27th September 2013

Northern Ethiopia - the other half

Part 2 delayed due to dreadful internet facilities in in this part of Africa.

For those who feel this blog is all my work, Ping has had a very trying time editing and posting this due to sporadic and weak internet.

Our route out of Lalibela

All through the mountains up to 3000 metres above sea level this unmade road continued, sometimes you would round a corner and find that there is only room for one car and a sheer precipice with nothing between me and the valley below.

Squeezing down the mountain track 

I am not very good with heights and if you can imagine how I was feeling, being on a very uneven surface and looking down to nothing at all. There are a number of people who read this blog who own similar Iveco vans and who have done similar journeys, or who are about to. (Hello everybody!) they know that the driving position of these trucks is quite high and they really give you the feeling that any tipping of the van is exaggerated, add to this, that it has been known for a similar van to be parked on its roof! Then you can know how I feel when the van drops into a deep rut on my side and as I glance out all I can see is the valley floor!!! I have to say that for much of this drive my heart was in my mouth.
  

Oh yeh, then we had puncture #22. It had to happen as soon as I said all was well.

As the day wore on we were having difficulty in finding a nice place to camp. Eventually we happened across a hotel ( use the term advisedly). It was all a bit odd as all the staff and punters were wearing their new year clothes and were having a fine time, but the place turned out to be a flophouse.  We went to our room we were shown that the shower works, and it did but no kidding as soon as the bloke had gone it stopped working. So we were given another room, there is a bit of pattern emerging here I think. Here we had a dribble of cold water from the shower but not from the taps nor does the bog work.  But we were glad of a cold shower after changing a wheel in the hot sun, very disappointing though, we only managed 22 minutes for a wheel change, we were badly out of practice.

The hotel is in a town called Korem, this town has been famous, perhaps now forgotten as it was the focal point of the 1984 famine. You know the one that shot Bob Geldof to fame, possibly the only reason that anyone has heard of the Boomtown rats. Korem was the place that most of the aid effort was co ordinated and I believed it is the town that Michael Burke made his, justly, prizewinning broadcast and brought the whole concept of famine to our well stocked breakfast tables. Without labouring the point, we have it on good authority that about a million people are buried in one monstrous mass grave near Korem. People trudged inconceivable distances to centres like Korem in the hope of food, water and shelter, only to die on arrival.

The road to Korem - green and lush

Now covered in green towns and villages rebuilt and roads of good quality, it is impossible to imagine this whole region laid waste and its population starved.

Why do we labour this point?  Simply because we've been here and we feel duty bound to say so.

There is a legacy one is the living history that should be recorded. i.e. the voice of those who remember as they were there. Our guide(he was 7 at the time) in Lalibela gave us an account of his childhood memories only because we asked. He gave harrowing accounts of someone who was in a town that always had enough water and food, but he found people crawling in on their hands and knees in the hope salvation. He even found a starving child who he brought to his family and who stayed till he was well enough to leave. He does not know what happened to him.

Children celebrating New Year. Yes they are asking for money! 'And we won't got till we've got some!'

The other legacy is this, it might seem trivial by comparison but we both feel affected by it. Almost every child from one end of the country to the other, if they see a white person they put out their hand and ask for money. It is a source of embarrassment and of real concern to the adult population. We had already noticed that the children will not do this if adults are near, and if they make a mistake they get roundly told off by any adult in earshot.

Having spoken to others about this and the general belief is this; that the only way that such an idea could have taken on such general currency is from the widespread actions of foreigners and that the last time there were sufficient foreigners around the country was in the aftermath of the famine when the country was creaking at the seams with well intentioned foreigners. I invite you to draw your own conclusions but for me, I am persuaded.

You, you, you! give me money!

We have experienced this from almost every child, in the towns, villages and isolated up in the mountains. Anyone who has travelled here will have heard, ’You, you, you, give me money!

Now I don’t want to speak badly of Ethiopia because we have met so many kind and genuine people who so willingly reach out to the stranger to a degree that I find a little shaming for me. It is this that will be my abiding memory of Ethiopians.

So we have travelled on to the town of Adigaht, this is the Northern most town almost at the border with Eritrea. We had planned to see some more stone churches that are near here. Somehow we have missed them and the people we asked do not seem to know much about them we did gather at the hotel we were at that they were about 15 km from here  but that we would probably have to get a permit from the police  to visit. We will see how we feel in the morning but we may not bother.

The hotel we are at is funny. We decided that we needed a roof over our heads tonight as there was nowhere that we felt comfortable camping.

We looked at a couple of places that looked pretty grim and then on the horizon saw that the most modern building in town by far, was a hotel. What luck! Well I drove up, Ping had a wad of cash in her hand as she was prepared to pay any price for even a 5 star hotel.  A bad Omen was that this beautiful mirrored glass monolith with big signs proclaiming it to be a hotel did not appear to have a hotel entrance. Eventually I found a security guard who ushered me to a side door and shoved me in. I have to say that the place smelled bad but I soldiered on. I went up to the bar where it was full of people still celebrating new year. I was greeted by a pretty girl beautifully dressed and who spoke enough English to tell me that yes, they had a room but the rooms don’t have bathrooms and anyway, she did not think they had any water. She seemed quite happy when I told her that my wife needed a shower and that I could not return  to her with this news and so I politely declined.

