Southern Tour - Day Seven - Awassa to Addis

the fish market
The daily fish market is vaguely interesting but probably not worth the Birr 2o asked of faranjis. A brief stop at Lake Ziway for lunch and it's back to Addis.
3,000 year old rock carvings

Southern Tour Day One - Addis to Arba Minch

 

I am much indebted to Dr Gloves for hiring a 4wd and driver to take us to Omo Valley - tribal country.

It's a long journey although the road is now sealed most of the way. The further south we go, the more interesting the encounters. We pass through Gurage country, famed for their hard graft and their penchant for Kocho - a dish made using "false" bananas.

In Arba Minch we bed down at the Rendezvous Hotel - an upmarket brothel.

Epiphany Parade in Addis

 

Epiphany is a mega-holiday in Ethiopia. The streets of Addis were packed this morning with groups parading in the streets with a carnival-like atmosphere with songs, dances and chants. More photos will be added one day i'm sure.

Lalibela to Addis

I am grateful to new “spiritual daughter” Lindsey who invites me to share her US$70 a night hotel room for my last night in Lalibela. The best shower in Africa for sure!

I have to be up at 3.40am to locate a minibus that’ll get me to Addis in one day. Lindsey is sensibly heading on at 7.30am to get her internal flight back to the capital.

Sure enough, Burnham locates one pretty quick. It’s expensive, and i am unable to haggle below Birr400.

Departing at 4.30 we drive to Wodia for a quick breakfast, before travelling for another seven hours for lunch. I am bought a delicious meal by one of my Ethiopian travelling companions. He has just returned from a business trip in England and is scathing of what he saw – predominantly the over-indulged British youth. A younger man joins in the discussion. He is a student living in the United States and has travelled into a few destination in Europe too. He is equally as scathing. Europeans are “animal” – eating working, sleeping with no idea on “how to live”. America is “spiritually bankrupt” with the only thought being the dollar. Both interesting observations and perspectives.

We breakdown at about 5pm and are stuck for some 40 minutes before proceeding slowly onwards.

By 8pm we still seem miles out of Addis and i am desperate to rehydrate and sleep. The mini-bus drops me in Piazza by 9.30pm and by 10 i have sprite and a room to collapse in.

The Road to Shashemane

Bus journeys in Ethiopia are notoriously crap. Nonetheless my experiences in Mozambique were quality practise and although internal flights are cheapish, i’m doing this the hard way. P. forewarned me about windows. Despite often oppressive heat, opening windows is a big no-no. It is believed at best the wind brings sickness, and, at worse, lets in evil spirits. For a wind lover this kinda sucks

I’m told the journey from Addis to Shashemane is not long, so opt for a safer but slower bus rather than a mini-bus option, leaving from the Southern bus stand. There are four buses a day and arriving at the bus station at 8.15am i get a ticket for one which finally departs when full at 9.30. The ticket costs Birr58. I am told it should take between three to five hours. I am assisted by my Addis fixer – the honest but incredibly poor student, Derbo, who quickly gets me to the front of the right queue and the “Death Chair” at the front next to driver.

It is slow to get through the Addis suburbs with its heavy traffic congestion, but after an hour we clear the city. Whilst the road is completely sealed, it only takes an hour and a half to experience my first of what is likely to be many punctures. The scenery into the Rift valley is quite beautiful, but slow going, with invasions of donkeys, cows. Oxen and even camels at one point. This might be south of Addis but shows me i am really in North Africa!

There is also an unidentifiable road kills to swerve past, as well as dogs and goats.

We stop for almost 40 minutes on a “15 minute” lunch break at 1.30pm and don’t arrive into Shashemene until 3.30pm – six hours and averaging 40kph. For around Birr80 i’ll take a faster but more pricey minibus to return to Addis.