Day 74 – 18th December 2009 (Gallabat, Sudan – Gonder, Ethiopia)
Border day again! All in all, a relatively painless (and cheap!) border crossing for the team but we knew we had hit “real” Africa as we sat in a mud hut surrounded by geeps (strange African goat/sheep hybrid) and chickens, which served as the Ethiopian immigration office. After a rather arduous meeting with an Ethiopian customs officer convincing her that a carnet was not required for her country (too much to expect that they would know these things…), we entered Ethiopia expecting desolate landscape, something akin to the Live Aid pictures we grew up with. Instead, we found ourselves it what could pass as Northumberland in summer – rolling hills and fields full of crops. Unfortunately, the lovely rolling hills turned into rather steep mountains which William was neither expecting nor appreciated … he had a small hissy fit and overheated… five hours later, we limped into Gonder, nursing William all the way! But a beer rewarded us for our efforts …
Miles travelled: 192 miles
(total 9,827 miles)
Highlight of the day: Beer & salami pizza in the Ghara Hotel, Gonder
Comment of the day: James “It’s
actually quite nice to see a woman in a valour tracksuit for once”
Day 75 & 76 – 19/20th December 2009 (Gonder, Ethiopia)
The man from the hotel we were camping at (camping in hotel courtyards is going to turn into a bit of a theme in Ethiopia) took us to a local mechanic who was (supposedly???) a Land Rover specialist to check out William’s overheating issue – a proper bush mechanic but after a couple of hours sticking (literally) bits together, William seemed to be on top form once again… then the proverbial shit hit the fan when James went to pay. I think we had been lulled into a false sense of security – everyone had been so nice to us since we’d arrived in Ethiopia and everything was so cheap, we stupidly did not agree the price with the mechanic upfront – we had used our own spare parts and taken up less than 2 hours labour time for which they wanted to charge us a whopping 3000 Birr … about US$250! Considering this is more than most Ethiopian’s annual pay packet, we refused to pay but the ugly cross eyed manager also refused to budge employing the classic African argument “you are a rich man, you can afford it” – the bill bore no correlation to the amount of work done, I think they just picked the biggest number they knew how to say in English… idiots… ugly idiots at that. The Mexican stand-off began …
Having argued with them for about an hour, we were down to 2500 Birr (still ludicrous) and the mechanic wanted to go home for lunch which we thought might work in our favour but oh no … they just locked us (and William) in. We considered our options:
1. Pay what they were asking …. never going to happen;
2. Use William as a battering ram and smash through the (rather flimsy looking) corrugated iron gate they had used to pen us in and speed happily off into the sunset; or
3. Camp in their “forecourt” until we became so in the way, they had to let us leave.
Despite CM insisting we go for option number 2, we ended up compromising and chucked US$100 (still extortionate!) at them and were freed … feeling very ripped off and rather disillusioned with Ethiopia.
Then we found the local brewery and drowned our sorrows … 8 hours of brewery beer garden action later, having been joined by the boys from Team Smith ‘n’ Oli (their Land Rover fixed, generally very happy to have escaped Sudan and found beer), had a tour of the brewery and a fight with a tuk-tuk driver, the team was back on top form.
Miles travelled: 10 miles (total 9,837 miles)
Highlight of the day: The manager of the Daschen brewery offering to “have a word” with the thieving cross-eyed garage mechanic … if only we’d gotten his name.
Comment of the day: James to Ethiopia’s dodgiest mechanic “I could buy this garage for that price … shame on you”
Tune of the day: Poker Face by Lady Gaga (playing as we walked
into the beer garden at the Dashen Brewery)
Day 77 – 21st December 2009 (Gonder-Debark, Ethiopia)
We decided to join forces with Team Smith ‘n’ Oli once again and headed north for Ethiopia’s historical circuit … a route which includes most of Ethiopia’s tourist sites such as the Simien Mountains, Aksumite kingdoms and the rock hewn churches of Lalibela. As we past our first blown out tank and armoured vehicle carrier, we knew we were nearing the Ethiopian/Eritrea border …
Miles travelled: 69 miles (total 9,906 miles)
Lowlight of the Day: picking up a flea whilst watching Plunkett & Maclean in the hotel room … we would spend the next week trying to get rid of “Fergus” the Flea from our roof top tent - nightmare
Day 78 – 22nd December 2009 (Debark- nr Adi Arkay, Ethiopia)
Waking up in another hotel car park, we headed out into the Simien Mountains National Park with our obligatory scout … who spoke no English and scarily had a large gun that we are pretty sure he neither had the training nor the mental capacity to use. Not quite sure what threat in the National Park (NP) necessitated a gun touting scout … although we had heard stories of local police reports that Gelada Baboons (endemic to this part of Ethiopia and the main reason we were visiting the NP) are responsible for thefts, rape and even murder … one such errant baboon apparently broke into a local’s house, dragged a man 1.5km and threw him off a cliff … hmmm, maybe the gun laden scout would come in handy after all!