After a bit of hunting we found one more hotel that did not look at all promising

I went in to say, do you have a room?  The girls working here were immediately thrown into a flat spin as they did not understand me! Then a man came up and offered to translate for me. It turned out that to ask in this hotel for a room was a bit exotic. The boss turned out to take charge. He only has one eye and I was not convinced that his good eye was up to much. He had a box full of keys which he sampled pretty much randomly, we managed to get one room open but of course there was no water. Onto the next. Same rummaging for a key, and everyone in to test the water. Yep there was water but only a pipe sticking out of the wall.  At last amid keys for room 13 and 16 our translator reached in to the box like a bran tub and fished out an unmarked key which lo and behold opened room 3. We all trooped in by now there were, I think,7 people in total and amid real triumph we had water and a shower.

Hoorah! Actually it is a very nice room as all the others seem to be, though none appears to be occupied.  It did flash across my mind that maybe none of these people actually works here and that the real boss is away, but I had to dismiss that thought.

Ping prepared some food in the van with a huge audience of local kids who were just gawking at her and the van. Ping finds this a little offputting and I was charged with the responsibility of seeing them off. Now I may appear to contradict myself a little here, but because I don’t like to be horrid to kids, I had a moment of inspiration. Next to the van was a shop that among other things sold plastic footballs. I bought on for about 60p  and gave it to the oldest child and said go and play football! I don’t think I have ever experienced such popularity, well I know I haven’t. 

Thanks for the football Mister!

All these kids, about 20 of them screamed with delight and ran off to play football. Who am I to say what is right and wrong?

The next morning I would like to say we both woke refreshed. However I do try to keep this blog  fairly truthful. I discovered that the various components of the bed appeared to be mostly unconnected and consequently the bed was dramatically unstable. In truth I think I was very brave sleeping in it. I didn’t actually sleep. Ping was savaged by bed bugs who had apparently taken pity on me.

Anyhow the hotel people were lovely and wished us well for our journey. And so with our characteristic meticulous planning we set off for the historic city of Aksum. By some error of calculation we found ourselves hurtling toward the troubled border with Eritrea.  There were soldiers everywhere. Interestingly though Hardly any of them were armed, patrolling in pairs all over the place but hardly a gun in sight.

We worked out that we may have made a bit of a mistake and so we return the 25 or so km to Adigaht. We found a turning that we had missed and on enquiring with the locals we were assured that the road we had found was the road to Aksum, as indeed it was  what they failed to mention to us was that this was another dusty unmade road that meanders through the mountains at great leisure. 

Simien Mountains

At this point it sounds rough, but the mountain scenery just gets better and better and constantly changes.  We pressed on and found that our journey which should have been about 2-3 hours actually took about 6 and was about 40 tough km longer than it needed to be. It was tough but very enjoyable and maybe one that many travellers do not get to take.

Eventually we arrived in the ancient and holy city of Aksum we were instantly set upon by curio sellers like flies right in the face!
I got very grumpy indeed and it made absolutely no difference.

We found that there are so many people who in one form or another wish to get their hands on our money and they are indeed convinced that it is a limitless supply. We met with a variety of people of all ages who had a story to tell and want anything from sponsorship for a lifetime of education, to cash handouts. After a very short time the kids who constantly say to you ‘Give me money’ seems to be the most honest.

There was no explanation for how these murals came to be here at the Kaleb Hotel

We decided to stay at the KALEB HOTEL as they had hot showers and toilets that functioned at some level. I do however recommend it for the following reasons; We slept in a reasonably ok looking bed, which did not collapse. Once we got to bed we found we were savaged the whole night by fleas or similar insects. It was a really awful night and we both ended up with hundreds of tiny bites. Since then, it has been a week now, every day they flare up and itch like blazes really horrid! I have not yet mentioned to Ping that fleas are a carrier of typhus, maybe I will leave that for another day. We stayed a second night at the Kaleb Hotel but actually just used the facilities and slept in the van. 

Maybe Banksy was here in the Kaleb with his spray can

Aksum is a very important historical and holy city. It is home to some incredible stone ‘stellae’ which are huge monuments made from single pieces of stones and are memorials to ancient kings , as well as lesser beings. 

These obelisks are made from a single,huge piece of rock. This on got a bit broken when it fell down

There are also ancient burial grounds, an ancient building on the site of the palace of the Queen of Sheba   The Enzana inscription  is a stone tablet with texts carved in it with several ancient languages. This is not the Rosetta stone but considered to be very equally important in translating ancient texts. 

Each side of this stone has a scfipt from different civilisations  describing the victories of King Enzana

There are a number of the relics but to cap it off the church in this town is said to house the original covenant, that is The Ten Commandments. In this church there are two arks, on contains the original covenant and is kept in a sealed building together with a priest whose life’s occupation is to be locked in with the covenant. He will guard it for a lifetime. No one else has seen it. (so we kind of have to take their word for it!) The other ark is used in ceremonies and contains a copy.

We has potentially serious problems  with ‘guides’ who swore blind they were official and produced Identity cards  but they are in fact bogus. For would be travellers to Aksum do get a guide from the guide association who have an office immediately to the left of the Stellae park which is easy to find.  First enquire at the tourist office where you have to buy  your tickets. Then you go to the Tourist Guide association which is a short walk away. Do not get your guide from the tourist office as they seem to encourage the bogus guides to hang out there.

