CoVID-19, HKG and East Africa

[Major]

Interesting looking stew

 

[Denali]

That's a hell of a lot of red furnishing

 

[PineappleSkip]

Sorry about the delay, was back at work and had to attend to my day job

 

[craven morehead]

Sorry about the delay, was back at work and had to attend to my day job

Priorities !!

 

[PineappleSkip]

Ok, so let's visit the horn of Africa, on the ET DH4 ADD-HGA. 9.20 departure and broad daylight now. Plenty of aircraft ready to go.


There are flights to Hargeisa twice a day, occasionally a 737. Flight departs from C6, at the other end of the terminal, but lucky me in J gets to depart from gate A9, one of the premium gates. Generally *Gold and J pax get to use a separate J gate.

Just like Dubai, Addis has premium buses, and I have the bus to myself en route to the remote stand.

So the last to board, and find the flight packed, with enough lucky people upgraded to fill the J cabin. But not so lucky that they were aware of the lounge, or gate A9.

 

[PineappleSkip]

It's a short flight to Hargeisa, but a varied one. Addis has maybe 3 million people, perched on a grassy plateau about 2400m high, with occasional isolated mountains rising up to about 3200m. The airport is only about 8 km out of the city, so initial climb is over suburbs, a mix of apartment blocks and shanty towns.


Further east we fly over deep gorges,

with the new (belt and road) railway snaking its way from Addis to Djibouti on the gulf of Aden. The flight passes over more mountains towards Dire Dawa and then Harar. Harar is on my bucket list, a rich history in a town that is 1/2 Ethiopian Orthodox and 1/2 Muslim, between Orthodox Oromia and the Ogaden - the eastern, Islamic Somali region.

 

[PineappleSkip]

A brief note about the Somalis. They live mostly in the horn of Africa, in what are now Djibouti and Somaliland in the north, the Ogaden of Ethiopia in the middle, and Somalia and Eastern Kenya in the South.

In Colonial times, Djibouti was French Somaliland, with British Somaliland to its East, both key locations on the Gulf of Aden. Italy colonised Italian Somaliland along the Indian Ocean Coast. Ethiopia got most of the Ogaden in the middle.

On 26 June 1960, British Somaliland became independent for five days, before a more or less compelled merger with the Italian to form Somalia. A military coup in 1969 installed Siad Barre as strongman, who launched the disastrous invasion of Ogaden in 1977-78, after which Somalia started to crumble. Barre ruthlessly oppressed opposition in the former British part and elsewhere from the early 1980s, culminating in carpet bombing of Somalilands two largest cities in what the UN decided was a genocide of the Issaq- the clan of the bulk of the Somalis in the former British part. Barre's government collapsed in 1991 and on 18 May Somalilanders, over the colonial experiment of unification, unilaterally declated independence.

There was just one problem. No-one recognised Somaliland's independence, and noone still does, at least formally. While what's locally called 'South Central' again crumbled in 2009 and has been involved in a further Civil War since then. While the Al Shabab terrorist group took control of much of Somalia from about 2012, Somalilanders went about setting up a democracy that has been one of the most stable in Africa, with regular elections, several peaceful changes of Government, and good security for 29 years. It's probably the only place on Earth that has a 'do not travel' warning despite negligible security incidents.

 

[JohnM]

Tourism to Somaliland may be stirring very slightly.

On my watch list: Somaliland Holidays and Tours with Africa Experts Native Eye Travel

 

[PineappleSkip]

Yes, seen a few but not many tourists. 'Do not travel' puts many off although the blanket warning against all the Somali lands may have something to do with global politics. There are tensions and occasional clashes in the far East, which territory is disputed between Somaliland and Puntland to the East. There's oil there, reason to battle.

Going with an organised tour, although costly, is simplest as there are bureaucratic hoops. The government doesn't want to see tourists kidnapped or worse, and when travelling outside Hargeisa, the capital and only airport, an armed escort is required. This only costs something like USD 20 a day, but you need to organise it before you leave Hargeisa. The locals all know this.

 

[PineappleSkip]

Descent into Hargeisa. The capital sits in the valley of a dry river, cut into a plateau about 1,400m high, and the valley is only 150m deep. The airport is a few km out of the city, atop the plateau.

Desertified through overgrazing and tree cutting for firewood, it's looking barren. When I flew out late last year it was much greener, due to exceptionally good rains. The Indian Ocean Dipole means the wet in the horn in Africa was the complement of Australia's drought.

First picture is taken some distance west, second is the outskirts of Hargeisa.


The only other aircraft parked here is UNHAS, branded World Food Programme.

Addis is the main route, with its 2 flights daily. There are also less frequent flights to Dubai (Flydubai), Sharjah (Air Arabia) Djibouti and Mogadishu (Red Sea). There has been a lot of talk about direct flights to Nairobi, but there is much talk about many things in Africa.