After about an hour searching for a Gelada Baboon, rather nervous that every bump could result in a bullet hole in William’s roof courtesy of a negligent discharge from the scout, we were starting to wonder whether they had all been sent to jail for their apparent misdemeanours. And then we spotted one … and then we spotted his 200 friends … an awesome sight. We left the NP happy bunnies (not least because we had off-loaded the gun laden scout on the Smith Boys J) … our first real animal sighting of the trip!
Miles travelled: 85 miles (total 9,991 miles)
Highlight of the day: A 200 strong pack of Gelada Baboons and Chilli Con Carne with surprisingly good Ethiopian red wine, bush camping under the stars … a feat in itself in Ethiopia
Comment of the day: Mad man in Simien Mountains NP “have you driven all the way from the UK?”; Group response “yes”; Mad Man in crazy high pitched laugh “hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe hehe …” and so on and then just walked off
Tune of the day: Bring a gun by James
Day 79 – 23rd December 2009 (stream nr Adi Arkay – Aksum, Ethiopia)
Wow, what a drive! The red dust track, completely in contrast to the green mountain terrain surrounding us, snaked its way up and down each of the highest mountains in front of us. Sometimes a bit scary – hairpin bends in deep sand with a heavily laden Land Rover and nothing between you and the 1000 metre sheer drop – sometimes just plain stupid – there was a perfectly good valley floor where the track could have meandered through, but it was spectacular!
Miles travelled: 216 miles
(total 10,207 miles)
Highlight of the day: Making it safely down the hairpin bends to Aksum
Comment of the day: James “I’ll have the Chechen Soup followed by the Paper Stake please”. Another classic menu at Aksum’s best hotel in town - we were half expecting fingers in the soup. However, we went back the next day and they had corrected all the menus in manuscript!
Tune of the day: I’m every mountain by Chakakahn
Day 80/81 – 24/25th December 2009 (Christmas in Aksum, Ethiopia)
We decided to upgrade hotels for Christmas and, after a mammoth negotiating session with the management, Team CM and Team Smith ‘n’ Oli booked into Aksum’s best hotel – a 2* that you had to pay extra to use the pool/pool table/table football, we were surprised they didn’t charge us to go to the toilet!
And so it was we found ourselves in Ethiopia for Christmas … the only Christian country in the world that celebrates Christmas on a completely different day from the rest of us (7th January). What can you expect from a country where the year is still 2002?!? Still, we were six English together for Christmas and we were determined to have a traditional celebration which obviously, all being from the Outer Hebrides, involved Bloody Marys, Bellinis and a full on BBQ … or that’s what we told the hotel anyway! We even managed to sneak in a game of TP and a showing of Elf. Great company, good food and Ethiopian wine … all in all, an excellent way to spend Christmas Day!
Miles travelled: 0 miles (total 10,207 miles)
Highlight of the day: The Christmas BBQ
Comment of the day: “they really don’t know it’s Christmas here”
Tune of the day: Santa Claus is coming to town (as featured in
the film Elf!)
Day 82 – 26th December 2009 (Aksum-Mekele, Ethiopia)
Two days of Christmas celebrations in the best hotel in Aksum came to the grand sum of £30 per head … gotta love Ethiopia! Because of their limited time left, the Smith boys were threatening on “doing one” south but we couldn’t bear to leave them just yet so followed them to Mekele – the English convoy together for one last day! Feeling a bit “monumented out”, the famous (at least in these parts) rock hewn churches of Tigray simply passed us by. We celebrated our last night with Team Smith ‘n’ Oli in a bar in Mekele that we were fairly certain was a brothel and smelled of pooh!