It is worth it, but we found we were being put in a position of having to choose who to believe. It got quite complicated and very annoying. In the end we got a chap called Aregaw. Phone number 091341 8495. He was knowledgeable, had excellent English and turned out to be a decent chap.  It was not necessary to stay long in this town and it was on the whole an important visit. We were however fairly glad to leave the town.

The world's most dangerous Road.

We left to drive the two day drive which took us around the edge of the Simien Mountains. Now this road we have been given to believe was used in one of the episodes of the TV series ‘The world most dangerous Roads’ or something like that.

We had nice smooth tarmac for part of the journey, pretty unremarkable. And then the tarmac fade out to become a series of mountain roads much of which was under construction so we had a variety of conditions to contend with and it was pretty difficult. There were a number of points where we tried hard to photograph it to show you just how dicey some parts were. It was quite hard to take a scary looking picture.

10 centimeters of mud slurry,  1000 metres straight down!

At the end of the day we had to find a spot near the road where we could camp for the night. Preferably without the presence of kids demanding money.

We found a place and settled down for the night. Or so we thought. There was and almighty electric storm. We were parked on the side of a mountain on a steep incline. With rain leaking in and all hell breaking out outside. It was intense but short lived and we mopped up and went to sleep.

Dicing with death!

The next morning was another story as we found the road was steeper, narrower and in worse repair than before and in many places was covered in slippery mud.  Now it was really quite bad, mostly there was no room to pass so if we met another vehicle coming then we would have difficulties. Some places were only just wide enough to get through with a sheer drop to one side  and unstable mud under our tyres. Now it was not difficult to take a picture to evidence this.

Only just room for one vehicle to pass

There was one point where we were sliding about perilously close to the edge, when Ping said ‘ Be careful not to skid’  Oh yes!

Shortly after this we had another excellent exchange. We were on a narrow bit where I had the choice of driving on relatively stable surface but far too close to the edge for my confidence to do anything but evaporate. Otherwise there was a steep camber into a drainage ditch but a rock wall to stop us falling.

You may recall that I have said that the driving position on these vans is quite high  and so it really can feel like you a going to topple at any time . Well I took the latter option and was balance on the slipping point of this camber. I could feel the back wheels losing traction and starting to slide.  So in order to warn the boss of impending doom I exclaimed ‘the backs going, the backs going’ to which she replied what bag are you talking about which bag do you want’? While I struggled manfully to regain control of the vehicle and save us both from certain doom, She was rummaging around to give me the bag which would most please me !

We now have a good road surface but a bit of fog too!

We did survive the journey but I do not do well with heights and was scared more than once. In fact shortly after the bag business the rain cleared the rod dried up and we came almost immediately to the beginning of the freshly laid tarmac which we enjoyed for the last bit of our journey to Lake Tana where we camped for our last nights in Ethiopia at the lovely camp of Tim and Kim, a remarkable Dutch couple who are carving out a small haven in  a lovely rural part of the country..

Final thoughts on Ethiopia

It has been difficult in places to travel around  but this country is truly astonishing.  As I have mentioned before much of it seems little changed since, dare I say before Christ. Certainly it is the home of the oldest Christian communities, who live together in a air degree of harmony with some ancient Muslim as well as Jewish communities, the so called Falashers, who were thought to be the ‘Lost tribes of Israel.

The stone Churches are truly incredible it is impossible to get ones' head around how they were constructed. They really do make Stonehenge look a bit rubbish.

One massive piece of solid hard rock carved inside and out.  Amazing!.

The plethora of other tombs edifices and ancient sites is to put it mildly ‘important’ to the record of the worlds, history.

The manner in which Ethiopia has recovered from famine is here to see and cannot got without comment.

This country has risen above all kinds of world events, not least  of which was the occupation by Italian fascists.  Haillie Selassie  booted them out. He continued to unite and lead his nation until his death. A Communist ‘Durgh’ then managed to drag Ethiopia unhappily along for a good while. Now the country is on a pretty even keel and is really starting to grow.

This huge stone was removed  by the Italian fascists, but Hailie Salassie negotiated its return intact after the Italians were forced out of Ethiopia

All of the above does not speak of the overwhelming physical beauty of the country. It just goes on and on.

Despite some minor moans and the fact that many people have no English and so communication can be limited , friendliness and warmth abound here.

Overall, there have been many ways that we have felt we may have put too much load on our trip by starting in West Africa. I have to say that finding this remarkable place near the end of our journey has been wonderful. Ethiopia is set apart from the rest of Africa in so many ways. Physically, culturally racially and linguistically, with a so far under developed tourist trade, it is a true gem.

Sudan next, that will be for another day

Lots of love

Ping and Noel

Pingbow54@gmail.com
Noelbow51@gmail.com

22nd September 2013

Due to the sparse internet coverage in Ethiopia this is posted late,
from Sudan.

Northern Ethiopia

Normal traffic Addis style

First off a couple of notes:

Addis Ababa is named after a beautiful flower we are told. As far as I can see it is something of a misnomer. There isn’t much that we saw that shows itself alongside the world’s most beautiful cities. I really don’t mean to judge, only to report what I see.  The roads are in unusually bad shape, with little or no recognisable surface on most of the roads in the centre. There are often no discernible footway, which makes it quite hellish for pedestrians. At the time we were there it rained heavily each day, which meant every pothole, dip and even roadworks were filled with muddy water. The poor old pedestrians were getting soaked left, right and centre. There are no road markings anywhere except for occasional pedestrian crossings, presumably to give the illusion that is safe to cross anywhere! It is genuinely hazardous for all. Then, there is the new LRT system which will one day no doubt transform the lives of the dwellers of Addis. For now though they have managed in nearly 4 years to install some, but by no means all, of the piers for the overhead tracks and some of the roadway installations have now been there so long that there are people living there and street markets have become established. It is due to be completed in 3 years. I think that is wildly optimistic.

