Week 13

Thursday 14th July.

In the lap of luxury.

We left Bahir Dar and made our way to Gondar. The hotel we pulled into was really rank. The rooms were crap and smelt like sewerage and the toilets were so bad they were unusable, and we have seen some pretty bad toilets by this stage. Almost everyone went in search of another place to call home. We, along with Emma and Benne, Marcus and Fiona and Lars found ourselves next door to the shit hole in the luxurious Taye Hotel. It was our biggest splurge to date at US$60 a night, but we felt that we deserved a little luxury. The hotel was all marble and gold, the rooms were incrediblly big, clean, with DSTV, a balcony overlooking the quaint little city, room service (!!!), free wifi in the lobby..... I could go on, but I'll stop teasing you.

Alex was on cook group, so he knew nothing of this until I presented him with the room key and I was on clean group, but we did not waste any time getting back to our hotel afterwards. We had a drink in the lobby bar with our fellow hotel stayers and went to bed.

Friday 15th July.

A hard day's work.

We woke up just in time to get our free buffet breakfast in the hotel restaurant. The rest of the day we spent chilling on our balcony, we ordered room service for lunch and ate it as a picnic on the bed, we watched movies, had the longest hottest shower in history, and went back to the lobby restaurant for the best beef ravioli I have ever eaten.

Saturday 16th July.

Jimmy and Jan- Status: M.I.A.

I got to speak to my sister who was enjoying her baby shower, I was really sad I wasn't there, but happy the time difference worked out well and I got to call her while it was still happening. We met Sheri and Lars at breakfast and gobbled down some pancakes and maple syrup so we could meet Tony at the travel agents in town. We were going on a half day trek in the Simien Mountains in search of Galada Baboons, also known as bleeding heart baboons thanks to a bright red heart shaped peice of skin on thier neck and chest.

We jumped in the minivan and were driven 1.5 hours away to the begining of the Simien mountain range.  All in all we hiked for about 3.5 hours. the scenery was just magnificent, it really was like being on top of the world. Some of the valleys and gorges were so deep that you could stand on the edge of the cliff and still not be able to see the bottom. It was green and lush and we walked up and down and up and down narrow, steep pathways around the mountainside, at the highest point we were standing at 3,000 meters above sea level.

We saw three small groups of galada baboons, each having 3-6 baboons in each. In the right season in the Simien Mountain National Park, which was still a further 1.5 hours away from where we were, the galada baboons are known to travel in groups of hundreds. We just happy to see one! Unfortunately they were pretty far away so we didn't manage to get a photo of the red chest that makes them so unique.
We got back to our hotel at 3.30pm and grabbed some food (beed ravioli- of course) and went upstairs to have a rest. We were planning on celebrating Jimmy's birthday but they had all gone on a brewery tour and were still M.I.A.

Emma and Benne eventually came back to the hotel and we sat in the lobby with them and Marcus, Fiona, Sheri, Janet, and Lars and had a few drinks, Jimmy and Jan were never to be seen again, well, that night at least.

Sunday 17th July.

Kings and Queens of the Castle.

We slept in this morning, trying to take full advantage of the expensive luxury we had allowed ourselves. In the mid-morning we met Marcus, Fiona, Emma and Benne downstairs and headed for one of the castle's that makes Gondar famous. We opted out of getting a guide and instead just explored the castle ourselves. It was good on one hand because we were able to explore the castle at our own pace, go where we wanted to go, stop where we wanted to stop, on the other hand however, we learnt absolutley nothing about the castle, such as why it was built, when ot was built, who built it, who lived in it etc. It was a beautiful castle, made up of about 10 different buildings and many more ruins. It was on a huge green chunck of land right in the middle of the town.

After a few hours of walking around the property we went back to the hotel. Alex and I walked up to the place where everyone else was staying (Farron had moved the truck out of the shite hole to a different place the morning after we got there). The plan was to go on the same brewery tour that Emma, Benne, Jimmy, Aileen, Jan and Mark had gone on the day before. But once up there with a drink in our hands we lost all motivation. We bummed around for the rest of the afternoon.

In the evening we made our way up to Emma and Benne's room for a celebratory drink for Jimmy's birthday. We all had a great night, living like kings and queens. We had room service of pizza and pasta for dinner and had way too many tequila shots brough up as well. I cant remeber what time is was that we went (crawled maybe) back to our room, lucky we didnt have far to go!

Monday 18th July.

African medical system.

We decided to check out of Taye hotel and move up to the Frogera Hotel where everyone else was staying so that we didn't have to make the move early in the morning the following morning. We sent Alex in a tuk tuk with all of our bags to the Frogera Hotel and Emma, Benne and I went shopping in town for any extra supplies needed for Sudan. Unfortunatley there were no big supermarkets in town, or in Ethiopia for that matter, only little mini-marts. Which of course made everything more expensive. The other thing we had to be careful of was the fact that most things were not priced, and there was no barcode scanning facilities, so the shopkeepers could, and often would, just make up the prices as they went along.

I only grabbed a few things such as deoderant, shampoo, chips, dairy free chocolate sauce (score!), snikers bars and it cost over 600birr, thats more that US$36! I think they may have added on a few(hundred) birr when I wasnt paying attention. We also stopped at a pharmacy and stocked up on some broad spectrum antibiotics in case we get sick in Sudan, as we are not expecting to come across many pharmacies. I really love that you can walk into a pharmacy in Africa, say that you have had an upset stomach and would like some antibiotics, and the pharmacist asks how many you would like. Its that easy. There is no going on a waiting list for a doctors appointment, no waiting in the waiting room while the doctor runs an hour behind schedule just to sit in the chair for under 5 minutes and walk out one prescription richer and $60 poorer, THEN having to go to the pharmacy, hand in the script and wait 15 minutes while the overpaid pharmacists takes thier sweet ass time grabbing the little box of pills. It is much easier here!

Fully stocked up on food and drugs we jumped in a tuk tuk and met Alex up at the Frogera Hotel. It was a nice enough place with little bungalows for 300 birr per night. We again considered going to the brewery, but instead ended up back at the Taye Hotel, ordering beef ravioli and enjoying the luxury we had become accustomed to.

Tuesday 19th July.

Sudanese Stocktake.

We left Gondar at 11am and had a cruisy day driving and watching the scenery change again from lush greenery to red desert sand as we came down in altitude, it also got considerably warmer as we descended. There are two nights of bush camping ahead, and although I really enjoyed the luxury of Taye Hotel, I was really excited to get back to bush camping and sleep in Helsinki again (our tent). We turned down a dirt road off the main road in the early afternoon and set up camp, a mere 10kms away from the Sudanese border.

Cook group made spag bol for dinner while we sat around the fire watching an amazing lightning show on the horizon. Everyone collected any alcohol they had been storing on the truck and put it all on the prep table. Sudan is a dry country and has very sever punishments if the law is disobeyed. If you are caught with alcahol, or are found to be acting drunk in public you can look forward to spending some quality time in a Sudanese prison. Even more hardcore than that is the death penalty if you are caught with illegal drugs, or if you are found to be a homosexual. We girls also have to be careful what we wear in public, making sure that our knees and shoulders are covered up at all times, and we may even have to wear head scarfes in traditional or rural areas.

Farron said that we are all adults and can make our own decision, and it is therefore our choice if we want to try and sneak alcohol into Sudan or not, but that it will also be our own fault and responsibility if we get caught and arrested for it. Not suprisingly, no one thought that it was worth the risk and hence, we had a stocktake party. All alcahol on the table must go. Free for all.

