I sleep well in that
bed : a thin mattress laid on a sort of wooden carpet, the wooden sticks held
together with dry skin laces from goat or cow or camel. Out of curiosity I have
a look underneath the bed. And, guess what ? My purple bra ! I have to crawl
under the bed in between the logs of wood to grab it. I wonder what kind of party
the monkeys had when we had turned our back.
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| Dittilou camp site |
The plan is now to
reach Yoboki. Not too far from the Ethiopian border and, not too far from Lake
Abhe, our destination. It is always interesting to explore a new road so, when
we leave Dittilou we want to bypass the Day Forest National Park, heading
north, west and south. But after questioning different people, it seems RN12 is
closed. That makes sense. We never found the south access of that road when we
were driving from Lake Assal to Tadjoura. That nice yellow road on Google map
doesn’t exist anymore. So no loop around the Day Forest National Park.
 |
| Dougoum village |
Instead we will just drive back on the same
road. We know the way to Dougoum village but still, we ask for an escort to the
first village, the village of the guide’s sister. At Dougoum we meet again the
young guy who had told us it was now easy to reach Dittilou. Dougoum looks like
an African Lego town with every path nicely drawn with white stones and
everywhere, yellow bins made out of jerricans. With pride, the young man gives
us a tour of the village. We are offered a cup of tea.
 |
| Dougoum village |
A french retired teacher
has a house in the village. He lives in France but comes back each year to
follow up on the projects. He initiated many projects in the village : the
bins, the small cheese factory, the honey production, the school, the well with
the large water tank, the garden and everything to make the village more
environment friendly and financially self-sufficient in the respect of locals’
culture and traditions. He was not here at the time of our visit. Twenty seven
families live in this village. Each one has a couple of huts enclosed together
for the parents, grands-parents and children. Next project is to build a bigger
school. They have a little shop where they sale their handcrafts. It is nice to
see what it is possible to do, in order to improve life in small Djiboutian’s
villages. To be replicated. Here is the link to their blog : https://www.dougoum.com/
 |
| Dougoum village |
Back on RN11 and then
RN9. We stop again for more bottles of water, at Polo’s Kiosque, another cute
grocery shop with a rooster on the counter. We drive again through the
Ardoukoba volcano region. A white mini bus is coming our way, from the other
direction. I am so glad we haven’t decided to rely on public transportation to
get our way around. We haven’t seen many of those mini-bus and, some of the
ones we saw were left burned on the side of the road. We are taking the same
road back but the perspective is different. We notice things we haven’t on our
first passing, small things, different views and, we stop along the road to
take pictures.
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| Polo's Kiosk |
Second attempt to see
something different. After we passe again by Lake Assal on RN9, we try to reach
RN8 to Yoboki. No intersection anywhere. We drive back and stop in a village to
ask for directions but the village is empty. We have found a ghost village in
Djibouti. There is even a mosque. Some of the houses are locked. Others are
opened but empty. It is hard to imagine living in such a small space. It is
quiet. A few clothes on the floor here and there. A large truck wheel to block
the opening of a door. Maybe they plan to come back later. Most probably. They
are nomadic and semi-nomadic people. We won’t find anybody to help us to find
RN8.
 |
| On RN9 |
 |
| African ghost village |
So we drive until we find another village where
we can ask. We see again the trucks transporting tons of bottles of water. We
had seen them before on the road and, thought their shipment is more precious
than gold.
We pull over at what
looks like a shop and, we ask the guy busy under the hood of a car. It takes a
lot of time. They know their land but we only know the map. And the map is
sometimes not relevant. There is no such thing as RN8. They only know a way to
go to Yoboki. Of course, off road. They check as well our passenger’s window.
For some reason, that window is locked opened since we took the bumpy track to
Dittilou. Someone is ready to escort us for a part of the way. But this is
unrealistic. The sun is going down and it is going to be a good few hours of off
road to get to Yoboki.
 |
| Off road |
We change our plan and decide to spend the night at
Dikhil, a town not too far from Lake Abhe. No more off road today but the RN1,
that busy road that connects the Ethiopian border to the port of Djibouti. Many
heavy loaded trucks. Many bad potholes. We slalom between the trucks and the
potholes. The night is falling. Some trucks don’t have their light on. By Grand
Barra or Petit Barra, remains of dried up lake beds, we see a convey of
all-terrain vehicules driving fast along the dry shore and stopping. The
sundown on the sand flats is pretty. So we leave the RN1 too. The guys, a bunch
of American, take pictures and leave. The mini-bus is still stuck in the wet
sands. Soon my both flip-flop will be stuck in the sand too, sucked up. Dead.
Another pair of Havaianas sacrificed on a road trip. The mini-bus is still
stuck. I’m not. Going back to the car barefoot.
 |
| Grand Barra |
Back on RN1 with the
crazy truck drivers. It is dark now. A portion of the road is all brand new,
nice and smooth. Only a portion. A sign informs us that the renovation was
funded by the European Union. Why only a portion of the road ? This road is a
mess and, it is as well the strategic route for the economy of the country.
Eventually we make it to Dikhil where we spend the night in an ugly hotel with
suspicious colorful sheets where the only way to stop the water from running
is, to switch off the water mains inlet.
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