The thing that makes all this so challenging for the poor old punters is the total absence of any kind of traffic management. It is truly startling to know that there are traffic lights all over the city but almost none of them are operating. Occasionally you will find a lone cop trying to make sense of the most complex, congested and anarchic junctions, where motorists blatantly ignore his directions. There is a main square which is sectioned up by the LRT works, where there is no traffic regulation and nothing to indicate how the traffic should flow often you can find yourself face to face with a queue of oncoming traffic that is right up to your bumper and nothing to do but wait. When the traffic is less heavy crossing this square can be terrifying. It is impossible to overstate the chaos here.

Horses in the road

Since last writing I have been given an explanation for the many horses that seem to stand in the road. It seems that these are cab horses, who have finished their useful lives and are left to fend for themselves and as the only environment they know is tarmac they just stay on the road. If this is true then it does seem quite sad but one has to see it against the harsh backdrop of people who do not have enough to eat.

The next note is to explain that having spoken about how lush and fertile much of the countryside is I think it is worth noting that This is the same country that was devastated by drought all those years ago. Although It is part of our consciousness as visitors the drought seems to be very much a thing of the past here and the countryside shows absolutely no signs of anything other than growth, even though agriculture is not specially well organised and many people live on subsistence farming, which of course means that success is entirely dependent on the weather.

Formula 1

The thing which makes Formula 1 so watchable is of course that we watch and hope that someone crashes.

I know that I have up to now managed to punctuate many of these blogs with reports of disasters both major and minor. I don’t want to tempt fate nor do I wish to disappoint; but we have not even had a puncture since we were in Zambia.  We have, in Kenya, had far and a away the worst roads we have had to contend with. Our little truck has taken it all in its stride. So for you ghouls who enjoy a bit of drama at our expense we are truly sorry to disappoint.

On with the show

The Road to Lalibela

We have been travelling to what is known as the Northern cultural route where we hope to see some of the truly spectacular and ancient features of Ethiopia. I was going to give some kind of commentary on what the countryside is like and so on. We turned off the highway on our way to the ancient historic town of Lalibela. At first I was disappointed to find that this is a dirt road of some 60 km. However, it was staggeringly beautiful, range after range of sumptuous green mountains and valleys with pleasant villages and rivers running through them. Although there is the occasional minibus, there seem to be no vehicles of any description in any of the villages. We have seen so many beautiful sights it is possible to feel rather inured to them sometimes, and then this surrounds you, and you know what?  I know there is going to be more! It was rather slow going, so we has to bush camp out here. Lovely !  It was getting dark and the crowd of onlookers has now left us alone. It was quite Christmassy really, surrounded by shepherds and goats and donkeys. Many of the onlookers dressed in much the same way as one might find in the bible.

As night falls and the host of stars come out we had the place to ourselves. After a dinner of pasta and fish, we settled down to a nice game of scrabble. 

Perfik!

LALIBELA

This small town is incredibly important from the point of view of cultural heritage in this country which is home to the oldest Christian Community in the world. Lalibela has 11 Ancient churches that would make your mind boggle. They were built (if that is the right word) in the 11^th century. Actually the ground of this town is solid rock and the churches were carved, yes carved out of that rock. When we went to visit them I had thought that this would be a soft sandstone that would have eroded beyond recognition in that time. Not so! They are carved out of hard Basalt rock, it is so hard that the rough floor outside the churches shows no sign of being worn smooth. These are big structures too.

So I asked whether they were built by slaves. It seems not, according to our guide, Tesfe who took us around. It seems that this inconceivably big project was staffed by artisans and labourers who while doing it out of religious duty were paid to do it and that there are ancient Ethiopian scriptures that laid down how and where these churches would be made.

Surprisingly St George is one of the most important Ethiopian saints with all the familiar imagery 

I can’t do them justice by describing them here. We toured them one by one with Tesfe who was very knowledgeable and devoted. Each one was breath-taking in not only in the detail but in the fact that in order to start such a project they must have had to work out every detail in advance. Just imagine first you carve out the cube that will be your church and then hollow it out each room and vestibule was all part of the solid rock. Every detail was part of it. If a mason made a mistake it is there for all time.

These churches are home to a religious sect that not only is as old as Christianity itself but is proud of being pretty much how it was in the first place its customs and practices mostly unchanged over the centuries.

Do note the churches are not museum pieces but are still in full use.

These are important working churches not museum peices

It just happens that we were there at the time of the Ethiopian New year and as we toured around, the celebrations were just getting under way and all the senior priests and elders  were gathering there.

There is some preservation work being done funded by UNESCO as it is declared a ‘world heritage site’ .