It didn't end up as messy as I thought it would. The old say 'many hands make light work' really is true! We sat around the fire drinking the stocktake grog and roasting marshmellows that I had found a few countries ago covered in the chocolate sauce I had found in Gondar.

Wednesday 20th July.

Into North Sudan.

We had breakfast at 7am and were on the road by 8am. We made it to the Sudan border in no time as it was only 10kms down the road. We waited patiently for Ethiopia to stamp us out, a very slow process indeed, and while we waited Jimmy, Jan and I went on a mission to change everyone's leftover birr into Sudanese pounds. The two banks we could find in the border town would only change American dollars, not Ethiopian birr, strange because we were still in Ethiopia. As we exited the second bank there was a small group of men telling us that no banks there would change birr but that they would do it for us at a good rate. Having had had a bad experience with dodgy money guys at borders I felt a little hesitant, but with no other options we followed them into thier little shop in an old shipping container.

In the last week Sudan had officially split into two countries, North and South Sudan, with South Sudan gaining independacnce and becoming the newest UN country and launching its own currency. Quite an eventful week. We had also heard reports of Khartoum, the capitol of North Sudan and our next desitnation, had been bombing South Sudan, so we were all hoping for a smooth and easy few days with no fighting or retribution from South Sudan.

With our pockets full of Sudanese pounds and having been finally stamped into the country, our next stop was the Alien Registration office, we had to register twice, once here at the border and once in Khartoum. We were also not allowed to take any photos until we had obtained a tourist photography permit, which we should also be able to get from Khartoum.

Whenever we asked an Ethiopian what we could expect in Sudan, all they would say was that it was very hot and very expensive. So naturally I got very excited when we found chargrilled 1/4 chicken, yummy flat bread, chillie, salsa salad and lemon for only 8 pound each, about US$3! Maybe Sudan will not be that bad afterall!

Another positive difference was that softdrink came in plastic bottles again, which we havent seen since South Africa. Everywhere else we have been had softdrink in glass bottles which you either had to return or pay for, meaning that take away drinks were rare as we didnt want to buy the bottle. There is also a huge selection of softdrink flavours that I have never seen before, like tangerine mirinda, apple fanta, strawberry fanta etc. I guess thats what happens when softdrink and water are the only liquid trades in an entire country.

Another major difference we noticed as we drove away from the border was that people just dissapeared, in contrast to Ethiopia where there were always people around no matter where we were, in Sudan we passed a few men pointing mounted machine guns at us and waving happily, and a few herders with thier camels, but that was it.

In the early afternoon Farron found a bushcamp for us that looked like the set for the horros movie "the hills have eyes", and these hills really did have eyes we discovered as small shepherd boys and thier goats slowly began to appear from behind the boulders and they just sat there and looked at us. It was a nice place to camp tough, very scenic. There were however more camel spiders, so it was not a late night for anyone as we all opted to watch movies in the safety and comfort of our tents.

Week 12

Thursday 7th July.

Would you like an AK47 with your cereal?!

We had breakfast at 6am so that we could be on our way before the hoards of locals came to check us out. As we took our packed up tent around to the storage compartment under the truck there were already two local guys standing there, one with a large sheppherding stick and the other with an even bigger AK47 (I think- I am no gun expert). Nothing like big guns with breakfast. He just stood there with it over his shoulders and both hands hanging over the gun while we ate breakfast, all we could do was smile and hope that the safety was on, or more likley that the gun even had a safety to switch on!
The guy with the gun asked for a cigarrete and of course we quickly obliged by giving him a whole deck of smokes, he also scored himself some biscuits, some water and some lollies. Anything to keep the man with the big gun happy.

Naturally, I wanted a photo, but locals here don't seem too appreciative of being in happy snaps at the best of times, let alone with a big arse gun in thier hands. Alas, how could I let this minor detail get in the way of photographic genious in the making. I managed to get two sneaky photos by angling the camera lens in between two seats up in the truck, I got one of the guy with the gun and one of Jimmy and Benne holding it, which when asked it turns out he was more than happy to let them play with it. I think he has a future as an OHS specialist! By 6.45 the older of the two guys had grown bored with us and started to shoo us away. Of course, we once again quickly obliged.

There was only about 300kms to cover, but it would be done at the roaring pace of 40km per hour due to crappy condition of the road. Also, we were sitting at just over 500 meters above sea level and Lalibela, our destination, sits at 2500 meters above sea level, so there is quite a bit of climbing to do and the temperature should drop once again.

We drove over a monstrous mountain range that seemed to go on forever and it seems hard to beleive that we were all sitting there in jackets and sleeping bags and blankets when just the day before we were melting in a seemingly endless 40 degree desert. We stopped for a photo-op on the side of a mountain at 3,100 meters above sea level. Quite a view. We drove through mountain farming villages with barefoot children chasing after the truck screaming for pens and money.

As I have mentioned before, the concept of sustainable tourism hasn't made its way to Ethiopia yet, in most parts, tourism hasnt made it yet. In an ideal world I would have liked to stop the truck, sit down with the kids and tell them that if I give them a pen I expect them to draw me a picture with it, which I would then buy off them. In an ideal world...

Driving was real slow going, the road was not only in really bad condition, but was also really windy and hilly. As the sun was setting Farron pulled over on the side of the road with the rocky mountain dropping away on either side of us. He had decided that there was no use pushing it to make it to Lalibela tonight and too dangerous to continue driving on the road in the dark, so we set up camp and would drive the extra 11kms into town first thing in the morning. Alex was on cook group and I was on clean group and we were leaving at 6.30am the next morning, so rather than put up a tent for only a few hours, we decided to sleep in the truck. We put our pillows and sleeping bags along two of the rows of seats, Janet got the other one and Lars slept up the front on the floor. It was more comfy than I thought it was going to be, and it was warm too. There was also the added benefit of not having to pack anything up in the morning, we just sat up (eventually).

Friday 8th July.

Never fear... Janet is here.

We got to Lalibela at 7.30am. The hotel, Seven Olives, was set up on a hill with the restaurant area overlooking some of the town. The first thing we noticed was the large amount of mzungus in the town, we hadnt seen that many white people since South Africa!  It was a nice looking hotel, but very overpriced for both food and accommodation. There was a tiny strip of grass on which we could put our tents, or there were upgrades for US$34 per night. You have got to be kidding me. Never fear- Janet is here! She somehow managed to sweet talk the owner (or scare the living daylights out of him) into agreeing to a much better price of 200birr for a single or 350birr for a double. When the local payment of 100birr per person per night was deducted we were set back a whopping 150birr per night for a double, thats US$9. Thanks Janet! We grabbed some breakfast at the Seven Olives restaurant- the one and only meal we will eat there because it is so overpriced, then went to explore the town and find an internet cafe. The main streets of the town were set on a long L-shaped road with the longer bit being on a very steep incline. We found internet in an old shipping container that was set up inside with two computers. Afterwards we grabbed some lunch and then began our monasteries tour. We saw half of the monateries in Lalibela.

