For some reason it refuses to X-post so a copy. Originally posted on request in r/ThornTree Guess some people here might be interested too.
**Preamble.**
I had an appointment in Ethiopia and had some time. At the planning stage Somaliland had an orange travel advice and there was talk an armed escort was no longer needed so thought it might be a good time to visit. But with limited and often conflicting info was still not entirely comfortable with the idea, but the Somaliland tourist info assured me it was ok to travel by bicycle without armed guard so decided to give it a try with the idea that if it didn’t feel right I could turn around back into Ethiopia. Heading towards the border there was increased tension and weird looks, peaking at the last stop in Ethiopia, Jijiga, where people gave suspicious looks, the hotel wanted to scan all my bags and my bike itself like I was in an airport. After checking in I went into town walked across the market to look around and buy some fruit and snacks. Though objectively people were friendly, the suspicious looks and omnipresence of firearms made me feel iffy. So quickly went to a restaurant for diner and went back to the hotel just after dark. Next day things felt a bit less tense, probably because there were few people in the street and after exiting the town it was pretty much checkpoint after checkpoint with hardly anyone on the road.
**Entering Somaliland.**
At the border I asked for a VOA, which was no problem till the border guard discovered I was by bicycle then it was suddenly impossible. After a bit of discussion it was possible after all and without too much issues I was let in. Past the border the first thing that stood out to me was that no longer weapons were seen in the streets and the atmosphere felt super relaxed. About the opposite of just across the border.
I asked around to change some money and ended up at a closed exchange office. Looking around for an indication of opening times a guy approached me, tried to have an extensive conversation with me, but I didn’t understand anything. A few minutes later another guy showed up. He told me he was the local English teacher and was send by a friend because there was a stranger who did not understand Arab or Somali. The guy told me it would take several hours before the exchange office would open, so I we went for lunch. We had a nice chat in which he assured me I would be perfectly fine with Ethiopian birr and USD. So after lunch I decided to move on, and with saying goodby the guy said he had a problem. He had a 10USD a day Qat habit and asked straight up whether I could help finance his drug addiction. At the checkpoint getting out of town my papers got checked and the officer let me through without issues, the barrier operator however wanted baksheesh to let me through. The officer signed to me not to pay, but took no further action, but after a few minutes wait and discussion I was let through without paying. An uneventful ride followed to Gebilay where I checked into a hotel for the night followed by a stroll through town during which a girl called out to me and invited me in for diner.
**Continue to Hargeisa.**
The next day I continued and at some point went of the main road to see some rock art. I passed a few buildings with some people shouting, assuming it was meant as a greeting I shouted “hello” back and waived just to continue my way. A bit further a car overtook me and stopped. One of the people that shouted just before got out and asked where I was going and after I indicated I wanted to see the rock art he indicated it was not allowed, said I should stick to the main road and indicated I had to put my bike in the back of the car. I refused which after a few more attempts he accepted, but nevertheless herded me back to the main road. Then I had a smooth ride into Hargeisa, though I had a minor incident at a checkpoint I passed by. I got off the road right before the checkpoint to buy a drink and a snack and went back on the road right after the checkpoint and at one point. I was stopped by a car in the middle of nowhere, a lady stepped out, claimed to be a member of parliament and asked for a picture with me.
**Hargeisa diaries.**
From Hargeisa I made day trips to Las Geel and Berbera by car. On the way to Berbera we past an accident. The shared taxi driver stopped, though already several other cars had stopped to help. The driver and the passenger got out to look around extensively and so I made the error to get out too. Though the victims were already carried off, laid down under a tree and covered with a cloth and no truly gruesome things were to be seen it wasn’t exactly pleasant to see the destruction of the cars with blood on them, a pile motionless covered bodies on one side of the tree and at the other side of the tree a few covered covered bodies with moving arms and legs sticking out and making moaning sounds.
Also spend a day exploring Hargeisa itself, other than at the camel market a lot of hassle for making pictures even if I was careful to make sure no people were in the pictures.
