Thursday 30th June.
Cheapest beer on earth!
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 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.
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?!
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 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...
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.
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!
