopia and visit Axum. I've almost been there a couple of times, but did not make it. I hear the history there is fascinating!

GREAT TR! It's too bad that you did not get to go down and cross the border into Ethiopia and visit Axum. I've almost been there a couple of times, but did not make it. I hear the history there is fascinating!

I did actually go to Ethiopia as well on a different trip. I didn't go to Axum but went to Gondar, Lake Tana, Lalibela and the Simien mountains. A few days hiking in the Simien mountains is highly recommended as the scenery is amazing. It is another great place for a trip albeit again a bit on the rough side...

Unimpressed that MS is dry? That's a bit myopic, no?

Anyway, did you eat spaghetti in Asmara too?

Great stuff. The horn of Africa has always fascinated me. Thanks for sharing.

I'm glad you decided to post this TR. Seems like a fascinating place and all the great pics really brought it to life.

Great report, thanks for posting. I hope to make it there one of these days.

Great report! Sadly most of Eritrea is off limits to foreigners these days.. including Nakfa. I just got my visa last week and am trying to pre-arrange getting travel permits for Keren/Massawa at least.