The Lost Kingdoms and Whale Sharks Expedition: Somaliland and Djibouti

Day by day

1. Day 1Arrival in the hidden nationArrival day · 1,300m

   You arrive at Egal International Airport in Hargeisa, where the formalities are slower and friendlier than you expect and your leader will be waiting on the other side. The drive into town is your first surprise: a busy, sprawling, cheerful city of a million people, rebuilt almost entirely since 1991, with the wreckage of a MiG fighter jet standing on a plinth in the middle of it as a war memorial.

   After time to settle into the hotel and get out of your travelling clothes, we gather for a welcome dinner and the expedition briefing: how the next thirteen days work, how we travel, what to wear, what to photograph and what not to, and the practicalities of a country that officially does not exist.

   No alcohol, an early night and a cool breeze off the highlands. Hargeisa sits at around 1,300 metres, so the evenings here are far kinder than the coast will be.

2. Day 2A window into Somali lifeFull day · Early start · Cultural focus

   A full day on foot and by vehicle in Hargeisa, and the day that changes most people's minds. We start early at the livestock market on the edge of town, where camels, goats and sheep are traded much as they have been for centuries, and where the smell, noise and sheer scale of it is unforgettable.

   In the central market we walk between stalls of spices, frankincense, printed fabrics, sandals cut from old tyres and mountains of imported everything. On one street, money changers sit behind waist high stacks of Somaliland shillings in the open air, unguarded, because in Hargeisa nobody takes them. It tells you something about this place that no statistic can.

   We also spend time with the harder history: the memorial to the bombing of the city in the late 1980s, and the story of how Somaliland declared independence in 1991 and built a functioning state that the world has still not recognised. Expect to be talked to, questioned, welcomed and photographed at least as much as you photograph.

3. Day 3Older than the pyramids: Laas Geel5 to 6 hrs out · Short scramble · Armed escort

   We leave the city after breakfast and drive northeast into open, thorn scrub country, our armed police escort in the vehicle behind, which is the standard and legal requirement for foreigners travelling outside Hargeisa. It is a formality, and after ten minutes you stop noticing it.

   An hour or so out, a cluster of granite outcrops rises out of the plain. Under their overhangs are the paintings of Laas Geel: long horned cattle in ochre, white and red, their necks hung with ceremonial collars, painted alongside human figures, dogs and giraffes. They are Neolithic, several thousand years old, and they were only brought to the world's attention by a French archaeological team in 2002. What stops people in their tracks is the colour. Sheltered from sun and rain by the rock, the pigment looks as though it went on last year.

   There is a short, rocky scramble up to the shelters and very little shade at the top, so we go with water and hats. On the drive back we stop where we find them: nomadic families with their camels and portable aqal huts, living a way of life that has changed very little in a thousand years.

4. Day 4Into the highlands3 to 4 hrs driving · Gentle walking · 1,400m

   Today the landscape changes completely. We drive east and then climb into the Sheikh Mountains, where the road switchbacks up through juniper and acacia to around 1,400 metres and the temperature drops with every hairpin. Somaliland is not a country most people picture as green, and the highlands are the answer to that.

   We spend the afternoon on gentle walks: a village or two, a viewpoint out over the escarpment where the land falls away towards the coastal plain, and the sort of unhurried conversation that happens when a group of ten foreigners appears in a place that sees perhaps a handful a year. Bring a camera and better manners than usual.

   As the light goes, the mountains turn gold and the air genuinely cools. Bring a fleece. It is the only night of the trip you will want one.

5. Day 5Mountains to ocean: Berbera2 to 3 hrs driving · Old town walk · Hot

   We come down the mountain in the morning, and the drop is dramatic: from cool juniper highlands to a shimmering coastal plain in less than two hours, with the Gulf of Aden appearing as a hard blue line ahead.

   Berbera has been a port for well over a thousand years, trading with Arabia, India and East Africa in frankincense, hides, gum and livestock long before Europeans took an interest. The old town shows it: coral stone Ottoman and Indian merchant houses, some of them roofless and beautiful, a decaying seafront quarter and a working harbour that has recently been rebuilt into one of the region's major ports. We walk it slowly with a local guide who can tell you which family owned which house.

   By late afternoon we are at the beach. The water off Berbera is warm, clear and almost empty, and the sunset over the Gulf of Aden is the moment most guests reach for their cameras and then decide not to bother.

6. Day 6Beneath the surfaceHalf day at sea · Easy snorkelling · 26 to 27°C

   The reefs off Somaliland are among the least explored in Africa, and today we get on the water and find out why that is such a privilege. We go out by small boat in the morning, when the sea is at its flattest, to a series of reef and rock sites along the coast.

   What you find below is coral in good condition, clouds of anthias and butterflyfish, parrotfish grinding away at the reef, moray eels folded into the rock, and a decent chance of rays and green turtles. There are no dive boats, no buoys, no queues and no other people. The feeling is genuine exploration, which is rarer than it sounds.

   The snorkelling is easy: warm water, short swims, and the boat never far away. If you are a nervous swimmer, say so and we will put you in a buoyancy aid and stay beside you. If you are experienced, there is plenty to keep you down there. We are back on the beach for a late lunch and out of the worst of the sun.