The monasteries were built in the ground, either carved out of stone or out of carved into the stone wall. Picture what Petra looks like and you will be close (or better yet, look at our pictures on facebook). They were pretty amazing buildings, so much work went into them. We went up and down stone steps, in and out of giant stone monasteries. We were having so much fun, joking around, getting lost in the monasteries that it almost felt like we were on school camp. At one stage, I think it was when Mark curled up in a person size hole in the wall, that our guide asked Jerome if we had any religion or spiritualty at all! Oops.
 In one of them there was a recreation/interpretation of a pathway to heaven. It was a tunnel linking one monastery to the next. It was absolute darkness inside, the walls were not flat or even, nor was the ground. We went single file and slow step by slow step. It didnt take long before we were all grabbing onto the person in front of us, just to feel a little bit of security, and so that if they whacked their head on a protruding chunck of stone, I could duck. It was meant to help you experience hell before finally reaching heaven. There was such a sense of releif when finally, you could see a small amount of light at the end of the tunnel. An even greater sense of releif when we found out we didnt have to back the same way we went in! I have no idea how long the tunnel was, or how long it took us to get through it. It felt like forever, thats all I can tell you!

Saturday 9th July.

Yummy yummy yummy I got goat in my tummy.

We woke in the morning to complete the tour of the monasteries. They were just as amazing as the ones from the day before, but were lacking the WOW factor. Maybe by that stage we were monatried out.
After the monastery and climbing the incredibaly steep road back to Seven Olives, Marcus, Fiona and I made our way back down the really really steep hill, to the very bottom where there was a gigantic market. I mean gigantic. At the end of the really steep hill there was a Y intersection. Continuing on to the left, the steep cobble stone road just continue, forever I presume. To the right, the cobble stone turned into a massive crack in the earth that served as a road with little market stalls set up along each side, and at the bottom there was a huge opening just covered in people and produce. It was overwhelming looking down onto that market. We put our hackeling jackets on and went in. Our biggest problem was that we had no idea what we were going to cook for dinner, and so we had absolutley no idea where to start, what to look for or what to buy.

We walked up and down the narrow 'aisles' made of people sitting on the ground in rows with all of thier produce. There were onion aisles, egg aisles, potato isles, chillie aisles. All the while trying to avoid the donkeys carrying produce that were marching down the aisles at breakneck speed. A few time we had to jump over the people on the floor and try not to step on thier tomatos, just so we could avoid being flattened by a herd of donkeys.  We got some veggies, eggs and a slight headache and made our way out of there. Up the street a bit we stopped at a butcher and got 2kgs of goat meat, the skin was sitting in a lump just outside the door so we knew it was fresh.

Marcus and Fiona went to see some of the monasteries and Alex and I took the long walk back up the steep cobble stoned street back to Seven Olives. We got started on preparing the meal. And it was gooood! We stewed the goat in red wine, onion, garlic, stock and herbs and had it cooking for a few hours. Alex helped up make potato roshties to go with the stew. It was so yummy, probly my camp fire meal so far, if I do say so myself.

Sunday 10th July.

We found Utopia.

We left early in the morning and made our way to the next town along. The plan was to stay there a night and then go to a utopian village the next day, but thanks to the high quality chinese road we got to drive on, we made excellent time. The town we were due to stop in looked completley uninteresting and the place we were meant to stay in no longer offered camping so Farron made the call to continue on to utopia.
This village was started by an Ethiopian man with a vision. A vision of a world where people worked honestly for thier money, never begged, where man and women were equal, where men knew how to cook and women knew how to farm, where all profits were divided equally among people and families so no one did without. As we were driving down the road to reach this village a bunch of kids came running towards us and ran alongside the truck for the whole 2kms up the driveway. They were doing the usual scream for pens and money. One little girl, probably about 5 or 6 years old ran the whole was asking for pens, with three pens hidden in her hand behind her back. We were thinking that this mans vision was maybe not all it was cracked up to be. However, as we reached the outer limits of the village, the kids slowed down and eventually dropped away. They were obviously not allowed to beg near the gates of the village.
We drove in and instantly noticed the difference. The kids in the village just stared at us, no one was yelling or asking for anything. Farron parked the truck and spoke to one of the leaders. They told him that we were welcome to camp in the village that night if we wished. We set up our tents in the area of grass around the tents and cook group started preparing dinner. Just before dinner the man who started it all came by with an interpreter to tell us about his story and answer any questions we had. It was quite interesting, but we really didnt know enough about the place at that stage to ask any questions.

The smokers made the treck to the village limits to have a cigarette because it was a non-smoking village, and there was one communal drop toilet a short walk down the path. The toilet was in a tiny straw hut that had no door, so during daylight hours we went in pairs. That still didn't stop an ancient lady accidentally walking in on me. She just froze and stared at me for a full minute, then slowly retreated. It was very awkward, but I don't blame her, in her 300 years on earth she had probably never seen such a white ass.

Monday 11th July.

The village.

We woke up to have breakfast before the village tour that Farron had organised at 8.30am. We hadn't slept very well because we kept on sliding down the tent because of the hill it was on. As we waited for the community member who would be taking us on the tour, we got out a soccor ball and started kicking it between ourselves, hoping to catch the attention of the village kids. Our genious plan worked and soon enough we had drawn a crowd of kids who stood in groups at a distance watching us play with the ball. After a short while we would kick the ball into the crowd of kids so they could kick it back and slowly they became more at ease and more involved. After not too long there was a line of us facing a crowd of them and we were kicking the ball back and forth.

It was so lovely to finally see the kids let loose a little and not be so shy or reserved. Thier little faces lit up and they were having such a good time. Kids are requird to grow up at such a young age here, kids who should be playing dress-ups with dolls are instead carrying and careing for real babies, kids who should be doing homework are more often doing farmwork. It was by far one of the nicest interactions I have experienced because it was natural, not staged, not for money, just for fun.

We didnt end up starting the village tour until afyer 9.30am and before we waved the kids goodbye, Farron asked our community tour guide if we could leave the ball for the kids as a preseant. The guide said yes, threw the ball into the crowd of kids and told them to share. It was wonderful.

We began the tour in the community kindergarten. Here we learnt that the leader had had these ideals and philosophies since he was a young boy. They were ideals of gender equality, income equality, and life equality. These ideals got him in trouble when he was younger, with his family trying to kill him a few times because they thought he was mentally ill, so he left home and travelled around Ethiopia. When he finally decided to return to his home area, he began carefully telling people about his ideas and philosophies again and found that something had changed. People were far more receptive to his way of thinking. In the early 1970s he started the first community with 66 members, which over a few years dwindled to only 9 members. Those 9 members are now all the founding elders of the community. The village we were in, as there are a few now, had over 400 people living in it. Income is shared amongst all community members evenly and there is a community factory where they spin cotton and make clothes and material to sell to tourists and to locals in the cities, all proceeds of which go into the community kitty. There is gender equality, where the men are required to know how to cook and sew as well as farm and butcher, and the women are required to know farming and butchery, for example, as well as cooking and caring for children. The kids in the village go to school, rather than working on the streets or in the farms. The community beleive that we are all the same- we are all human, and we should treat eachother as such. Never do to someone else what you wouldnt want done to yourself. Simple really, and very interesting seen put into practice.

By now you may have picked up the 'cult vibe' that the village had going on. It never felt oppressive or controlling though. They didnt push a single religion, but chose to beleive all the good parts of all of the religions. They were spiritual, but not tied to any one religion.

It was interesting to see also, how fully self-sustainable the village was. We saw the library, which houses book from kindergarten level right up to university level. We saw the kindergarten and the primary school, however the kids did go elswhere for highschool and university.  We saw the elder's dormitory, where they house and care for the elderly members of the community who could no longer care for themselves. It was a little building with numbered cots dug into the mud wall. Very basis, but seeing them interact with the elders, they were so gentle and obviously respectful. It may have been basic, but it was a giant step up from what I have seen to date, where outside the community, elders seem to be kicked out onto the street and left to fend for themselves as soon as they are no longer useful.

