Stephen Codrington

 

Africa and Yemen Travel Diary 2008

Today was the final day (I hope) of our enforced exile from Africa. Tonight we are scheduled to catch a flight from Dubai into Djibouti, which will enable us to retrieve the last of our planned stops in Africa before returning to Hong Kong this coming weekend. Our time in Djibouti (like Eritrea) will be shorter than planned, but at least we should get the chance to experience something of the place, and hopefully to see as much as possible within the confines of the emerging international conflicts on the Horn of Africa. After all, Djibouti is not all that huge!

I gave in to Andrew today and allowed him a day at rest on the beach at Jumeirah. Our hotel, which overlooks Dubai Creek, provided a free bus service to a beach at Jumeirah, so it was a good opportunity to experience some first hand ‘tourism geography’, although unfortunately the coastal geomorphology was nothing special. The drive to Jumeirah began on the same 14-lane expressway that we had used yesterday on the drive to Liwa Oasis, and it was a good opportunity to see something of the extraordinary building boom that Dubai is experiencing. There were cranes and construction projects everywhere, and every single one of the thousands of building sites was for a huge, high-rise building, including one that will be the world’s tallest building when it is finished.

Not unexpectedly in a Muslim nation, Jumeirah Beach seems to be used

exclusively by foreign tourists rather than locals, and judging from the accents overheard, many of the tourists are from Russia and the UK. I thought the camels on the beach were a nice touch - just a hint of tradition amidst the jungle of high rise development that is Jumeirah. Lying on a beach in temperatures of 42 degrees (with no wireless internet!) is not necessarily my first preference for a way to spend the day, but Andy had a great time, which is the important thing.

Having surrendered the integrity of our planned itinerary today, I am looking forward to getting into Djibouti tomorrow morning.