Cairo to Cape 2010 Blog
Blog 6 – Ethiopia
The drive out of Khartoum was uneventful. The adventures started after a few hundred kilometres... we were driving along when Hilary commented to Bruce that she thought it was strange they could see the roof of lead vehicle. Bruce radioed Steve to pull over. It seemed the weight of the custom built body coupled with rough African roads had taken its toll on the chassis... it was cracking and cracking badly! Steve had a quick look, stopped some of the other vehicles and started to off load some of the weight from his vehicle before limping into the service town of Gederaf to find a guy with a rather powerful welding machine.
A few hours later and the Chassis on Kermit was welded, plated and bolted and we were back on the road. However, there are still plenty of bad African roads to negotiate and the stress of knowing this was evident on Steve’s face! The bad roads through Ethiopia and northern Kenya were definitely going to challenge Steve’s 30 years of overlanding experience!
Our crossing into Ethiopia was relatively quick and easy despite the newly introduced changes to Carnets (our vehicle passports) and supporting documentation required.
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The drive from Khartoum to the border of Ethiopia was relatively flat, it seemed the minute we crossed into Ethiopia the landscape and terrain changed tremendously. We began climbing, and climbing - the brown landscape of Sudan became a distant memory - Ethiopia is green and mountainous with people everywhere.
We arrived in Gondar in good time and waited for the lead vehicle to join us. As they say things always happen in 3s and once again Kermit had experienced problems and was towed into Gondar. As it turned out the timing had slipped once again and poor Steve had to redo the work he had done a couple of days ago!
The place we were supposed to stay had no water – typical across many hotels and campsites in Ethiopia. Luckily there was a little hotel next door which did have water so a quick change in plan saw most move in next door and the others behind the original hotel.
Gondar is known as the Camelot of Africa - and this is pretty true to word! In the centre of town is the Royal Enclosure, the remains of a classic English castle! A little random when you first see it but after leaning about the history of Ethiopia - Queen of Sheba, St George, royal families and the elite - a castle is natural , surrounded by cobble stoned streets and mountains!
For most of us Ethiopia is known only for poverty and famine. While there is a lot of poverty and famine in the very south of the country most of the country is mountainous and fertile, the scenery resembles the Alps in Europe!
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From Gondar we made our way to Lalibella - the 12 famous churches carved out of rock on the top of a mountain. Legend has it Angels helped the monks to hand carve the churches in less than 100 years! Monks still guard the churches as they have for hundreds of years; the favourite church is clearly St George.
The road from Lalibella to Bahir Dar was rough and bumpy. Kids line the side of the road and in order to get your attention throw rocks at vehicles. While they mean no harm the behaviour is dangerous to say the least - and you guessed it - one windscreen received a direct hit!
The long drive through the mountains was a joy and although we suffered a broken windscreen and a couple of punctures the journey overall was uneventful.
We arrived in Bahir Dar and made our way to the Ghion Hotel and campsite. Unfortunately for us weary travellers the Ghion Hotel had a wedding on with hundreds of quests and music blaring so we moved to another hotel in a quieter location. Had we been a few years younger we would have joined in the celebrations as the bridal party had extended an invitation for us to join the festivities!
We spent the day visiting the source of the Blue Nile and monasteries on Lake Tana (with a bit of bird and hippo watching thrown in!). Addis Ababa was next on the agenda and once again this bustling city surrounded by mountains boasting the biggest markets in Africa, museums, cathedrals etc. Everywhere we turn Ethiopia simply amazes us. The people, the scenery, the history is not what most of us were expecting from a country which has always been portrayed as desert and famine.
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Driving south from Addis Ababa we finally began to drop in altitude, the landscape drier and finally semi desert however this was only the last couple of hundred kilometres not the entire country.
Ethiopia is an absolute gem. The landscape is amazing, there are people everywhere and if you are after a peaceful holiday this is not the country! The poverty and lack of infrastructure is evident - there were constant water and electricity shortages. In most places we stayed there simply was no water - which meant no showers and no water to flush the toilets. However, once again we need to remember where we are - an over populated poor country (the size of Queensland and 75 million people!) with very little infrastructure and an incredibly high demand on basic resources.
Photos from Anna and Phoebe
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