Berbera - march / april highlights pt. 1
Berbera is the main port town, along the Gulf of Aden, for Somaliland up on it’s northern coast.
a great deal of commerce and aid travel through this port, the airport has many visitor traveling in and out, and it’s beach is one of the few recreational, leisurely, or touristy things to visit in Sland...
and yet with all that it’s a very undeveloped and sleepy place... more so on first glance... and a little less as you get to know it.
people are friendly here... but not as much initially as in Hargeisa where they are use to seeing foreigners.
it’s very quiet, and almost feels like you’ve been thrown back in time.
Berbera makes Hargeisa look like a metropolis... still, i felt so fortunate to get to hang here for the time i did because of it’s laid back nature and simple life!
so let’s start by introducing you to Berbera’s coast and it’s old town...
April 30, 2010
tomorrow...
the port and ships.
M
one of two lighthouses that guide the ships into the port at night. was told that it was originally built by Turks. AND, though you can’t see them in this picture... there are old Russian underground (and horizontal) missile silos behind the lighthouse on this stretch of the coast.
you don’t usually see this much green in Sland.
except at the 5 star resort golf course... NOT!
the other (smaller) lighthouse along the peninsula.
the port of Berbera in the far ground.
this building (same as in the last pic) was originally the BBC office for Somaliland (SWEET posting... huh?!?!!) when Sland was a British Protectorate. (i.e. Somaliland was never a colony of G.B... unlike many other countries and territories in Africa.
some dolphins just off the coast... more pics of these awesome brothers in a later blog!
Berbera had a very long and shallow coast... with water temperatures ranging (by my guess) from 27 to 33 c. i experienced the high end of this.
(that’s low 80’s to low 90’s Fahrenheit. YEAH BABY!!)
and the building you see is an old hospital built by the Russian...
now abandoned... but just as a makeshift barracks for soldiers...
but not maintained in the least.
the offshore view of the Maansoor Berbera Hotel.
sooo would love to film a Somali spaghetti western here! ... ... course need a good script... any takers?!?