Miles travelled: 164 miles (total 10,371 miles)
Highlight of the day: For William, finally hitting tarmac road … which lasted about 4km before the roadworks started and went on and on and on. You would have thought one would try and minimise the inconvenience of roadworks by starting and finishing one small maybe 5km section at a time but oh no, not the Chinese in Ethiopia, they dig up 200km of road at a time … cunning
Day 83 – 27th December 2009 (Mekele-Lalibela, Ethiopia)
The time had come to say goodbye to the Smith brothers, a particularly emotional day for Oli since they had been travelling together since Tunisia. We said our goodbyes but the Surf (Oli’s much loved Toyota) seemed particularly upset, a condition which manifested in its refusal to start … trapping the Smith’s Land Rover in the Dallas Hotel courtyard. A few tender tweaks (and some swear words) later, the Surf was back to its old self and we waved goodbye to the Smith brothers … unfortunately, it wouldn’t be the last problem for Oli and his Surf (the most reliable vehicle up until now) or for the Smith boys … or indeed for William!
So, with the convoy down to three English, we made hay for Lalibela and its famous rock-hewn churches … via a leisurely breakfast at an AIDS conference!?! About 12 hours later in the pitch black, having gone up, and not to forget down, more ridiculously high mountains, we arrived in Lalibela.
Miles travelled: 232 miles (total 10,603 miles)
Highlight of the day: Successfully negotiating around 2,630m of steep uphill track in absolute darkness to reach Lalibela without falling off a cliff
Comment of the day: Ness [who usually can’t drive the mountain roads due to a small vertigo problem] driving at night up to Lalibela “This is actually OK - I just can’t see the sheer cliff drops”
Day 84 – 28th December 2009 (Lalibela – Debre Zebit, Ethiopia)
After much debate, we decided to fork out the whopping 300 Birr to look around Lalibela’s rock hewn churches – worth it in the end (although James was looking a bit bored after the first church … of 11)… after about 6 churches, we decided to call it a day and head south again to Bahir Dar and the promise of flamingos and hippos in Lake Tana. Unfortunately, the Surf had other ideas – not unreasonably since we just seemed to be going up and up and up, with very little down. It was a long day for Oli … your heart really goes out to other overlanders when their vehicles go wrong, especially stuck in the Ethiopian mountains in what seems like miles from civilisation. Although the Surf did pick its spots … on one occasion we were travelling through a large village, where the locals were obviously not used to seeing three white faces travelling in two English vehicles that probably had the combined value of a families lifetime wage, when we saw the Surf madly flashing us from behind. It had cut out smack bang in the middle of town. By the time we had done a u-turn and got back to him, the Surf was surrounded by a crowd about 5 persons deep … it was obviously a highlight of the day for the village!
As darkness fell, we limped to the nearest hotel … I use the term “hotel” very loosely – it had a dead cow skin drying on the washing line and is certainly the front-runner for the “Trip Worst Toilet” prize. In search of food, we took two steps out of the “hotel” gates, looked both ways and saw nothing but dust … still it had a bar with beer (much needed for Oli) and food … of sorts!?!
Miles travelled: 63 miles (total 10,666 miles)
Lowlight of the day: Eating tibs (meat of some description in an oily brown garlic sauce) & injera (the national dish of Ethiopia – a kind of vinegary pancake that has the consistency of neoprene that they eat with everything and doubles up as cutlery) in what probably ranks as the worst “hotel” of the trip so far
Comment of the day: Stopping for lunch we were surrounded by local children in seconds – the poorest we have come across so far dressed in rags, stomachs distended, covered in snot and flies. As James tucked in to his lunch, he felt a pang of guilt and gave one of the children a piece of his marmite sandwich – which the kid took one taste of and promptly spat out, clearly disgusted he spent the next 10 minutes spitting around the place trying to get rid of the taste “Marmite – you either love it or hate it”
Day 85 – 29th December 2009 (Debre Zebit - Bahir Dar, Ethiopia)
Finally, a road that went down hill - we were starting to wonder whether the old adage “what goes up, must come down” had any relevance at all in Ethiopia. The downhill obviously agreed with the Surf and it didn’t overheat once … instead it got a puncture 20 minutes out! Still, we made it to Bahir Dar in good time and as we pulled into the camp site, there sat another white land rover defender 110 with Foleys written all over it and UK plates – it could have passed as William’s twin!
