March
1927
After parting with the hospitable Italian consul [1] and reorganizing the caravan, I proceeded toward the border and took a short road in the direction of the capital, Asmera, [2] which is situated in a mountainous area.
In essence, the mountainous Eritrea is a continuation of Abyssinia. Asmera is situated at an altitude of 2380 metres. There the basaltic soils are black in colour. The climate had become drier. Here and there the caravan passed large and small oases with wild date palms. In front of them a wall of wild olive trees (Olea europaea var. sylvestris) opened up. The Eritrean olive trees have small fruits, definitely inedible and tasteless. The wild date palms have similarly inedible fruits. Involuntarily you wonder what an enormous change would take place in this country if instead of the wild ones, cultivated date palms were grown and instead of the wild olive trees the Mediterranean kind was planted. Attempts to cross them have still not met with any noticeable results because of the remote distance between the cultivated olives and the wild Abyssinian ones. When grafting them big burls form. [3]
Cars and trucks run from Adi-Ugri onward. [4] On one of the latter all the luggage and I myself were loaded. A triumphal hour of parting from my fellow travellers ensued. For two and a half months I had covered more than 2000 km together with them. In spite of all the trouble and difficulties, everything had been accomplished: an enormous treasure had been collected in the form of thousands of samples of seeds. The people in the caravan parted with me reluctantly, especially apprehensive of meeting again with the highwaymen from whom we had successfully escaped. It was an amicable parting. The Amharan, lent to me by the Italian envoy and Cassius, the head of the caravan, went with me to Asmera to help purchase necessary goods and return from there.
The roads had already become very different, no longer trails but excellent highways. The skill of building them has been preserved from the time of the Roman Empire. The Romans and to a certain extent also the Italians, construct beautiful roads. We passed rapidly through a forested area of wild olive trees. Plantations with coffee trees, papaya … and gardens began to appear.
Notes:
Show on map