Pics top left clockwise show :
Happy qat chewers (note the cheek bulge); happy proast eater; happy Yemeni girls on a day out; unhappy camel carrying a cart in old Aden;
steep volcanic cliffs above Crater and scene above the Port.

It was mid morning when we saw the first sight of the massive rock faces lining the Yemen coast loom out of the haze. The 20 boat convoy was still intact 10 miles from the port of Aden and yachts one by one called up port control to announce their impending arrival.

As we approached the turning point to the harbour a commanding voice came from Port Control warning us to hold back as a large ship was entering the harbour. Once inside there was a bit of a scramble to find a suitable anchoring spot as the 14 boat Vasca da Gamma rally heading Eastabout were still in port. We laid the anchor and then cleared customs and immigration within an hour. They issued us with shore passes and were very accommodating and did not set a time limit on our stay. Aden was to prove to be the friendliest and easiest going of all our Asian stopovers : "Welcome, Welcome to Yemen" was a common greeting from everybody we met.

We went for a walk around the small town and were picked up in a shared taxi by some other yachties and did a quick trip to the suburb of Crater and to Lulus Mall which has a supermarket that sells eveything at very reasonable prices. They had a variety of feta cheeses and halva as well. Fruit and veg were the cheapest we had seen. By that time we could hardly keep our eyes open and went back to the yacht and were surprised to find that we had anchored right opposite a rowdy bar that stayed open until 5 am. Not what you would expect in a Muslim country.

The most noticeable feature of Aden is the women covered from head to toe in black. Occasionally a slit of an eye might be seen. The men, however are dressed in trousers and shirts western style unlike Cochin where there were many loin cloths in evidence and Salalah long white gowns with matching hat.

The streets are narrow and congested with beat up cars and minibuses. The city itself sits underneath ancient volcanic hills bare of vegetation. Some houses are precariously balanced amongst and atop rocky outcrops towering above the harbour.

"Arab Town" is another place we visited bustling with men selling qat, a narcotic leaf which men, women and children chew by the cheekful. You have to chew quite a lot : the taxi driver gave some to Geoff to chew but it was pretty bland : a bit like Pacific island kava. One interesting feature in the small suburb near to the anchorage is the presence of a fenced and gated park reminiscent of those found in inner London. Many black clothed women were with their children playing on swings and slides and there was even the odd man wandering around with young children swinging from his hands.

The small restaurants that abound the streets serve "proast", a plate with divisions for different veg and meat and cost less than $2 a plate.

We filled our fuel tanks eventually after hustling and bustling at the fuel pontoon and ended up paying 63c a litre. Cheaper at the garage but we were not allowed to take containers through the port gates.

The port authorities are putting on an official reception for all the visiting yachties tomorrow and we leave soon after for the "Gates of Sorrow" : the Bab el Mandeb, the narrow entrance to the Red Sea and we will be anchoring for the first time on the shores of the East African nation of Eritrea.