1st October 2013

Sudan

Dateline Nubian Desert, whatever that means!

Sudan has not been a disappointment. This is partly because we did not really have any expectations. There is not much here, it is quite flat and the first part up to Khartoum was quite green. On the drive up to Khartoum and beyond it got increasingly hot, I mean hot! Whilst in the city I asked someone how hot it gets, he replied clearly, “about 45˚C”. I looked at our outside temperature gauge and it said 45˚. An hour later, it was up to 52˚.

A friendly greeting

The reason that Sudan has been such a good experience is because everybody we have spoken to has been pleasant, welcoming and helpful, mostly no English is spoken but from time to time we have been approached by serious language   students who really want to practice their skills.

Internet coverage has been quite a headache. It has been impossible to send emails or to post our blogs. Even when we were able to post it was so slow we decided to halve it and send the later part when we could access better wifi. As I write, that second half has yet to go. The internet Caff that we found is run by an English speaking family who were good company, helpful and a mine of information. I think we both would have like to have spent more time with them.

While in Khartoum we stayed at the National Camping Residence, which seemed to serve as the University Camp accommodation for the vast African International University nearby.

Lifting weights for Sudan

We were placed on a sort of square with a stage at the end. There are also a lot of those ubiquitous plastic chairs laid out. It made us wonder what event was going to take place. It turned out to be the Sudan National Weightlifting finals also the selection for Olympic hopefuls.

I joked with this guy's team that they couldn't lift weights in pink. With a smile his simple answer was to take off his jacket and show me what he has!

I would never have thought I would attend such a ‘gruntfest’ but we were surrounded by the whole thing and with absolutely everyone coming up and enthusiastically and formally introducing themselves to us as we  set up camp.  We enjoyed the way that we were involved socially and by the phenomenal effort put in by the contestants, not to mention the joys and disappointments.

Dinner with the journos and judges

On the second day we were invited to share dinner with some of the judges who it turns out are some of the top Sudan sports journalists. The camp was very basic, the shower and toilet, we would describe as quite ‘fragrant’! However, we had a really nice time and everyone we met was so welcoming.

Leading sports journalists

Champions!

                                

As we set off again, I was really quite surprised and interested to find that there are a lot of old trucks and lorries in Sudan, but far and away most common are the 1960 vintage Austin K type and Bedford JO lorries that are nursed along I believed with some affection. These ‘old boys’ haul their huge payloads all over the country everything from sacks of grain to livestock. 

Vintage Bedford

Ageing Austin

An Ice cream van in the Nubian Desert ?  Must be a mirage!

I saw one truck carrying half a dozen camels. They appeared to be quite content but then camels usually do. They just sit there and wait for something interesting to happen.

After Khartoum, the land turns quickly to desert. We stopped for the night at a kind of motel at Begrawiya Oasis. This is just about 1km south of the Meroe Pyramids so we stopped for the night and in the morning we went see the Pyramids. 

The very beautiful Meroe Pyramids

They can be seen from the road and appear to be just a bunch of monuments. We cut across the desert and paid to go and take a closer look. I am so glad we did, they are quite beautiful. They are tombs for the local Royal families. Set amid some lovely dunes, there is a mix of fairly rough structures as well as some superb geometric shapes. Really worth the climb.  It is so beautiful.

Geometric forms 

such a memorial

After a couple of hours we continued through the desert. 

I just love driving here though it is unspeakably hot. As we cruise along the good roads it is necessary to have the window up as a scorching hot wind blows hard across our path. It is heavy going driving like this with the windows up. Ping really finds extreme heat a trial and this is as hot as we have ever experienced. The fans in the cab just blow hot air in your face.

The next night was difficult  as we had a recommended camp. Allegedly run by a Korean couple in a remote town we had to hunt for it in the dark dodging unmade roads and squeezing between houses, no street lights of course, well actually there were no streets as one might recognise. Anyway, with the aid of yet another very kind and English speaking man we located the place to find that our Koreans had bailed out and closed the place down. So we camped in what may kindly be described as a gas station, or possibly a building site. Trucks in and out all night oil drums being dragged around and donkeys braying, we were forced to sleep with the side door open in order to breathe. Surprisingly we both slept quite well.

As we started out the next day, we had been going for a while when we saw in front of us a couple of men riding cycles. They are Steve and Reza who are attempting to break the record for cycling from the Arctic Circle to Cape Town in 100 days. On this afternoon they had just ridden some 200 km and were distinctly worse for wear.  

