22 - 30 November 2009 Khartoum – Addis Ababa
Our time in Khartoum was spent as usual, getting washing done, sorting out visas, doing the blog and enjoying a couple of days in an hotel. Like most cities it is a sea of people and traffic and it will be those we have met rather than the city itself that we remember. From the Hotel Manager who gave us a special discount because we had driven from his home town, Wadi Halfa, to Tiff the friendly cab driver who had once worked in the Sudanese Embassy in London and lived in Sunningdale, the wonderful Kenyan at the Embassy who told us proudly about his country whilst preparing our visas and, as we left, the hotel staff who came out to wave us off, one copying down our “live when you’re alive and sleep when you’re dead” legend.
Back on the road South we came onto a toll road – our first since leaving Turkey, heading for the Ethiopian border. We followed the river South for a while. The landscape was bleak, flat and with constant biowing sand. We saw some settlements where the homes were not even adobe – they just looked like wooden frames covered in straw or sacking. Searching for bread for breakfast, we pulled up at the side of the road and JC went into four shops trying to explain what he was looking for then one of the guys suddently said “Ah bakery” and when he went inside there were thousands of bread cakes all stacked up. Expecting a large order the baker was surprised when JC asked for four only – they took pity on him and gave him them for free with a smile – result. As we stopped in the desert to cook up some eggs and use the Kelly kettle to make tea we spotted some of our friends from the ferry. Rob and Anna and Roland had made an early morning start like ourselves.
In a short while the Muslims will celebrate Eid – four days of feasting and spending time with family and friends. The main food they will eat will be lamb and all along our route we saw flocks of them waiting to be sold and slaughtered – a bit like our turkeys at Christmas time!!!
The livestock sales...........................................................................................................
200kms south of Khartoum we passed the lone Czech cyclist who came in on the same ferry as ourselves – he must have been going some to be in front of us!!! The road just went on and on today with the temperature at 39c we were all feeling a bit weary and looking forward to some cooler weather in the highlands of Ethiopia and the lakes. We bush camped just around 60kms North of the border, so that we would be in good time the following day, in what looked like it could have probably once been a watering hole but what was completely baked dry in the sun. There must have been a village nearby and we added to their amusement as they wandered by in the dusk.
We awoke to a beautiful sunny morning – sometimes the lack of facilities whilst camping can be a pain but sitting in the sun having breakfast on 24th November makes you appreciate the other side of this “travelling life”.
At the border we met up with more of our original little group and then the Sudanese bureaucracy took over our lives for the next two and a half hours whilst we waited for the numerous bits of paper to be checked and stamped before we could leave. Having said that the Customs Officer did offer us girls a cool place to sit and coffee whilst we waited for the boys.
Arriving in Ethiopia the conditions were much worse than we had experienced in the Sudan with dirt roads, broken down homes and crowds of people waiting to cross the border – the place was a melee of people living in appalling conditions. First we went to immigration – from the road side we could see a modern looking building and headed in that direction BUT it wasn’t finished so we were directed through a farm yard to one of the round wattle and daub buildings. There we waited whilst they checked our passports against their “database” - two large ledgers with alphabetical tabs along the top. Trouble was they were checking under D for me and not M for Morgan and J for John and not C for Cox! With five of us waiting this took some time and we amused ourselves by reading the many beer adverts on the calendars. It made JCs mouth water just thinking about it. From there we went across the road to Customs located in a 20ft container with a side door which was locked! No one seemed to be able to locate the key so “Grandfather” – JC was invited to take a seat. With a life of expectancy of only 45 years in Ethiopia – he must seem ancient to them and this means he gets treated with GREAT respect. We waited there a good hour before the key turned up – I suspect it was off having its lunch – and finally we were through and headed towards the highlands. It was wonderful to see a rolling green landscape after our time in the desert. Having said that the temperature was still 38c!!
As we passed through the very poor villages many of the people gave us a big grin and a wave, however, even more of them held their hand out for something calling “ you, you, you, money, exercise book, bic pen” . After a few days of this JC started calling back “ring Bob Geldorf”. The constant begging takes the edge off the welcome smiles. Having said that, the living conditions are so bad you can understand the desperation of some of these people.
Arriving at the Ethiopian border.... Some local life around Gonder.....................