7. Day 7Slow down and soak it inFree day · Optional snorkel

   Adventure does not have to mean constant movement, and after six days of early starts today is intentionally slow. Breakfast overlooking the sea, and then the day is yours.

   Walk the beach, swim, sleep in the shade, read, or wander back into Berbera at your own pace with your leader for company. There is an optional second snorkelling trip for anyone who wants more time on the reef, and it is usually well subscribed.

   In the late afternoon the fishing boats come in, the light goes soft and gold over the Gulf, and the temperature finally becomes pleasant. These quiet days have a habit of being the ones people talk about afterwards.

8. Day 8A new country awaitsFull travel day · Two countries · Evening free

   A travelling day, and an interesting one. We leave the coast early and head west across the plain towards the Djibouti frontier, through country that is flat, hot and enormous, with the occasional camel train and very little else. The border crossing itself is a slow, paperwork heavy business best approached with patience and a book, and your leader will handle the choreography.

   On the other side, Djibouti. It is one of Africa's smallest countries and one of its strangest: a French speaking, Afar and Somali nation of volcanoes, salt lakes and rift valley geology, wedged between the Red Sea and the Horn.

   We arrive in Djibouti City in the late afternoon and settle in. There is time for a walk on the waterfront, a cold drink (alcohol is legal here, which after a week of abstinence some guests find worth mentioning) and a relaxed evening looking out over the Gulf of Tadjoura.

9. Day 9Africa's lowest point: Lake AssalFull day · 155m below sea level · Extreme heat

   Today we drive inland into a landscape that does not look like anywhere else on the planet. The road climbs over volcanic hills, passes the Devil's Cauldron at Ghoubbet, where the Gulf of Tadjoura narrows into a dark inlet of the sea, and then drops into the rift.

   Lake Assal sits 155 metres below sea level, the lowest point in Africa and one of the saltiest bodies of water on earth. A blinding white crust of salt rings water of an impossible blue, black lava fields run down to the shore, and there is no vegetation at all. Guests routinely say it looks lunar, and they are not exaggerating.

   There is time to walk out onto the salt flats and to float in the water, which is so dense with salt that staying upright is the hard part. A word of warning: it stings anything, and everything, so shave tomorrow rather than today and rinse thoroughly afterwards. We return to the coast in the late afternoon, salt crusted and quietly delighted.

10. Day 10The Gulf of TadjouraFull day at sea · Marine life · Skills session

    We transfer along the coast and head out on the water into the Gulf of Tadjoura, a deep, sheltered arm of the sea where the Indian Ocean pushes into the Rift Valley. The result is a marine environment with an outsized reputation: pods of dolphins, green and hawksbill turtles, reef sharks, and coral gardens in clear, warm water.

    We spend the day slowly, moving between snorkelling sites, eating lunch on the boat, and keeping our eyes on the surface. Spinner and bottlenose dolphins are common here and will often come to the bow. Manta rays are seen in season, and there is always the chance of a whale shark a day early.

    It is also the day your leader gets everyone properly comfortable in the water: mask fitting, breathing, buoyancy, and the code of conduct for tomorrow. Turn up for it even if you are an experienced snorkeller, because tomorrow depends on everyone knowing exactly how to behave.

11. Day 11The giants of the oceanEarly start · Peak season · Snorkel only

    This is the day. January is peak whale shark season in the Gulf of Tadjoura, where juvenile whale sharks gather each winter to feed on plankton in the shallow coastal water, and we go out early to find them.

    Spotting is a patient business: the boat crew read the water for the dorsal fin and the slow, unmistakable shadow beneath. When we find one, we enter the water quietly a few at a time, and then it is just you, a mask, and a fish the length of a minibus moving past you without the slightest interest in your existence. Despite their size, whale sharks are filter feeders: gentle, graceful and completely harmless.

    We follow the code of conduct absolutely: no touching, no chasing, no flash photography, no blocking their path, and no diving beneath them. Small numbers in the water at a time. It makes for a better encounter as well as a responsible one. Nothing in the ocean is guaranteed, but January is the right month and we give ourselves the whole day.

12. Day 12A day to reflectFree day · Optional snorkel · Farewell dinner

    After eleven days of early starts, borders, salt flats and open water, today is yours to do very little with. Swim, sleep, read under a palm, walk the beach, or take an optional snorkelling trip if you cannot help yourself.

    It is also the day the trip catches up with you: the cave paintings, the mountain villages, the money changers, the salt lake, the whale shark. Traditional fishing boats drift across the horizon and you find yourself sorting through it all.

    In the evening we gather for the farewell dinner beside the sea. Photographs are shared, the leader says a few words, everyone says the same thing about how they thought this trip would be and how it actually was, and email addresses get swapped. It is a good night.

13. Day 13Journey homeDeparture day · 2 hrs transfer

    Breakfast together, a final look at the sea, and then the transfer back along the gulf to Djibouti-Ambouli International Airport for onward flights. Your leader will have confirmed everyone's timings the night before and will see the group through check in.

    You will fly home with a phone full of photographs, a set of new friendships and stories from two countries that most people you know will not be able to place on a map. Rock art older than the pyramids. A mountain kingdom above the Gulf of Aden. A lake below sea level. The largest fish on earth, three feet from your mask.

    Mostly, you will leave with the feeling that real adventure has not been used up yet. It has just moved somewhere quieter.