Berbera, Somaliland.

Beached ships in the Port of Berbera, Somaliland.

Another deviation from the cycling posts for those of you following along with that. I’ve currently got some down time in Hong Kong, whilst my passport is in the Chinese embassy hopefully getting a new visa stamped in it, and figured I’d catch up on some of the posts that have been sitting in my “To Do” folder on my laptop. We now jump back to my winter trip in January 2014 to the breakaway state Somaliland, a centre of stability in the otherwise crumbling nation of Somalia.

Somali Safari and Beaches – Getting into Somaliland and the capital, Hargeisa

A deceptively quiet side street off of Hargeisa’s main boulevard.

Tell someone you are going on holiday to Somalia and you should rightly expect to be called insane a few times. Especially when you mention the fact that you intend to check out some of the desolate beaches that line the Gulf of Aden, the most pirated stretch of water on earth. Now obviously I am not insane (At least I hope that that’s obvious…)  and nor do I have some deep desire to be kidnapped by Al Shabab militants. So what’s the secret?