16 May 2017

We are on a Indian made Dhow, with 17 crew members, all from Gujarat, India, about 30 km off the coast of Yemen.  These guys – crew, captain and owner, are all from the same village, and work together as a well oiled team, with no sign of friction or resentment.  We also have 2 Somali passengers with us. Our load is mainly flour - 1050 tons!!  And about 20 boxes of the Koran.  So, speed is slow, average about 12 km/h.  1230 km distance, should take us about 4 days.  The dhow is 49 m long, 11m wide, has one large1115hp Cummings diesel engine, that growls away from the depths below us.  Access to the engine room is via a few steep sets of stairs, and is fascinating.  The chief engineer is really friendly, and seems keen to make our trip pleasant!!  Our motorbikes are near the front, securely tied, covered with a sail, after suffering the indignity of being lifted by crane!! Our mountain of gear is scattered on the outside veranda area, and inside our tiny walk-through cabin.

We have zero privacy - although the crew did try to put up a screen around one of the 2 long drop toilets.  These 2 masterpieces are hung off the back of the boat, tied with rope.  In each is a plastic half bucket, with a long rope, that is lowered into the sea about 5 m below, to fetch salty water for washing!!  There are no cabins as such - just  2 rooms, all interlinked, with no doors, directly behind the wheelhouse.  It seems that the captain and engineer vacated 2 beds for us, in the first area, so we interact with the crew and pilot all the time, with people coming and going between our beds all the time.  There is a room at the back - about the size of a large shower cubicle, used as a washing room - with no running water.

A short while ago, we saw a couple of fast boats - just what one would imagine a pirate boat to look like!!!!  But, apparently harmless fishermen!!  We have decided to keep a low profile, if approached by any boats of any sort.

Food is cooked on board, primitive, but tasty.  Last night we had fresh roti (flatbread) and a spicy fish stew.  Lots of bones!!  Fortunately they asked, and I explained that Sharon is not great on spicy, so she was served a mildly spicy tomato stew, with her roti!!  Bed followed, a short while later, with crew obviously exhausted from a few days of heavy labour, loading the boat. Today is a day of rest, as the crew alternates duty, lots of card playing and dominoes seem very popular.  Plenty of Indian Chai, so far so good!!

We had a fairly tough ride, from Dubai to Salalah, mainly due to heat, so tried to ride a large part at night, but only managed 550 km, until 1.30 pm.  We normally avoid riding at night, but in UAE and Oman, this is pretty safe.  At about 12 pm, we stopped for fuel.  I stepped off the bike, only to realize I’d forgotten to put the sidestand out!!!  A first for me!!  We then realized how tired we were, and decided to stop at the next opportunity!!  It took 4 of us to lift the heavily laden bike, not something I’d want to attempt alone at that stage!!  This left us 750 km to do the next day, but with regular stops, wetting of cooling vests etc, we eventually arrived in Salalah at 5 pm.

We checked into a beachfront hotel, where we had previously stayed, and ended up spending 6 nights there, so a good break and unwind from the last few months stresses.  We had plenty of swimming, resting visited some of the local spots, and generally lazed around.  Salalah is completely different to anything else we experienced in the Middle East - more like Zanzibar or Mozambique, very tropical.

Our next stop will be Berbera, in Somaliland, then Hargeisa, regional capital, then Djibouti, Ethiopia etc.  We have made contact with people in Djibouti, Gavin and Lee, who have been extremely helpful, offering support with visas, port entry, border crossings etc, so hope to visit them in Djibouti.  Gavin works in Shipping, so a huge plus for us.

After just over 3 years, our departure from Dubai was with very mixed emotions. Leaving friends, a good job, once more setting off into the unknown, was rather challenging.  But, friends and family a-wait at home. Our choice of route back to Africa was limited.  Saudi Arabia is out - no visas and women can’t ride.  Routing North, via Iran, Jordan etc was a possibility, but didn't appeal.  We could possibly have sent the bikes overland, to Jordan, then met them there, then into Egypt etc, was an option, but we wanted to avoid summer temps as much as possible, and Egypt didn't hold much attraction, after our last ride there.  Then, we could have flown the bikes to Addis, or Nairobi, but that felt like we were cheating, taking a shortcut, so here we are, on a dhow, in potentially pirate infested waters!!

More soon

L

What a cheerful outlook on our trip! J S