Hail to the Hive!
I have recently been posting our Narrowboat travels that have lead us back to my hometown where we are visiting Family and Friends and also going through belongings in storage.
While sifting through the boxes I came across several scrap book style photo albums of travels from yesteryear. What a great find! So today I'm doing a Flashback Friday post of when I went from the desert in Israel to hitch hiking across Eritrea & Ethiopia.
Now these were the pre digital camera days and I had to be sparing with my picture taking as there often was nowhere to buy film. I had two cameras one instamatic and one SLR. Colour in one Black & White in the other.
So how did this all begin? Well I'll tell you. On the page below you'll see 'Jolly' top left in a red T shirt. We were in the pub chatting about traveling and I'd been around the USA in 1992 and hitched through Europe in early 93 and this was mid 93 and Jolly was keen to go back to travel Israel and asked if I fancied it......well why not. So over a few beers we made a quick plan, vowed to save up a bunch of cash in the coming months and get a cheap one way flight to Tel Aviv....that was about the extent of the plan really. This is why less than a week after landing in Tel Aviv we were nearly out of money as most of it had been spent on beer. But we'd heard it was easy to get work picking veg on a Moshav and they would pay you and house you. Sounds like a plan!
We found ourselves in the Negev Desert working on a Moshav ( not like a kibbuts as these guys pay you for what you do) amd we met up with a bunch of guys from Italy, New Zealand, South Africa and a huge amount of Thai workers. We all got on pretty good and as long as the working days were it was top fun and a really nice vibe. We picked sun up to sundown and then sorted out the peppers and tomatoes in the sorting shed until about 8ish. Long days.
It was quite isolated and occasionally a flash flood from the desert after heavy rain would cut us off from the rest of israel.
Jolly was keen to stay in Israel but after a few months I'd saved up enough and fancied traveling a bit so headed off to the Sinai.
Along the way I'd met an American lad who'd worked in Alaska on fishing boats and he'd caught wind of a job on a boat headed to Eritrea.
He managed to get me a job too even though i had absolutely no clue about what the job entailed and certainly had no fishing boat skills but what the hell why not?
So Inknow found myself in Sharm El Sheikh on a little fisihing boat waiting for the rest of the crew and Captain to arrive.
This took a long time and we had been on the boat a month or so and David was getting annoyed and decided he was going to head off. I'd bumped into a mate from the Moshav , Neil, while on a Sinai visa run and invited him to stay on the boat for a while. We'd found the whiskey stash by this point so it was a glorious time.
Soon after David had left the owner came down and this is when everything started to get a little weird. Our Israeli bosses got into an arguement with the Port Police about something or other and they promptly impounded the boat and wanted to fine them for some infraction or another.
They had a contract in Eritrea to be training Eritreans in modern fishing methods so decided to cut their losses hire another boat and take it from there.
So their plan was to hire a dive boat to take us out of Egypt and meet up with an Egyptian fishing vessel they had struck a deal with. We went along for the ride as it all sounded rather adventurous and just what Neil and I had wanted from travel in the first place. So we along with the owner, the Captain and Jonny the diesel mechanic in his red underpants all set off from Sharm on the Sunboat.
This was pretty cool. These Islands in the Red Sea are a big diving destination. Who knew years later I would learn to dive and become and Instructor and Dive Shop Manager.
The Island is Zabargad. Near the Sudanese/ Egyptian border.
And this is where the following morning a big blue Egyptian fishing boat turned up and we all hopped on board. It all seemed perfectly wrong and therefore why the hell not?
The Egyptian crew were awesome. So friendly and hospitable. It took quite a long while to get down to Port Massawa in Eritrea and when we finally did arrive things were not in order.
Eritrea was freshly independent from Ethiopia and were not taken things lightly so when the Israelis turned up in an Egyptian fishing vessel and not the one with modern fishing methods they were in no mood to play ball and sent them packing. We decided we'd got our ride to Eritrea and just wanted paying and then we'd be on our merry way. The Owner tried to convince us to come back with them as he felt it was unsafe in this part of Africa but we just wanted to explore. So we were paid and we went to find a place to stay.
Eritrea at this time was buzzing. I truly wished I'd had more rolls of film. Nice people, good food, beer on draught!!!! draught!!!! we couldn't believe it.
Lots of abandoned Military stuff laying about left over from the conflict.
We made our way to Asmara and soent a lovely week there and then decided to head south over the border to Ethiopia. There was a fork in the road leaving town. Neil said which way? I said who cares we've never been here and they both go south so first truck that stops for us we get in....and we did.
Oh to have had access to future cameras and been able to capture more. It was truly the moct amazing place full of beauty and character and Africa is just different, it's amazing on so many levels. We found nothing but friendliness and hospitality everywhere. People were quite surprised to see us there as there usually weren't many weterners coming through.
It was rough traveling often sleeping in the trucks over night but to be making our way across Ethiopia and sharing the travel with all th locals and waking up with them in the backs of trucks, eating and drinking with all of them as we shared th journey was great. Neil and i still often talk about this trip. It was special.
And it was far from easy going.
We Made our way through Mekele, Dese, Addis Ababa, Shashemene and eventually over the border into Kenya. Iran out of film and as you can imagine there weren't exactly many opportunities to buy more.
I am glad I found this scrapbook today. These were precious memories and I am very happy to be able to share them once again.
Stay safe out there people, wherever you may be on this planet of ours
Oh wow what an adventure! I had to come look since reading your reply :). I lived in Ethiopia as a child but I was very young so I don't have any clear memory of the place.
Was possibly the most influential trip for me ever. Amazing olace, amazing people, of course amazing coffee too. I received the best hospitality there and the warmth and generosity of the people left a lasting impact on me. Humbled me.
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Great story!
Nice pics.
Thanks Tom. When i was young and sexy lol
Wow, you have a a very sharp memory... 3 decades trip down memory lane. It's a great thing you have kept them over the years!