Eventually the temperature dropped to around 29c and we had our first drops of rain for about 10 minutes!! By the time we reached our campsite on Lake Tana, there was a lovely breeze, the others had already arrived and the beers were cold. Once again we had all read good reviews about this site – I am sure it will be fantastic when it is finished as there is a lot of work going on building bungalows, shower blocks and toilets. As we arrived, the owner was away in hospital and a small group of local people looked after us and the views over the lake were wonderful. The younger members of our group “the kids” spent the evening watching a movie on the lowered awning of a Landrover – what next!
The following morning we all slept a little longer, the local girls brought us fresh bread and after breakfast there was a bit of vehicle checking and servicing going on. It was good to have a rest day, although I could tell that JC and Roland were itching to be back on the road. For me I decided it would be my first day on anti-biotics with a sore throat and sinusitis for the past seven days I had had enough – even if it meant I should lay off the beer! Wondering about dinner that night, Rick asked the locals if they could offer anything and we understood we could have a fish burger supper, so after a couple of beers as the sun went down, we all donned our head torches and headed for the restaurant hoping for fresh fish from the lake. Fresh it certainly may have been but it consisted only of three fish cakes per person! I managed to get a small bowl of fried potatoes – not a lot for growing overland boys and girls!!
Just keeping an eye on things...... Another one for Faye.................. Would be bad if we went down this hole in the road.............
Back on the road again we left early with Roland our motorbiking mate from Germany and were away from the campsite at 7.45 am. Once again the living conditions of the locals schocked me and I wonder what they think of us as we drive by kicking up dust whilst they try to scratch a living in the dirt.
Outside of the villages, the land is turned mostly to agriculture with the land being worked by handed. We watched as men collected the crop using small hand held sickles, cattle stamped across thrashing the harvested crop and people throwing it into the air to separate the chaff and the straw from the seed. We saw lots of herds being herded by children as young as three or four – mostly in bare feet. We have seen some schools and children in uniform so levels of education must have improved with the help of aid from outside. All along the road there are people walking somewhere, whether simply taking their herds to water, the women carrying food, water or laundry on their heads, priests with their robes and umbrellas or children trekking miles backwards and forwards to school. The women carrying their loads are so elegant, they seem to sway under their heavy loads. If we stop for a moment we are quickly surrounded by these inquisitive people.
Well, we have been on worse roads than the road to Lalibella before but we have never been on such a road for such a long period of time. Having left camp at 7.45am we didn’t arrive in Lalibella until 7.15pm. We knew that the road from the campsite was pretty bad but the Chinese road under construction from Werota to our destination was appalling. Sometimes we were on the old road – corrugations but not so bad, sometimes we were in deep gravel – much worse and although we could always see the new tarmac road being prepared, the construction work going on meant we kept on being diverted from one side of it to the other. Goodness knows who long it will take to complete the road, as a great deal of the work was being doing by hand! The dust was flying everywhere, the detours were often not clearly marked - one took us off through a town with dirt tracks, hundreds of kids coming towards us and even a dead body been carried through the streets! The most annoying thing was that we could see the road and not get on it and when there was a bit of decent road it was full of donkeys, ponies, cattle or sheep!
For the final 30kms we were in the dark which made it even more interesting but at 10kms out we finally hit tarmac and for the first time in seven hours we got into top gear! We were very glad to reach the Seven Olives Hotel and find Roland there in one piece.
The hotel itself was very basic but it is the best in town and as I said to JC, if we compared it to the Nile Hotel in Wadi Halfa it was a palace! We were happy that we did not have to put the tent up in the dark and took a room and sloped off to the terrace for a few well deserved beers and supper. At breakfast the next morning, we met Roland who had already arranged for a guide to the churches and off we went through the village to see the famous rock-hewn churches of Lalibella. The eleven churches linked by underground passages were carved into the red volcanic rock beneath the town. It really was like a rabbit warren and we were glad that we had a guide with us. To enter each church we had to take our shoes off, which JC was not happy with so he spent the time wandering around the outside of the churches whilst Roland and I visited all eleven. Quite simple in design, apart from the church of St Mary, which was King Lalibella’s private church and the first to be completed and had some roof paintings. Apparently all remaining treasures from the churches had been removed just five days before to the new museum. However, each church has a different processional cross and in most the priests are happy to be photographed with them, some of them wearing sun glasses to protect themselves from the constant flashing of the tourists cameras!!! We climbed high up on the walls, famous for the dancing priests during Epiphany and Christmas, and went deep below the earth to the entries of the churches passing through tunnels from one to another. Each church is different with representations of many religions like the Star of David, Maltese Cross, Cross of St Andrew and even a Swastika. St George slaying the dragon features in many of the paintings – its even the name of a beer here. The legend has it that King Lalibella wanted to recreate things he had seen in Jerusalem and the Holy Land. Hence the tombs of Adam and Eve and the River Jordan running between the two sets of churches.