We then saw the workshop where the cotton is spun, weaved, dyed and sewed into blankets, clothes and bedding. We bought a dressing gown for only 150birr (US$9). Crazy considering the amount of work that goes into each peice. We also bought a little blanket for each of the twins my sister is about to have. We were asked to sign a visitors book and then the tour was over.

It was great to learn about the philosophies behind the village and then walk through and see how it all worked. I would be very interested to see where it is at in another 10 or 20 years. The leader hopes that his way of life will spread, first around Ethiopia, then around the world. I just dont think something like that could work on a large scale basis, but at least he is doing something to try and make a difference, and to make Ethiopia a better place, not just one known for famine and beggers.

Leaving the community (without ever being handed a plastic cup full of gree cool-aide) we drove back down the 2km road to the main road, and were slammed back into reality by the hoard of young kids running at us from the fields screaming for money and pens. We drove a while down the road and reached Bahir Dar in the early afternoon. Our camp is right on the shores of Lake Tanna, and we were welcomed by a group of 30-40 men bathing in the lake.

The grassy patch on which we could erect our tents were a fair walk away from the toilet block, and was also right alongside a busy public footpath. For security and comfort we chose to upgrade, and got a huge room with an ensuite for only US$10 a night. We stayed up and had drinks until they shut the bar on us. Lucky we upgraded, because I finally caught the tummy bug that was going around and was up at 4.30am spewing. Not nice.

Tuesday 12th July.

R.I.P. fishing rod.

Alex went fishing on the Blue Nile which flows into Lake Tana and caught one big white fish, but lost his good rod and reel when the local who had taken him fishing dropped it in the lake. Alex told him he had to jump in and find it, but the local couldn't swim. RIP fishing rod.

I was in bed all day feeling pretty rotten and watching a discovery documentary on Mount Everest.
Cook group was a wash-out because of the incredible storm, I have never before heard thunder that loud. I could actually feel the vibration in my body. Quite incredible. We ordered dinner from the bar, I had a few mouthfuls of pasta and then went back to bed.

Wednesday 13th July.

Bumming around in Bahir Dar.

I was feeling much better and we just bummed around all day. Alex, Aileen and Emma were on cook group and I joined them in finding a market and buying food. We were planning on seeing some of the monasteries which are situated on the islands of Lake Tana, but we heard from the people that went the day before that they were really uninteresting, and most were shut. Half of the ones that werent shut, were closed to women. So we just took it easy insead. There was another almighty storm in the afternoon.

Week 11

Thursday 30th June.

Cheapest beer on earth!

We had some breakfast and then made our way back down to the incredibly slow internet cafe. It was way to slow for skype but I was able to use facebook to chat with my mum and brother.
Jan and Benne both took turns having a hot shower in our room- I wondered what the ladies at reception were thinking with Alex taking several strange men one at a time into our room.

We caught a taxi to the Merkato market with Jimmy and Benne. It is a gigantic market spread over countless streets. We wandered around for hours and didn't manage to get out of the clothing section, we never even found the souvanier section. There was another massive storm in the afternoon and the rubbish filled streets turned into rubbish filled rivers. We took shelter in a little local restaurant and enjoyed a cold draught beer for the extortianate price of 3.50birr each- that equates to a whopping US$0.20 per beer!! Madness! On the way back to the hotel we got the taxi driver to stop at a supermarket and stocked up on things that we needed for the truck like toilet paper, baby wipes, juice and batteries.

I was on clean group and Alex was on cook group, but when we got back to Amber 'Hotel' at 5pm there was already a vegitable soup cooked and most of the dishes were done. Thanks Janet, Emma and Aileen! Lars had a hot shower in our room- by this stage I'm sure they thought we were pimps or drug dealers or something. Because we had the soup so early we were hungry again a few hours later so we went to the Abyssinia Hotel restaurant with Marcus, Fiona, Jerome and Lars.

Friday 1st July.

Au Revoir Wil.

We left Addis Ababa at 9.30am. Emma had used our room for a hot shower in the morning and the staff finally lost thier shit, yelling at Alex, telling him it was very very bad. Not the relaxing shower Emma had hoped for. As far as we are concerned though, all these people wanted to pay for a room but the hotel was unable to accommodate them and we were paying per room not per person so the water was paid for.
We stocked up on some yummy, freshly cooked bread from a street stall. I havent really eaten any bread since South Africa because it has been so sweet. I think it is loaded up with sugar as a way of preserving it, but it tastes horrible. That is until we reached Ethiopia. The bread is good- real good. It tastes just like home- even better in fact. Always baked fresh everyday. It tastes even better because it only costs 1birr a roll (thats 6 cents each!).

We said a surprise and very rushed goodbye to Wil who had booked a flight home to the US from Addis due to health reasons. We drove all day and were trying to find somewhere to bush camp. There was one major problem with this plan though- as I'm sure I have mentioned before, there are people EVERYWHERE! Stopping for toilet breaks is a rush against time as we have about 3-4minutes to find a suitable spot and complete our business before the crowd of people running out of the mist towards the truck reaches us. It really does resemble a scene out of a zombie movie.  Bush camping was unacheivable.

We stopped at a motel type place on the side of the road in a little rural town and Farron went in to see if we could camp on thier little patch of grass. He came back to us and told us that we could make ourselves at home, on one condition... The camping would be free as long as we all ate dinner in the restaurant. Sweet! Farron gave each person 50birr for dinner and considering most of the items on the menue were between 30-50birr it was a win for us. After dinner we had an early night and went to the tent to watch some movie on the laptop and just chill out. Being in the truck all day and doing nothing can be so tireing sometimes.

Saturday 2nd July.

Drinks at Grabby  Mcphee's.

After having a breakfast of cereal and coffee we piled back into the truck and made our way to Harar. To get there we had to drive through some of the Simien mountains which ranged in elevation from 900-2000 meters up and down up and down, hot and cold hot and cold. We reached Harar in the early afternoon but once again faced difficulty in finding somewhere suitable to stay and the old notes from previous drivers are rarely a help a year or more after the fact. No where seem to have a place to put tents, and if there was a space to put up our tents there was not a secure place to park the truck.

One place we stopped we thought we had a winner and all settled down with a beer, only to be called to the truck by Farron who told us that we were leaving immediatley. The owner and everyone else there seemed too dodgy to risk staying there so we sculled our beers and jumped back on the truck. As we were driving out a really drunk, obnoxious and pushy guy opeded the door and tried to climb into the truck. There was a lot of strong language and boys blocking his way and Leigh and Farron came running around to drag the guy out. Ninja Leigh saved the day by hitting him on the head with the book she was reading and we slammed and locked the door.

We drove around some more and ended back at the first hotel we had stopped to check out. It looked nice enough from the outside, but looked like it was still under construction. Nevermind. The truck was driven down the driveway to the area at the back where there really wasn't anywhere to put tents up, and the toilets were miles away, but it was the best we could do. Once again there was a shortage on rooms in the hotel but no other people seeming to be around, but we managed to get a small room with an uncomfy bed and a tiny ensuite with a toilet that could only be flushed during the scheduled times when the water was turned on. Those that missed out on a room at the Ras Hotel went for a wander down the road and found somewhere nearby to stay. After eating dinner at the truck we wandered down to the hotel where Emma, Benne, Aileen, Jimmy were staying and drank some of the 3birr draught beer- thats US$0.18. Cheaper than the beer we found at the Merkato market in Addis!

