Terrorists in Somalia! Pirates in the Gulf of Aden! War in Yemen!

The countries of the Horn of Africa and their counterparts across the Gulf of Aden are, for the most part, easy to dismiss in a blanket of fear and vague geographical ignorance. To do so, you’d not be entirely wrong. There are countries in the region that do have major geo-political problems (hello Somalia and Yemen), but then again many countries worldwide have war (e.g. Iraq), terrorism (e.g. Nigeria) and piracy (e.g. Indonesia), and yet we visit them or their neighbours (Iran, Cameroon etc) to fish for exciting species in otherworldy landscapes.

The truth is, the world is not that scary if you know where to go and who to go with. Nobody knows this better than Nicola Vitali of Wild Sea Expedition. A Horn of Africa expert, he has at least four phone numbers we know of; Italian, Sudanese and Djibouti mobile numbers and a Sudan Sat Phone. Depending on which way the winds of peace, war and politics blow, you never know, he might have an Eritrean and a Socotran (Yemeni) number soon too. He talks to The Mission about how he landed up fishing in this area and just what the adventurous fly angler can expect.