Miles travelled: 142 miles
(total 10,808 miles)
Comment of the day: James, trying to calm Ness down who was
clinging on to the door handle going down yet another hair-pin laden mountain
road (because clinging on to a door handle is obviously going to save your life
if you drop off a cliff in a 2 tonne land rover …) “I didn’t go through that wedding just to die now”
Day 86 – 30th December 2009 (Bahir Dar - Fiche, Ethiopia)
A tough day for all today – it turns out Ethiopia really is just one big mountain range … who knew??? We stupidly thought the worst was behind us – but oh no, at one point we dropped 2000m just to climb 2000m up again on the other side! The vehicles did not appreciate the spectacular scenery. As William overheated, the Surf chugged past “tally-ho to the top” … only to stop 100m around the next corner with the same problem. To make matters significantly worse, Oli’s brakes failed on the way down … very scary stuff!
As night fell with no lodging in sight, we had no choice but to continue on for Addis. Driving during the day in this country is scary enough with suicidal donkeys, cows sheep, dogs and locals throwing themselves in front of your car not to mention the massive pot holes and sheer cliff drops but at night, it’s a whole different ball game and you need every single wit and pair of eyes on the road. By 9pm the team was shattered - there was still 70 miles to go to Addis and we were averaging about 20mph … and then we saw it lit up like a Christmas tree (in fact there was a Christmas tree!) and a big neon sign saying “International Hotel” – we were saved!
Miles travelled: 291 miles
(total 11,099 miles)
Highlight of the day: Coming across the most amazing hotel in the middle of nowhere - clean, with a restaurant that served normal food and the most well stocked bar we’ve come across in this country!
Comment of the day: Oli “I have to leave Ethiopia, it is killing my car” – a comment which William agrees with wholeheartedly!
Tune of the day: Abba … the music selection really has got that
bad
Day 87 – 31st December 2009 (Fiche – New Years Eve in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia)
A good nights rest seemed to do wonders for everyone – particularly the vehicles and it was a leisurely drive into Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, and Wim’s Holland House – an overlanders’ campsite in the middle of Addis run by Wim (a Dutch 60 year old, with failing sight and hearing) and his 29 year old Ethiopian girlfriend, Rachel – I can see why Wim likes Ethiopia! With Oktoberfest signs everywhere, we knew we had picked a winner for our NYE celebrations!
Miles travelled: 113 miles (total 11,212 miles)
Highlight of the day: New years eve beers on tap and pizza!
Comment of the day: Wim at 11:57pm on 31st December 2009 “all, could we please have 3 minutes silence to remember all those fallen in Iraq and Afghanistan and to pray for peace” … kinda killed the mood, a simple countdown might have been better
Tune of the day: Auld Land Sine by the clientele of Wim’s
Holland House
Days 88-91 – 1-4th January 2010 (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia)
Some days Africa can break your heart … Ness had one of those days in Addis. We saw a puppy by the side of a main road, it could not have been more than a few weeks old and had barely opened its eyes. Abandoned by its mother, it had little chance of survival. The locals obviously have enough of their own problems to worry about stray animals and there are no such things as rescue centres in Ethiopia – there was nothing we could do other than give him some food and hope he came across some luck. We have had so many people in Ethiopia come up to us and beg for food or money … the poverty in some places is so overwhelming and Addis, even though it is Africa’s fourth largest city and relatively developed, is little better. Again, there is so little we can do and it does wear you down after a while.
So with Kenyan visa in hand, we were quite glad to leave Addis … and we picked up some new friends too…
Miles travelled: 0 miles (total 11,212 miles)
Highlight of the days: Beer and bacon (it’s been a while…) at Wim’s Holland House
Tune of the day: Irish Folk Music … constantly in Wim’s, odd for
a Dutch fella
Day 92 – 5th January 2010 (Addis – Awasa, Ethiopia)
There are two options to get to Kenya from Ethiopia overland – the main road through Moyale or the other way through the Omo Valley, which according to Lonely Planet is “Africa’s last great wilderness”. We choose the other way, tactfully skimming over the bit in Lonely Planet which warned “you’ll battle roads which eat Land Rovers for brunch, wage war with squadrons of mosquitoes and tetsi flies and sweat more than you thought humanly possible” … hmmmm
Not completely insane, we intended to take on the Omo Valley in convoy
with some other equally slightly insane overlanders (only joking guys) we’d met
at Wim’s - Dawn and Joakim - Welsh and Swedish respectively in their Land Rover
called Bob - Brett & Ham - two Saffers on their way back to SA in a white
Foley’s Land Rover that could be William’s grandfather and, of course, Oli and
The Surf, who had picked up an addition at Wim’s in the form of Neil from
Scarborough/Ibiza. We left Addis separately arranging to meet again that night
at a campsite in Awasa dubbed “the best campsite in Ethiopia”, hot showers,
great food and a lovely setting on Lake Awasa – it sounded like a dream to the
team! Unfortunately, we got to Awasa and the dream campsite was shut so we and
Team Surf ended up staying in a Norwegian Mission … slightly random!
