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