Monday 26 November 2012

Day 53- Ziway 25/11/12


Fried fish for breakfast - delicious. Then we had our excursion onto the lake ("only" some 30 times bigger than little old Windermere) - one of the northern lakes of the Great Rift Valley. But first past goodness knows how many birds, whether it be on the approach to the jetty or on "bird sanctuary island". Just masses of pelicans, marabou storks, egrets, ibis and lots more.

Then, with more smaller birds wheeling and swooping all around us, it was across to an island monastery (I think we would call it a church) where "the Ark of the Covenant was brought for safe keeping some thousand years ago when mighty Aksum was under threat of invasion"). The locals kindly provided lunch in their (yet to be finished!) community hall - beautiful grilled fish.

On the ride back home, we went up to a pod of hippos. Great to be so close (say only 50 yards) that we could clearly hear them snorting and blowing, but we all felt that we were too close, and indeed one of them tried to attack us from below. Fortunately no damage (at least to us and the boat) but we recorded our displeasure on the questionnaire.

This is likely to be the last transmission for quite a long time - probably weeks!

Sunday 25 November 2012

Day 52- Ziway 24/11/12


A final walk around Addis, where I found on display (in prime position on a mannequin outside a shop) a - to all intents and purposes - Morrisons shirt (brand new, even with the name and logo). I was almost tempted to buy but as the price was nearly £20, decided against it.

We continued our long journey south, through seemingly endless suburbs (and where the Chinese are building a "light rail transit system"), but eventually we were out in the usual attractive countryside. We pulled into the courtyard of our hotel well before sunset. We have single rooms for these two nights, but rather think this is softening us up for our next stop.

Day 51- Addis 23/11/12


A long walk around Addis, starting with St George's, and then up and down, ending with the church of the Holy Trinity, where Heile Selassie is buried in quite an impressive stone tomb. No one seems to know how he eventually died (most reports seem to strongly suggest murder) but he seems to be "remembered with dignity". The three paintings above the chancel are the crucifixion (of course), HS raising the flag of Ethiopia after the Italians were ejected in 1942, and the third is of the League of Nations in Geneva, where HS made his impassioned plea for his country, which was largely ignored by the world.

Today we lost our German, Canadian and Irish members plus a few Brits and Aden, our Ethiopian from London, and have gained an Aussie and Canadian girl as well as a couple from NZ. Latter are of more "mature" years so nearer to my age!

NB I wish St Albans buses were as good as the (Chinese built of course) fleet here in Addis!

Friday 23 November 2012

Day 50- Addis 22/11/12



There was no doubt in our minds of today's first date - one with Lucy (the one with diamonds, courtesy of course of my fellow Liverpudlians), at the National Museum. Although she has her own room, we felt that -for someone who is obviously so vastly important in Ethiopia - perhaps a little more could have been done for her? In fact, in some ways, the video extolling homo sapiens idaltu (of whom none of us had ever heard, to our shame) was more impressive.

Yet more crowns of emperors (in somewhat better condition than we have seen in other museums).

The ethnological museum (housed in Haile Selassie's former palace) was actually very informative and well laid out, and took things by subject rather than in strict chronological order etc. Ethiopia obviously as its own type of Aesop's fables in the childhood section.

Then it was on to a totally self guided tour (i.e. wandering around) of the market- said to be the largest in Africa, with 13000 people working in 8000 businesses (almost totally uncovered) - I cannot imagine how many thousands, tens of thousands, of shoes we saw! On the walk back to our hotel, we passed a couple of ladies demonstrating the power of Aerial washing powder, so I now have one very clean handkerchief! We also saw a man stuffing mattresses in the street - now I know on what we are sleeping!

Thursday 22 November 2012

Day 49- Addis Ababa 21/11/12


So we started on the final leg of our journey to the capital which required us to negotiate the Blue Nile Gorge, but first yet another obstacle - there had been a nasty accident just ahead of us, where a truck's brakes had failed with bad consequences as the driver vainly tried to stop his vehicle. The next driver also seemed to have poor brakes so the road was completely blocked just in front of us (apart from livestock making their way through the gap).

We thought we would be stuck there for ages but, in less than an hour, an earth moving vehicle arrived from nowhere and dragged one of the offending two trucks out of our way, and we were on our way down, down, down to the very smart new (Japanese built) cable stay bridge at the bottom. In fact, the gorge (with a length of some 250 miles) is, at least here, more of a valley between great cliffs - wikipedia says that it's depth is similar to that of the Grand Canyon. Then it was up the other side - goodness knows how many tight hairpin bends we negotiated! Not surprisingly, Wikipedia describes the gorge as a tremendous obstacle between north and south of the country - we can understand why!

Once back on top, the countryside reverted to rolling countryside, but now more of a patchwork of different golds and yellows.

And then to Addis, where we are booked into the former empress's palace from the turn of the 19th century. Unfortunately, now in some need of TLC, but with a certain degree of history about it. In fact, it would seem that Addis started with this very building - as the empress was living here, the emperor decided to move the capital to be near her.

NB. Still at altitude - AA is third highest capital in the world.


Day 48- Dejen -20/11/12

A day spent driving half way to Addis Ababa (or of course simply Addis, as we locals call it). Mostly good Tarmac road, but still slow. Stopped off for lunch, and Anne-Marie expertly snapped a snake capturing a gekko (had to move on before knowing if he managed to eat it).

As yet again, beautiful countryside, this time a miriad patchwork of fields, rolling into the distance for mile after mile after mile. At last, we no longer seem to be in "gum" territory, but trees to be in almost all coniferous (so indigenous?)

Dinner tonight was a definite change from last night's flash spa, where our bread rolls were wrapped in banana leaves, fires burnt brightly in the corners of the room etc etc, but ridiculously cheap , and still very tasty.

Here is Pip and Ian's famous shot of "their" leopard from the Simien mountains - they are both understandably very proud of this, so I thought it should be added to the blog.