Miles travelled: 184 miles (total 11,396 miles)
Highlight of the day: Camping at the Norwegian Mission surrounded by the sounds of hippos and monkeys … awesome
Comment of the day: “Bugger, I think I said God about three times in one sentence”
Tune of the day: Podcast (introduced by Ham - never tried before but are actually very cool) – Dan Carlin’s Hard Core History, Bubonic Nukes
Day 93 – 6th January 2010 (Awasa-Yabello, Ethiopia)
Our first proper Hippo sighting today – we could hear him during the night (there was no way I was getting out of the tent!) and there he was in the morning, wallowing in the lake just next to where we were camping. As we packed away the tent, we were also joined by a small troop of Colobus monkeys – awesome … the wildlife is starting, yay! We continued south towards Yabello and the turn off the main road for the Omo Valley when we saw what looked like an angry mob blocking the road ahead – we quickly wound up the windows, locked the doors and tentatively drove William towards the mob (with one hand on the khukuri) … the mob turned out to be singing school children. It was Ethiopia’s Christmas Eve today and as we travelled south, we came across more mobs of singers, all of whom parted without incident.
Miles travelled: 196 miles
(total 11,396 miles)
Highlight of the day: Escaping a rather angry banana seller by the side of the road
Sightings of the day: Hippo, Colobus monkeys and Vervet monkeys
Days 94 & 95 – 7/8th January 2010 (The Omo Valley, Yabello –Abore- Omorate)
With some trepidation, we left the tarmac behind and headed for the Omo Valley in full convoy. Having heard stories of the nightmare “roads” – sand tracks, uphill bolders etc., we deflated William’s not expecting to see tarmac again until Nairobi … 10km down the road the tarmac started again … hmmm maybe Ethiopia has been investing in its road system too we thought … how wrong we were!
Miles travelled: 252 miles (total 11,648 miles)
Highlight of the days: Driving through the scenic and remote Omo Valley, not paying anyone to take their picture and saying goodbye to Ethiopia with afternoon beers in the bush!
** Ethiopia – Top Tips **
1. Ethiopia is basically one big mountain range … it looks nothing like the TV footage from Blue Peter we grew up with in the 1980’s.
2. If you stop and look around you for the highest mountain, you can be 99% sure that the road will literally go over the top of it, despite their being a perfectly flat valley floor that one would have thought would be much easier to build a road through. This is awesome for the first day or two but gets a bit wearing on the vehicle after two weeks … we blame the Chinese. Make sure your vehicle is up to it (particularly if you’re doing the Northern Circuit) as LR spares are expensive in Addis.
3. Ethiopian children think all westerners are walking stationery cabinets/ATM’s/2nd hand clothes stores. If you stop anywhere in the countryside, you have out 60 seconds for a pee before you are surrounded … they seem to be able to smell a faranji a mile away and appear en masse from nowhere.
4. It is true – the kids do throw stones in Ethiopia. We got stoned twice, once properly which left a mark. It’s not out of malice, the kids are just bored and think it’s good fun/target practice. The problem is worse in the north and especially the Simien Mountain area.
5. If you want to go into Kenya via the Omo Valley (rather than the main Moyale Road), do not get your carnet stamped on entering Ethiopia because there is no office to stamp it on exit. I understood that Ethiopia is not part of the carnet scheme so you should not need to get it stamped anyway but they have got so used to people producing it at the border that they now ask for it. It took a bit of haggling with the lady but eventually she agreed not to stamp our carnet on entry into Ethiopia.
6. I would only attempt the Omo Valley route in dry season – if it is wet, it would be impassable on both sides of the border. There is diesel available at Konso, which is the last pump you’ll get until Baragoi/Maralal/Marsabit in Kenya, and then out of barrels at Abore (on the Ethiopian side) and Loiangalany (on the Kenyan side).
7. Land Rover parts are available but very expensive in Addis. Labour is cheap though.
8. Watch out for pick pockets in Addis!