**On to Borama.**
After Hargeisa riding back the same route I had come in a couple of checkpoints wanted to make really sure that I was heading out to Wajale and on to Ethiopia. I pretty much reacted uncommitted and went along with my plan to continue to Borama. Had a smooth ride till the last check point at the entrance of Borama where I was essentially refused. The officer made a few phone calls, a car came out to pick me up to bring me to the police station. Upon arrival it took only a few minutes to get ‘released’ with the comment that the police chief was not present, that I had to report in the morning and they dropped me off at a hotel. In the morning when I reported there was a short interview, after which they had a long debate in Somali with somewhere in the middle of the debate one sentence in loud and clear English. “He must be a spy, why else travel by bicycle”. The final outcome of the debate was that I could go under the condition that I would take the daily convoy to Djibouti that day, as I had announced I would do.
**Road to Djibouti.**
So, in the afternoon I reported to take the 4WD to Djibouti. For some obscure reasons it took a few more delays and around sunset we finally departed. Several hours in the ride we stopped for dinner. Some wasted soldier was hanging around and after a while spotted me and started pestering me why I had no armed escort. After a while I decided to go sit in the car out of sight hoping that when out of sight the wasted soldier would forget about me. In the mean time a few of my fellow passengers were pestering the driver to get out of there as they too felt the wasted soldier was no good. The urges to get moving had little effect on the driver and a bit later the chief of police showed up and took me for interrogation to the police station. I explained the situation, he tried to make some phone calls, but it being late in the evening couldn’t reach anyone. After a while I showed the police chief the printed e-mail from the tourist info that I didn’t need an escort which he seemed to take seriously but an hour or so on still no progress was made. Me feeling guilty towards my fellow passengers for the delay offered to pay for the armed escort, the police chief answered that I would leave without escort but still nothing seemed to be moving, till after a long wait, suddenly seemingly out of nothing I was released and we could continue.
With 3-4 hours delay we continued our way. The road was mostly decent, but every once in a while there was a severe rut in it. The first ruts the driver went through in a sensible manner, but after a while he became more and more careless and just insensibly bumbed through till we came at a rut we didn’t get through and something broke. We got out of the car and the car out of the rut after which the driver inspected the car, made a phone call and informed us a spare part would come with tomorrow’s convoy. The elderly couple was accommodated in one of the houses, the rest of us slept in the car or at the roadside and the long wait in the village of Weeraar, with little to do, began.
The next night the part came with the first car of the convoy and the repair was done quickly so we could continue again. We still got bogged down a few times in loose sand, but nothing a bit of digging and a bit of pushing couldn’t solve. Late morning we arrived at the border. As the only 3rd country person in the car I separated from the rest, went smoothly through Somaliland border security and was held up by the ‘efficiency’ of the VOA process on the Djibouti site of the border. Though I was the only person there, it took the border guard several hours to process me, to fill out the the papers, to issue the visa and to stamp my passport. His complaints about bureaucratic inefficiency and need for a lunch break didn’t help either. Given the delays I was expecting the car and the rest of the passengers once again waiting for me, but coming out of the office nothing was to be seen. For a while it crossed my mind they might have left, but while contemplating the situation the car and the first passengers showed up and shortly after we continued our way to Djibouti city to arrive there almost 48 hours after departure from Borama.
A few complementary pictures:
Obligatory picture at civil war monument: https://imgur.com/a/EsyRbsz
Analphabetic friendly storefront: https://imgur.com/a/aPLUKSr
The famous money changers of Hargeisa: https://imgur.com/a/9Tkha6Y
The Camel market: https://imgur.com/a/Ka5XWOG
Picture of a market stall that resulted in a sever telling off: https://imgur.com/a/E8X5IuN
Berbera door: https://imgur.com/a/PGp64sM
Berbera public transport: https://imgur.com/a/YrTM20D
Car in a rut: https://imgur.com/a/7ccPXcZ
Skyline of Weeraar: https://imgur.com/a/OMXqfJ9
Bogged down in the sand: https://imgur.com/a/PJAaTRW
by Ninja_bambi