Ready for the off

We were told to be at the port at 6.30am and we're the first people to board the ferry. We chose a seat up on the deck, and from here could watch all the cargo being loaded - oil drums, furniture, carts, wood, papyrus canoes, two mules, a goat and sacks of very smelly fish. A Swiss couple in their 60s, Matthias and Hannah, came aboard on their Land Rover. They arrived in Djibouti three weeks ago and are spending a year (at least) driving around Africa. There was also a young couple from Khartoum, on honeymoon..all the other passengers were Ethiopian. There were card games going on on the lower deck and all around us were teenage boys keen to practise their limited English. All the foreigners "farengi" were the object of many stares and much attention.
The ferry left at 7 and stopped at three places to load and unload people and cargo. At one of these, Dek Island, we could walk around for a while. There was an amazing variety of birds on the island, but what struck me most was the beauty of the old women we saw - short grey hair showed off their cheekbones and they had pretty dresses and a dignified bearing.

Late in the afternoon, we called in at Kozulu, where the ferry docked. D and I walked ashore and into the village until we met a small boy who said "Bedroom?" and took us to a small bar which had rooms behind it. The rooms were small and had nothing in them but a bed. There was electricity and an outside toilet. £3 a night.

We went for a walk and called in at a little shack for tea and bread. Then, back at the room, D fell asleep for 12 hours.. we never got around to finding any dinner.