Go Karting, Bingo, and Snorkeling!

A couple of weeks ago I went on a Saturday night adventure to the Djibouti Karting Club to experience Djiboutian Go-Karting.  We had about 15 people with us and after figuring out the best deal, we had our tickets and were ready to ride.  The first five were on the course and racing for about 8 minutes when all the power was lost at the karting club. We thought the night might be over, but we decided to wait it out.  After 40 minutes we started to give up hope that they would get the power restored, so we called to have a bus come and get us, and just like Murphy's Law normally works, the power was restored.  The racing began yet again.  The go-karting was a ton of fun!  One of the girls had us laughing as she crashed through a
section of the course 3 times in a row.  Come to find out later that her brakes weren't working in her car.  All-in-all a good time was had by everyone!

The week of September 11th, we were not allowed to leave the Camp and once again our fun was limited to the pool and movie theater.  On the upside however, was a scheduled MWR Bingo night on one of these days.  The table I was sitting at was hot!  My old CLUmate, Val was the first to win, and all games continue until there is a second winner. Erik won the second prize behind her.  Several games later, Warren got a win (even though he wasn't really paying attention and Val and I yelled Bingo for him) and then I won the 2nd prize behind him.  I won a Casio watch that I'm very happy with.  When Bingo was over the Packer game was just about ready to start on the big outdoor screen.  I was surprised at how comfortable it was to sit outside and watch the game.  I think this was the first time I didn't acquire a gigantic pool of sweat by just sitting. I stayed until the end of the 3rd quarter and with the Pack up by several touchdowns I decided to turn in and go to bed.

Over the past couple of months I have been on a planning team for an Air Force Half

Marathon and 10K race.  We held the race on 21 September, which is the same day the official Air Force Marathon is held at Wright-Patterson AFB.  The race took a lot of planning and effort by all volunteers.  I'm happy to say that race day went very well.  The race began at 0400 when it is slightly cooler.  I ran the 10K and was happy with how I did . . . for being Djibouti and all.  I have run 105 miles with only 95 more miles to go to hit my goal of 200 miles ran in Djibouti.  I can do it, but I'll have to increase my mileage to 4 miles 3 times a week instead of 3 miles 3 times a week.

This past weekend, Warren and I signed up for a MWR snorkeling trip to White Sand Beach.  White Sand Beach is near the city of Tadjoura which is across the Gulf of Tadjoura from Djibouti City. It took about two hours by boat to get to our location. The snorkeling was absolutely wonderful!  The water was super clear and warm.  We snorkeled for about 2 hours and then came back to the boat for lunch.  I was on the same boat as my 4th of July snorkeling adventure and had the same meal, but also had fresh grilled tuna skewers.  The food once again did not disappoint.  After lunch we snorkeled for 2 more hours!  The highlights that we saw were 2 blue spotted stingrays, an eel, a sea turtle, a lion fish, and puffer fish. I took some pictures on a disposable underwater film camera, but I will have to wait until they're developed to find out if any of them turned out.  It was a great day and although I had SPF 30 sunscreen on my back, I failed to put sunscreen on my legs.  The area by my swimsuit bottom got burned the worst.  Not too terrible, but enough that I'm certainly feeling it today!

Devil's Island Adventure

It has been awhile since I last made a blog update, and I wish I could say it was because I was too busy having fun to write about it.  Unfortunately the truth is that for several weeks there just wasn't much going on.  At the end of July and into early August we were not allowed to leave the Camp, so the only adventure to be had was to hang out at the Camp pool, or more affectionately known as the cement swimming pond.  The Sundays by the pool were hot, yet relaxing. I also took in a few movies at the Camp movie theater (The Great Gatsby, 42, The Big Wedding, Hangover III, Star Trek II, Tyler Perry's Peeples).

Once we were allowed to leave the Camp again the majority of my outings have been to go out to eat.  I went to the Melting Pot Restaurant (not related to the fondue chain restaurant in the US) where I was able to try camel.  I have to say it wasn't too bad.  We also went to Restaurant Vietnam where I had an excellent Duck dish (it was more Chinese cuisine then
Vietnamese).  I also made it back to our favorite local restaurant, La Fontaine which is incredibly cheap and delicious food.  Of course every time I'm in Menelik Square (downtown Djibouti) I always do a little shopping and barter with the salesmen to try to get a good deal.  It takes some work, but eventually we normally settle on a price that I'm somewhat happy with.


Labor Day weekend was the first weekend in awhile that I had several fun things off camp planned. On Sunday I took a MWR trip to the Kempinski Hotel for Spa Day.  For $88 I got an hour massage, lunch at the buffet, and use of the pool.  My massage was very much needed and felt amazing.  I was pleasantly surprised with how good the lunch buffet was.  I tried a

little of everything, even things that I would normally turn my nose up too.  With all the delicious food on the buffet, I think my favorite was the block of swiss cheese that you could cut yourself a slice.  It tasted so good.  After lunch the remaining part of the day was spent relaxing by the pool.  The lounge chairs at the Kempinski are so much more comfortable then the chairs at the Camp pool, but the Camp's pool water was much cooler than the Kempinksi.  The pool itself wasn't very refreshing since the water was so warm, but at least it was wet.



On Labor Day myself and two other friends made the trip out to Lake Ghoubet to Devil's Island.  This was the first trip that I planned (with some help from our regular Sunday trip planner) as he'll be leaving soon and the reins will be be passed to me.  Twelve people had responded to my invite that they would like to join us, but in the end there was just the three of us that showed up to go.  Luckily the bus driver was still willing to take us.  The drive out to Lake Ghoubet takes a little over an hour and a half.  Once we got to our destination (which is a small area where the bus can pull off the side of the road and park), we made the trek over a lava rock field to get to the water.

The trek was hot, but not too difficult if you took your time.  I was actually happy that it was just the three of us as I had less people to worry about hurting themselves or getting lost.  Once we made it to the beach we still had to cross the inlet over a sandbar to get to the islands.

The islands are actually mounds that were formed during some volcanic activity.  We enjoyed walking on the smaller of the two islands and found a good spot to put our backpacks and put on our snorkel gear.  The water was amazingly clear and we saw beautiful coral, fish, sea cucumbers, and sea urchins.  We swam across to the larger island and walked a short way along the shore.  We didn't walk far because we didn't have our shoes and the sand was hot and the rocks were sharp!  Once we had our fill of snorkeling we make our way back across the sandbar and over the lava rock field to the bus.  It was a great day and I'm so glad to have shared it with my two buddies.  So good to be back out on an adventure!!