Ethiopia
To start with have to say there is a stark difference between the Ethiopians and the Sudanese, the Ethiopians are cheating, stealing (I will come to that later), rude people. The country however is fantastic stunning lush mountains, and great lakes. There is a lot that we got to see in Ethiopia, so I will be brief.
Gonder
Didn’t have a vast amount of time here as we spent much f our only day there trying to organise a flight to Axum, I won’t bore anyone with the details, lets just say it was time consuming for a number of reasons. We finally managed to spend a couple of hours looking around the castle which is apparently the Camelot of Ethiopia, it was Ok but I don’t imagine that Arthur would have been all that impressed by it. Or by the irritating shadow people who hang around outside.
Axum
We departed Gonder early and were in Axum by mid morning. Now what we hadn’t realized was that there was a huge religious pilgrimage hitting town at the same time as us, which meant that flights out and hotel rooms were at a serious premium. We eventually managed to secure both a hotel room and a flight out. However the hotel room was to turn into a bit of a nightmare, the second night were there the hotel told us that they had double booked and that we had to move somewhere else, initially we were happy to help them out, however when they took us to see the alternative hotel we found building site with no windows, or running water, so a rather long and nasty argument broke out, and it ended up in us staying in a Voluntary counseling and treatment centre for AIDs (actually very nice), spent that night getting drunk and trying to see the funny side of what had happened. Early in the night a group of flute (word used loosely) players came in the bar and started to drape grass all over us, very surreal and just the laugh we needed after the days ordeal, even if the music was awful.
As for the sights in Axum, we got to see the stele fields and the church of Mary of Zion which allegedly houses the arc of the covenant, which they wouldn’t let us see though we did get to see the doors to the room and the only man who is allowed in the room with it (apparently a rare treat)
Lalabella
After the hotel debacle in Axum it was a relief to check into a classy place and treat ourselves to some much earned R&R. We spent fair amount of time going on little hikes in the surrounding mountains which are beautiful. Also we visited the rock hewn churches, Ethiopia’s answer to Petra. They were stunning and quite the architectural feet, they were built by king Lalabella so that people wouldn’t have to go on such long pilgrimages they even have a river Jordan.
Had some great food and some not so great drink. The local home brew is called Tej, it is a maize beer, and it is rank. It was served to us from a kettle and we drank it from scientific beakers, it looked like of orange juice and had the same consistency. Heather soldiered on with her portion and managed half a beaker, I managed a couple of sips, and you will never guess which one of us had gut rot the next day!
Baha Dahr
Errrrm nice fruit juice, piss poor water fall!
Addis Ababa
The girls decided that they were going to have a girly day and treat themselves to a spa and cocktails so I went to the Merkato with some of the boys. The Merkato is a vast market area where you can find pretty much anything, it dos however have a very bad reputation for thieves and pickpockets. We had managed about 20 mins in the market before Pete took off after a guy shouting thief, so we all set off in pursuit, I managed to catch the guy and pin him against the bus, and much to the delight of the locals who all clapped and cheered (they apparently don’t like thieves either). With in seconds there was a policeman on the scene who started proceedings by giving the guy a clip around the ear. The policeman led us and the bad guy to the police station occasionally stopping to explain to people what had happened and giving the little shit a few more clips. In the police station we gave our statements while the Ali Baba was sat on the floor next to us, several different policemen came in and asked where we were from and what had happened, after they asked this they would shake their head at the criminal and give him a good kicking. Have to say it was quite the experience, especially as the guy hadn’t actually managed to take anything out of Pete’s pocket; Pete was just incensed that the guy tried. Also should mention that we are gluttons for punishment so went back to the Merkato we stayed long enough to have two more attempted robberies, and then decided to leave before anything else could happen.
For my girly day we tried to go to a spa for a massage, unfortunately they were fully booked and we realized we had forgotten our guide book, so now we had no plan or map!! We also ended up at the Merkato but our experience was far less exciting, we just shopped and had a nice lunch. One of the girls needed to use an ATM and after lots of inquiring we discovered that the only ATM is at the Sheraton. So poor us, we had to go to the Sheraton, it was heaven on earth. It was decorated beautifully for Christmas and we totally splurged and had cocktails, and we all used the bathroom twice. It was a great day in the end.
And we all knew it had to happen sooner or later, I had an accident… Our last night in Addis I was cleaning out the truck and I had my hands full and ended up missing the top step of the ladder coming out of the truck and fell. Don’t worry I did manage to hit every rung of the ladder (hard) on the way down. One of the guys had quite a fright when he found me in a heap at the bottom of the ladder surrounded by garbage, but I was lucky and only ended up with severe bruising, mainly on my arm and the biggest bruise of my life on my bum. That made riding in a bouncing truck a little painful. And everyone has agreed on the truck that I’m no longer allowed down the ladder with anything in my hands so I can use the railing.
Konso
We went to visit the king, but after smashing one of the truck windows on the drive through the thick forest we found out that the king wasn’t in. Not to worry had a very pleasant evening playing Frisbee and football with the princess and princess of Konso.
All in all Ethiopia was a lot of fun and very interesting, but it is not an easy place to travel and it can get very trying.
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