The border was a bit frustrating but we made it to Uganda and our 5th
country of the trip. Our stay at the Naiberi River Camp near Eldoret in
Kenya was just what we needed. It gave us time to sort ourselves out again
and prepare us for the next adventure ahead. The owner of the camp, Raj, was
really nice and he invited us down to his house in the grounds of the site
for coffee one evening to showcase his impressive home. Well I say he did,
he managed the odd word or three whilst engrossed in the movie on the TV,
while his girlfriend made us coffee and a sandwich and then showed us
around, and a very nice property it was too!! She then joined Raj on the
sofa and the TV watching so we ate and drank up and made our excuses. Very
kind of them to invite us but a bit strange.
Anyway, the next day we went shopping in Eldoret and stocked up on a few
essentials, including some cheese from the cheese factory, and on the way
back stopped of at Raj's factory where they make sweaters and blankets. One
of his foreman showed us around and it was quite an eye opener. Neither of
us have seen the whole process from thread to finished article before and it
was amazing. The place was not quite a sweat shop, but it was definitely a
hive of activity. From hand worked knitting machines to 'computerised'
machines to do all sorts. Even the process of reusing the waste material
from cutting the clothes and making the threads for the blankets was
engrossing. If you ever get the chance to visit such a place do so as it is
incredible. We had company in camp that night, our last there, as two
overland trucks pulled in for the night. Thankfully they were very civilised
and not noisy like the occupants of the seven trucks that invaded the Snake
Park back in Tanzania.
Today we left Eldoret, not before using up all our remaining Kenyan money on
fuel and food, and headed for the border at Malaba (N0 38.449 E34 15.118).
Well the Kenyan side was a mad scrum but we were processed efficiently. You
should have seen the huge queue of heavy goods vehicles waiting to be
processed thru to Uganda. It must have been several km long!! Then came the
Ugandan side! Immigration was fine and we coughed up the $50 each for our
entry visas and then off to customs. The customs man quite happily processed
our carnet but in order to get it back we had to pay the road tax which is a
flat fee for foreign vehicles rather than a per km fee for the locals. So,
he fills out a form and you have to go upstairs to the bank to pay the
money, Ush32750. We did not have any local currency and asked if we could
pay in USD. Now the very cheerful young lady at the counter, miserable as
sin, said we could so we produced our $20, at the given exchange rate, and
she said no go. If we wanted to pay with a note less than $50 we got a worse
rate! So we worked out that we needed another $1 to make up the difference.
I went and got a fistful of $1 notes from Mufasa and we returned. I thought
I would piss her off by giving her the money in eleven $1 and one $10 note.
OK no problem, oh but we had to pay another Ush2000 bank charges!! So we
coughed up 2 more crisp $1 notes and she then counted them, via a machine as
she didn't have enough fingers, and then UV checked them all. Finally she
did the paperwork but we had to go next door for another happy lady to enter
the details on her PC before printing off a receipt and giving it the
official stamp. Finally we were able to go and reclaim our Carnet and make a
run for it. Oh no silly me we had to stop again at the police point for them
to stamp the blinking receipt also! What a fiasco but at least after about 1
1/2 hours we were free and in Uganda!
Our first point of call a Barclays ATM in Tororo and then north to the
foothills of Mt Elgon and the town of Sipi to see the water falls there. The
falls are apparently one of the most spectacular in Uganda, and yep they are
pretty cool. We are camped at the Twilight Campsite (N1 20.104 E34 22.190)
in Sipi with a great view across the gorge to the falls, and I can hear them
gushing away as I write this sitting up in our tent tonight. Mt Elgon on the
other hand is engulfed in cloud but you never know it might just pop out at
some point. Perhaps tomorrow if the weather permits, had a huge storm pass a
couple of km by this evening, we will take a hike to check out the falls.
Then we head southwest to Jinga and the source of the Nile, not to mention
the white water rafting and the bungee jumping, gulp!
This may only be our first night in Uganda but I think we will like it here.
Things seem cheap, camping and the beer, and there is so much to do and see.
Friday 29 August 2008
Wednesday 27 August 2008
The rocky Kenyan roads, and the route to Uganda
Boy some of these northern Kenyan roads can give you a hard time. We knew
what to expect heading south from Moyale, but I guess ones memory sometimes
gives a false picture of what lies ahead. The drive to Marsabit was long and
hard again but not too bad, even though we weren't expecting such a bumpy
ride. Thankfully this time the drive passed without any incident and it was
a much relieved Mufasa and passengers that rolled into Marsabit and the
wonderful Henry's Rest Camp (N2 20.737 E37 57.934). At least when you
retrace earlier steps it is nice to know that there is a good camp waiting
for you. As it had been an early start leaving Moyale we arrived in Marsabit
not long after lunch so there was plenty of time for Sue to catch up with
the washing and for me to do a few jobs on Mufasa and the laptop. By
nightfall we had completed our tasks, eaten well, and stocked up with bread
and cakes from the bakery at the camp. Once again it was a windy night but
at least this time we were expecting it!
Another early start the next morning but a new road to navigate, west to
Lake Turkana and Loiyangalani. When we had filled up Mufasa on arriving in
Marsabit we were given some good advice on which road to take west. The
northern route via North Horr was a no no as apparently there had been some
bandit activity in the area and livestock had been stolen and a few police
and locals killed. Best avoided! So we chose the southern road, which was
about 20km shorter anyway, and it was a great choice. The first few
kilometres out of Marsabit were ugly on the road to Isiolo but we soon made
our turn west and the new road to explore. It had been a cold and misty
start up in the hills of Marsabit but we soon descended down via a lumpy
bumpy lava rock road to the Koroli Dessert. After about 25km of the lava
rocks we were in sand, nice smooth sand. It was a nice change and our first
real adventure across a sandy dessert in Mufasa. I guess it was good that we
enjoyed the experience as we had about 160km of it before we reached the C77
the other side and the road north to Loiyangalani. The down side for us with
the sand was the 'cement dust' sections! Thankfully you can see them coming
but when you hit them you disappear in a huge cloud of very fine dust. Most
of the time we managed to wind the windows up in time, but once or twice we
failed in our efforts. Imagine sitting nice and comfy driving along and then
some bugger chucks a bag of cement in your face thru the window! There were
the odd patches of deep sticky stuff to navigate too but with a bit of
judgement and a good helping of luck we managed to avoid getting stuck. The
dessert was beautiful and it was strange to come across several communities
in the middle of nowhere. What these people do for a living and how they
feed themselves and survive is a mystery to us. It was bad enough just
driving through the place let alone living there! Once at the C77 the road
took us north to Lake Turkana. The first 60km were nice sand with the odd
rock here and there, but then the lava fields started again. It took us
about 90 minutes to drive the last 20km on the rocks! It was a slow and hot
drive on the rocks, but the scenery was absolutely stunning. Again, how
people manage to survive in these conditions is lost on me. The lake is
quite a site when it comes in to view but with the sun high in the sky the
views were a bit hazy, but still spectacular. Loiyangalani is an oasis when
it appears, lush and green with palm trees, quite a change from the rocky
surrounds it sits in. Our stop for the night was the Palm Shade Camp (N2
45.377 E36 43.275) and very nice it was too if a tad pricey. The showers
were cool, well they were actually very warm thanks to the thermal spring
that the water was taken from, natural hot water. We had read that the wind
blows hard from the hills thru the town and it certainly did so that night.
Despite having plenty of shelter from the palm trees we were still rocked
around a fair bit and it took 3 attempts to finally sort out the flysheet to
stop it flapping around.
We had managed to communicate with Rich Kaz and Rebecca via email and SMS
and worked out that paths would cross in a day or so a bit further south at
Lake Bogorio NR. So we left the Palm Shade camp and hit the road south to
Maralal. Once we had renegotiated the 20km of lava rocks the road became
sandy again. The route took us up into the hills again and across the Akirim
Plateau and eventually via a few ups and downs to Maralal and the Yare Camel
Club (N1 03.526 E36 42.650). The good thing about being back in Kenya, apart
from the roads, was being able to camp and cook for ourselves again and the
shops in Maralal, few that they were, filled up the fruit and vegetable
boxes and also our bread and cake supply. The Camel Club, where the annual
Camel Derby is held, was a cool spot and cheap too. Despite having
resupplied we treated ourselves to a few beers and dinner in the restaurant
which was nice and gave Sue a break from the kitchen too! It was a chilly
night up in the tent and the dew in the morning was very heavy so it took a
while to get things dried off before we could hit the road again.
We had arranged to meet up with the Bushcats at a campsite in the Lake
Bogorio NR that day. The drive was good and we made the reserve just after
lunch. It is not the biggest of reserves but it has two attractions,
Flamingos and hot water geysers. The Flamingos were there in quite large
numbers but probably not at their peak and the geysers were great but quite
busy with day trippers. As it was a scorching day we decided to visit the
geysers again in the morning when they would be quieter and pushed on
through the reserve to check out the two campsite options and also try and
locate the Bushcats. Acacia camp was very nice but we needed to check out
Fig Tree Camp as the book had made it sound the better option. The track to
Fig Tree was long, narrow, and rocky. You could almost guarantee that if we
were going to bump into the Bushcats it would be on the track to the camp,
and we did. Thankfully it was only a few meters from the camp and Rich was
able to reverse back otherwise it would have been interesting if we were
half way along with a few km either way for one of us to back up on!! It was
great to catch up with each other again and we soon made tracks to Acacia
Camp as we thought it much nicer, and it was too. We camped right on the
shore of the lake with hundreds of Flamingos for company, and a few thousand
flies too!! Information was shared on our respective trips to Ethiopia and
Uganda and before we knew it the following morning had come and it was time
to go our separate ways again. First we headed off to check out the spouting
geysers and thankfully we had them to ourselves.
