Swimming in Masaawa

So I thought I would jump in and write blog number 2. My entries will probably be less training focused and more descriptive of life here. Hopefully between Tom and I we can provide a balance for anyone who wants to read these, and also a bit of a record for ourselves of our time here.

After Tom took advantage of me being distracted for a good hour (I was on the phone to Alex and Sam, first time I had been able to speak to her since arriving) and signed us both up for Ironman Zurich 2018 we have been busy, active and had to be somewhat inventive while we try to work out how on earth we are going to train for such an event while living here in Asmara.

Tom already has his bike here and has been able to meet up with locals that ride here every Saturday morning. I am hoping to get a bike on our route back from Beirut next week. We have been e-mailing bike shops in Dubai (where we have a short lay over) in hope that I will be able to pick up what I need, and also that we will not get stopped by customs coming into Eritrea with it! Fingers crossed on that one.

For the run, as Tom mentioned there are some nice trails that we started to explore last week. We haven’t made it out there this week and need to make sure we do once back from our holiday next week. We have both completed a few shorter runs this week. Mine has been doing hill reps up what we call ‘ministry hill’. It has the ministry of health at the bottom and the ministry of communications at the top. It is fairly brutal, but does at least feel like you are putting some effort it and it is also one of the only streets that has working street lights into the night.

We have however made progress with the swimming in the last two weeks. This started off by us taking a trip down to Massawa. This was once the capital of Eritrea and a great working port on the red sea. Originally used as an Arab slave port, it was then captured and went under Ottoman rules in 1557. It was then handed to the Egyptians around 1846, but then was colonized by the Italian in 1890’s. Under Italian rule Massawa became the largest and safest port in East Africa.  Sadly the town suffered a huge amount of damage since then. First by the British, who took nearly all of the infrastructure with them when they left and handed Eritrea over the Ethiopia. But even more damage was done during the fight for interdependence by Ethiopian troops. Although still very beautiful and interesting, the town has simply never really recovered. I have tried to include some photos below.

We did however have a great weekend. We travelled down the 2800m decent on very windy roads with friends from school, stayed at a nice hotel, ate lots of fresh fish and spent time exploring the old town and ruins. Part of Saturday was spent swimming at the beach and then on Sunday we swam from Green Island back to the main land which was 2km. A good start to our swim training we thought! We swam over coral, fish and ship wrecks (left by the Italians who, after losing Eritrea to the Brits at the famous battle of Keren, refused to let them take their ships and so took them out to sea and sank them). The swim was great, the only damage being some sunburn and a sea urchin spiker in my toe. We hope to make it down to Massawa once a month or so to complete a big swim.

We have tried to follow up with the swim training at a hotel we have membership to here in Asmara. The pool is not great – only 15m, warm and somewhat murky to the point you have to count your strokes to work out where the end of the pool will be! But still, we did know that training here would not be as easy as elsewhere. It’s all part of the challenge!

We have now come to the end of our first term here at school. It has been great to be away again together, exploring somewhere knew and a country very different to places we have ever been to before.  We are both looking forward to a week in Beirut – hopefully getting some tasty Lebanese food, have some internet access for a bit and also have some nice showers without feeling guilty and panicking about running out of water!