An Italian man offered to restore this incredible peice of ancient history. He erected a scaffold and knocked holes to sound like he was working. The local discovered his vandalism and drove him out of town

I really recommend you have a look at some of the info on these churches, instead of me going on in amateurish detail about this (I am sure there is plenty of detail on google), let me describe our experiences. We had the privilege of touring these churches. Seeing priests and devotees going about their devotions in the same manner and dressed in the same way as they would have a thousand years ago and very likely since biblical times. Sure there were people dressed in modern clothes but I think this is testament to the fact that this is very much a living sect and not something preserved in aspic.

The quite perfect St Georges Church carved from the solid bed rock!

We continued on our way with Tesfe describing the traditions and beliefs of this highly structured sect. we walked through the monastery where monks and nuns live their devoted and hermitic life in tiny ancient cells. And through the adjacent traditional village which in the same way has hardly changed in its style in all that time. 

A scene that has not changed much in 2000 years.
By the way the kid face down in the mud was not actually intended as part of the picture don't know where he came from

Tesfe explained to us, when I commented on this unchanged state, that this is quite true but that there are now plans to rebuild and bring it up to date. He described the tension that exists between those who are hungry for something more modern and those who like it just the way it is. 

As we have this discussion we pass by animals being kept in primitive barns beside the houses, and another house which had a satellite dish attached to the roof. 

How else can you get to see the footie?

Tesfe turned out to be so well informed and sensitive to the problems attached to the dependence on tourism. In particular he was concerned that children are becoming corrupted by clumsy tourists who give them money and other presents just because they are there. It is very common for children to ‘ constantly demand money from ‘Feranjis’ as foreigners are known.  The adult population do all they can to discipline the kids but the lure of ‘free stuff’ is always worth a punt!

Tesfe our knowledgeable guide
He unselfconsciously carried our Sainsbury 'Bag for life'

Tesfe surprised us again by telling us that he does not support himself by the guiding. 

He says that he makes his living from bee keeping about which he again is so knowledgeable and professional. Altogether an extraordinary day.

I have not yet spoken about where we stayed in Lalibela. Our friend Guy had told us to seek out Susie who owns a restaurant and who is a great source of guidance and information. This of course is quite true.  What he failed to tell us is that the restaurant is a piece of true avant garde architecture designed by an Ethiopian architect.

The futuristic Ben Abbabas Restaurant in the sky

Beneath Ben Abbabas

 We made our way up the hill and found this unbelievable structure sticking out from the side of the mountain. It was just there glinting in the sunlight.

Susie runs this restaurant and employs an army of local young women who she tries to develop in order to run a good restaurant.  She was so kind and allowed us to camp at the back of the place where we stayed for three nights.

My eagle

There was even a pair of eagles swooping and gliding about. I know that some nerdy twitcher might well say they are not eagles they are some other kind of bird.  As far as I am concerned they are big birds of prey. That look like eagles, sound like eagles, they are eagles, alright!

After 3 days we had to move on and we had another long drive through more of that stunning countryside and mountains making our way through villages where the New year celebrations were taking place. One of the traditions at new year is for children to give flowers to adults. These new year flowers are bright yellow and only flower at new year. We were told that on the day the hillsides would be a blanket of yellow. And sure enough right on the dot they just burst out.

Everywhere were children with their new clothes and yellow flowers.

On our drive, including the day bringing us up to Lalibela  was about 250 km two days and in the end we were passed by one other vehicle!

Our route out of Lalibela

More on Ethiopia to follow v soon.

Love Ping and Noel

pingbow54@gmail.com
noelbow51@gmail.com

6th September 2013

On to Ethiopia 

27^th August 2013

With properly working brakes, we packed up and left the exceptional Wilderbeest Camp.

We did not spent much time in Nairobi but what little we have seen we were leaving a rather charmless city. As we drove through to get out of town the dense smoky traffic was the worst yet. It took us over an hour and a half to get out town, not much fun.

We had a 300km drive in store so we were already a bit later than we intended. There was a modern dual carriageway for the first hundred but that disappeared to a one up one down tarmac road through all the villages.

 Counting the wheels to make sure we have enough

It was pretty chilly during the day which might come as a surprise as we were due to cross the Equator at about midday.  However, when we drove past the huge Mount Kenya we were up at 3,000metres above sea level. Sadly we did not get much of a look at Mt Kenya as it was shrouded in cloud but the country side was lovely, varying from a pleasant agricultural scene, really not so unlike Europe to broad flat plains punctuated by round hills and dark mountains.

We came to the town of Nanyuki which is on the equator. Despite descending rather sharply from over 3000M, ears popping and all that, we were still up at about 1600M above sea level. We then saw a sign for the equator but it was so unremarkable that we both thought that wasn’t it. So after enquiring we turned around and made our way back the spot where the Equator lies. It was still a bit chilly!

An important line to cross

Squeezing past the line

                                                     

The sign is not much to shout about but this is an important point to pass for us so it had to be celebrated.  As we pulled up we were immediately harassed by the obligatory ‘curio sellers’, The whole idea of water draining the other way round south of the equator is a myth. There was a guy marching up and down the road with a jug and a bowl of water to persuade us that it is true that water do drain the other way as you move north of the equator.  He managed to persuade a crowd of Chinese tourists to part with some money for this simple con. So we took some pictures to mark the occasion and moved on.

Dust, saddle sores, banditos and divine intervention!

