Devil’s Island Adventure

It has been awhile since I last made a blog update, and I wish I could say it was because I was too busy having fun to write about it.  Unfortunately the truth is that for several weeks there just wasn’t much going on.  At the end of July and into early August we were not allowed to leave the Camp, so the only adventure to be had was to hang out at the Camp pool, or more affectionately known as the cement swimming pond.  The Sundays by the pool were hot, yet relaxing. I also took in a few movies at the Camp movie theater (The Great Gatsby, 42, The Big Wedding, Hangover III, Star Trek II, Tyler Perry’s Peeples).

Once we were allowed to leave the Camp again the majority of my outings have been to go out to eat.  I went to the Melting Pot Restaurant (not related to the fondue chain restaurant in the US) where I was able to try camel.  I have to say it wasn’t too bad.  We also went to Restaurant Vietnam where I had an excellent Duck dish (it was more Chinese cuisine then
Vietnamese).  I also made it back to our favorite local restaurant, La Fontaine which is incredibly cheap and delicious food.  Of course every time I’m in Menelik Square (downtown Djibouti) I always do a little shopping and barter with the salesmen to try to get a good deal.  It takes some work, but eventually we normally settle on a price that I’m somewhat happy with.

Labor Day weekend was the first weekend in awhile that I had several fun things off camp planned. On Sunday I took a MWR trip to the Kempinski Hotel for Spa Day.  For $88 I got an hour massage, lunch at the buffet, and use of the pool.  My massage was very much needed and felt amazing.  I was pleasantly surprised with how good the lunch buffet was.  I tried a

little of everything, even things that I would normally turn my nose up too.  With all the delicious food on the buffet, I think my favorite was the block of swiss cheese that you could cut yourself a slice.  It tasted so good.  After lunch the remaining part of the day was spent relaxing by the pool.  The lounge chairs at the Kempinski are so much more comfortable then the chairs at the Camp pool, but the Camp’s pool water was much cooler than the Kempinksi.  The pool itself wasn’t very refreshing since the water was so warm, but at least it was wet.

On Labor Day myself and two other friends made the trip out to Lake Ghoubet to Devil’s Island.  This was the first trip that I planned (with some help from our regular Sunday trip planner) as he’ll be leaving soon and the reins will be be passed to me.  Twelve people had responded to my invite that they would like to join us, but in the end there was just the three of us that showed up to go.  Luckily the bus driver was still willing to take us.  The drive out to Lake Ghoubet takes a little over an hour and a half.  Once we got to our destination (which is a small area where the bus can pull off the side of the road and park), we made the trek over a lava rock field to get to the water.

The trek was hot, but not too difficult if you took your time.  I was actually happy that it was just the three of us as I had less people to worry about hurting themselves or getting lost.  Once we made it to the beach we still had to cross the inlet over a sandbar to get to the islands.

The islands are actually mounds that were formed during some volcanic activity.  We enjoyed walking on the smaller of the two islands and found a good spot to put our backpacks and put on our snorkel gear.  The water was amazingly clear and we saw beautiful coral, fish, sea cucumbers, and sea urchins.  We swam across to the larger island and walked a short way along the shore.  We didn’t walk far because we didn’t have our shoes and the sand was hot and the rocks were sharp!  Once we had our fill of snorkeling we make our way back across the sandbar and over the lava rock field to the bus.  It was a great day and I’m so glad to have shared it with my two buddies.  So good to be back out on an adventure!!