After a few drinks there we went on a mission to find a bar. The first place we came upon was called the National. Inside was a huge empty room with a few men and not a single other female. There was a person up on the little stage belting out some really bad and way too loud music and the beers were really expensive (by expensive I mean more expenive than a few cents). Needless to say we left there after one drink. Just across the road was another place called the Tourist. This place was chockers full with young student looking local people all dancing and grinding and grabbing. We went single file inside to get a drink and in a few short minutes my, Emma's and Aileen's arses got groped too many times to count. It was so hot and crowded and grope-central, so we left after one drink and walked back to our hotel getting there just after midnight. Lars, Jerome and Jan were in the lobby so we had a drink with them and said our goodbyes as they were taking off early in the morning to go into Somaliland.

Sunday 3rd July.

Hey Alex, did you know there is a Hyena on your back?!

After breakfast in our hotel we went in search of the market we had driven past while doing laps of the city looking for accomodation the previous day with Marcus, Fiona, and Jimmy. We had a wander through the streets of the 'new town' and some of the 'old town', both seperated by a medieval stone wall over a century old. We found the local market, that is, the market selling what Ethiopians want, not what tourists want, such a clothes, fruit, phones, bags etc. We did buy an adapter because we somehow lost our european adapter without ever using it. Im sure we will find it when we no longer need it. By midday it was too hot to continue walking through the stuffy alleyways of the market so we made our way to find some lunch and a cold drink.  After lunch we went back to the hotel to get ready for the hyena feeding.

The hyena feeding is a tradition that started hundreds of years ago in an attempt to make the wild hyenas more friendly towards humans and keep them wild but be able to co-habitate with them in safety. It is a right of passage passed down from father to son and has been in the same family for more than 500 years. We were driven in a minibus through the windy, maze like, stone streets of the old town until we reached an open space at the edge of the old town walls. The first thing we noticed was of course the hyenas just walking around. There were some coming pretty close to the van, there were some in the dumpster at the edge of the clearing, and there were more ambling in from the dark surrounding streets. It was quite unnerving, but I didn't feel unsafe. The minivan was angled so that the headlights lit up the feeding mat the hyeena feeder had placed on the ground. The hyena man was making these haunting noises into the dark warm night trying to call more hyenas in from the wilderness while lightning lit up the horizon, just adding to the eery atmosphere.

Soon enough we were keeping company with 10 or so wild hyeenas. Well, semi-wild I guess. They are wild for all intents and purposes except for the deal they brokered with a guy 500 years ago to be fed nightly instead of eating townspeople.

We took it in turns walking through the group of circling hyeenas to the hyeena man who was kneeling on the feeding mat on the floor. Once we were knelt next to the hyeena man he placed a thin little wooden stick, approximatley 20 centimeters long in our mouth. Biting down with our teeth to keep it steady he then placed a slice of raw meat on the end of the stick. Almost instantly one of the hyeenas that had slowly been inching forward lunged toward our face and grabbed the meat off the stick. Wow. To be that close to the jaws of a hyeena... Wow. While sitting on the mat the hyeenas kept on fighting amongst themselves- a meter in front of our face, having a hyeena take food out of your mouth is one thing, having an unhappy hyeena do it is another thing all together.

We got to feed 3-4 peices of meat before the next person came and knelt down next to the hyeena man. There was another group of African tourists there and one of the girls spent ages on the mat with the hyeena man before he dangled a peice of raw meat over head coaxing a hyeena to jump up onto her back to get the meat. My instant reaction was "I HAVE to do that!". Alex went around to the other side of the circle and asked if we could have another go of feeding the hyenas and have them jump on our back. IT was incredible.

It was so much more unnerving knowing that they were coming towards you but not being able to see them and then have them suddenly jump on your back. I could hear thier jaws snapping, they smelt so bad it was breathtaking (literally), and they were so so heavy. What an experience. Alex, BJ, Benne and Jimmy also had a go of the hyeenas jumping on thier backs, and when Jimmy was on the mat the second time one of the hyeenas went to have a nibble on his elbow. Cheeky bugger.

Afterwards we were taken to a nice local restaurant in the old town for some traditional food. We then walked home through the dark winding streets. We were told to be careful and aware of hyeenas at night time, even in the new town, because the hyeenas come through everynight and "clean the streets of Harar" as the locals say.

Monday 4th July.

City tour of Harar

We met in the lobby at 10am after having breakfast for our city tour. Alex wasn't feeling too crash hot, having spent the night suffering from cramps and hot and cold flushes. The city tour was great. I absolutley loved wandering through the maze like alleyways of the old town. We walked through the christian market at the edge of the new town which led into the muslim market, just inside the walls of the old town. Both were exactly the same as far as I could tell. It was great to be able to wander through the ancient cobble stoned alleyways bordered by a mixture of brown mud brick and brightly painted mud brick buildings, getting lost in thought and time. We visited a rasta museum, this time there were actual artifacts on display in glass cabinets, not just old guys with dreds sitting around smoking giant joints.

We passed a young girl and her two donkeys who had put the breaks on and were refusing to move a millimeter more. I watched a she tried to coax them down the hill, then an old guy came to her aid and tried to push start the donkeys, then a police officer joined in. Eventually the donkeys finally started moving again and everyone went on thier ways. It was quite comical to watch. We were taken to a local gift shop where I bought a traditional ceremonial amber, nickle and silver necklace.

After a few hours we made our way back through one of the 5 ancient gates that lead to the new town and went back to the hotel for lunch. We passed a homeless lady who sleeps on the footpath just by our hotel with her twin babies only a few months old and a little girl a few years old. The previous day when we passed her one of the twin babies was on its back on the ground crying, this day when we passed it was lying still with flies all over its little face. Heartbreaking to see.

I have noticed that the large majority of homeless street people in Ethipia are elderly. It appears that elders arent revered or respected or looked after here as they are in so may other cultures. It seems that as soon as they are too old to be able to make a contribution they are all but forgotten about and left to fend for themselves.

Alex was feeling really shite by this time so we went back to our room and he slept while I relaxed for the afternoon. We also grabbed a shower while the water was on, we had a few hours in the morning and a few at night- lucky compared to the hotel down the road that the others were staying at that only had one hour between 6-7am when thier water was on. We had dinner at the truck, cook group had made fried potatoes and goat tibs- small slices of stewed meat. We had a few quiet drinks in the lobby after dinner and had an early night.

Tuesday 5th July.

Smart arse Murphy and his annoying laws...

Farron said that we would be leaving Harar at 9am unless we heard from the boys that had gone to Somaliland. At about 8.30am he received a call from them saying that they would get back to Harar by 11.30am. Farron said that we would wait for them. By this time however most people had checked out of thier hotel rooms, luckily we hadn't yet so we were able to take our time packing and Alex-who still wasn't feeling well- was able to go back to bed. Marcus was suffering from the same thing that Alex was, so like the two wonderful partners that we are, Fiona and I went in search of antibiotics for them.  When we walked out the front of the Ras Hotel on our antibiotic mission there was a horse standing in the middle of the four lane, divided, bitchumen road. Just standing there. In the middle of the road, in front of our hotel. It was so bizarre.

