Arba Minch to Woliso

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We are definitely travelling the road less travelled as we just don’t see any other tourists, but what we do see is real Ethiopian (we think).

Whilst we might complain about the roads (and yes they were bad tracks occasionally relieved with tarmac, albeit with massive potholes), it is really quite telling to look at those by the side of the road.

Everywhere we stop or even slow down we get hounded for money, water and lifts down the road. As we came through the South everyone lived in little mud huts by the side of the road in traditional tribal villages and while they may not have had much they seemed happy. The men all carried small wooden stools and AK47 assault rifles, women always carried water containers and children mainly seemed to have sticks to beat their livestock. As we move further North the roads get (slightly) less bad and the population has exploded, every town we pass is like trying to drive through Oxford Circus on Christmas week. There are people selling any number of things and they all have mobile phones (although interestingly the internet has been down in Ethiopia for the last 3 days!). They are all looking to make a penny and we are harassed relentlessly.

If I turn to the traffic there are 5 types of road users:

Livestock - cows, camels, donkeys, goats and anything else you can think of will walk down the centre of the road and have little care for traffic. You literally have to push them out the way as you drive through

Matatu’s (minibuses) and Tuk-tuk’s (3wheel motorbikes with a space to carry people on the back) seem to operate to a totally different set of rad rules which simply put means there are no rules. If there is a space they will take it and forget any people in the way, if they want to pull out they will.

Trucks don’t stop for anybody and if they want to drive down the wrong side of the road, you best move out of the way.

4x4 vehicles – there are absolutely no cars we have seen yet, they just couldn’t drive the roads. Nelly is doing well but we’re either on broken tarmac or dirt tracks and neither is easy driving.

Finally horse and cart – I would guess 10% of the traffic is horse and cart and they do work the poor horses (and often donkeys) very hard



So back to today…



We are having to go the long way round to get back on track and working our way to Woliso. We passed through several large towns on the way and decided to stop at a roadside restaurant for lunch. The only think written in English on the menu was “Egg Sandwich” which James wisely went for while Alain and I rolled the dice and pointed to something on the menu in Arabic script. What we got is hard to describe and we don’t actually know. Here is our best effort:

Sheep’s stomach pancake containing boiled egg, tuna and curry sauce. The bready pancake was cold and looked exactly like a stomach lining. We think it was a type of break but to be honest I am not sure.

Spicy paste with more Sheep’s stomach pancake. We don’t know if it contained meat or in fact vegetables but it was very spicy and you ate it with what we assumed was like a goats milk cottage cheese type thing (however again it could have been anything).



Back on the road it got worse and worse, it would seem Ethiopia started building a lot of roads but has stopped most of them so many just end in tracks. We eventually made it to Waliso where our guide mentioned an eco lodge we could stay at. On arrival it would be best described as “work in progress”. The toilet was a plank over a pit, the lodges were not built, there was water but only when the tap was delivered for 1 hour at 8pm. It was amusing and after exploring the town (and being mobbed) we had dinner round a campfire we managed to put together.

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