The Bushcats then headed north taking the route that we had come, Maralal,
Loiyangalani, Marsabit and then Ethiopia. We headed west and Eldoret. As we
were passing the Kerio Valley / Lake Kamnarock NR we thought we would stop
off and have lunch there. It took an hour to get there from the main road,
only about 25km, and the lake was pretty dry. So a quick lunch was had and
then we backtracked to the main road and continued on our way. Our
destination just west or Eldoret was the Naiberi River Camp and Resort (N0
26.864 E35 25.333). The Bushcats had stayed as had a few other people we had
met and it came highly recommended, and we can see why. The place is great
and we have it to ourselves too! We are in our own pitch with a huge bandas
to use. The facilities are great and there is a swimming pool too! It has
been a great spot to get ourselves sorted out again. The truck has been
cleaned in and out, the washing is again done including the bedding, and
Mufasa has been fixed up. I needed to rotate the tyres as we have done
nearly 15000km on them and the rear tyres are looking a bit sad. The rocky
roads have taken their toll on them and they look like they have been in a
battle zone with chunks missing from the treads. So our two spares are now
into the action. I have also fixed another couple of problems that raised
their heads. On leaving Maralal the Netstar Tracker alarm started to sound
after we went over a heavy bump. I had to cut the earth to the siren as the
remote would not disable the system. All seems ok now and I have rewired the
siren, so fingers crossed. The other problem was the lack of reversing
lights. After checking the fuses and cleaning out the very dusty rear light
clusters the problem was located. The switch that engages the lights when
reverse is selected sits in the side of the gearbox and I think a stone must
have spat up and broken it off. It has been glued back in place but a
replacement will be needed at some point.
We now have to plan our route out of Kenya seeing all we can before crossing
over to Uganda, a place that everyone seems to rave about!
what to expect heading south from Moyale, but I guess ones memory sometimes
gives a false picture of what lies ahead. The drive to Marsabit was long and
hard again but not too bad, even though we weren't expecting such a bumpy
ride. Thankfully this time the drive passed without any incident and it was
a much relieved Mufasa and passengers that rolled into Marsabit and the
wonderful Henry's Rest Camp (N2 20.737 E37 57.934). At least when you
retrace earlier steps it is nice to know that there is a good camp waiting
for you. As it had been an early start leaving Moyale we arrived in Marsabit
not long after lunch so there was plenty of time for Sue to catch up with
the washing and for me to do a few jobs on Mufasa and the laptop. By
nightfall we had completed our tasks, eaten well, and stocked up with bread
and cakes from the bakery at the camp. Once again it was a windy night but
at least this time we were expecting it!
Another early start the next morning but a new road to navigate, west to
Lake Turkana and Loiyangalani. When we had filled up Mufasa on arriving in
Marsabit we were given some good advice on which road to take west. The
northern route via North Horr was a no no as apparently there had been some
bandit activity in the area and livestock had been stolen and a few police
and locals killed. Best avoided! So we chose the southern road, which was
about 20km shorter anyway, and it was a great choice. The first few
kilometres out of Marsabit were ugly on the road to Isiolo but we soon made
our turn west and the new road to explore. It had been a cold and misty
start up in the hills of Marsabit but we soon descended down via a lumpy
bumpy lava rock road to the Koroli Dessert. After about 25km of the lava
rocks we were in sand, nice smooth sand. It was a nice change and our first
real adventure across a sandy dessert in Mufasa. I guess it was good that we
enjoyed the experience as we had about 160km of it before we reached the C77
the other side and the road north to Loiyangalani. The down side for us with
the sand was the 'cement dust' sections! Thankfully you can see them coming
but when you hit them you disappear in a huge cloud of very fine dust. Most
of the time we managed to wind the windows up in time, but once or twice we
failed in our efforts. Imagine sitting nice and comfy driving along and then
some bugger chucks a bag of cement in your face thru the window! There were
the odd patches of deep sticky stuff to navigate too but with a bit of
judgement and a good helping of luck we managed to avoid getting stuck. The
dessert was beautiful and it was strange to come across several communities
in the middle of nowhere. What these people do for a living and how they
feed themselves and survive is a mystery to us. It was bad enough just
driving through the place let alone living there! Once at the C77 the road
took us north to Lake Turkana. The first 60km were nice sand with the odd
rock here and there, but then the lava fields started again. It took us
about 90 minutes to drive the last 20km on the rocks! It was a slow and hot
drive on the rocks, but the scenery was absolutely stunning. Again, how
people manage to survive in these conditions is lost on me. The lake is
quite a site when it comes in to view but with the sun high in the sky the
views were a bit hazy, but still spectacular. Loiyangalani is an oasis when
it appears, lush and green with palm trees, quite a change from the rocky
surrounds it sits in. Our stop for the night was the Palm Shade Camp (N2
45.377 E36 43.275) and very nice it was too if a tad pricey. The showers
were cool, well they were actually very warm thanks to the thermal spring
that the water was taken from, natural hot water. We had read that the wind
blows hard from the hills thru the town and it certainly did so that night.
Despite having plenty of shelter from the palm trees we were still rocked
around a fair bit and it took 3 attempts to finally sort out the flysheet to
stop it flapping around.
We had managed to communicate with Rich Kaz and Rebecca via email and SMS
and worked out that paths would cross in a day or so a bit further south at
Lake Bogorio NR. So we left the Palm Shade camp and hit the road south to
Maralal. Once we had renegotiated the 20km of lava rocks the road became
sandy again. The route took us up into the hills again and across the Akirim
Plateau and eventually via a few ups and downs to Maralal and the Yare Camel
Club (N1 03.526 E36 42.650). The good thing about being back in Kenya, apart
from the roads, was being able to camp and cook for ourselves again and the
shops in Maralal, few that they were, filled up the fruit and vegetable
boxes and also our bread and cake supply. The Camel Club, where the annual
Camel Derby is held, was a cool spot and cheap too. Despite having
resupplied we treated ourselves to a few beers and dinner in the restaurant
which was nice and gave Sue a break from the kitchen too! It was a chilly
night up in the tent and the dew in the morning was very heavy so it took a
while to get things dried off before we could hit the road again.
We had arranged to meet up with the Bushcats at a campsite in the Lake
Bogorio NR that day. The drive was good and we made the reserve just after
lunch. It is not the biggest of reserves but it has two attractions,
Flamingos and hot water geysers. The Flamingos were there in quite large
numbers but probably not at their peak and the geysers were great but quite
busy with day trippers. As it was a scorching day we decided to visit the
geysers again in the morning when they would be quieter and pushed on
through the reserve to check out the two campsite options and also try and
locate the Bushcats. Acacia camp was very nice but we needed to check out
Fig Tree Camp as the book had made it sound the better option. The track to
Fig Tree was long, narrow, and rocky. You could almost guarantee that if we
were going to bump into the Bushcats it would be on the track to the camp,
and we did. Thankfully it was only a few meters from the camp and Rich was
able to reverse back otherwise it would have been interesting if we were
half way along with a few km either way for one of us to back up on!! It was
great to catch up with each other again and we soon made tracks to Acacia
Camp as we thought it much nicer, and it was too. We camped right on the
shore of the lake with hundreds of Flamingos for company, and a few thousand
flies too!! Information was shared on our respective trips to Ethiopia and
Uganda and before we knew it the following morning had come and it was time
to go our separate ways again. First we headed off to check out the spouting
geysers and thankfully we had them to ourselves.
The Bushcats then headed north taking the route that we had come, Maralal,
Loiyangalani, Marsabit and then Ethiopia. We headed west and Eldoret. As we
were passing the Kerio Valley / Lake Kamnarock NR we thought we would stop
off and have lunch there. It took an hour to get there from the main road,
only about 25km, and the lake was pretty dry. So a quick lunch was had and
then we backtracked to the main road and continued on our way. Our
destination just west or Eldoret was the Naiberi River Camp and Resort (N0
26.864 E35 25.333). The Bushcats had stayed as had a few other people we had
met and it came highly recommended, and we can see why. The place is great
and we have it to ourselves too! We are in our own pitch with a huge bandas
to use. The facilities are great and there is a swimming pool too! It has
been a great spot to get ourselves sorted out again. The truck has been
cleaned in and out, the washing is again done including the bedding, and
Mufasa has been fixed up. I needed to rotate the tyres as we have done
nearly 15000km on them and the rear tyres are looking a bit sad. The rocky
roads have taken their toll on them and they look like they have been in a
battle zone with chunks missing from the treads. So our two spares are now
into the action. I have also fixed another couple of problems that raised
their heads. On leaving Maralal the Netstar Tracker alarm started to sound
after we went over a heavy bump. I had to cut the earth to the siren as the
remote would not disable the system. All seems ok now and I have rewired the
siren, so fingers crossed. The other problem was the lack of reversing
lights. After checking the fuses and cleaning out the very dusty rear light
clusters the problem was located. The switch that engages the lights when
reverse is selected sits in the side of the gearbox and I think a stone must
have spat up and broken it off. It has been glued back in place but a
replacement will be needed at some point.
We now have to plan our route out of Kenya seeing all we can before crossing
over to Uganda, a place that everyone seems to rave about!
