As we arrived at 10 PM in Moyale, the border post was closed and I had to sleep at the Kenyan side. The fact that the accommodation on the Ethiopian side is apparently better was not what bothered me but that I would not be able to get on the 6 AM bus in Ethiopian Moyale and therefore had to stay one day in Moyale – nothing I could do about that though :-).
As I crossed the border the next morning at 8:30, it was too early for the Ethiopian border to be already open – never had that before – and so I had to wait till 9 AM. T did not really matter though, since I had to hang around for the whole day anyway.
Sitting in a coffee-place, peoples meant that there might be a bus going later this morning. An half hour later was a bus coming and it first looked that he would go north the same day but then somehow the general understanding was, that he would not leave till the next morning. Such things happened often – not just in Ethiopia – and I always wondered whether it is decided from situation to situation when a bus would leave or the people really did not know them self and just tell you something or then if it is just misunderstanding since I don’t speak there language and they not that well mine – I never found out what it was :-).
However, sipping my coffee and eating ‘flat-bread’, someone meant that there might be lories or ‘short-distance-buses’ – ‘short-distance-buses’ in Ethiopia are anything that goes less then 250 km and those leave more frequent then the ‘long-distance-buses’ which leave all over Ethiopia at 6 AM – going north. Because I was not rally eager to stay one extra day in Moyale, I went to find some sort of transportation and after 20 minutes I found a lorry that went all the way to Dila – ‘long-distance’ 🙂 – and would give me a ride till Yabelo. The only thing I had to do was, to walk a couple of hundred meters till after a checkpoint so that he would not have to pay some fees for the passengers on his truck – things worked a bit different here in Ethiopia.
After some additional fort and back, we finally left and I was in the beginning the only passenger in the back of the lorry. This changed as we stopped to buy a hundred goats from a shepherd just outside of Moyale. It was quite hilarious to see the men and woman from the lorry running around the filed, trying to separate the ‘chosen’ goats from the rest of the flock. It took nearly half an hour till they succeeded and started to ‘load’ the goats, with the help of the shepherd-kids, into the back of the lorry.
Not as comfortable as before, we went on and I thought that the goats would be my companions for the whole trip but I was wrong. After just 20 minutes we stopped in a town and the goats were unloaded and replaced by people. Serving as local bus, we went on and people went off and new once came on and it was already getting dark as I arrived in Yabelo.
After ‘check-in’ – meaning damping my backpack – in the Hotel, I went to try to find out how I could get to Konso. Different then in Kenya, this was not that easy since nobody spoke English, or then just very broken, and I no Amharic. I went from one place to another and tried to piece together the information I collected. Well, there should be a tuck going the next morning at 6 AM but I was not really sure whether I got it right. There was nothing more I could have done and so I went for dinner and a Euro-Cup 2004 Game – whole Ethiopia was frantic about Euro-Cup and you could watch the games in every small village, crazy. I sure saw more games in Ethiopia then I would have seen at home.
At 5:30 the next morning I went to the place where the trucks were supposed to leave. At the way there, I could see that there were trucks leaving already and I just hoped there were not mine. One of them probably was my truck since there were no trucks left as I got to the square. Something else that is different then in Kenya. Trucks tend to leave EARLIER then they are supposed to – at least in Yabelo – or then there had not been a truck at all after all.
From the truck-square, I walked down to the main street and there where many trucks waiting but none of them went to Konso. I positioned myself on the main road and was hoping, that there would come some when some sort of transportation along. Time past and different peoples asked me where I intended to go to and I was told, that there would be a truck for sure but no one know for sure when that would be. Being hungry I went for breakfast and then I was shown, once more, the truck-square. Different then before, there was actually a truck standing there and someone who told me, that this truck would leave for Konso in a hour. That was exciting – I would get to Konso today. It was then not 1 hors till we left from truck-square but about 2 and then also only to do some ‘deliveries’ within Yabelo. It would take another hours till we would finally be on our way to Konso.
The rid to Konso was, once more, very beautiful and I enjoyed it very much to sit in the back of the truck and watch or help people and goods being loaded and unloaded. As we finally reached Konso, it was already 4 PM and I was not able to find another truck to go on so I stayed for the night and watched another Euro-Cap 2004 Game.
Next days plan was to get to Turmi for the Hamer people marked day. I managed to find a truck quite easy that gave me a ride till Weyto. During the lunch stop in Weuto, I tried to find another truck or car that would go to Turmi but did not succeed – Weyto is not exactly a place with ‘pasante trafico’, sure not heading for Turmi at least and even ‘pasante trafico’ is not really a lot, just about one vehicle every 2-3 hours :-). The only thing I was told was, that there was a Jeep yesterday and that there might be one tomorrow. Since the marked would be over by this afternoon, I decided that I would try to get to Dimeka for there marked day the next day.
I boarded the same truck again and got finally dropped in Key Afar. There it meant once more to sit down and wait, waiting that there might be a vehicle going to Dimeka. It seemed that I just did not have any luck with my trip to the Lower Omo Valley since I was told, that there had been a car to Dimeka 30 minutes ago. My misfortune held on for the whole time in the Omo Valley – one day late, 30 minutes late or then just getting to a the place as the marked closed. Well, sometime it happens like that and there is noting you can do about it :-). Nevertheless, on my way out of the Omo Valley my luck turned and had a great day on the marked in Key Afar and then a ride all the way to Arba Minch.
