I got back from Eritrea on Sunday and I still haven’t caught up on my sleep yet. It was a great trip but some what bizarre as well. We were the only tourists in the country at that time, only 15 of us including the tour guide. So we were quite an attraction, well not me of course, only the white folks. Don’t worry I didn’t feel left out.
My room mate was also normalish, she did kind of follow me around towards the end though. I think she assumed if we shared a room then we would share everything, meals, drinks walks etc. When she got ill one day I had a feeling that she wanted me stay with her...no way. I went for my walk along the edge of the canyons to look for rock paintings 5000 years old. That was about as hair raising as it got on this trip.
This was a short trip, not as adventurers as the others but I did have damn good time. I ate plenty of goat, not that I wanted to but that was all they had. There were goats everywhere, enough to turn you vegetarian. I didn’t even see one chicken. They had lots of pasta because it used to be an Italian colony but they were short on the sauce…and I like my pasta swimming in sauce. Basically they had few food shortages in most places we visited. Lots of the veggies on tour survived on rice and beans…sounds like I’m a celebrity get me out of here. We were able to get fish on the coast but again the fussy veggies who didn’t eat fish moaned about more rice and beans etc as usual. The drinkers were happy, I was not. In the whole country you could not for love nor money get a sodding bottle of coke or sprite or any soft drinks. It was either local beer or water and I hate water and one thing I hate more than drinking water is, buying the damn things in the first place. When we were in the city I did get lucky a couple of times and ordered orange juice.
Why would I come to such a place for a holiday you ask. The people are fantastic, so friendly and welcoming. Their history was also pretty cool, how they survived 30 years of war with Ethiopia is amazing. Still some disputes nearer the border but nothing new, just like most places around the world. What’s good about the Eritrean people is that they’re making the best of everything. They’re not moaning. If they’re short of things, they make it. They don’t ask for help from their neighbouring countries. They recycle everything…even the old Russian war tanks are stripped and is probably someone’s cooker or bed. I went to this recycling plant in the city and I saw them build a cooking stove, beds frames, doors etc using the old oil drums. It was great.
I also went on their very old steam engine trains, again we were the only ones on the train. Great views and when we were in the tunnels everyone got covered in soot, even me but not as bad as the others. It sort of blended in with me. Everybody else looked like they had just been down a mine.
Well I thought I’d save the best till last. The guide was ok, looks like a rugby player you know a little mashed up but he was kinda short. When we were by the coast most of us went swimming, I didn’t and neither did the other ladies on the tour. We spent the afternoon ogling and perving on our lovely guide as he did have a fit body. I even took out my biggest camera lens to take lots of close up shots of him (not the guys on the trip as they were kinda weedy) in his swim shorts seeing as everybody else was doing it. Luckily there were camels in the background and everyone thought I was taking pictures of them…as if!