The courageous Steve and Reza

It is unbelievably hot, 45° outside and a strong hot wind from the east so it blows across the road. We had to drive with the windows up because the heat of the wind is hardly bearable.  I have the utmost admiration for those hardy souls who attempt this journey on pushbikes. Even though there are quite a few of them what they do is just incredible. They will undertake a number of rides that we found difficult enough in our vehicle never mind using pedal power. What Steve and Reza are attempting is a step further. We feel quite proud to have made their acquaintance and really wish them every success. It is a truly remarkable thing to do.

Desert Scene

We carried on through the beautiful but barren desert, in extreme heat and we had set our sights on a place called Camp Louis which our GPS said it recognised.  We never found it; at least we don’t think we did!

After a long drive we went on a wild goose chase across rough terrain. Following vague directions on the GPS, as well as an array of tracks in the sand , eventually we landed on a flat rock on the bank of the Nile. The GPS coordinates must be a bit off, not only because there is nothing here, and the actual location the GPS gives is about 20 metres into the river. We have driven about a km off the road into the sandy desert; all we have found is a maze of other, disappointed tyre tracks which suggest we are not the first to find this.

Anyway, we decide to settle here for the night, particularly as Ping is really not up for more driving. The Nubian Desert on the bank of the Nile is idyllic in appearance, but for the fact that it is unbearably hot (45˚), there is a strong wind blowing fine dust everywhere and Ping is feeling distinctly unwell. Everything is hot to touch, all the drinking water is hot, the water from the tank is hot and our little fridge is working so hard to keep up.

Our visitor just leaving

As we  were driving in, we saw no one, we were all alone, not a soul for miles, at least though we were able to take advantage of the solitude………… Er, hold on………… some bloke has just come out from behind the van. Without any discreet cough or other kind of warning, this bloke appeared wearing turban and traditional costume. He greeted us, shook hands and asked for some water. We gave him a bottle of water. He thanked us, shook hands and walked off into the distance. Really scared the willies out of me!

Ping was really feeling the heat and was not feeling at all well at this time so we cooled her off as best we could, though our solar shower was almost too hot to use.

We went to sleep early not being at our best. In the morning we rose with the lark to find that the wind had died down, it was quite cool and the sun was rising over the Nile. It was really lovely!

Vulnerability

As we sped across the desert in the extreme heat and dust,   I realised that as long as we have plenty of water, and I do mean plenty, we are drinking gallons of the stuff, and as long as the van is running well, then we are just fine. However if that for any reason ceases to be the case then we are in real trouble.

We have just learnt on the BBC world service that a few hours earlier, along the exact route that we took as we left Khartoum, they had the worst civil disturbances that Sudan has known for a very long time. As we drove out of town on the main road to the airport we stopped to fill up with diesel. I was surprised to see that the price had increase by about 50%, and queues were starting to build, though at that time we were blissfully unaware that there was a problem. By lunchtime a police station and petrol stations were on fire and during that day alone 126 people were confirmed dead. The internet was shut down by the government. It must have been truly awful.

It is ironic that we were so cautious about not getting caught up in any trouble as we head north, when it all pops up behind us in a truly unexpected way. We laboured over our decisions to drive through Egypt and yet 5 minutes after we left the city, Khartoum was on fire.

The same can be said about our decision to drive through the dreaded Marsabit (Kenya) to Moyale (Ethiopia) road where reports of banditry and tribal conflicts were a real threat to our safety – we are still shocked and horrified at the bloodbath that took place in Nairobi just days after we left, this was a shopping centre that anyone of us could have frequented whilst in Nairobi.

I feel it is really important for us all to try to appreciate our own good fortune.

Minimum speed restriction, Nubian style

As we packed up and got ready to move on the wind started to get up and make the dust fly. So off we went on our way to our last stop in Sudan, Wadi Halfa

Wadi Halfa is the port for the Nile ferry that will take us up Lake Nasser to Aswan and Luxor. This promises to be quite an adventure as we have to send the van on a barge that departs on a different day to us. Everyone who has written about this describes having a severe case of the Heebie Jeebies at watching their vehicle bobbing down the Nile on an old barge.

Leaving the van

As it has turned out we made use of the services of a ‘fixer’ who, unlike so many of the people who make their living at ports and frontiers helping people through the procedures our chap, Mirzar was possibly the most helpful person in Sudan, a country where everyone is pretty helpful.

Mirzar , a study in black and white

This is what happens next. We have to get on a ship that will transport us down the Nile to the port of Aswan alongside the Aswan dam. This ageing ship carries only passengers and so our van will have to be loaded onto a barge that then is towed by the same route and we then collect it at the other end. However, this is Africa and although it might be reassuring for these two services operating to schedules that coincide. They don’t! Actually it would, I think, be exaggerating to say they operate to any kind of schedule.  