It may sound a bit like a macaroni western but we had it all in prospect. We had been warned that security on the Moyale Rd to the Ethiopian border was a real problem. In the past the road had to be closed due to gun fights between local tribes, there had been incidents of highway robberies etc. Ping was quite freaked out by the prospect of bandits.  Not me. I was happily fantasising about how I would disarm them single handed, spank their bottoms and send them on their way, throwing their guns into the creek as we depart. (He’s watched too many cowboy films says Ping)

We even had a travelling preacher to make the scene complete.  A very nice American missionary Pastor who whilst zealous, was incredibly accepting of the beliefs of others. As we were leaving, he grabbed my hands and asked so nicely, knowing that I am not a believer, if I would mind very much if he prayed for us. It was a really nice experience. He was making sure that he did all he could to protect us and to ensure that we continue to have a fulfilling life. You know what, you cannot ask for a nicer sentiment than that so I really appreciated it.

We drove on to Isiolo where we stopped and camped for the night. We have to start early the next day as this leg of the drive has to be done in one hit; there is nowhere to stop between these places. After that, we have a similar journey and there had been some warnings of fighting in the area and of the occasional gunpoint robbery! What larks eh!

28th August 2013, second day of journey to Ethiopia

Beautiful roadscene

As we had been informed, the first 150km was a breeze nice smooth tarmac. Then as we passed out of a village, it abruptly came to an end.

End of the road

It was a mixture of rocky, bumpy, unmade road, sometimes those brutal corrugations that we have spoken of so many times.  These things eat into your soul, your bones and your vehicle. Violent bone jarring rhythmic bumps that goes on and on and on, but in some ways, the worst was the return of the red dust -with a vengeance!  Every now and then we see the road surface changes colour to red and we know what will happen. There will be violent irregularities, ruts and big holes; these will be covered by several inches of red dust, so thick that you cannot see the surprises under it. As you crash into the holes or are forced into the ruts, the van steers itself. Plumes of the dust billows up around the van you cannot see through the screen sometimes and you can see dust running in rivulets down the side windows. You have to accept the inevitable that is when you stop for the night the whole van has to be swept and cleaned and then swept and cleaned. Our hair was scarlet as was our clothing.

But hey ho, it’s all part of the adventure!

As we started out the countryside was a deep lush green as might be expected for so near the equator but very soon it turns to golden savannah land and within less than 3 hour driving we are crossing rocky desert and more beautiful mountains.

Henry's Camp

We have stopped for the night at a place called Henry’s Camp, which as a camp is quite basic, though inexpensive. However we have decided to take one of his rooms which is very nice, clean and a hot shower, oh my! Lovely! So for one night only, we will leave the cleaning as we know that we have more of the same the next day, but twice as much as we will have to drive about 300km of similar roads. This time we have the added bonus of the possibility of being robbed which I think is unlikely! There is also just a chance that we may come across inter-tribal fighting which is being reported at the moment.  We shall see.

29^th August 2013

We set off early this morning and left our very nice room in Henry’s Camp. As we set filling up with diesel, we were surprised to see soldiers with guns guarding the petrol stations, banks, buses and so on The guys in the gas station gave us stern warnings but then said it is quite safe and we won’t have any trouble. As expected the road was terrible and we were very cautious when people tried to flag us down, this happens a lot in Africa as most vehicle will take passengers. We were having no passengers today, thank you!

Our dirt road was soon diverted onto the brand new highway that is being built in sections from Nairobi. Our section was 35 km of beautiful brand new tarmac but after that we were back on the most appalling roads for a further 200km which took us an exhausting 8 hours and left our van full of red dust. It is not possible to exaggerate how much there was.

Green and pleasant land

The country side changed again from arid rocky desert to a pleasant green almost English scene It might have been quite pleasant but for the corrugated road causing lumps of my soul to fall by the wayside! Just before we arrived we discovered that someone for really no apparent reason had erected the biggest speed bump unmarked and in the middle of an unpopulated area. Without warning we hit it and the van was thrown into the air so violently that I jarred my back and was unable to move for a moment. The contents of the van were homogenized in an instant and one of the cupboards came adrift. Bugger!

These baboons are unique to this part of Ethiopia

After eight hours of this but with no terrible incidents of being held up at gunpoint, we were quite relieved to arrive at the border with Ethiopia.

We crossed the border with very little hassle changed money and went off to find somewhere to stay. The border town is a bit ‘Wild West’ and we are now back to driving on the right. We had to take a hotel room as we were so exhausted from the drive that we could not face cleaning up the van even enough to sleep in it.

We found ourselves in a sort of raffia beehive which is quite comfortable except that the toilet has no seat and does not flush, the shower had the promise of an electric heater built into the shower head. However, all you get was a cold dribble. I thought this was probably a good thing as the electrics in the whole place was terrifying; on the whole I was happier and safer to have a cold shower.

We ordered food! Not such a smart idea I felt. It was delivered to our room; pieces of unidentifiable meat, probably goat still cooking on a dinky little charcoal burner. I don’t know who did the risk assessment on that.  More importantly the meat was so tough it was impossible to eat, it was accompanied by a kind of spaghetti thing which tasted a little risky. 

Soon we have to find a camp or hotel where we can properly clean and repair the van. This will be a whole day job and I don’t think I want to stay here a moment longer than I have to. When we asked a local Ethiopian where there was a better hotel in town, we were told that we are staying at the best one!

It had been a perfect day and so to bed!

