Blogs from Amhara Region, Ethiopia, Africa - page 4

What a change! Women in public. Guys and girls holding hands. Beer! The roads also changed almost immediately, twisting up in to the Ethiopian Highlands. The temperature was cooler too, which was a welcome relief after our time in Libya, Egypt, and Sudan. We stayed in Gondar on our first night in Ethiopia. Like many places in the area it was well over 2000m above sea-level. The following day Jaap was under the weather, so I headed north for an explore in the Simien Mountains. After 100km the map said to turn right if I wanted to reached the Simien National Park. But the road was just a rutted dirt path, and I wasn't convinced. However I tried it, and it improved to a rocky dirt road. I was stopped at the gates of the park, ... read more

Addis Ababa: Nothing to write home about really. Pretty much a building site as they are building a metro. Reminds me of a cleaner, less developed combination of Calcutta and Delhi with the following differences: -Churches instead of temples - Fewer cows. More donkeys - The Chinese instead of the Russians have designed the metro - Less spitting in the streets - Blue taxis instead of black and yellow ones So quite different then I suppose! Trek near Lalibela: After a couple of days in Addis, we flew to Lalibela and started a 4 day, 3 night trek. Unfortunately we had to cut it short by a day and a night as Dad decided to spend the entire 2nd night throwing up! Oh dear. He’s better now thankfully. It was a fantastic ... read more

The Castle of Ethiopia When we arrive shortly after dawn at the Addis airport, luggage tickets and boarding passes await us. No waiting in line only to be told you’re in the wrong line and the rules changed but the signs didn’t and now you have to please hurry along because you need to be in the waiting area an hour ahead of time and nobody informed you previously of that rule either. (Sound familiar, world travelers?) Hmmm….there are perks to group travel! In Ethiopian airports, like Kenyan ones, there is a security checkpoint at the front of the airport as well as the one entering the waiting area. We joke about needing two checkpoints just in case one metal detector or scanner isn’t working so well (these are very old-looking machines) but perhaps there’s something ... read more

We apologize for the lack of inspiration in the upcoming words and I fear that our Ethiopian experience has suffered for our want to be home. Our inspiration has also suffered from seeing how the animals are treated in the rural areas of this large and densely populated country. This often unnecessarily harsh treatment of life, has my empathetic heart hastily retreating for safety. The people certainly don't have it easy, but sometimes we saw the animals bear the often brutal brunt of the frustration and helplessness the people here must be feeling. Our 4 day trek through Simien Mountain National Park was also disappointing on a few fronts. As our trek started, it became painfully obvious, for both the people trying to eke a living and the natural environment/wildlife, that despite being a critically endangered ... read more

Too many photos to fit on the last blog, so here are the rest!!... read more