Wednesday 20 August 2008
One adventure completes and another is restarted
The best made plans and all that. We are now back across the border in Kenya
and our Ethiopian adventure kind of came to a early end. Our plans of
visiting the Omo Valley and the various tribes there came to nothing as we
thought they might. In Arba Minch we enquired at the very helpful tourist
office as to whether a guide was necessary to visit the Omo area and they
suggested it would not be easy visiting without one. Obviously for us with
only 2 seats in Mufasa taking a guide is not really an option, well apart
from having the poor chap sit on the roof rack! The villages we would have
visited are a bit remote and communications with the local people would be
tricky without someone to help. The other big problem is that you get mobbed
by people wanting things from you especially money for taking photographs
and without someone to shield you from the worst of it the experience would
not be great, not that it would be great anyway. We are not comfortable with
the meat market approach to tourism of picking people that you want to
photograph, having them stand where you want them, snapping away, and then
paying for the privilege. It just is not our way of doing things. I know it
is how these people make their living these days as tourism is their only
real income but it just doesn't do it for either of us. So we made the
decision to just aim back to Moyale and cross back to Kenya instead, and if
you want to see pictures of the various colourful tribes from the Omo Valley
then try the internet!
We stayed the night in Arba Minch at the Bekele Mola Hotel (N6 00.317 E37
33.095) camping in their grounds and it was an intoxicating evening, of the
alcoholic type! The alcohol was courtesy of a very nice young couple Wiz and
Juju (not sure if that is how you spell their names so apologies to the two
of you if you get around to reading this) who are on their way to Kenya from
the UK. Juju is Kenyan and is returning home for a while. They should now be
in the Omo Valley but I don't think they had plans of visiting the villages
as they are not into the meat market approach to tourism either!
Before leaving Arba Minch we were very grateful for the services of the
mechanics at the Mekane Yesus Technical College for giving our rear drum
brakes a good clean out. There were making all sorts of nasty noises and had
half of Africa clogging them up!! The college is part of a project run by an
Evangelical Church mission there and they have such a good reputation that
they are affiliated to Toyota in Ethiopia! It was quite an experience having
them do the work and we were charged the outrageous amount of Birr60 (£3)
for the labour, about an hour, oh and at least 10 or 12 keen workers!! Best
£3 I have ever spent.
Our last night in Ethiopia was spent where our first night was, camping in
the grounds of the Yabello motel (N4 53.031 E38 08.414). It was still as
average as it was a few weeks ago but at least the smelly toilet now flushed
and there was water in the tap outside. So good for them, some sort of
progress!! No goats to slaughter this time, just a couple of inquisitive
cows and a donkey. Thankfully the border crossing was a breeze today. No
waiting around for the Ethiopian side to open up as we made sure we were in
Moyale during the opening hours. The Kenyan side was efficient and we were
back at the KWS campsite by midday. So tomorrow its back on the bumpy road
to Marsabit before heading west to Lake Turkana rather than continuing south
to Isiolo.
Our impressions of Ethiopia, an amazing country with so much to offer but
whether it will get there or not who knows. Everything was pretty cheap,
from diesel to food and accommodation. The people were very friendly and
more than willing to help out if needed. The good old Faranji Frenzy was an
experience and pretty amusing most of the time although the constant
attention does get a bit tiring.
N3 31.081 E39 03.007
and our Ethiopian adventure kind of came to a early end. Our plans of
visiting the Omo Valley and the various tribes there came to nothing as we
thought they might. In Arba Minch we enquired at the very helpful tourist
office as to whether a guide was necessary to visit the Omo area and they
suggested it would not be easy visiting without one. Obviously for us with
only 2 seats in Mufasa taking a guide is not really an option, well apart
from having the poor chap sit on the roof rack! The villages we would have
visited are a bit remote and communications with the local people would be
tricky without someone to help. The other big problem is that you get mobbed
by people wanting things from you especially money for taking photographs
and without someone to shield you from the worst of it the experience would
not be great, not that it would be great anyway. We are not comfortable with
the meat market approach to tourism of picking people that you want to
photograph, having them stand where you want them, snapping away, and then
paying for the privilege. It just is not our way of doing things. I know it
is how these people make their living these days as tourism is their only
real income but it just doesn't do it for either of us. So we made the
decision to just aim back to Moyale and cross back to Kenya instead, and if
you want to see pictures of the various colourful tribes from the Omo Valley
then try the internet!
We stayed the night in Arba Minch at the Bekele Mola Hotel (N6 00.317 E37
33.095) camping in their grounds and it was an intoxicating evening, of the
alcoholic type! The alcohol was courtesy of a very nice young couple Wiz and
Juju (not sure if that is how you spell their names so apologies to the two
of you if you get around to reading this) who are on their way to Kenya from
the UK. Juju is Kenyan and is returning home for a while. They should now be
in the Omo Valley but I don't think they had plans of visiting the villages
as they are not into the meat market approach to tourism either!
Before leaving Arba Minch we were very grateful for the services of the
mechanics at the Mekane Yesus Technical College for giving our rear drum
brakes a good clean out. There were making all sorts of nasty noises and had
half of Africa clogging them up!! The college is part of a project run by an
Evangelical Church mission there and they have such a good reputation that
they are affiliated to Toyota in Ethiopia! It was quite an experience having
them do the work and we were charged the outrageous amount of Birr60 (£3)
for the labour, about an hour, oh and at least 10 or 12 keen workers!! Best
£3 I have ever spent.
Our last night in Ethiopia was spent where our first night was, camping in
the grounds of the Yabello motel (N4 53.031 E38 08.414). It was still as
average as it was a few weeks ago but at least the smelly toilet now flushed
and there was water in the tap outside. So good for them, some sort of
progress!! No goats to slaughter this time, just a couple of inquisitive
cows and a donkey. Thankfully the border crossing was a breeze today. No
waiting around for the Ethiopian side to open up as we made sure we were in
Moyale during the opening hours. The Kenyan side was efficient and we were
back at the KWS campsite by midday. So tomorrow its back on the bumpy road
to Marsabit before heading west to Lake Turkana rather than continuing south
to Isiolo.
Our impressions of Ethiopia, an amazing country with so much to offer but
whether it will get there or not who knows. Everything was pretty cheap,
from diesel to food and accommodation. The people were very friendly and
more than willing to help out if needed. The good old Faranji Frenzy was an
experience and pretty amusing most of the time although the constant
attention does get a bit tiring.
N3 31.081 E39 03.007
Preparation for the Final leg of Ethiopia
I must admit that I am feeling a little maxed out on Ethiopia by now.
Whether it is all the driving, the intense scenery, the very filling
national food, or just the constant Faranji (foreigner) fever, I don't know.
Our final leg of our visit here is about to start and it could be the making
or breaking of our experience of this country.
We had just what the doctor ordered at Gorgora, Tim and Kim's project. There
is not much built yet but things take time in Africa. At the moment it is
just a bush camp on the shores of the lake with no facilities and not a soul
around to pester us or demand anything from us, heaven! I also managed to
isolate the windscreen washer relay that I presume is the root of our washer
problem. Now we no longer have the washer facility or intermittent wipe, but
at least the wipers only work when instructed. We will try and get hold of
another relay at some point but if it doesn't get fixed before Johannesburg
then no problem. It was also Paul's birthday so we celebrated late into our
second night by the lake. Sadly the following morning it was time to part
company with Paul and Lizzie as they were Sudan bound and we were heading
south towards Addis. Hopefully at the time of writing this they have
successfully managed to enter Sudan and head towards Egypt. N12 13.691 E37
17.966
Our stopping point on the way back to Addis was Bahir Dar on the southern
shore of Lake Tana and the Ghion Hotel where we camped the night. As for the
town itself, we didn't venture very far but it is a large bustling place and
purely a transit stop for us. N11 35.878 E37 23.155
Our final drive on the northern circuit back to Addis was uneventful and it
was no surprise to us that we were greeted back in Addis with rain. It was
raining when we left two weeks prior and it was wet and gloomy when we
departed for the final time the next morning. After eventually finding Mr
Martin's Cozy Place and being allowed to camp for the night we made our plan
for the next stage of our trip. N9 00.233 E38 46.809
Mufasa was due a service, well mainly an oil change and fuel filter change.
We checked out one option in Addis but they seemed clueless so we decided to
head south to Awassa and see what we could arrange there. The road was good
and there were plenty of overturned trucks and buses along the way, the norm
for Ethiopia. A brief stop in Ziway for lunch, cold pizza and Spriss (a
layered papaya/avocado/mango juice) and Awassa was reached early afternoon.
First stop the Toyota garage to see what they could do for us. Hmmm. Ask
them to do a simple service and they just don't seem to understand. I
eventually managed to get a price out of them despite them just wanting us
to bring the car and then tell us how much after the work had been done! It
all seemed a bit pricey and as I was itching to get my hands dirty I decided
to do the work myself. Thankfully Paul had been very helpful in explaining
some of the routine maintenance jobs to me so I was well armed to tackle the
greasing and other jobs that needed to be done. The fuel filter was a bit of
a pain as whoever had put the last one on had done it far to tight for me to
remove, but thanks to the help of a local mechanic I had it sorted and
replaced in no time. I cleaned the air filter and checked all sorts of
things. The final job of changing the oil was achieved with the help of the
man who is looking after the campsite we are staying at. So hopefully Mufasa
is now fit and healthy for the next onslaught Africa can throw at him. Sue
even gave him a clean, so for the moment at least he looks white and not
muddy brown!
We have had a few relaxing days here at the Adenium Campsite and tomorrow we
head of to the Omo valley and the delights or horrors that it has to offer!
N7 04.564 E38 29.043
Whether it is all the driving, the intense scenery, the very filling
national food, or just the constant Faranji (foreigner) fever, I don't know.
Our final leg of our visit here is about to start and it could be the making
or breaking of our experience of this country.
