Asmara
August 10, 2007
by Dan



WE drove from Izmit through the night, aiming for the Black Sea. The winding mountain passes would be better suited to rally cars, and we could only crawl up the steep inclines in low gear – our little engines screaming in pain.
“Shh shh shh, come on Fez, you can do it.”
We would nurture the cars to the top of a hill, then be at the mercy of the Trabbi’s brakes as we free-wheeled down. Every few hours the smell of burning brake fluid would waft into the cabin, and we’d stop on the side of the road to let the plates cool.

We found the sea shortly before 3am, drove right up to it and the team pitched our tents in a stony car park while I went to hunt celebratory beer in the small coastal town of Asmara.
We had a few drinks before bedding down, but the moment we had settled, and the swishing of polythene sleeping bags being adjusted had died down, our silence was broken by a cacophonous call to prayer.
5am. We had to laugh.


I always prefer to breakfast alone. I'm not at my best in the morning and small talk makes me irritable. Witnesses of my morning ire can wrongly take it as a personal affront, which sets out a bad stall for the rest of the day.
I prefer to shake of the sleepy remnants of my subconscious with a coffee, plate of eggs and newspaper.
Of course, in little Asmara few people speak English, there are no British papers, and they do breakfast their own way. So I settled down at a café with a beautiful view over the small, cliff ringed bay, and admired the hardy bushes and trees clinging to the rocks, surviving on the surplus of sun, despite the weakness of the thin, stony soil.
I had a traditional breakfast- wrinkly olives, a hard-boiled egg and salty feta with fresh bread, sticky honey and a salad of tomato, cucumber, peppers and onion, washed down with bitter, black tea.
It felt like any town on the English coast – souvenirs and hawkers on the sea-front, overpriced cafés with wonderful views, holidaying families splashing in the water.

We drove the Trabbis onto a rocky section of beach and made a shelter from the wind and sun so we could play a board game and relax, de-stress and unwind from the last two weeks of perpetual motion.
Everyone enjoyed a lazy, sleepy day, and most retired early following a few late afternoon drinks.

Ends
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