Our guide patiently represented the heritage of his country. Sadly the pathway back to the hotel from the site wended its way through a very, very poor area of the town. Obviously not a great deal of the money taken from tourists in this area is re-invested in its people. At the hotel the staff brought out a tray of food to feed the birds so that the tourists could get good shots from the terrace. As Roland said, they would be better off feeding the poor children living not more than 100 metres away rather than the birds! Like any good driver JC spent the afternoon checking over the vehicle ready for the next day. Although she is covered in dust she certainly has done us proud on the rough roads of Ethiopia.
Some of “the kids” arrived that night looking as dazed as we had been after driving the road to Lalibella. The following morning we set off hoping for more tarmac on the road to Addis Ababa. We met Roland in Gashena looking for fuel. The garage was closed and his only possibility was to buy on the black market at double the price!!! No choice really so we waited with him whilst he was safely filled up and ready to go. As we waited we were surrounded by people looking into the vehicle. Boys with heads in the window checking out all the gadgets. I tried to distract them and keep them occupied by showing them the map and the guide book with pictures of Africa. All very friendly really once you get used to it.
Our map shows a fairly straight tarmac road to Addis Ababa. Well first it climbed and climbed, twisting and turning through breathtaking scenery to a high plateau golden in the sunlight with lots of small villages and farms then it twisted and turned downhill again before climbing up to the sky once more.
Today we learned the meaning of an Ethiopian detour – the first indication is usually a pile of stones in the road but sometimes its a huge bulldozer – then you lose an hour of your day whilst trying to find your way through the many dusty streets and sometimes rivers, competing with the tuc tucs and horses and carts to get across the river first. Pity the poor truckers who also had to take the same routes – fully laden. They couldn’t believe it when JC stopped to let them through. The worst detours came at the end of the day when we were hoping to get camped at an hotel where we should have met up with Roland again. Recommended by some Aussies we had met along the road as being “on the left before a Total Garage just after a small town called something like Kampisee” – no coordinates for Gloria. By 6pm we thought we were still about 40kms away when we came across a decent looking Hotel just after a Kobil filling station on the left. No sign of Roland but we decided this must be it and we decided to stop. We had the choice of camping in the garden or taking a room for the same price and we opted for the room and went for a cold beer in the garden. The young guy running the place speaks some English and was a Manchester United fanatic showing us photos of Rooney and Beckham on his mobile – the international language of football works all over the world! For travellers on Route 1 the Hotel Abenether is 303 kms North of Addis at N10.71136 E039.87397 – good stop over place.
We thought we would reach Addis Ababa by lunch time but finally got in around 2.30pm. In 7.5 hours we managed just 329 kms – dire travelling with dust and rubbish all the way. We were both a bit fed up of the constant drain of Ethiopia – pity the poor people who have to live here permanently – we are simply passing by. We met up with Roland again just outside of Addis where he had been waiting 3 hours to drive into town with us. He had kept driving yesterday for 12 hours , had problems finding fuel and ended up in an hotel that cost only 14 Birr which is around 1$.50 – you can imagine what it was like! We made it to Wims Holland House – camping place for overlanders in the middle of Addis Ababa – roll on the open spaces of Africa and the bush camping. City camping is definitely not for us but needs must as we have things to do Addis. Leaving tomorrow morning – heading for Kenya.
Keep the messages coming – it cheers JC up on the rubbish roads here!!
Sorry for delay in this weeks update - must try harder!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Its difficult with Ethiopian internet - only one speed - dead slow....