We had just what the doctor ordered at Gorgora, Tim and Kim's project. There
is not much built yet but things take time in Africa. At the moment it is
just a bush camp on the shores of the lake with no facilities and not a soul
around to pester us or demand anything from us, heaven! I also managed to
isolate the windscreen washer relay that I presume is the root of our washer
problem. Now we no longer have the washer facility or intermittent wipe, but
at least the wipers only work when instructed. We will try and get hold of
another relay at some point but if it doesn't get fixed before Johannesburg
then no problem. It was also Paul's birthday so we celebrated late into our
second night by the lake. Sadly the following morning it was time to part
company with Paul and Lizzie as they were Sudan bound and we were heading
south towards Addis. Hopefully at the time of writing this they have
successfully managed to enter Sudan and head towards Egypt. N12 13.691 E37
17.966
Our stopping point on the way back to Addis was Bahir Dar on the southern
shore of Lake Tana and the Ghion Hotel where we camped the night. As for the
town itself, we didn't venture very far but it is a large bustling place and
purely a transit stop for us. N11 35.878 E37 23.155
Our final drive on the northern circuit back to Addis was uneventful and it
was no surprise to us that we were greeted back in Addis with rain. It was
raining when we left two weeks prior and it was wet and gloomy when we
departed for the final time the next morning. After eventually finding Mr
Martin's Cozy Place and being allowed to camp for the night we made our plan
for the next stage of our trip. N9 00.233 E38 46.809
Mufasa was due a service, well mainly an oil change and fuel filter change.
We checked out one option in Addis but they seemed clueless so we decided to
head south to Awassa and see what we could arrange there. The road was good
and there were plenty of overturned trucks and buses along the way, the norm
for Ethiopia. A brief stop in Ziway for lunch, cold pizza and Spriss (a
layered papaya/avocado/mango juice) and Awassa was reached early afternoon.
First stop the Toyota garage to see what they could do for us. Hmmm. Ask
them to do a simple service and they just don't seem to understand. I
eventually managed to get a price out of them despite them just wanting us
to bring the car and then tell us how much after the work had been done! It
all seemed a bit pricey and as I was itching to get my hands dirty I decided
to do the work myself. Thankfully Paul had been very helpful in explaining
some of the routine maintenance jobs to me so I was well armed to tackle the
greasing and other jobs that needed to be done. The fuel filter was a bit of
a pain as whoever had put the last one on had done it far to tight for me to
remove, but thanks to the help of a local mechanic I had it sorted and
replaced in no time. I cleaned the air filter and checked all sorts of
things. The final job of changing the oil was achieved with the help of the
man who is looking after the campsite we are staying at. So hopefully Mufasa
is now fit and healthy for the next onslaught Africa can throw at him. Sue
even gave him a clean, so for the moment at least he looks white and not
muddy brown!
We have had a few relaxing days here at the Adenium Campsite and tomorrow we
head of to the Omo valley and the delights or horrors that it has to offer!
N7 04.564 E38 29.043
The scenic but very wet Historic Ethiopian Highlands
It seems strange now but we are kind of heading for home. Our most northern
point on the trip has been passed and the road leads us south, eventually!
We had a pleasant surprise at dinner on our last night in Lalibela. Paul and
Lizzie strolled in to the restaurant that we were eating at, small world.
They had seen Mufasa at our hotel but weren't staying there as they had
found an alternative, so they left a message for us at reception just in
case we didn't bump into each other. We had a nice evening together and
breakfast the following morning before Sue and I set off north and they
stayed to see the churches. We made a plan to meet up in the next town on
the route, Mekele.
On our way to Mekele we stopped off to see another church, one that we had
been told about by our guide in Lalibela. It was quite a detour from our
route on a slow bumpy rocky road but the church was quite impressive, built
in a huge cave, and supported on wooden beams covered in straw that held it
above the water in the cave's bottom. After returning to the main road we
continued on what we had been led to believe would be an easy 6 hour drive
from Lalibela to Mekele. Not quite right. The road ambles through
spectacular scenery and mountains. It climbs up then drops down before
climbing back up again etc. It was slow going at times even though it was a
pretty good gravel track. Mufasa doesn't do hills at speed so 1st and 2nd
gears were given a good test. Eventually we made it to the main north south
road from Addis to Aksum which is very good tarmac and we thought we would
be able to speed on thru the final 150km or so. Little did we know that
there were still several high passes to climb over which even on a good
tarmac road still takes plenty of time and more use of 1st and 2nd gears.
Mufasa especially hates the combination of steep hills, high altitude
(always over 2000m and up to 3500m), and crap diesel! Thankfully the road
was pretty quiet and the rain held off but it was still pretty gloomy in the
dark and misty mountains. We arrived in Mekele just before 21h00 and managed
to find a nice hotel, the Hill Top, to stay at and thankfully the restaurant
didn't close until 22h00 so we managed to fill our bellies after the long
drive before collapsing into bed for a much needed rest. N13 30.116 E39
29.185
The next morning we headed into town to find an internet cafe to email Paul
and Lizzie the name of our hotel so that we could meet up later that day
once they had made the long haul from Lalibela. One problem, the local phone
lines were down, so no internet anywhere in town, bugger. We would have to
try early the next morning to see if we could catch them. We spent the
afternoon back in our hotel room watching TV, as it was a bit soggy outside
with several heavy downpours. First thing the next day we did a tour of the
local hotels to try and locate Paul and Lizzie, no luck. The phone lines
were back so we tried the internet and there was an email from them saying
they were heading off to Adigrat as they hadn't heard from us. It had only
just been sent so we emailed them to see if they were still online. Luckily
they were and we drove across town to meet up.
After a meagre breakfast of coffee and cake we all set off for Adigrat. Our
route took us through the area of the Tigray churches. We planned to see a
few of them, which we managed, but it was quite an adventure. Not long after
leaving the main road we were mobbed by locals, one of which agreed to guide
us around a few churches for a small fee and also to find the priests with
the keys for each of the churches we would visit. The 3 churches we managed
to see were pretty amazing. We had the guide and priests hanging off our
trucks at one point to transport them around with us. Roof racks and running
boards come in pretty handy at times like this. Unfortunately the heavens
opened at the third church and we all got pretty wet getting back to the
trucks, but not as wet as the guys who were hanging on to the side of the
trucks on the way back to drop them off! The priest from the final church
was hanging off my side of Mufasa and he looked a touch damp and muddy by
the time we got him back to his house, poor chap.
Now we have been fortunate not to have had any real problems with Mufasa so
far, apart from the two punctures. So when our first issue arose it was a
bit annoying. Northern Ethiopia is pretty (extremely!) wet at this time of
year especially up in the highlands so the last thing you want to fail is
your windscreen wipers! We were heading to Adigrat in the rain and suddenly
the windscreen washer came on uninvited and soon ran out of water. The rain
had been pouring down but thankfully it stopped and we were able to
disconnect the washer motor to stop it burning out, but the wipers would not
stop when the ignition was switched on so the fuse had to be removed. If the
wipers were needed the fuse had to be reinserted again and then removed when
it was dry, which we did a few times before we eventually made Adigrat. Now
the strange thing is that the fuse for the wipers also seems to be the fuse
for the speedo and the odometer! Yep you read correct. With the fuse out the
speedo and odometer do not function. By design I don't know but if you want
to keep your Land Cruiser mileage down and you don't need windscreen wipers
then you know what to try! Me, I am too honest for that sort of game! We
checked into the Hohoma Hotel in Adigrat as Sue had been wanting to stay
there after reading the great review of the hotel in our guidebook, and it
didn't disappoint. The only problem we had was the pesky kids trying to wash
our trucks despite us telling them several times to leave them alone. I know
they are just trying to earn a few pennies but they clean them, with a mucky
sponge and gritty water, and then demand money from you even though you
never invited them to clean them in the first place. One of the waitresses
from the hotel gave them a mouth full at one point and they finally left.
N14 16.771 E39 27.662
The next destination on the historic tour was Aksum via the monastery of
Debre Damo. It is a men only destination up on the side of a rocky hill in
northern Ethiopia. You walk up to the base of a 15m sheer rock face and get
hoisted up to the monastery by the priests on a very iffy looking rope
around your waist. Well that is the theory at least. In the end Paul and I
didn't make it that far. Despite our guide books saying the fee for the
monastery including the hoist was Birr50 they wouldn't budge on demanding
Birr130 each. It may not seem like much money, about £7, but they were
trying to rip us off so we told them to forget it. As I keep telling some of
the locals in this country 'we may have a white face but we aint stupid!' It
was a shame not to do the hoist and see the monastery but it's a matter of
principles. They rip us off and then charge even more for the next person,
sod em! Instead we motored off to Aksum and the amazing Stelae fields. We
arrived late afternoon after more hills and windscreen wiper stops, so we
only had time for a few jobs before the evening and the torrential downpour.
The Kaleb hotel was letting us camp in their grounds but after 30 minutes of
very heavy wind and rain Paul and Lizzie's tent was drenched, but luckily we
hadn't put ours up, so we took rooms instead. N14 07.349 E38 43.387
The next morning and it was time to see the sights of Aksum. What can I say?
Amazing, breathtaking, awe-inspiring? None of the above! Despite all the
hype in the guidebooks we were all very disappointed with what we saw. The
biggest Stelae, that the Italians nicked and are now reinstating, is covered
in scaffolding and the rest is either poorly looked after or except one of
the tombs locked. The cheek is that you pay to go into the area of the
Stelae but in fact you could actually just stand outside and see most of it
for free. The Stelae in case you don't know are large obelisks that were
hewn out of rock and erected at some point during the time of the Aksum
civilisation that arose around 400BC to over thousand years later. Obviously
this is impressive in itself, but as a UNESCO site it is severely lacking.
