How I Hitched A Boat From Djibouti To Yemen And Survived The World’s Most Pirated Waters


At seven o’clock one May morning, as the sun was just beginning to make felt its long ascent into the heavens, a wooden Arabian cargo vessel set sail from the Port of Djibouti for the distant shores of Yemen. On board were an eclectic and rowdy Arab crew, a handful of Somali passengers, six hundred miserable-looking Ethiopian cows, and one exhausted Englishman and his bicycle.

I had been awake for thirty-eight hours, and as the diesel engine growled into life from the depths of the rickety ship, it didn’t sound like I was going to have much chance of sleeping now. Besides, at that moment, the boat’s diminuitive and humorous Indian cook emerged from a darkened hatch bearing a large tray of spicy bean-stew baguettes for breakfast.

Although it was only the fourth morning I’d watched the sun rise over Djibouti city, my stay there had felt like a lifetime. Each morning I had been up and about well before dawn. I’d heard that the cheapest room to be found in the city was priced at forty dollars a night, meaning that two days in a hotel would cost me more than nearly a month of travelling in Ethiopia. So I’d slept in someone’s back yard in a dark suburb, on the floor of a church, in a night watchman’s office outside the port, leaving early every morning to continue my quest to board a vessel bound for Yemen.

Now, with the fresh sea breeze blowing away the haze of fatigue, I was smiling. Dolphins escorted us out of the harbour, and were relieved of their duties some time later by a French frigate, patrolling the heavily-pirated waters of the Gulf of Aden. I wasn’t particularly worried, because I reasoned that pirates probably had better things to steal than a bunch of smelly cows, and besides, we were heading not for Aden but for Mokha on Yemen’s west coast. I was happy to have persevered and to have been successful. It would have been far easier to have hopped on a plane, but money could not buy experiences like this.

The jovial Indian cook strung out two thick lines behind the boat, hoping to catch our lunch and supposedly save himself some of the galley budget. One of the Somalis on board, a friendly and well-spoken chap named Yasser, told me that dolphin was not only flitting along beside us but was also in fact on the lunch menu. Having grown up to consider dolphins the marine equivalent of humans, with fairy-tale intelligence and heart-warming benevolence, I hoped that I would not have to eat one that day.

So I was very happy when, a couple of hours later, two reasonable-sized yellowfin tuna were hauled over the railings, and the cook proceeded to turn them into a mouth-wateringly spectacular curry (with perfectly-cooked and lightly-spiced rice). There was enough to feed the lot of us, with second helpings. Glasses of tea with evaporated milk were passed around. Stomach comfortably full, I lay down on a blanket one of the narrow wooden benches and got myself a couple of hours of well-earned rest.

We arrived in Mokha after nightfall, and the unwieldy business of unloading began. I watched as the cows disembarked in the same manner as they had boarded the ship the previous night — with loops of rope wrapped round their midriffs, in groups of two or three, they were bodily hoisted high into the air by an industrial mobile crane and set down on the quayside, where they were herded together by casual labourers armed with cow-thwacking sticks and huge cheekfuls of qat.

South west Aden coastline

I pedalled away from the proceedings into the pitch-dark night. I had little idea what I would find in Yemen, but I assumed that society would not be all that different to other Arab nations I’d visited. My only other information was the fact that there were more than a few hills, and that my government’s Foreign Office was currently advising against all travel to the country due to the supposed threat of terrorism and kidnapping. My plan was to ignore what I considered paranoid advice mixed with a good dose of propaganda, and cycle along the coast to Oman and to continue round to the Emirates, from where I could take a ship to Iran and back to my girlfriend Tenny. But I had heard that police convoys through the ‘trouble spots’ were the order of the day — only here, there might be slightly more justification for them than there had been in paranoid Egypt.

However, all I could think about was the sweet oblivion of sleep, so I pedalled a couple of kilometres into the night and pitched my battered and worn tent behind some sand dunes away from the road. I couldn’t even muster the energy to unpack my mattress or sleeping bag, so, rolling up my fleece as a pillow, I sprawled out on the floor of the tent and slept like a child.

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9 responses to “How I Hitched A Boat From Djibouti To Yemen And Survived The World’s Most Pirated Waters”

  1. I sailed to YEMEN from DJIBOUTI ON JAN 1 1974, ON AN ARAB DHOW WITH A BUNCH OF TURBANED ARABS, THE ONLY WOMAN ON THE BOAT. I SPOKE A BUNCH OF ARABIC WORDS. WE LEFT LATE IN THE EVENING AND BY THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT, IT BEGAN RAINING AND THE BOAT STARTING FILING WITH WATER. THE CREW BAILED THE WATER OUT WITH BUCKETS AND BY MORNING THE SUN WAS OUT. I WAS TAKEN ASHORE IN A ROWBOAT. IT WAS THE RAMADAN SO THE ENTIRE TOWN WAS CHEWING KHAT IN THE HOME OF THE VILLAGE ELDER. I WAS INVITED TO SIT WITH THEM AND THEN GIVEN A ROOM TO SLEEP IN. EACH MORNING AND EVENING WOMEN,COVERED WITH 3 VEILS ‚CAME WITH FOOD FOR ME.
    I WALKED AROUND EL MOKHA AND PHOTOGRAPHED. IT WAS A
    DIFFERENT WORLD. AT THE END OF 3 DAYS, SEVERAL MEN WERE GOING TO TAIZ AND OFFERED TO TAKE ME WITH THEM.
    I SPENT 6 WEEKS TRAVELING AND LIVING WITH
    FAMILIES IN SANA.. HAJJAH AND HODEIDA.
    AND FINALLY WAS ARRESTED FOR LIVING WITH MY YEMENITE BOYFRIEND AND ASKED TO LEAVE THE COUNTRY.

  2. faris avatar

    I’m trying to get to yemen from DJIBOUTI on a boat is it possible to mokha

    1. wambui avatar

      I would love that too @faris

  3. how many hours, boat journey it was from Djibouti to Mokha?

    1. We set sail at sunrise and arrived in the evening of the following day, with one night spent at sea.

      1. wambui kenya avatar
        wambui kenya

        I would love that adventure

  4. Hi Tom I’m still reading your fairy true tales before sleeping. It’s been a long time, so I learned you had malaria and that you’ve been in Ethiopia in few minutes. I wish you a good way in Yemen. 

  5. Simon avatar

    Well done for getting over the crossing! I’m surprised at how much I look forward to your blogs as they come through, checking each day before work. Then I read them too quickly and have to wait impatiently for the next one .… no chance of a book at the end of all this is there? Take care, happy pedalling 

    1. Hi Simon, glad you’re enjoying the blogs! There is certainly a chance of a book at the end of it all, whenever that might be — it’s something I really want to do. Thanks for all the words of support, by the way. 

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