We met Mirzar as we entered the town of Wadi Halfa. He was riding his motorbike and we managed to recognise one another . Introductions over, he immediately started the paperwork off getting forms completed and stamped. It really turned out that Mirzar is a remarkable guy. Everyone in the town and the port knows him by name and he is very well respected. It was agreed that we should get the van onto the barge the next morning and then ourselves onto the passenger ferry in the evening. This was the best way to minimise delays in collecting our van, so it was arranged.   Then we were informed that there had been an incident on the barge and its cargo of rice had been contaminated with diesel fuel. This would take several days to salvage the cargo. Mirzar continued to run round the various offices and so on. We were now booked on the ferry and the next barge may, or may not be on Monday.

Staying outside Mirzar's lovely house

At Mirzar insistence, we spent the night in Wadi Halfa, camped outside his house. He let us use his toilet, shower and even his washing machine. Ping realised that we would have to turn the fridge off in the van, so we had a supper made of some of the goodies which we had been saving in the fridge. Sudan is a fairly straight down the line Muslim country, where no alcohol is allowed. However, it turned out that our dinner that night was bacon sandwiches and one last beer that had been overlooked in the back of the fridge. Almost perfect, until Mirzar called me in as he thought I might enjoy watching Wallace and Grommit and the Wererabbit on the telly. A great night!

The next day we had to finish the arrangements which meant taking the van down and leaving it in the customs yard cleared and ready to be loaded. We then spent the day kicking our heels until we could get on our boat. The time came and went and then suddenly, only two hours late we were able to board, and what a bear pit that was. As you push along with the rest of the crowd through a narrow doorway, someone took your ticket and your passport and threw them into a cardboard box lying on the floor, full of other passports. We were told that we would get them back at the end of the journey.

Writing this blog on the Nile

Mirzar had arranged with the skipper that as the boat will be crowded with people, we could, for a fee have a place on the deck in front of the bridge. And so we did. Having given the skipper a backhander for our place on his deck we were approached by his deputies for a ‘tip’.

Our ticket included a meal, and we were hungry by this time. Someone thoughtfully brought it to us! It was not of the quality you might get on a cruise but it was pretty good and gone all too quickly.

As the sun set we were on our way to Egypt.  In the ship's light there was a myriad of insects flying all around as well as bats circling. We took our sleeping bag with us and it did get a bit chilly at night.

On the way we encountered a fishing boat that had got its nets caught up in its rudder so our ship stopped to rescue them. The rescue was a matter of getting a line aboard, pulling them alongside and then handing them a big carving knife to cut the entangled net.

Then down to sleep, I had a surprisingly good night’s sleep despite being on a steel deck. Ping was not quite so rested, as she spent most of the night gazing at the stars.  We awoke the next morning to a beautiful sunrise in the hill on the banks.  We then had a breakfast of bread and peanut butter with honey which we had brought with us, very nice. Overall, the journey was not too bad at all.

There was a bit of a fly in the ointment when Ping slipped off her flip flops and was then told by one of the passengers that the wind had just taken one of her slippers out to sea. She had no other shoes with her.  Now, Ping is ever resourceful and had very soon found someone among the passengers who had a new pair that she was willing to sell her. We discovered later that we would have had real problems disembarking with only one shoe.

Moments later the wind took my beloved cap off and it was gone forever. I am really upset about this as I have had it for about ten years and it was a gift from my lovely daughter, Daisy. 

New shoes?

Shoe sales department

By the time we had docked we had still not been given our passports back. As everyone was leaving the ship, only then did they decide that we would need a visa (which we had known all along).  And so they started the process, the visas would cost $15 each so we produced 2x$20 and of course they had no change. We were kept waiting for an hour before we were told to go landside and queue up there. Eventually we were given our visas with no real problem but still no $10 change. I felt that we had already spent more than an hour as punishment for not saying ’keep the change’.

I felt like digging my heels in even though we were now dealing with different people. Eventually after much patting of pockets and denying it concerned them, we finally got $5 and the remainder in Egyptian pounds. 

We met with Kamal, who is the opposite number of Mirzar, to take us through the complexities of getting our van back in Egypt.  A lot of people feel that they should not need to use these people but in this part of the journey these guys are surprisingly professional and they know how to work the system. Importantly, Kamal picked us up at the port and drove us to our hotel which is a decent journey. 

So we are now settled in a pretty nice and not too expensive hotel in Aswan. Here we get to have a nice, and much needed rest, a bit of mild tourism and some air conditioning and wait patiently, and hopefully for our van to float its way down the Nile to join us.

Lots of love 
Ping and Noel

pingbow54@gmail.com
noelbow51@gmail.com

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