In Arba Minch I did not do any of the ‘normal things’ and the local ‘guides’ could not understand that. About 10 times a day the tried to talk me into visiting the crocodile marked or the Nechisar NP or on of the other attractions, but I just could not bee bothered to see more animals. Instead of ‘Safari’ I went to the marked in Chencha, up in the Arba Minch overlooking mountains. Did I feel in the tribal marked of Key Afar a bit uncomfortable, in Chencha I got used to being ‘stared-at’. After all, the locals are just as curios about us as we are about them. I spend some great hours just walking around and try the different things they sold – not everything tasted good though :-).
The next morning I had for the first time in Ethiopia to get on bus and that was quite something different then everything I had experienced before. In order to have a good seat in the bus, I went quite early to the bus station. I was not just a bit surprised that I was not able to get to the actual bus because the gate to the bus station was closed. So I seated myself, like all the others, in front of the gate and waited. After about 20 minutes waiting, the group started to move closer to the gate and get into ‘position’ – position for what I wondered. With the opening of the gate something happened that I had not seen in Africa before and I know what the people went in position for, for running. The people started to run like crazy and crossed the yard to the different busses as fast as they could!!! I really was taken aback to see how energetic and fast they were. As I and my big backpack finally reached the bus, the good, if not all, seats were taken.
It was no fun at all to squeeze myself through the overcrowded bus with the hope that there might be one more seat. There were people everywhere and the bags were handed for and back. There were probably the double of persons on the bus then there were seats and I realized why they all run like crazy. I was just standing there and hoped that it would be not everywhere in Ethiopia like that – I did not look forward to go through the same thing on another bus station at all!!!
The odd thing though was, that there were many benches occupied just by one person and as I asked if there would be one seat free I was offered a seat. Then as closer it got the departure time as more people left the bus and the situation calmed down. Also the person who ‘reserved’ compete benches started to leave and realized then, that those where professional runners and ‘sell’ the seats to the bus passenger – that was sure something new for me.
After I had my seat and had put my backpack on the roof, someone told me that I’m on the wrong bus. I could not believe it. After all I had just been through, I’m on the wrong bus? But I did ask whether this bus goes to Addis Ababa and I was told yes. Sh…, so I took my backpack down from the roof and went to the second Addis Ababa bus. There I was told that they were waiting and looking for me and that I had a reserved seat. Sh… again – I could have had a seat in a relaxing way on this bus from the beginning. Well, you never learn out and I would have on story less to tell if I would have been on the right bus from the beginning :-).
After the hectic on the bus station of Arba Minch, the bus station in Addis Ababa was quiet and I had no difficulties find a Minibus to get to the Hotel. Addis was for my then just a place to get my Sudanese Visa. Going everyday to the Sudanese Embassy was then about it was I did. The frustrating thing about the Sudanese Visa was that we were every day told to come back the following day. As we did so, there were either the applications not processed because someone had not been around or the person who had the key to the locker where the passports were stored was not find or then the Embassy was closed. Well, though I was very frustrating, after a week we finally got our passports with the Visa back.
The very following day Joost and I, we meet in Nairobi and now in Addis again and had about the same route, left Addis for the north of Ethiopia. With a two days bus journey via Dessie, we got to ‘Africas Petra’ of Lalibela. We stayed there for a few days during which we visited the different rock-hewn churches. The churches are thought to date from the 12th or 13th century and are hewn out of the solid rock. For me it was somehow not totally understandable why they did that way but they are sure amazing to look at.
From Lalibela we went via Mekele to Aksum and then Gonder. Aksum and Gonder were, like Lalibela, once the capital of different Ethiopian Kingdoms and have different interesting things to visit. I could go on with what we did in each of this places but I’m abstain of doing so – would get to boring 🙂
However, the north of Ethiopia was a fascinating mix of people we meet and cultural places we visited. Tough they are very interesting, having seen different old places, churches and tombs, I sort of was saturated with that and had to realize that I’m not really that much interested in those things right now – might have seen too many things on my travel ….
The more rewarding experiences then the historical places were, so I thought, just to walk around the towns and talk, try to talk, to the people and might get involved in discussion about religion or something else or then be invited for tee or coffee to a house. The good thing about having cultural interesting paces is though, that it gives you sort of rough guideline of places to go to and then the interaction with locals happens sort as a ‘side event’ and makes the experience of a place much more regarding.
Ethiopia as such has been quite a bit different as I, sort of, expected …. as I have heard from other travelers or people who had been here. Mostly I heard that the Ethiopians were unfriendly and the kids are very annoying and sometime throwing stones at you. Well, I tried hard to find those people but, well, I just could not find them :-). Sure it is sometime annoying to be approached by ten’s of young boys who like to know where you from and tell you about all the amazing things they can show you and that it would be better to go with them then alone since it is hard to find the way or because the locals would otherwise overcharge you. Well, yes that is sometimes annoying and I, even I tried not to, lost sometimes my patience and get upset. But if you try not just to ignore them and shay them away but talk to them a bit, you have mostly a good time and the matter of ‘getting some business from you’ get secondary.
The same is true for the kids who come up to you and beg for money – there are quite many in Ethiopia. If you try to communicate and play with them a bit instead of telling them just off, you actually can have a lot of fun. So, did other persons meet just the unfriendly people and the stone throwing kids and I was lucky not to? Maybe it has more to do with the attitude of the travelers, sort of a “as you are to them as they are to you” thing. I had it then more then once that peoples told me that I’m different then most other tourists – that I not just try to shy the people away and get rid of them but take time to talk to them and that way I had many rewarding experiences.