So a little disappointed we hit the road to Debark, the gateway to the
Simien NP. We arrived late, in the dark, and the rain. Why? More very
scenic, wet and muddy roads. Good fun to drive but very tiring and slow
going, oh and more windscreen wiper stops. Thankfully the Simien Park hotel
in town, when we eventually found it, was pretty new and the rooms were nice
and clean. Sue and I had originally planned to head into the Simien NP but
we needed to take a guard with us, no room, and the weather was crap, so we
decided that in the morning we would continue on to Gonder with Paul and
Lizzie. N13 09.160 E37 53.910
Thankfully Debark to Gonder was a short drive by comparison to some of the
long hauls we had recently done. Now Gonder is the real deal. The Belegez
Pension was a delightful place to rest for the night and enable us to check
out the town and its historic sights. We were fortunate to bump into a Dutch
couple, Tim and Kim, at the Belegez. They live in Ethiopia down at Gorgora
on the north shore of Lake Tana, about 70km from Gonder. I would have to say
that they are a very courageous couple, in that they are setting up a new
campsite on the lake as a charitable trust for the locals in the village.
Their aim is to have everything complete within 5 years and then leave it
for the locals to run when they head back to Holland. Now whether it will be
run or ruined after they have departed who knows. Anyway we took GPS
coordinates from them and made a plan to visit after Gonder. Our host at the
Belegez, Felamon, agreed to be our tour guide for Gonder. The main
attraction in town is the Royal Enclosure and Fasilidas' Palace, a
collection of castles/palaces built in the 17th centaury by the various
rulers of both Ethiopia and the local districts. In a way it was just like a
visit to a very English castle but set in the depths of the Ethiopian
Highlands, but very impressive and pleasant none the less. Felamon was very
knowledgeable and blew our brains with all the information he had to offer.
We also managed a visit to Fasilidas' Baths and also the mightily impressive
Debre Berhan Selessie Church before we set off late afternoon to find Tim
and Kim's project at Gorgora.
N12 36.631 E37 28.323
point on the trip has been passed and the road leads us south, eventually!
We had a pleasant surprise at dinner on our last night in Lalibela. Paul and
Lizzie strolled in to the restaurant that we were eating at, small world.
They had seen Mufasa at our hotel but weren't staying there as they had
found an alternative, so they left a message for us at reception just in
case we didn't bump into each other. We had a nice evening together and
breakfast the following morning before Sue and I set off north and they
stayed to see the churches. We made a plan to meet up in the next town on
the route, Mekele.
On our way to Mekele we stopped off to see another church, one that we had
been told about by our guide in Lalibela. It was quite a detour from our
route on a slow bumpy rocky road but the church was quite impressive, built
in a huge cave, and supported on wooden beams covered in straw that held it
above the water in the cave's bottom. After returning to the main road we
continued on what we had been led to believe would be an easy 6 hour drive
from Lalibela to Mekele. Not quite right. The road ambles through
spectacular scenery and mountains. It climbs up then drops down before
climbing back up again etc. It was slow going at times even though it was a
pretty good gravel track. Mufasa doesn't do hills at speed so 1st and 2nd
gears were given a good test. Eventually we made it to the main north south
road from Addis to Aksum which is very good tarmac and we thought we would
be able to speed on thru the final 150km or so. Little did we know that
there were still several high passes to climb over which even on a good
tarmac road still takes plenty of time and more use of 1st and 2nd gears.
Mufasa especially hates the combination of steep hills, high altitude
(always over 2000m and up to 3500m), and crap diesel! Thankfully the road
was pretty quiet and the rain held off but it was still pretty gloomy in the
dark and misty mountains. We arrived in Mekele just before 21h00 and managed
to find a nice hotel, the Hill Top, to stay at and thankfully the restaurant
didn't close until 22h00 so we managed to fill our bellies after the long
drive before collapsing into bed for a much needed rest. N13 30.116 E39
29.185
The next morning we headed into town to find an internet cafe to email Paul
and Lizzie the name of our hotel so that we could meet up later that day
once they had made the long haul from Lalibela. One problem, the local phone
lines were down, so no internet anywhere in town, bugger. We would have to
try early the next morning to see if we could catch them. We spent the
afternoon back in our hotel room watching TV, as it was a bit soggy outside
with several heavy downpours. First thing the next day we did a tour of the
local hotels to try and locate Paul and Lizzie, no luck. The phone lines
were back so we tried the internet and there was an email from them saying
they were heading off to Adigrat as they hadn't heard from us. It had only
just been sent so we emailed them to see if they were still online. Luckily
they were and we drove across town to meet up.
After a meagre breakfast of coffee and cake we all set off for Adigrat. Our
route took us through the area of the Tigray churches. We planned to see a
few of them, which we managed, but it was quite an adventure. Not long after
leaving the main road we were mobbed by locals, one of which agreed to guide
us around a few churches for a small fee and also to find the priests with
the keys for each of the churches we would visit. The 3 churches we managed
to see were pretty amazing. We had the guide and priests hanging off our
trucks at one point to transport them around with us. Roof racks and running
boards come in pretty handy at times like this. Unfortunately the heavens
opened at the third church and we all got pretty wet getting back to the
trucks, but not as wet as the guys who were hanging on to the side of the
trucks on the way back to drop them off! The priest from the final church
was hanging off my side of Mufasa and he looked a touch damp and muddy by
the time we got him back to his house, poor chap.
Now we have been fortunate not to have had any real problems with Mufasa so
far, apart from the two punctures. So when our first issue arose it was a
bit annoying. Northern Ethiopia is pretty (extremely!) wet at this time of
year especially up in the highlands so the last thing you want to fail is
your windscreen wipers! We were heading to Adigrat in the rain and suddenly
the windscreen washer came on uninvited and soon ran out of water. The rain
had been pouring down but thankfully it stopped and we were able to
disconnect the washer motor to stop it burning out, but the wipers would not
stop when the ignition was switched on so the fuse had to be removed. If the
wipers were needed the fuse had to be reinserted again and then removed when
it was dry, which we did a few times before we eventually made Adigrat. Now
the strange thing is that the fuse for the wipers also seems to be the fuse
for the speedo and the odometer! Yep you read correct. With the fuse out the
speedo and odometer do not function. By design I don't know but if you want
to keep your Land Cruiser mileage down and you don't need windscreen wipers
then you know what to try! Me, I am too honest for that sort of game! We
checked into the Hohoma Hotel in Adigrat as Sue had been wanting to stay
there after reading the great review of the hotel in our guidebook, and it
didn't disappoint. The only problem we had was the pesky kids trying to wash
our trucks despite us telling them several times to leave them alone. I know
they are just trying to earn a few pennies but they clean them, with a mucky
sponge and gritty water, and then demand money from you even though you
never invited them to clean them in the first place. One of the waitresses
from the hotel gave them a mouth full at one point and they finally left.
N14 16.771 E39 27.662
The next destination on the historic tour was Aksum via the monastery of
Debre Damo. It is a men only destination up on the side of a rocky hill in
northern Ethiopia. You walk up to the base of a 15m sheer rock face and get
hoisted up to the monastery by the priests on a very iffy looking rope
around your waist. Well that is the theory at least. In the end Paul and I
didn't make it that far. Despite our guide books saying the fee for the
monastery including the hoist was Birr50 they wouldn't budge on demanding
Birr130 each. It may not seem like much money, about £7, but they were
trying to rip us off so we told them to forget it. As I keep telling some of
the locals in this country 'we may have a white face but we aint stupid!' It
was a shame not to do the hoist and see the monastery but it's a matter of
principles. They rip us off and then charge even more for the next person,
sod em! Instead we motored off to Aksum and the amazing Stelae fields. We
arrived late afternoon after more hills and windscreen wiper stops, so we
only had time for a few jobs before the evening and the torrential downpour.
The Kaleb hotel was letting us camp in their grounds but after 30 minutes of
very heavy wind and rain Paul and Lizzie's tent was drenched, but luckily we
hadn't put ours up, so we took rooms instead. N14 07.349 E38 43.387
The next morning and it was time to see the sights of Aksum. What can I say?
Amazing, breathtaking, awe-inspiring? None of the above! Despite all the
hype in the guidebooks we were all very disappointed with what we saw. The
biggest Stelae, that the Italians nicked and are now reinstating, is covered
in scaffolding and the rest is either poorly looked after or except one of
the tombs locked. The cheek is that you pay to go into the area of the
Stelae but in fact you could actually just stand outside and see most of it
for free. The Stelae in case you don't know are large obelisks that were
hewn out of rock and erected at some point during the time of the Aksum
civilisation that arose around 400BC to over thousand years later. Obviously
this is impressive in itself, but as a UNESCO site it is severely lacking.
So a little disappointed we hit the road to Debark, the gateway to the
Simien NP. We arrived late, in the dark, and the rain. Why? More very
scenic, wet and muddy roads. Good fun to drive but very tiring and slow
going, oh and more windscreen wiper stops. Thankfully the Simien Park hotel
in town, when we eventually found it, was pretty new and the rooms were nice
and clean. Sue and I had originally planned to head into the Simien NP but
we needed to take a guard with us, no room, and the weather was crap, so we
decided that in the morning we would continue on to Gonder with Paul and
Lizzie. N13 09.160 E37 53.910
Thankfully Debark to Gonder was a short drive by comparison to some of the
long hauls we had recently done. Now Gonder is the real deal. The Belegez
Pension was a delightful place to rest for the night and enable us to check
out the town and its historic sights. We were fortunate to bump into a Dutch
couple, Tim and Kim, at the Belegez. They live in Ethiopia down at Gorgora
on the north shore of Lake Tana, about 70km from Gonder. I would have to say
that they are a very courageous couple, in that they are setting up a new
campsite on the lake as a charitable trust for the locals in the village.
