96 Hour Liberty Trip - Dolphin Excursions Liveaboard pt.1

After waiting to find out how to set up a liveaboard adventure for my 96-hour liberty, MWR managed to save the day and offered a tour with Dolphin Excursions. I was happy to not have to plan anything and I eagerly waited for sign-ups to open.  Finally, I made the reservations just a few weeks before taking off. It was well timed, but not perfect. After the tour, I will still have slightly over two months left and having about one month would be better. So here is how the adventure goes. 

Day 1 – 3/26/12

We started off boarding the M/Y Deli, an 85 foot wooden schooner with sails removed and a compressor set up on the deck. Not the best setup for diving, but when coupled with a pair of dinghies, it sets it up for a great mother ship liveaboard. The group anxiously awaited casting off and setting sail (or setting diesel power), and checked to ensure all equipment was on hand. Quarters were assigned, the broken toilet was ‘fixed’, and we set sail. For the next three and a half days it I would share the Deli with the crew of 5, Dapper Dan (Dolphin Excursion’s instructor), and 10 others mostly from CLUville. 

Our first dive would be at Ras Eiro, between French Beach and Arta Beach. After anchoring the Deli, we boarded the skiffs and headed to the dive site. We descended to about 50 feet and cruised through the reef. I had feared that visibility would be terrible based on my trip to French Beach the day before, but it turned out to be much better than expected.

Most members of the group were adjusted to routine diving having been on many day trips while in Djibouti and others were still getting comfortable underwater. After 45 minutes, my buddy was low on air. Back to the skiffs we went.

We returned to the Deli and enjoyed a nice lunch. This would be the routine for the next few days…Dive, eat, dive, eat, dive….and throw in some sleep wherever you see fit.

I’ll talk more about the dives and post more photos over the next week (or possibly next few weeks). 

French Beach...again.

We went out to French Beach again today. The travel time was much quicker now that we know the correct path to take. 45 min after our departure, we were at the beach. We spent lots of time snorkeling and soaking up the sun. It was a great trip to relax and listen to the waves. Though I tried, I couldn't get a goat to climb a tree and one of our guests could not get the camel to eat an apple. We were able to get some goats to fight over plums and it appeared that the dog remembered that someone in our party gave him some Nutter Butters. We also managed to return without having some crazy kid run out in front of us. For the rest of the entry, you will get to enjoy some photos from snorkeling. Enjoy...

Parrot Fish in a trance while being cleaned.

Where's Nemo?

Sea Dragon

French Beach

This past weekend a group of us ventured out to a new location. Well, new to most of us. The trip started the same as usual with everyone lugging their crap a half-mile, uphill, on a gravel path. We threw everything in the back of the Escapes and headed out.

'Mickey Mouse' is center of triangle.

Did any of us know where we were heading? Aside from the name French Beach which everyone knew, we had one fellow traveler that had ventured to this specific beach a couple years prior to our journey. We had asked several others where we were headed and we had a general idea. We would go past Mickey Mouse towards the stadium; take a left and go past the port. Eventually we would run out of pavement and take a dirt road through a gap in some hills, over a hill, and down a switch back to the beach. How hard could that be?!

 

So, that’s exactly where we headed. After passing a truck hauling some boards that clearly had some understanding of the laws of physics, we turned and passed a guy on a bicycle carrying another bicycle on his handle bars. Sorry, I wasn't fast enough with the camera for the bike(s). 

We were doing great until we found a beach without running out of pavement. Though there were several soccer fields, this did not look like the promised land we had heard of. According to our guide that swore we should take a left somewhere, it didn’t look familiar either.

 

And that was the point where we turned around and drove aimlessly for 20 minutes. After a unanimous vote that we were definitely the wrong direction, we headed back to where we thought the road to the beach would be.

This time we were in luck. Off to the left was a dirt road that had to be correct. I assume that the first time we must have been distracted by the cardboard eating camel and missed our left turn. Yes, he was eating it. Not just holding it, but tearing it piece by piece, chewing and going back for more. It must have been a tasty box.

  

So, it was off-road once again in Djibouti. This time we were well equipped for the worse terrain that a Ford Escape could handle. Lucky for us, the Escapes held up well. After letting a convoy of Germans pass us, we followed them up the ‘hill between the two hills’ (as confusing as that sounds, it’s very accurate). We passed the ‘guy filling potholes’ who was motioning for us to do something. We assumed he meant drive past him and wave.

The guy filling potholes could probably do a better job and he may want to consider ‘removing large rocks’ as part of his job description. A few minutes later, we were at the switch back and saw the beach ahead. This was it!

The beach was great! The snorkeling was even better. And the scenery was great with huts on a beach surrounded by giant hills of volcanic rocks and included the infamous ‘purple bikini’. There were haphazardly built shade shelters with chairs which cost $500 DJF (less than $3US), restaurants that seemed to have ridiculously high prices ($3,000 DJF), and beers that were $1,000 DJF which is not a bad price in Djibouti. Be warned, the beers are not that cold, in fact, most of them were not even cool.

 After a bit of metal detecting, snorkeling, exploring, and ogling; we called it quits and headed back. The journey was quite a bit quicker. However, we did get harassed by the ‘guy filling potholes’. Luckily he stopped chasing our car and headed for the second after giving him a bottle of water. I am quite certain that he wanted some money for his great ability to throw garden-shovels full of dirt on a terrible road. He kept showing us the great work that he was doing for us. Of course as all terrible roads in Djibouti, you must watch out for holes as well as people running out to the cars.

In the end, our guide for the trip admitted to two mistakes; one being that he had somewhat forgotten how to get there and the other was regarding how he misspoke about some of the 'scenery' (had to of been there J) Overall it was a great trip and we will definitely return.