Our mission was successful and we got the boys some antibiotics to take and also a few back-up doses incase any of us get sick in Sudan where we presume pharmacists will be few and far between. When we got back to the hotel the horse was still just standing there. Maybe it had had enough and was hoping to end it all quickly? Strange.

By 12.45pm there was still no sign of Jan, Lars and Jerome and Farron made the call that we had waited as long as we could and that we had to move at 1pm. He left a note with directions to where we were heading at the front reception for them and alerted the hotel staff to look out for them. We went drove back to Agape at Awash, the place we had camped for free before going to Harar and they gave us the same deal- free camping if we all ate dinner at the restaurant. Only 20 minutes after we got there the Somaliland adventurers arrived. They had made it to the hotel in Harar a mere 15 minutes after we had left. That smart arse Murphy and his annoyingly predicatble laws again...

Wednesday 6th July.

Camel spiders ahoy.

We left Agape motel in Awash at 8.30am after a quick cereal breakfast to head to Lalibela. The plan is that it will take two not so massive days of driving to get to Lalibela and that we would hopefully be bushcamping somewhere, providing we find a place with no people around. We pretty quickly made our way through Awash town and rapidly descended from the mountains to the plains. It got so hot so quickly, we were completely unprepared for the heat. The crops dissapeared into nothingness, the lush green surrounds gave way to dessert sands, and the dense population appeared to thin out a little. Maybe a bush camp would be possible after all.

The road turned from tarmac into pothole filled sand roads. We all peeled off layers as the temperature hit 39 degrees celcius in the truck while moving with all of the tarps rolled up. The wind hitting our face was like that of a hairdryer. We came accross a few places that looked like potential bushcamps but before the truck had a chance to come to a complete stop, people appeared on the horizon running towards us. Again I will refer you to a B-grade zombie movie to get the idea.

Finally at about 6pm we pulled over onto a dry riverbed. We thought we were in the clear, but alas, 5 minutes later three local shepherds came down to see what was going on. Nonetheless we set up camp and cook group started dinner. All the while the three sheppherds crouched on the floor just beyong the light of the campfire. They eventually made thier way back to wherever it is they came from.

After sundown our nice day quickly deteriorated into a nightmare. We were ambushed. By Camel Spiders. They appeared to be adolescent camel spiders because they weren't yet the size of a domestic cat, but they ran towards you with two front legs raised in the air. It was terrifying. I didnt last too long after dinner before I made a mad womans rush towards our tent and flung myself inside. I hadn't thought ahead though, and suffered all night desperatley needing to go to the toilet but too petrified to leave the tent. Did I mention that they run towards you??!! I was even more unnerved when Alex wanted to go out for a smoke but even he wouldn't leave the tent. We spent a good 40 minutes with our faces planted on the mesh of the tent swinging our torches back and forth like a lighthouse looking for them. It was awful! To make the night even more unpleasant, the mat the Alex was sleeping on had somehow got 'accaciad' and quickly deflated so that there was nothing sperating him from the boiling hot sand all night. Not the best sleep ever, thats for sure!

Week 10

Thursday 23rd June.

JeyJeys in Marsabit

We left the campground at 8.30am to begin our two day drive to the Ethiopian border. We had 100kms of good chinese built tarmac roads before they turned to shite. At 10am we stopped for a stretch and a pee where the good road met the bad, dusty, pot hole filled road. Not too long after we stopped again on the side of the road overlooking a great big hole in the ground that resembled a crater and found a comfy spot amongst the sharp volcanic rocks in the shade of the truck to eat out 2-minute noodles that alex had prepared at breakfast time, complete with chlorine tasting water thanks to the water treatment chemicals. We spent the rest of the afternoon tornado spotting in rural Northern Kenya, trying not to die in the oppressive heat and telling ourselves that although this was nothing compared to what it will be like in Sudan and Egypt- we'll be fine.

We got to a motel type place with a small grassy patch at the side of the building for the truck and our tents called the JeyJey Center in a town called Marsabit. Everything in the town was the same deep red colour from the dust, the buildings, the cars, the donkeys and thier carts. It is also the first sign that we are leaving tribal Africa and entering Muslim/Arabic Africa as we once again find mosques and head covering and full birkas. The last we saw of this was in Tanzania around Zanzibar I believe.

Alex, Aileen and Emma were on cook group and made a pasta with vegitable sauce, yummy considering they were limited as they did the shopping for this cook group 5 nights ago. Most people chose to upgrade, in fact everyone but BJ, Tony, Kate and Geoff did, because the rooms were stupidly cheap. For a basic but clean enough twin room with no ensuite we paid 600 shillings (for the room, not per person) and we got 200 shillings per person back from the local payment, which meant that we only paid 200 shillings for the room- that is US$2.32, or US$1.16 each....!

Cheapest. Room. Ever.!

After everyone had booked into thier rooms Farron called a group meeting before dinner. We all gathered around the fire on our little camping stools that were all set out in a semi circle. I couldnt help but feel a little like I was waiting in the principals office to find out what I had done wrong. But my paranoia was unfounded as Farron wanted to discuss with us the practicalities of travelling along the stretch of road we were about to embark on. The road on which we would be travelling down the next day is in very poor condition, so the going would be slow, we would be lucky to hit an average of 30kms per hour. In addition, this particular stretch of road is notorious for dangerous bandit activity. Farron asked that if anyone was going to venture into town after dinner, to be careful not to tell anyone where we were headed. He said that if someone is asking there is most likely a reason why they are asking. He said that if anyone asks us about our plans to tell them that we came to visit the national park and that we were heading back to Nairobi tomorrow. Somone also made the clever point that we should make sure that we werent wearing our africa trip t-shirts, the one with our route marked out on a map on the back of the t-shirt.

This could be interesting.

Me, Marcus and Fiona were on clean up group and then we showered, rather, stood under a cold dribble of water. I thought that I had done a reasonable job of cleaning myself considering the lack of water pressure - that was until I dried myself off with the towel provided by the JeyJey Center- the towel that used to be white but ended up brown. I think it'll take a high pressure hose to clean me off properly at this stage!

Friday 24th June.

Bandit land.

We were woken up early by the drone like sound of call-to-prayer blasting from the speakers atop every mosque. Alex had to get breakfast ready so he went to do that while I started packing up the room. We were on the road by 7.30am and spent the rest of the day joking about bandits in an attempt to ease any uneasiness felt. There really was just nothingness out there. Sand, a few rocks, wind and a lot of heat. Jan appropriatley commented that we had taken a wrong turn and landed on Mars.

It was so barron. Bright red sand and black volcanic rock as far as the eye could see. We stopped a few times for toilet breaks, which got more and more interesting as the loo spots became more and more limited. At lunchtime we stopped in the middle of the road- no real harm there as we had not seen another car all day. There were small circular rock formations all around us about a meter wide and a meter high. No idea what they were, and although they had a decidedly 'blair witchy' feel to them they did make good toilets. We grabbed our food and ate on the truck as we drove on, it wasn't exactly a nice scenic spot to stop for a picnic anyway, but I also got the feeling that Farron didnt want to sit around any longer than necessary. We stopped in the early evening and set up our bush camp.
Tomorrow into Ethiopia.

Saturday 25th June.

Ngeera, Tooroowat, Kitfoe,  Tagabeeno, Shooroofasass and all things yummy...

We were up at 6.30am for breakfast and on the road by 7.30am. We had to take extra care when packing up our tents as there was a high chance that scorpians would be hiding in the warmth between the sand and our tents. We didnt have any but Janet had two under her tent. During the night I thought I had heard camels but it turns out it was hyenas and Leigh had listened as they got really close to our camp overnight. Glad I found that out in the warm morning sunlight, not the middle of the night when I had to pee!