Their aim is to have everything complete within 5 years and then leave it
for the locals to run when they head back to Holland. Now whether it will be
run or ruined after they have departed who knows. Anyway we took GPS
coordinates from them and made a plan to visit after Gonder. Our host at the
Belegez, Felamon, agreed to be our tour guide for Gonder. The main
attraction in town is the Royal Enclosure and Fasilidas' Palace, a
collection of castles/palaces built in the 17th centaury by the various
rulers of both Ethiopia and the local districts. In a way it was just like a
visit to a very English castle but set in the depths of the Ethiopian
Highlands, but very impressive and pleasant none the less. Felamon was very
knowledgeable and blew our brains with all the information he had to offer.
We also managed a visit to Fasilidas' Baths and also the mightily impressive
Debre Berhan Selessie Church before we set off late afternoon to find Tim
and Kim's project at Gorgora.
N12 36.631 E37 28.323
Wednesday 6 August 2008
Into the Ethiopian Northern Highlands and Lalibela
It will be a long hard tour of the north, about 2500km of mostly good roads
but plenty of ups and downs to contend with. Leaving Debre Berhan the road
for about 45km until we hit Debre Sina was ok but not great tarmac. Then as
we had been told by our friendly waiter at the Eva Hotel the road got
better. Stunning tarmac, and super smooth. We swept along down and up hills
without a bump or muddy puddle in sight, well almost. It made the drive to
Kombolcha our stopover very pleasant even if it was a long haul. The
accommodation options as expected were not up to Sheraton standards. After
checking out 3 places we returned to the first and the best despite it being
full. We thought we would check if we could camp in the car park. Thankfully
the chap running the place, Ted, was a great help. He spoke perfect English,
not surprising since he had spent the last 19 years living and working in
London. His mother owns the hotel but she had gone on a long trip to America
and he had jumped out of the rat race of the financial business world in
London to relax Ethiopian style and manage the place. The food in their
restaurant was good if not a tad pricey, homemade soups and tagliatelle, so
we filled our bellies again. We did have the surprise arrival of the South
African family we had met at Peponi in Tanzania, Glen and his wife Tandi and
their two children. They had just done the long drive down from Lalibela and
were knackered. We both set camp in the car park and had a bad nights sleep.
Usual story of barking dogs, and Glen and Tandi had one very sick child all
night, not to mention the swarms of mosquitoes. N11'04.219 E39'44.592
Needless to say we all hit the road early the next day, us north and them
towards Addis.
Provided the road was good our plan was to make it to Lalibela. Glen had
said the road was good and he was right. They are doing a lot of maintenance
on it but there were only a few wet and bumpy deviations to cope with but
the steep climbs were a test of Mufasa's muscles. Starting at around 1800m
in Kombolcha we eventually climbed up to 3500m. Second and third gears were
well used as was first at times. At least the lorries we came across were
much slower and leaping past them was not too much of an ordeal. The scenery
again was breathtaking! Everywhere is cultivated, at the cost of the
population of trees. Sadly this leads to a lot of soil erosion when it
rains, and boy it drops it when it does. The plateau at 3500m was again
stunning and pretty heavily populated despite the altitude and the obvious
wet climate. As usual there is only one problem with the struggle up to such
heights, you have to come down again. This is not usually such an issue but
our brakes, despite us climbing all day, were sounding very hot and bothered
but they held up and I will check the condition of the pads with priority. I
think it might just be all the mud and dirt that they have endured over the
recent weeks. Of course after coming down to below 2000m again we had to
make another climb up to Lalibela at around 2500m. The drive all day had
been dry and sunny but not too short of Lalibela the heavens opened and by
the time we had found a suitable place to stay everywhere was very wet.
Thankfully as per most of Africa it rains hard but for a short time. Our
stop for 2 nights was the Seven Olives Hotel and we negotiated a rate for
camping in the car park and the use of a room for toilet and shower, only
Birr100 a night, which is not too bad. We needed two nights as the middle
day was rock hewn church day! Boy what an amazing experience. After some
discussion we took a guide with us and we are so glad we did. Muchaw, the
guide, was very knowledgeable and spoke great English. Without him I think
the experience would have been frustrating and we would not have seen as
much as we did. The churches, 11 of them, are mind blowing. How they ever
managed to chisel them out I will never know. We had heard and read that the
churches are full of fleas so we covered our socks in anti-mosquito spray,
we did not have any flea powder, and thankfully did not get any bites. You
have to take your shoes off before entering any of the churches so your
socks are nice stepping stones for the critters to get a foothold on you. If
you know nothing of these churches, Google them, and be prepared to be
amazed. Better still just pack in work and get yourselves over here!
N12 02.107 E39 02.811
but plenty of ups and downs to contend with. Leaving Debre Berhan the road
for about 45km until we hit Debre Sina was ok but not great tarmac. Then as
we had been told by our friendly waiter at the Eva Hotel the road got
better. Stunning tarmac, and super smooth. We swept along down and up hills
without a bump or muddy puddle in sight, well almost. It made the drive to
Kombolcha our stopover very pleasant even if it was a long haul. The
accommodation options as expected were not up to Sheraton standards. After
checking out 3 places we returned to the first and the best despite it being
full. We thought we would check if we could camp in the car park. Thankfully
the chap running the place, Ted, was a great help. He spoke perfect English,
not surprising since he had spent the last 19 years living and working in
London. His mother owns the hotel but she had gone on a long trip to America
and he had jumped out of the rat race of the financial business world in
London to relax Ethiopian style and manage the place. The food in their
restaurant was good if not a tad pricey, homemade soups and tagliatelle, so
we filled our bellies again. We did have the surprise arrival of the South
African family we had met at Peponi in Tanzania, Glen and his wife Tandi and
their two children. They had just done the long drive down from Lalibela and
were knackered. We both set camp in the car park and had a bad nights sleep.
Usual story of barking dogs, and Glen and Tandi had one very sick child all
night, not to mention the swarms of mosquitoes. N11'04.219 E39'44.592
Needless to say we all hit the road early the next day, us north and them
towards Addis.
Provided the road was good our plan was to make it to Lalibela. Glen had
said the road was good and he was right. They are doing a lot of maintenance
on it but there were only a few wet and bumpy deviations to cope with but
the steep climbs were a test of Mufasa's muscles. Starting at around 1800m
in Kombolcha we eventually climbed up to 3500m. Second and third gears were
well used as was first at times. At least the lorries we came across were
much slower and leaping past them was not too much of an ordeal. The scenery
again was breathtaking! Everywhere is cultivated, at the cost of the
population of trees. Sadly this leads to a lot of soil erosion when it
rains, and boy it drops it when it does. The plateau at 3500m was again
stunning and pretty heavily populated despite the altitude and the obvious
wet climate. As usual there is only one problem with the struggle up to such
heights, you have to come down again. This is not usually such an issue but
our brakes, despite us climbing all day, were sounding very hot and bothered
but they held up and I will check the condition of the pads with priority. I
think it might just be all the mud and dirt that they have endured over the
recent weeks. Of course after coming down to below 2000m again we had to
make another climb up to Lalibela at around 2500m. The drive all day had
been dry and sunny but not too short of Lalibela the heavens opened and by
the time we had found a suitable place to stay everywhere was very wet.
Thankfully as per most of Africa it rains hard but for a short time. Our
stop for 2 nights was the Seven Olives Hotel and we negotiated a rate for
camping in the car park and the use of a room for toilet and shower, only
Birr100 a night, which is not too bad. We needed two nights as the middle
day was rock hewn church day! Boy what an amazing experience. After some
discussion we took a guide with us and we are so glad we did. Muchaw, the
guide, was very knowledgeable and spoke great English. Without him I think
the experience would have been frustrating and we would not have seen as
much as we did. The churches, 11 of them, are mind blowing. How they ever
managed to chisel them out I will never know. We had heard and read that the
churches are full of fleas so we covered our socks in anti-mosquito spray,
we did not have any flea powder, and thankfully did not get any bites. You
have to take your shoes off before entering any of the churches so your
socks are nice stepping stones for the critters to get a foothold on you. If
you know nothing of these churches, Google them, and be prepared to be
amazed. Better still just pack in work and get yourselves over here!
N12 02.107 E39 02.811
Ethiopia, the adventure starts here
The Ethiopian border, what fun! We had a late start that morning as we were
all knackered from the last two days of driving, mistake! Getting thru the
Kenyan immigration and customs was a breeze, very friendly if a tad slow.
The customs guy Stanley was a very nice man but he could talk for the Kenyan
Olympic Talk Marathon team, gold medal prospect. Then we were over into
Ethiopia. Customs wouldn't stamp our carnet until our passports had been
done, fair enough. The problem though was that the immigration guy had
clocked off for the morning at 11h00, we missed him by minutes, and only
came back at 15h00. There was a lot of confusion with the times as Ethiopia
work on a different clock, we will come to the calendar later, but after we
tried very hard to get things moving we gave up and decided to keep
ourselves busy for the next 4 hours. A young Ethiopian lad called Daniel,
Paul and Lizzie met him the day before on the Kenyan side, had tried hard to
assist but even his efforts came to nothing. He is only 16 but very smart
and his English is excellent. Anyway the time passed with reading; truck
maintenance; eating; and couple of strolls around town. The clock hit 15h00
and the immigration guy arrived but we had to wait while he booted up the
computer system. It was quite impressive with passport scanners and all
that, but even after typing in all the details he still had to scribble it
all down in a book, go figure! Passports stamped we headed back to customs
where Daniel had managed to find someone to do the paperwork, unfortunately
not the relatively happy chap from the morning but a very miserable and rude
guy. It was painful but after the paperwork was done and a check of the
vehicles completed, chassis / engine numbers and truck contents, we were
free to go. We thanked Daniel who had helped enormously. Sue and I gave him
a novel to read to help with his English and a t-shirt, Paul and Lizzie gave
him some Birr. We exchanged email addresses and were off! Hopefully we can
keep in touch with him to see how he is getting on and hopefully we will
meet him again when we pass back thru the border on the way south.