Camel train

After another day of similar roads, though not nearly as bad as the Devils Highway the day before, we arrived at a hotel that allows camping. It was so easy to find and easy to get into, with a bar and a restaurant. It looked pretty good so we set up, and borrowed the gardeners hose to rinse the piles of dust from the van. Unfortunately, the manager arrived. He like many Ethiopians spoke little English but it was apparent that he was pretty narked with us, he kept repeating ‘you pay $5 for water, you pay, pay!!!’ After a few rounds of this the penny dropped and I realised that he was majorly irritated that we had just turned up and got on with washing a commercial vehicle in his yard. We were eventually able to persuade him that we really had to shift some of the dust from the van in order to function. Once he realised this he then repeated ‘You no Pay’ several times.  Although we were on the verge of a major row, I thought that was pretty decent of him.

We had a lovely evening as we met Guy Levine (Mr Gooi – he’s called) who is building a lodge in the Bale mountains, which will soon be the most upmarket tourist resort in Ethiopia. Guy is a retired army officer who has had a long standing relationship with Africa and is hugely experienced. We spent such a nice evening with him and Alistair who is developing specialist tours for this part of Africa.

It was a remarkable coincidence that Guy said, “I know someone who retired from the army and did a similar journey!” Ping said, “Oh yeh, that will be Clive and Taniya! We have had so much information from Taniya and she had been very helpful in answering our queries regarding Carnets and routes through the Middle East”.  And so it was. Funny old world isn’t it.

In this hotel the showers available to anyone camping were pretty horrid, cold and nasty. Enter our hero, Guy Levene who offered Ping the use of his room for a shower. It was a very generous of him and very much appreciated! I don’t want to carp but I had already had mine that’s how we knew they were crap!  Thank you Guy.

The next day we had breakfast in the hotel It would have been unremarkable but for the Spanish Omelette was the simply the best I have had.

We are starting to realise a number of things. One is that it is a very long way to Addis Ababa and the other is that Ethiopians are the friendliest, helpful and welcoming people imaginable. It was such a contrast from our arrival.

30^th August 2013  

   

It was another long, hard driving day but very interesting and mostly quite pleasant. The changing scenes in this part of the world can be quite startling; from dry grassland, beautiful hills and mountains and then quite suddenly into lush tropical country with more shades of green than you can imagine; interspersing with vibrant colours of flowers and plants.  We stopped briefly in one decent sized market town which appears to be getting a lot of new modern big buildings.

I was saddened as while I waited for Ping to visit a shop, a man came to me asking in excellent English if I would like to hire his services as a translator.  He explained that he was a lawyer, but having qualified he has found very little work. It is very hard to reconcile that kind of poverty where a lifetime work, hopes and aspirations appear to be gone and you are reduce to canvassing in this way. It is not the first time I have encountered this kind of thing, but it really touched me.  The first person I told this to responded by saying ’Of course he may have just made all that up’. He may have done. This is Africa

We went to fill the van with diesel. I asked the price per litre and was told 17 Birr (this has to be one of the best names for a currency ever!) no problem there except when I had filled up after the border, the pump price was 17 Birr but the nice man said it had gone up to 19Birr per litre but the pump had not been changed. Like a donkey I believed him!!

Potholes, goats, donkeys, horses, tuk tuks and street vendors. 

They are all on the road and in my way!

Horses just stand in the road

Sleeping right in the road

The area is dominated, mostly by small scale agriculture. The drive to Addis is on a road that is dominated by a continuous string of pretty well kept villages.  All day long as we have been driving through the villages we have been greeted by all the children up to about the age of 28 calling ‘yoyoyoyo! It sounds charming and they seem to like that we wave back, but who knows what that means. The people in the villages despite their isolation appear to be generally quite prosperous in comparison to the other parts we have been in so far. Always friendly always helpful and rarely English speaking.

Friends going home

There is a sad thing all around Africa which must be a problem. I don’t know why it is and I don’t know the solution but everywhere there are vendors flogging their produce. But everywhere this happens all you will see are dozens of people selling exactly the same things whether it be row after row of chairs or hundreds of sacks of charcoal this just cannot make any entrepreneurial sense. This time I saw lots of people selling eggs by the carrier bag full, one after the other. Ping said it would take weeks to use them up before they get broken.  Then time after time after time we saw people pushing bunches of 10 pineapples in our face. They work so hard and hardly complain of their lot but such a waste overall.

One of the problems that a lot of travellers speak of is that whenever you stop in these places you instantly attract a pressing crowd. They are mostly friendly but they do press close and it does make it difficult to stop for a meal or indeed for a pee! This has meant that our journey has been pleasurable, but continuous, hardly a stop all day with 7 hours in the saddle.

We arrived at a hotel that allows camping and was recommended by another traveller. As we drove up a thunderstorm broke out so the whole place was engulfed in mud.  There are hundreds of monkeys around which really bothered my Esteemed Life Partner. The rain however even seemed to have dampened their spirits.  This is going to sound a bit like ‘Hello Mudder, Hello Farder again!’ and so it should, but it is raining, it is dark, we are tired, very tired! A nice hot shower should do the trick. No!

The muddy hotel

The kind man in the hotel gave us a key for a room so we can use the shower. He demonstrated that the ancient water heater would be ‘hot in 30 minutes’ I said, ‘oh good, half an hour’, and gave him an encouraged thumbs up. He corrected me and said ‘No thirty minutes!’  It was going to be a long night!

