Djibouti to Somaliland Overland 4

 We turned up here and agreed on a price, then paid a 1000 DJF deposit each to secure our space. We were told to come back just before 1600 and the minivan would be waiting for us. 

Shortly before 16.00, we headed back to Avenue 26. Here the guys were rushing us, telling us that we had to go, get in the minivan, it’s waiting for you… and so on.

 We tossed our bags onto the roof and claimed some seats inside. Where we proceeded to sit there for about 20 minutes while they were selling off the other seats. Hurry up and wait, essentially. But at roughly 16.15, we set off for the drive to the border. This took around 45 minutes.

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Djibouti to Somaliland Overland 3

This probably isn’t the cheapest way to do the journey, though it’s the most convenient. The other option would be to take any minibus heading to the Loyada border, cross, and then negotiate directly with one of the 4×4 drivers. I believe that you can get the seat for between 25 and 30 USD if you do it that way. But honestly, the ease of getting it all organised before leaving was worth the extra 10 USD for us.

The spot on Avenue 26 isn’t marked in any way, it’s just a handful of guys sitting/lying around on the side of the street. If you ask around, someone will point you in the right direction. But just for reference, here’s a pin showing the exact spot where you need to go to book this journey.

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Djibouti to Somaliland Overland 2 Booking the journey

 So we were pretty sure that there was a good chance it’d also be one of the worst journeys we’d have experienced, too. With such a glowing recommendation for it, how could we not be excited about it? We went off to explore the rest of Djibouti, then came back to the city to start figuring out getting the transport booked.

 As it turns out, this was actually pretty simple. There’s a specific spot on Avenue 26 where you can book a place. This gets you a seat on a minivan that will take you to the border, and then also a seat in one of the many, many 4x4s that are waiting on the opposite side. For this, we were charged 40 USD per person. Although we paid in francs instead (7000 DJF) so it was slightly cheaper with the exchange rate.

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Djibouti to Somaliland Overland

 “It was the worst journey I’ve ever taken,” Ruth warned us. We were hanging out in Djibouti city discussing our upcoming travel plans, specifically how we were planning to cross from Djibouti to Somaliland overland. This involves an overnight 4×4 trip through the desert, with no roads to be found. Ruth had just done the journey in the other direction. 

I’m not sure if it’s just us, but whenever someone makes a claim like that, the first thing I want to know is where else they’ve travelled, and what kind of journeys they’ve done. You need some basis for comparison, at least. And in this case, we’d all been travelling in Africa for a long time, and we’d definitely all had some pretty terrible journeys. 

Indefinitedetour Matt