Time to move on..... finally!

Yes, we finally laid our hands on two tickets for the bus to Assab, leaving tomorrow. We first descend the 8,000 feet to Massawa, the main Red Sea port and then follow the barraen coast down to Idi, where we will spend the night before carrying on the journey to Assab. We will be in Afar land, some of the most ferocious warriors of the region who, like the Yemenis carry knives and machine guns, although the ones living near the sea are said to be more friendly than those inland, whose main activity is extracting and carrying salt from the Danakil depression into Ethiopia. Here we will be met by an English and Dutch speaking Eritrean who runs a tyre repair service. He is looking forward to showing us around and using his Dutch. It is his friend who has offered to take us across the border into Djibouti to the town of Obock from where we will catch a boat across to Djibouti City. We will be away from internet access all this time, so no blogs and no pics.