After half an hour I went to try it. The heater was on, but no hot water. The cold water dribbled out. I gave the shower head a friendly tap by way of, slightly illogical encouragement. Of course the whole shower head snapped off effortlessly! Oh gosh I want my Mum at times like this!!!

I got dressed and went back to see the nice man. He got the key for the next room, heater no work, water no run, shower head manky, but man from hotel irrepressibly nice.  Again, next room no shower head, water dribbles, not good. Finally we came to room 19! The lights were on, water runs, nice shower like flow. At first he couldn‘t get the heater to light up. I noticed that water was dripping down the electrical bits, just as he reached out to give the thermostat a tap. I stopped him just in time! Though I did get a look that clearly implied, ‘you may be a bunch of softees but electricity doesn’t harm Ethiopians!’ 

So on to room 18. Man from hotel kindly introduces himself as Sisay. As we entered the room, he took the ‘razor blades’ off me. I think it was an act of kindness but it may just be that any self-harming would have to be cleaned up by him. I don’t know. This time there was a good flow, nice clean shower head, electrics sort of intact, all seems well. He switched on and said, ‘30 minutes get hot’. I couldn’t stop myself and said ‘Oh good half an hour’. He fixed my gaze and said assertively ‘no, 30 minutes!’ 

45 minutes later I had a nice bracing cold shower and sent Ping for the same!  A man has to know his limitations! So dear reader, I write to you sobbing gently as the rain courses down the sides of the van I have finished slipping on the mud.  Dammit, there is a bloody monkey over there and he is laughing at me!!!!

The monkey who mocks me!

I haven’t mentioned the wedding party have I?  At this hotel, this very evening, it being Saturday there is a wedding party going on.  All the guests are standing around in the rain. It seems that something has caused them sufficient mirth that they don’t seem to mind the rain. Then I saw it, in one of the minibuses was someone in a wheel chair. She was being held hostage by three large monkeys who are lined up by the step of the van. No one goes in and no one comes out!  The solution? An 8 year old boy was sent, quite terrified to throw bottle tops  at the monkeys who took absolutely no notice.

I couldn’t watch any more.

I think it is worth saying that when we started out with this journey I had a kind of strapline of ‘Every day is a school day’!  I now think it should be, ‘You couldn’t make it up could you’?  As I trudged away in the mud a pick-up truck arrived with some kind of ceremonial pot and the goat strapped in the back braying frantically. Just for a moment I entertained the idea that he may just be the lucky one!

Finally and quite bizarrely when I went back half an hour later there was nobody from the wedding to be seen anywhere!!! Cars, people, wheelchairs, the lot, all gone!!!!!!

I have to say that as I wait for Ping to come back from the shower I am all alone, and it doesn’t feel that good. I do hope she comes back soon!

They say we’ll have some fun when it stops rainin!’

A town called Addis.

Wet traffic in Addis

We had a pleasant and uneventful drive up to Addis Ababa. The road was pretty good until we started the outskirts of Addis the driving was complete madness and dense, this went and on for miles. This city is huge and sprawling and on the face of it is quite charmless. This is really enhanced by the construction of a rapid transit system that runs right through the centre of the city. I understand that it may be completed this century. 

Oh god it is pretty dire!

It was surprising to find that having come through the whole of East Africa where we found no Iveco agents were now passing several so called Iveco ‘sub agents’ on the main road into the city. Unfortunately they only cater for heavy trucks. It’s ok though we don’t really need much, though a heater for the van would be good as that was badly damaged in the fire all those weeks ago.

We have not ventured out much in Addis so have not had a chance to discover its charms but I want to describe something that we have not seen in any other City no matter how inadequate. The fact is that in Addis Ababa there on trace of any traffic management. The roads are unsurfaced in many streets the traffic is dense. At this time there is heavy rainfall most days and this means that often streets are flooded. There is a main Square which is quite big and traffic filters in through congested gaps and then everyone tries to take the shortest route to where they want to go. No exaggeration, it is common to find three or four lanes of traffic facing each other in the opposite direction. There are traffic lights on most major junctions and 2 or 3 of them are connected.

It is really heartening however; we have seen quite a number of disabled people picking their way in all of this. They always seem to get some assistance in this mire of hazards.  There was one occasion when in the pouring rain several people pleaded to be allowed to board the bus in front of us, no response. Then a disabled man on crutches, frail and struggling, gave the slightest indication that he wanted to board the bus.  The doors popped open and a number of arms shot out and hoisted him in and the doors shut. 

Now, several other travellers have written stuff about the only real place to camp in Addis, that is Wim’s Holland House. It is said to be a great place to meet other travellers and exchange information. The campsite turned out to be horrid!  There is a great compensation in that the other half of the operation is a lovely restaurant /café/bar which is well run and really nice and a great place to socialise.

As it turned out we got the very best of all worlds.  Guy Levene who we had met a few days before and who lives in Addis, invited us to camp in his garden. With this generosity we were able to take advantage of the social side of Holland House.  We have been given such great hospitality by Guy and his staff.  Guy is  a remarkable man who is embarking on a truly remarkable project. He is also a very nice man who made our brief time in Addis, memorable.

Emails are drying up dear friends. Do please write something. Trivial nonsense is appreciated more than ever!

More news from Ethiopia very soon 

Lots of love

Noel and Ping

noelbow51@gmail.com

pingbow54@gmail.com