The road from Moyale was good (remembering to drive on the right hand side
of the road now), the scenery different (hundreds of termite mounds), but as
the daylight was fading we pushed on and made the smallish town of Yavello
just after the sun had set. The diesel tanks were getting low and the
Yavello Hotel said we could camp in their grounds so we set camp for the
night. The campsite was just the field next door to the hotel shared with
the goats, cows, and donkeys, and all their poo. The toilet we could use
outside the hotel was very rank and there was no shower, but for 25 Birr for
2 people it was somewhere to sleep. We ate well (Lizzie made sausage stew),
drank well (local beer bought at the border), and hit the sack ready for a
long haul to Addis the next day. It was a noisy night thanks to the barking
dogs, and we didn't need our alarms thanks to the bleating goats at about
06h30. We cut the goats some slack as they were promptly slaughtered a few
minutes later on the other side of the field! With a good old-fashioned
breakfast of scrambled eggs and fried sausages washed down with hot tea in
our bellies we hit the road, not before filling the tanks with some diesel.
Wow, diesel is cheap here! We have been paying around the 80 pence a litre
mark all the way so far, but in Ethiopia it is less than 40 pence a litre,
nice!! This is good news as Ethiopia is HUGE, and the kilometres will stack
up quite quickly. So cheap fuel will help the budget a bit, and it certainly
needs it.
Finally we were well into Ethiopia and heading up to Addis and its dizzy
heights. The road north was pretty good but very up and down, mostly up, and
there was an endless procession of small towns and villages to negotiate
with the usual onslaught of vehicles and animals. Added to the throng was
the new delight of all the donkey pulled carts one of which we saw embedded
in the front of a bus, dead donkey sprawled on the tarmac! This along with
the many overturned trucks and buses just shows the dangers of driving on
some of these roads, and both Sue and I are 120% alert all the time while on
the move with so many obstacles to negotiate. The countryside in the
highlands is great, rolling hills and plenty of agriculture. Sometimes you
could forget where you were and be anywhere in Europe, well except for all
the previously mentioned obstacles, oh and the poverty. It was a long and
tiring drive to the capital and we hit town after dark so we had to
negotiate the traffic and the confusing roads with great caution. Eventually
we made it to the area of the two possible hotels we had planned to check
out, the Baro Hotel and Itegue Taitu Hotel. We parked at the Baro and Sue
popped in to check out the rooms. You should have seen her face when she
came out, horrified. She went back in with Lizzie, and despite Sue thinking
'oh my god' Lizzie thought it was not too bad. I guess we have not done
the cheap hotel thing anywhere before so the first one is always a bit of a
culture shock. We left the cars parked there and went off to find some
dinner. En-route we checked out the 2nd option, the Itegue Taitu. Hmmm, what
a choice, the Baro - dark dank smelly and rank but not very cheap or the
Itegue - dark dank smelly and rank but cheaper. We decided to think about it
over dinner. Wow what a dinner it was, our first dealings with traditional
Ethiopian food. The food was amazing and cheap, as was the beer. Basically
the food is a choice of differently cooked meat or vegetable dishes but they
are all served with Injera, a large pancake type thing that you scoop up
your food with in little parcels. You either get rolls of it, likened to
warm towels you get on an airplane, or the food is served on the Injera like
a plate. Tear a bit off, try and pick up food in it, stuff in mouth. All
sounds easy, but good table manners for Muslims is to only use your right
hand, for obvious reasons, not an easy process. Good news in a way as at
least only one hand gets smothered in food! The four of us were suitably
stuffed with food and drink for a mere 116 Birr, about £6! The hotel
decision had been made, Itegue Taitu, and the girls sorted out the rooms
whilst the boys went and got the trucks. Sue and I ended up with a cheap
double but with communal bathroom, hmmm, and P&L had a more expensive twin
with bathroom. Shall we just keep the description short, rank, but it was
somewhere to put our heads down. (N9'01.847 E38'45.220)
The next day Sue and I hit the streets while P&L went to sort out visas for
Egypt and Sudan. We started by looking for breakfast and eventually found
the coffee shop we were looking for, Tomoca. It is an old-fashioned place,
the coffee and cake were great and dirt cheap, 12 Birr all in that's about
60p. Next we were off to check out some other options for sleeping. Crazy as
it sounds we had read somewhere that the Sheraton Hotel, one of the best
hotels in Africa, would allow camping in its car park. Yep, you read right.
So we checked the map and GPS and walked the few KM to check it out. Nice
hotel, marble everywhere, our sort of place. Sue made her way to the
reception desk and popped the question. Funnily enough they don't do
camping, yep I know it is hard to believe!! Well we had to ask, or to be
more correct Sue did, I wasn't brave enough! We asked about a room but they
were full and could only fit us in a few days later for about $350 a night.
They suggested we check out the Hilton, as they might be able to help. We
had a quick check, looking only, of the Sheraton's breakfast buffet and
then hit the streets again. Not far to the Hilton, same question, same
answer. They said it would 'spoil the view', too funny. The rooms there were
not much cheaper but the hotel was actually very scruffy, no marble to be
seen! I changed some money and then we hit the streets again back to our
delightful hotel that we had resigned ourselves to stay at for one more
night. After we had paid for the night it was lunchtime and a plan was made
to get a taxi to the National Museum to see Lucy, and then try a restaurant
opposite it for lunch. First step was a taxi. The driver of the only one
outside our hotel had never heard of the National Museum, go figure!
Thankfully a nice friendly chap at the hotel managed to jog his memory and
we hopped in and were safely delivered. Now who is Lucy I hear you ask. She
is a fossilised hominoid found in 1974 and dates back 3.2 million years. Not
wanting to bore with details, Google her and find out what why and where,
and also how she got her name. After the museum our lunch was cancelled,
well the restaurant we hoped to eat at was shut, bugger. We found and
settled for a quick coffee and cake and then walked back to our part of town
and visited the local restaurant from the night before and had some more
cheap national food, cool. Our last night in town was great. Mike and Bonny
that we met in Nairobi were in town and Paul and Lizzie had bumped into them
at the embassy in the afternoon, they had known each other since Malawi or
sommit. So we all went for drinks and then dinner, again cheap, but pizza
and pasta this time as our local Ethiopian place stank of urine from their
toilets, not conducive to enjoying a nice meal no matter how cheap it is!
We departed the city the next morning, Wednesday, and were glad to be on the
road again. It had poured with rain both nights and it was still cold and
wet that morning. Our first mission was to try and get our puncture sorted,
which we eventually did. After filling the tanks with fuel we set the GPS to
get us out of town. Well that took a while. First it was traffic, and then
we just got on to a road that was not on the GPS. After 30 minutes or so we
successfully managed to get on the right road and escaped the grip of the
city. Our route was northeast and the start of the 'historical tour' of
northern Ethiopia. Debre Berhan was our destination and it was a long wet
and dirty drive there. The road was mostly under construction with some very
muddy diversions. Mufasa is covered in mud now, yuck. The scenery on the
way, despite the gloom and the rain, was fantastic. Rolling lush green hills
with scatterings of small villages that look like something out of Saxon
times in Britain. Round thatched houses grouped together inside fences, very
basic and very pretty. It really is just like stepping back in time. Anyway,
we finally arrived at our destination Debre Berhan and found the Eva Hotel,
and after looking for the two other options but not finding them we checked
in for the night, well two actually as we decided to have a rest day and
sort out the truck. The hotel is a HUGE improvement on our Addis experience,
obviously for a little bit more money, 200 Birr a night for a room with
bathroom and TV, but still cheap. The restaurant does great food, again at
ridiculously cheap prices, and the staff are very friendly especially one
waiter who was most helpful.
After the wet drive to get here our rest day was dry and sunny which was
good as Sue wanted to tidy the truck and I had a few jobs to do. I managed
to source some scraps of Aluminium in town thanks to the help of our
friendly waiter. I needed them to reinforce the frame of the canopy that the
locks on the rear hatch secure on to as the frame had nearly worn through
with all the bumpy roads. After the jobs were completed we had a stroll
around the town. What an experience, and a great immersion into the culture
of the country. Yes the roads are muddy and dirty with donkey, goat, cow,
and horse muck, however the people are generally very friendly and it is a
real eye opener into how the people live. It always amazes me as to how poor
the people seem to be but there are shops among all the dirt and poo that
sell everything you could possibly think of. From the obvious like
foodstuffs, then all sorts of clothes, and finally electrical goods such as
huge televisions and big shiny sound systems. Its hard to imagine that your
average thatched hut would have a wide screen TV and the latest hits booming
out of huge speakers but someone must by all the goods otherwise they
wouldn't be for sale. The afternoon was spent relaxing in preparation for
the next step on the northern circuit.
N9'40.322 E39'31.726
all knackered from the last two days of driving, mistake! Getting thru the
Kenyan immigration and customs was a breeze, very friendly if a tad slow.