 

[PineappleSkip]

Here's a few snaps from Hargeisa...
First, the main road, down the hill into town from the Airport


Happy time apatments?


menu from a local Chinese restaurant ... beware that Somaliland is livestock and Hargeisa is slim pickings for vegetarians.


Yes, camels do wander the streets (and give way to them!)


But for every camel there must be 200 goats ... goats are everywhere, including in the centre of the city, and on every menu

 

[PineappleSkip]

A couple more of downtown Hargeisa. Looking South across the city centre.
The airport is on the distant plateau out of shot to the left.


Bridge over the Hargeisa River, usually dry, but here a couple of pools of water from recent rain. Occasionally a torrent flows when there has been a thunderstorm upstream


Downtown Hargeisa. The main road is imaginatively named "Road Number 1". Ths distruct is called "26 June" in honour of independence from the British


The "plane on a plinth" honours the second independence, from Barre's Somalia. It is one of Barre's jets which bombed Hargeisa. Claimed to have been shot down, but it looks more like it was captured.

 

[PineappleSkip]

Time to go home. Always nice to drive through the yellow gate.


Pretty quiet on a Saturday afternoon (first day of the six day working week) so breeze through all the rigmarole.

Most of the rigmarole was just getting a timely seat. Originally booked HGA-ADD-HKG-BNE on Sunday, the first problem was when CX cancelled the last sector and decided an overnight in HKG was thd go. Then they cancelled the next day's flight, for two nights in HKG. Luckily I had booked through client's TA, because I didn't have time to wait hours on phone lines. TA switched me to HKG-SYD-BNE. Then ET cancelled ADD-HKG, so a connection inserted in BKK. Then QF cancelled my SYD-BNE connection, fine because two hours can be a bit tight and three is more comfortable. Then ET cancelled ADD-BKK, leaving no nil-cost alternatives that day. So go home a day early, nice. And TA rebooked me HGA-ADD-BKK-SYD-BNE, with a leg on the venerable (?) TG 747. I would have done the original routing as I had time to spare now, but client now antsy about stopovers anywhere in Asia and this minimised the antsyness. I will be glad when things return to normal and Coronavirus travel is the stuff of memories. Some good stories no doubt.

The security get edgy about airport photos of tarmac or planes, but perhaps something from the souvenir shop?


Strange departures. You wait in a hall downstairs, then get called upstairs through the third security check, and wait in another hall upstairs. Then board through s little door and back downstairs to the tarmac.

Lounges? There are VIP lounges, but I'm not a VIP. No priority boarding, as it's only the one narrow door.

 

[PineappleSkip]

Postscript
Never got around to finishing this story, and managed to lose or delete all my pics. By early March, COVID was playing havoc with flights and I clocked up a total of 8 alterations to my itinerary, finishing up with HGA-ADD-BKK-SYD-BNE.
Aircraft out of HGA was an Ethiopian Dash 8 400 again, but unusually it was in Tchadia livery. ET back to BKK was uneventful and overnight.

 

[PineappleSkip]

This was the period when Aust. COVID case numbers were doubling every 3 or 4 days. Touched down in BKK to get messages about 14 days' mandatory quarantine for all those arriving from tomorrow. And of course my flight arrived SYD at 7 am on day 1, with a connection to Brisbane and overnight hotel there before collecting Mrs Pineapple the next day.

Angst as we wanted to do the right thing, but what was that? No guidance on connecting domestic flights, can you do that? No guidance about quarantining in transit to home.
Winged it (!) aboard a TG 747 to SYD, a pleasant enough flight and probably my last ever in a 747.
Arrival 7 am on Quarantine day 1. Lengthy delay in packed aisles before an AQIS guy boarded and tried to wander back through the packed aisles, handing out a quarantine one pager which I'd already read online in BKK.
Finally exited with the milling throng to augment a bigger throng at immigration. Customs guy at the back of the queue announcing 14 days compulsory quarantine and if they didn't want to do this to organise a flight home at transit desk. Heard comments from incoming tourists indicating no jntention of complying with that. At immigration told further flights to get home were ok and QF cheerily checked me in at the transit desk, offering an earlier flight. Uneventful morning flight home, collecred the car and checked in as the first compulsory quarantine guest at the Novotel, a bit of argy bargy with the checkin guy along the lines of 'room not ready, checkin is 2 pm' ... 'but I have to quarantine'?? Duty manager was more sensible and found a room and issued a free mask. One night stay was no problem for them and checked out by priceeding direct to car and leaving, off to collect Mrs Pineapple and do the 13-14 further days quaro at home. That was luck; you may recall quarantine at home lasted less than a week, due to the 'bugger that for a joke' brigade.

 

[N860CR]

We probably passed in transit at ADD. I beat you to Sydney by about 12 hours so just avoided the quarantine. Feels like a lifetime ago now!

Interestingly, QR still operates from the Addis shed terminal which, as you said, is far from pleasant.