Ethiopia Part 2

Terraced grazing and growing areas at altitudes of up to 4000 meters

Friday, 28^th September

We left Addis a couple of days ago and are now heading towards Sudan taking in some of the more northern ‘must sees’ in Ethiopia.

We ended up staying in Addis longer than we intended, mostly because we enjoyed staying at our camp, Holland House, right in the heart of the city. It is run by a Dutch guy called Wim who was one of the organisers involved in getting aid into Ethiopia during the Live Aid campaign lead by Bob Geldorf. What an interesting man with many stories to tell!  It is a camp which, on the face of it, you should totally not like and is worth a mention. It is no larger than our back garden and yet, by the time we left it managed to accommodate six campervans, a guy on a motorbike with a little tent, three dogs and a makeshift car maintenance pit. There was literally no room to swing a cat, and having to constantly navigate dog poo little room to put your feet.

The first night we were there a young couple right next to us had a massive row because he had fallen in love with another member of their travel group and when the noise finally died down the early morning Muslim call for prayers made sure we didn’t go back to sleep.

                                                                               
                                                                

Dan, another 'overlander' who keeps turning up wherever we go

Across the road from the camp Wim runs a bar and here is where he, his Ethiopian wife and a couple of staff not only provide you with excellent home cooked food but also try and sort out your every query and need with amazing patience. Here is also where other travellers heading from south to north or visa versa meet to exchange information (similar to Jungle Junction where we stayed in Nairobi). What a lovely place! We left yesterday morning and said a temporary au revoir to Piet and Charlotte since they had to stay on for a few extra days to get their Egyptian visas sorted, but we expect to meet up with them again in Sudan.

We spent all of yesterday driving through mountain passes and valleys and were once again struck by the beauty of Ethiopia. With half of Ethiopia’s surface consisting of an elevated central plateau within the African Rift Valley you find yourself either on a mountain looking into a valley or in a valley surrounded by the most stunning mountain ranges. I have never seen so many shades of green. And no matter how steep, the mountains have been terraced to allow for grazing and growing crops.

We ended up staying in a ‘hotel’ in a little town in the mountains. We had a room with no window and we realised how accustomed we have become to sleeping ‘outside’ in our tent. It felt like a prison cell. I think when we get back we need to put up our tent in our back garden for a while to get used to living inside a house again.

Sunday 30^th September

We spent the whole of yesterday in Lalibela which is one of the most important historical sites in Ethiopia. Lalibela lies 3,000m high in the mountains and is famous for it’s 11 rock-hewn churches, each one carved out of a single piece of rock almost 1000 years ago. Even if you are not religious it is impossible not to be amazed by the sheer craftsmanship and engineering; each church is below ground level and was carved out of rock from the top down. From the inside it looks like any conventional early middle age church like we have in the UK and services are held in most of them every Sunday or special Christian festivals.

Today we are on the road again heading towards the Sudanese border. There is so much more to see in Ethiopia but we have decided to get Sudan ‘out of the way’ since we couldn’t extend our Ethiopian visa and we will hopefully see the other sites on our way back.

The four us are unanimous in our passion for Ethiopia, it is so different from anything we have seen in the more southern African countries.  Not only is the countryside unbelievably beautiful but Ethiopians appear from what we have seen a very peace loving, friendly and happy nation, despite most people being desperately poor.  Most Ethiopians are deeply religious and with the country being roughly divided into Muslims and Christians, there appears to be no tension between the different religions. Well, we look forward to coming back here but are also excited about Sudan. We have spoken to people coming out of Sudan in a last few days and there is no sign of any trouble, in fact, the general opinion is that the Sudanese people are the most welcoming of them all.