The customs guy Stanley was a very nice man but he could talk for the Kenyan
Olympic Talk Marathon team, gold medal prospect. Then we were over into
Ethiopia. Customs wouldn't stamp our carnet until our passports had been
done, fair enough. The problem though was that the immigration guy had
clocked off for the morning at 11h00, we missed him by minutes, and only
came back at 15h00. There was a lot of confusion with the times as Ethiopia
work on a different clock, we will come to the calendar later, but after we
tried very hard to get things moving we gave up and decided to keep
ourselves busy for the next 4 hours. A young Ethiopian lad called Daniel,
Paul and Lizzie met him the day before on the Kenyan side, had tried hard to
assist but even his efforts came to nothing. He is only 16 but very smart
and his English is excellent. Anyway the time passed with reading; truck
maintenance; eating; and couple of strolls around town. The clock hit 15h00
and the immigration guy arrived but we had to wait while he booted up the
computer system. It was quite impressive with passport scanners and all
that, but even after typing in all the details he still had to scribble it
all down in a book, go figure! Passports stamped we headed back to customs
where Daniel had managed to find someone to do the paperwork, unfortunately
not the relatively happy chap from the morning but a very miserable and rude
guy. It was painful but after the paperwork was done and a check of the
vehicles completed, chassis / engine numbers and truck contents, we were
free to go. We thanked Daniel who had helped enormously. Sue and I gave him
a novel to read to help with his English and a t-shirt, Paul and Lizzie gave
him some Birr. We exchanged email addresses and were off! Hopefully we can
keep in touch with him to see how he is getting on and hopefully we will
meet him again when we pass back thru the border on the way south.
The road from Moyale was good (remembering to drive on the right hand side
of the road now), the scenery different (hundreds of termite mounds), but as
the daylight was fading we pushed on and made the smallish town of Yavello
just after the sun had set. The diesel tanks were getting low and the
Yavello Hotel said we could camp in their grounds so we set camp for the
night. The campsite was just the field next door to the hotel shared with
the goats, cows, and donkeys, and all their poo. The toilet we could use
outside the hotel was very rank and there was no shower, but for 25 Birr for
2 people it was somewhere to sleep. We ate well (Lizzie made sausage stew),
drank well (local beer bought at the border), and hit the sack ready for a
long haul to Addis the next day. It was a noisy night thanks to the barking
dogs, and we didn't need our alarms thanks to the bleating goats at about
06h30. We cut the goats some slack as they were promptly slaughtered a few
minutes later on the other side of the field! With a good old-fashioned
breakfast of scrambled eggs and fried sausages washed down with hot tea in
our bellies we hit the road, not before filling the tanks with some diesel.
Wow, diesel is cheap here! We have been paying around the 80 pence a litre
mark all the way so far, but in Ethiopia it is less than 40 pence a litre,
nice!! This is good news as Ethiopia is HUGE, and the kilometres will stack
up quite quickly. So cheap fuel will help the budget a bit, and it certainly
needs it.
Finally we were well into Ethiopia and heading up to Addis and its dizzy
heights. The road north was pretty good but very up and down, mostly up, and
there was an endless procession of small towns and villages to negotiate
with the usual onslaught of vehicles and animals. Added to the throng was
the new delight of all the donkey pulled carts one of which we saw embedded
in the front of a bus, dead donkey sprawled on the tarmac! This along with
the many overturned trucks and buses just shows the dangers of driving on
some of these roads, and both Sue and I are 120% alert all the time while on
the move with so many obstacles to negotiate. The countryside in the
highlands is great, rolling hills and plenty of agriculture. Sometimes you
could forget where you were and be anywhere in Europe, well except for all
the previously mentioned obstacles, oh and the poverty. It was a long and
tiring drive to the capital and we hit town after dark so we had to
negotiate the traffic and the confusing roads with great caution. Eventually
we made it to the area of the two possible hotels we had planned to check
out, the Baro Hotel and Itegue Taitu Hotel. We parked at the Baro and Sue
popped in to check out the rooms. You should have seen her face when she
came out, horrified. She went back in with Lizzie, and despite Sue thinking
'oh my god' Lizzie thought it was not too bad. I guess we have not done
the cheap hotel thing anywhere before so the first one is always a bit of a
culture shock. We left the cars parked there and went off to find some
dinner. En-route we checked out the 2nd option, the Itegue Taitu. Hmmm, what
a choice, the Baro - dark dank smelly and rank but not very cheap or the
Itegue - dark dank smelly and rank but cheaper. We decided to think about it
over dinner. Wow what a dinner it was, our first dealings with traditional
Ethiopian food. The food was amazing and cheap, as was the beer. Basically
the food is a choice of differently cooked meat or vegetable dishes but they
are all served with Injera, a large pancake type thing that you scoop up
your food with in little parcels. You either get rolls of it, likened to
warm towels you get on an airplane, or the food is served on the Injera like
a plate. Tear a bit off, try and pick up food in it, stuff in mouth. All
sounds easy, but good table manners for Muslims is to only use your right
hand, for obvious reasons, not an easy process. Good news in a way as at
least only one hand gets smothered in food! The four of us were suitably
stuffed with food and drink for a mere 116 Birr, about £6! The hotel
decision had been made, Itegue Taitu, and the girls sorted out the rooms
whilst the boys went and got the trucks. Sue and I ended up with a cheap
double but with communal bathroom, hmmm, and P&L had a more expensive twin
with bathroom. Shall we just keep the description short, rank, but it was
somewhere to put our heads down. (N9'01.847 E38'45.220)
The next day Sue and I hit the streets while P&L went to sort out visas for
Egypt and Sudan. We started by looking for breakfast and eventually found
the coffee shop we were looking for, Tomoca. It is an old-fashioned place,
the coffee and cake were great and dirt cheap, 12 Birr all in that's about
60p. Next we were off to check out some other options for sleeping. Crazy as
it sounds we had read somewhere that the Sheraton Hotel, one of the best
hotels in Africa, would allow camping in its car park. Yep, you read right.
So we checked the map and GPS and walked the few KM to check it out. Nice
hotel, marble everywhere, our sort of place. Sue made her way to the
reception desk and popped the question. Funnily enough they don't do
camping, yep I know it is hard to believe!! Well we had to ask, or to be
more correct Sue did, I wasn't brave enough! We asked about a room but they
were full and could only fit us in a few days later for about $350 a night.
They suggested we check out the Hilton, as they might be able to help. We
had a quick check, looking only, of the Sheraton's breakfast buffet and
then hit the streets again. Not far to the Hilton, same question, same
answer. They said it would 'spoil the view', too funny. The rooms there were
not much cheaper but the hotel was actually very scruffy, no marble to be
seen! I changed some money and then we hit the streets again back to our
delightful hotel that we had resigned ourselves to stay at for one more
night. After we had paid for the night it was lunchtime and a plan was made
to get a taxi to the National Museum to see Lucy, and then try a restaurant
opposite it for lunch. First step was a taxi. The driver of the only one
outside our hotel had never heard of the National Museum, go figure!
Thankfully a nice friendly chap at the hotel managed to jog his memory and
we hopped in and were safely delivered. Now who is Lucy I hear you ask. She
is a fossilised hominoid found in 1974 and dates back 3.2 million years. Not
wanting to bore with details, Google her and find out what why and where,
and also how she got her name. After the museum our lunch was cancelled,
well the restaurant we hoped to eat at was shut, bugger. We found and
settled for a quick coffee and cake and then walked back to our part of town
and visited the local restaurant from the night before and had some more
cheap national food, cool. Our last night in town was great. Mike and Bonny
that we met in Nairobi were in town and Paul and Lizzie had bumped into them
at the embassy in the afternoon, they had known each other since Malawi or
sommit. So we all went for drinks and then dinner, again cheap, but pizza
and pasta this time as our local Ethiopian place stank of urine from their
toilets, not conducive to enjoying a nice meal no matter how cheap it is!
We departed the city the next morning, Wednesday, and were glad to be on the
road again. It had poured with rain both nights and it was still cold and
wet that morning. Our first mission was to try and get our puncture sorted,
which we eventually did. After filling the tanks with fuel we set the GPS to
get us out of town. Well that took a while. First it was traffic, and then
we just got on to a road that was not on the GPS. After 30 minutes or so we
successfully managed to get on the right road and escaped the grip of the
city. Our route was northeast and the start of the 'historical tour' of
northern Ethiopia. Debre Berhan was our destination and it was a long wet
and dirty drive there. The road was mostly under construction with some very
muddy diversions. Mufasa is covered in mud now, yuck. The scenery on the
way, despite the gloom and the rain, was fantastic. Rolling lush green hills
with scatterings of small villages that look like something out of Saxon
times in Britain. Round thatched houses grouped together inside fences, very
basic and very pretty. It really is just like stepping back in time. Anyway,
we finally arrived at our destination Debre Berhan and found the Eva Hotel,
and after looking for the two other options but not finding them we checked
in for the night, well two actually as we decided to have a rest day and
sort out the truck. The hotel is a HUGE improvement on our Addis experience,
obviously for a little bit more money, 200 Birr a night for a room with
bathroom and TV, but still cheap. The restaurant does great food, again at
ridiculously cheap prices, and the staff are very friendly especially one
waiter who was most helpful.
After the wet drive to get here our rest day was dry and sunny which was
good as Sue wanted to tidy the truck and I had a few jobs to do. I managed
to source some scraps of Aluminium in town thanks to the help of our
friendly waiter. I needed them to reinforce the frame of the canopy that the
locks on the rear hatch secure on to as the frame had nearly worn through
with all the bumpy roads. After the jobs were completed we had a stroll
around the town. What an experience, and a great immersion into the culture
of the country. Yes the roads are muddy and dirty with donkey, goat, cow,
and horse muck, however the people are generally very friendly and it is a
real eye opener into how the people live. It always amazes me as to how poor
the people seem to be but there are shops among all the dirt and poo that
sell everything you could possibly think of. From the obvious like
foodstuffs, then all sorts of clothes, and finally electrical goods such as
huge televisions and big shiny sound systems. Its hard to imagine that your
average thatched hut would have a wide screen TV and the latest hits booming
out of huge speakers but someone must by all the goods otherwise they
wouldn't be for sale. The afternoon was spent relaxing in preparation for
the next step on the northern circuit.
N9'40.322 E39'31.726
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