I awoke to the sound of a herd of cows herded in to munch hay from a freight container in the childrens playground next door. This hotel is quite the chaotic multi purpose building site!
We set off with Abrahim, the customs agent who was off to Addis to attend five days of training. The road was reasonably good tar, but we needed to keep our wits about us because of crossing livestock. We encountered our first police roadblock not far out of Moyale and I was a bit nervous as the guys in the green Land Rover we'd met in Livingstone had been stopped and the contents of their vehicle examined at some length.
Well it turned out Abrahim was great friends with the staff at the roadblock and after some greetings and joking we were waved through. The road was quite narrow and at one point a truck knocked the left wing mirror off. It nosed out to see if it could pass the truck it was following, and nosed back quickly when it saw us, but unfortunately its trailer couldnt follow quick enough and thwack!
There went the wing mirror. We stopped for a quick lunch of injera with kitfo which is minced raw meat with herbs which Abrahim ordered for the three of us. I enjoyed the injera and Duncan said the kitfo was quite tasty but didnt tempt me to start eating red meat. I'm a bit concerned I'll only get to eat injera without accompaniament, although hopefully I'll be okay on Wednesdays and Fridays which are 'fasting' days for Ethiopian Orthodox Christians - which means they have only one meal on that day without meat, dairy or fat.
After countless lush green hills and amazing views we descended again into the rift valley which here was full of golden yellow hayfields. It is amazing to me that we are still dipping into the rift valley we first encountered in Malawi.
We dropped Abrahim off near the bus station at Awassa and went to the campsite we'd chosen for the night only to find it was 'now a private home, more or less'. Which part I wonder. More or less? So then we thought we'd press on to Addis as it was only another couple of hours drive and it was still mid afternoon.
We refuelled in Shashemene, the Ethiopian home of Rastafarianism and ploughed on, but as dusk approached the (very good) road was crowded with heavily laden carts pulled by tiny exhausted-
looking donkeys, crammed buses, heavy trucks and little blue tuktuks weaving through the traffic, in addition to the increased incidence of camels, goats, cattle, sheep, horses and donkeys crossing the road on their way home for the evening.
We decided to stop at a resort that offered camping at Lake Lagnano.
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| Fields of teff |
Well it turned out Abrahim was great friends with the staff at the roadblock and after some greetings and joking we were waved through. The road was quite narrow and at one point a truck knocked the left wing mirror off. It nosed out to see if it could pass the truck it was following, and nosed back quickly when it saw us, but unfortunately its trailer couldnt follow quick enough and thwack!
There went the wing mirror. We stopped for a quick lunch of injera with kitfo which is minced raw meat with herbs which Abrahim ordered for the three of us. I enjoyed the injera and Duncan said the kitfo was quite tasty but didnt tempt me to start eating red meat. I'm a bit concerned I'll only get to eat injera without accompaniament, although hopefully I'll be okay on Wednesdays and Fridays which are 'fasting' days for Ethiopian Orthodox Christians - which means they have only one meal on that day without meat, dairy or fat.
After countless lush green hills and amazing views we descended again into the rift valley which here was full of golden yellow hayfields. It is amazing to me that we are still dipping into the rift valley we first encountered in Malawi.
We dropped Abrahim off near the bus station at Awassa and went to the campsite we'd chosen for the night only to find it was 'now a private home, more or less'. Which part I wonder. More or less? So then we thought we'd press on to Addis as it was only another couple of hours drive and it was still mid afternoon.
We refuelled in Shashemene, the Ethiopian home of Rastafarianism and ploughed on, but as dusk approached the (very good) road was crowded with heavily laden carts pulled by tiny exhausted-looking donkeys, crammed buses, heavy trucks and little blue tuktuks weaving through the traffic, in addition to the increased incidence of camels, goats, cattle, sheep, horses and donkeys crossing the road on their way home for the evening.
We decided to stop at a resort that offered camping at Lake Lagnano.
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