We got to the Ethiopian border before lunch and stamped out of Kenya. We had started to miss Kenya before even leaving it. Kenya was good to us. No more jumbo, asante sana, karibu, sawa sawa (swahilli for hello; thank you; your welcome; its ok/ok; repectivley). One day we will return to Kenya.
Driving to the Ethiopian side we went straight to the immigration building. Even though we had obtained the visas in Harare, Zimbabwe, we were warned that it would probably be a slow process. All in all I think we waited between 1 to 2 hours, not as bad as I had been expecting. There is a noticable difference in the way people look, even there at the border. Compared to Kenya, people in Ethiopia got a lot shorter and thier faces changed. It baffels me how much can change with simply crossing a man made invisible line in the sand marking the end of one country and the start of another.

Once back to the truck Farron informed us that he had just found out that the banks won't change Kenyan Shillings into Ethiopian Birr. He said that we may be able to do it in the capital city, Addis Ababa, but that he wasn't sure. We had stocked up on shillings while in Karen, Nairobi with the plan to change it straight into birr, rather than into american and then to birr, so we had a lot of money that we now didn't know if we would be able to change. We were initially going to change only a small amount of our money, but the dodgy black market guys standing out the front of the truck offering reasonable exchange rates could well have been our only chance, so we made the last minute decision to change all of our money with them.
We counted and checked the Ethiopian notes they gave us and then made a fatal error. We handed over our Kenyan shillings and, conscious that we had 30 minutes to drive to the nearest bank so everyone else could change thier US$, rushed onto the truck without watching the dodgy black market guys count the money we had given them.

Did I mention they were dodgy??!!

We had just closed the door when they started shouting up that we had short changed them 10,000 shillings. Uh Oh. I was 99.9% sure that there had been 50,000 shillings, not 40,000 but the dodgy guys insisted that we only handed them 40,000. Because we both had that 0.1% of doubt in our minds we had already lost the battle. Farron came back around to help us, telling the dodgy guys to settle down and shut up for minute, and then telling us to do what we beleived. After what felt like an eternity of yelling back and forth telling them that we had indeed handed over 50,000 shillings, that we weren't stupid, that they were dodgy and that we had counted the money 4 times we conceeded that we were fighting a loosing battle. Aware that the 0.1% of doubt we harboured had sealed the deal and still conscious that everyone else had to make it to the bank before it closed at midday we put our tails between our legs, hung our heads low, gave in, and gave them some money back. I guess we will never know if we got ripped off or simply miscounted our money, although I am pretty sure it was the former and not the latter scenario. What can you do? We could have stayed and argued till our heads exploded, they saw the doubt in our eyes and like a pack of dodgy black market wolves, they would not give in.

No point being pissed off about it, or beating our selves up about though. Lesson learned. And if that is the worst thing to happen to us on our travels, I will count us lucky. And now a little bit wiser.
We carried on,on the right side of the road, and reached the bank just in time for people to chance thier US$ into birr (US$1 = 16birr).  It became immediatley apparent that in this country, we are the tourist attractions. We stopped in a small town to grab some lunch but didn't stay too long as there were bold, cheeky locals trying to get inside the truck. We grabbed some bread rolls and a cold drink and drove on.

There are so many beggars here. Every where else in Africa to date people have done something, anything, to make money. Whether it be shining shoes with muddy water, weaving baskets, or making toothbrushes out of twigs, they havent expected anything for nothing. It is different in Ethiopia. As far as I can see there is no local tourist trade, everyone just begs for money. I guess it is because there is not the strongest tourism prescence in Ethiopia. It is much more confronting though. All I want to do is give a few birr, which is nothing to me, to the cute little boy sitting in mud covered in flies, or to the man who looks like he is about 400 years old wearing rags for clothes. But if I give money to them how can I then say no to the other 30 people crowding around us?

We got to a town called Yabelo in the early afternoon. It was not at all a campsite, but a motel with a narrow strip of grass along the side of a brick wall. We asked how much an upgrade would be as they looked like nice rooms, but quickly set up our tent when we found out they were the equivalent of over US$40. After crowding our tents all less than a meter away from the next on this narrow strip of grass we all gravitated towards the restaurant to check out the local cuisine.

We started with a tiny, but extremely strong Ethiopian coffee. It was as good as expected seeing as we were in the birthplace of coffee. One teeny little cup could keep you awake for a week though! Marcus, Fiona and I were on cook group and got ready to catch a tuk tuk into town to find a market to do some shopping. However, as we were preparing to leave, everyone was ordering food from the bar. Instead of waste money on food that no one was going to eat we asked Farron if we could instead put the dinner budget money back into the local payment kitty to be used at a later date, maybe on a night out or something, and all order from the bar. Farron was all for it as long as no one else objected. Everyone thought it was a great idea (none more so than us), so that is what we did, and that is where we stayed for the rest of the night drinking 12birr St. George beers (US$0.70).

We also hit out waiter up for some local terminology (mainly food related- surprise surprise).
Here it is, fonetically spelt:

Ama Saganalo: Thankyou
Gonjo: Beautiful
Tooroo:Very nice
Ngeera: A sour pancake used to eat with instead of cutlery
Kit foe: minced meat
Shoo roo fa sass: like porriage?
Ta ga bee no: like shoo roo fa sass but sweet?
Doo roo wat: chicken dish
Kay you wet: meat and pancake
Kikeel: meat and soup
Lamp tibs: lamb in a fondu like dish served with ngeera
So, after a nice night we went to bed all prepared to order some yummy local food and uses some pleasantries as well.

Sunday 26th June.

Our first Oasis (International)

We were on the road by 8.30am with 300kms ahead of us in order to reach lake Awasa. We were on breakfast duty, but thanks to Janet forgetting to switch her alarm off, and Tony's early rising, it was all set up by the time we got up.  We bought some incredibaly yummy bread rolls on the side of the road for 1birr per roll (US$0.06) and ate lunch on the move. So happy to finally get bread that isnt full of suger and too sweet to eat!

It is crazy here! No matter where we are, the second we appear somehow 40 people appear out of thin air and crowd around us. As we drive, people chase us screaming for money or pens, or trying to sell coffee beans, pineapples, suger cane, and other unidentifiable objects. One guy went to throw a pineapple and Fiona and I as we looked out the window. I doubt he ever really intended to throw it, as that would be a waste of prescious money, but it made us jump nonetheless.

The scenery here is luch and green. The hillsides are covered in plantations, mainly coffee. There are people EVERYWHERE, even in what seems to be a deserted foggy hill in the middle of nowhere. It seems to be reminiscent of Dar Es Salaam when driving throught he villages, people crowding the truck and yelling and screaming, trying to open the doors. There are some screws from the back lights that have been loosened in an attempt to steal it. Kids scream at the top of thier little lungs "You You You You You You You You" with a huge smile on thier dirty faces waving hands and running after us as fast as thier legs will carry them. Some skip the enthusiasm and instead just point and laugh, others flip us the middle finger while laughing wildly.
We got to Awassa in the afternon and Farron dissapeared inside Oasis International Hotel while we waited patiently to find out if this was to be our home for the next few nights. The roads were cobble stoned and there were heaps of donkeys, mokeys and emancipated horses everywhere, competing for road space with the tuk tuks and 4wds.

Farron came back and told us that this is where we would be staying fo the next two nights, although they no longer have space for camping- so rooms were on him! Awesome. Even more Awesome when we walked inside the marble foyer and up to our amazing, new, clean, marble rooms with a full ensuite, balcony, and DSTV. We all settled into our rooms and I stood under the healthy flow of hot water in the shower until I pruned up. When we met everyone else downstairs in the lobby/restaurant/bar Farron asked for a show of hands of who was willing to go out to the truck and prepare dinner. Surprise surprise, no one jumped at the proposal. Farron had expected as much and instead offered to give everyone thier share of the dinner budget from the local payment to buy ourselves dinner. We ordered dinner from the hotel and decided to try out our new vocabulary and order some national dishes. We got fer fer and lamb tibs (again spelt fonetically). Both were really nice meat dishes that came with ngeera, the sour pancake type thing that is used instead of cutlery. Ngeera is aweful by itself but surprisingly good when eaten with things as intended. I tried to access the free wifi in the lobby, but to no avail as it was too slow to even load facebook. Ah well, we went to our room shortly after dinner to enjoy a spot of luxury and digital telvision.

Monday 27th June.

Hanging in Awassa

We slept in this morning, not making down for breakfast until after 9am. We went to the fish market on the shore of Lake Awasa with Janet, which was interesting indeed. There were hundreds of maribu stalks walking around feeding on the fish scraps and  there were little stalls all set up selling fried fish, fish stew and tea. We had just finished breakfast so were not hungry and didnt try any fish. The lake looked as though it was competley over-fished. We didnt see any fish more than 20 centimeters long and the shore was lined with boats and nets.

From there we caught a tuk tuk into town to have a look around. Awasa is Southern Ethiopia's largest city, but it is not as large as you might be imagining. There were some large buildings and busy roads all meeting at a center round about. It was busy with lots of people and shops and stalls and beggars. Satisfied, we went back to the hotel and had an afternoon nap and then went downstairs to grab some lunch from the restaurant. After lunch we went back upstairs and watched a movie on the movie chanel and then sauntered downstairs again, rested, relaxed, clean, and ready for dinner. Cook group budget was again paying for dinner beause food is so cheap here it doesnt make sense to go to a supermarket to shop for food people wont eat, rather than go to a local restaurant and eat local food, support local community and have a good time doing it. Farrron and Leigh had spent the afternoon scoping out a good local restaurant and organised tuk tuks to come collect us at 7pm. We got to the restaurant with no name and no menu and played a game of charades trying to order food for everyone. We ended up with lamb tibs and egg fer fer with enough ngeera to feed a nation. This was all pretty awesome and the best bit was still to come.... they had cold beer on tap!!! We ate, drank beer, and were merry.

I dont think the waiters had ever seen white people in the restaurant before and before we knew it there were 3 or 4 of them sitting on the opposite side of the room quietly watch us enjoy our meal, they even took a few sneaky photos of us with thier phone cameras! After dinner a few people went backto the hotel and the rest of us walked to a nearby bar that Jan and Mark had scoped out during the day. The streets were deserted except for the homeless people sleeping along the footpaths. When we arrived at the bar we were pleasantly surprised. Being a Monday night we had half expected it to be either shut or dead quiet, but on the contrary it was full and pumping. We grabbed some beers and made our way to the dancefloor. The dj played a mixture of local and western pop music, including Shakira's "Waka Waka, This time for Africa" song which we went beserk to. The locals dance like they are possessed, and it was not unusal to watch two gys grinding against each other or holding hands, or two girls holding hands, but rarely a guy and a girl. We stayed until about 1.30am and then caught a taxi back to the hotel.

Tuesday 28th June.

"You You You You You You You"

We were up early to have a shower and pack up the room. While enjoying the free breakfast that came with the room I tried to get onto the internet again and managed to load facebook after many a hair pulling minutes. I couldnt really do anything because it was so slow, but we did manage to watch a short ultrasound video that my sister had posted of one of the twins kicking the other twin squarley in the face. I also saw the message she sent that told me she had found out the sexes and one is a girl, but that I would have to wait to find out the sex of the other one because she wanted to torture me for a bit. Biatch. I bet its a boy!

We had a lunch of tinned tuna and pickled cocktail onions ont he run so we could make it to Addis Ababa in good time. The city sits at an elevation of 2,500 meters above sea level and we made it to the city at 3pm. We were welcomed by a significant drop in temperature and a massive thunder and lightning storm. Addis looks like a massive sprawling, spread out city with 4 lane highways meeting puddle filled, muddy road and big high-rise buildings sitting next to little shanty houses. Forenjies (foreigners/white people) are a novelty and a rareity it seems, even in the big city, so we made our way through the street with a constant chorus of "forenjie, forenjie" and "you, you, you, you, you".

Despite arriving in Addis Ababa at 3pm, we didn't make it to Amber 'Hotel' until 6pm thanks to dodgy directions and bad traffic. Farron did an amazing job driving in circles through that chaos. I was desperate for the loo by the time we arrived so as soon as the truck pulled up the stone driveway off a main street I made a run for the 'toilets'- an old shipping container with a urinal and two things that I wont torture you by describing with too much detail, and flaps of metal that served as doors that wouldnt shut and offered no privacy at all. Dear god. Farron said that there was a hotel (minus the sarcastic inverted commas) almost directly across the road that was supposed to be ok so a herd of us quickly scampered over there to try and nab a room. If it was for only one night, Amber 'Hotel' would have been manageable, but I could not face those toilets for 3 nights!

Accross the road at the Abyssinia Hotel which looked simple but nice enough, there were only three rooms left and each had a double bed in it, so a lot of the single people graciously lowered their elbows, bowed out of the race, went back to Amber Hotel and left the rooms for the couples. Score for us! Marcus and Fiona and Geoff and Kate also got a room. Comfy, big bed, ensuite with hot shower, tiny little tv with Fox movies and BBC news.. not bad for 160birr a night (US$10). We went down to the first floor and had dinner in the hotel restaurant and Marcus and Fiona and then retired to bed early, had a hot shower and watched some movies.

Wednesday 29th June. 

Cinema time in Ethiopia.

First thing in the morning we went down to the street level shops where there was a little internet cafe and found out the sex of the second twin. It is so exciting!
We caught a taxi with Jerome to a shopping mall that had a cinema spread out over three levels and almost no shops at all, but a gigantic arcade type place in the middle of the cavernous mall. The arcade place had rides, dodgem cars, games, ball pits and a restaurant. We met up with Aileen, Emma, Bene, Jimmy and Mark after lunch and got tickets to see a movie called 'Bad Teacher' wit Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake in it. Our options were pretty limited by movie times and whether or not they were showing in english. The ticket to the cinema cost only 35birr (US$2.20) and we paid 40birr for two small popcorns, two pepsi's, and a bottle of water (US$2.50).

The movie was easy to watch and had its funny moments. It was weird to sit in a cinema and forget for a moment that I was in Ethiopia and not at my local shopping center watching a movie. There was one line in the movie when a character said something about finding a really nice Ethiopian restaurant down the street and the crowd went wild at the mention of Ethiopia. Everyone was clapping and hooting, it was really funny.
We caught a taxi back to the hotel through another thunder storm- they seem to happed at around about the same time everyday here. We had some local food for dinner with Jan at a little restaurant next to the hotel. Ethiopian food is really nice and so unique. There is nothing like it anywhere else in Africa. I highly recommend finding an Ethiopian restaurant near you and trying it!