Blogs from Ethiopia, Africa - page 2

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Africa » Ethiopia February 1st 2020

We headed to the market to buy some supplies ranging from a brush to clean the dust out the car to an adaptor to read SD cards from cameras on our laptop. Bahir Dar is the 3rd largest city in Ethiopia and there are at least 10 shops next door to each other selling exactly the same thing, our challenge was knowing where the relevant clusters of shops were. We then phoned up the Toyota garage to find out annoyingly that the part from Addis had not shipped in time and we would be stuck in Bahir Dar until Monday when it will arrive and will be fitted. At this point it would be fair to say I got a little tiny bit cross, explaining that they broke a bolt without telling us and have left ... read more
Bahir Dir Market
Boat tour (with man with Gun)
Hippo!

Africa » Ethiopia January 31st 2020

You spend days waiting for simple things like a tarmac road and a larger town where you can actually get some decent supplies, and then you get stuck in one and it isn't that much fun. We headed off early in the knowledge of making Bahir Dar on the lake and having a lazy day catching-up, doing washing, replacing the blown tyre and re-supplying. We were on good tarmac roads and the going was good as we approached the outskirts and saw a Toyota service centre and dealership. Since the steering was a little off (likely due to all the bumps) we decided to stop in and get the steering aligned. They were very friendly and said it would take 30 minutes, well it didn't. After an hour they explained some of the bolts they needed ... read more
Toyota guys breaking the bolt on the steering
Unpacking our life as we leave Nelly at the workshop
Tuk tuk into Bahir Dar

Africa » Ethiopia January 30th 2020

We set out hoping to cover some ground in the knowledge we were told there was tarmac for a good portion of our journey today, who new it could be so bad. We left Woliso early and made our way up gravel tracks to the rim of a blown out Volcano (known as a Caldera). The views were very impressive but as always even in the middle of nowhere people appeared and harassed us so we quickly moved on. We did hit a tarmac road but there were so many washed away sections and massive potholes we only averaged about 20km/hr which was much slower than dirt tracks. Eventually the tarmac improved and we enjoyed at least 50km of excellent road before it took a real turn for the worse. However not before Alain missed a ... read more
Front of Nelly after taking a beating
Campfire and dinner

Africa » Ethiopia January 29th 2020

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 ... read more

Africa » Ethiopia January 28th 2020

After a great night staying at the Catholic mission where David and Gonzalez were extremely welcoming and even gave us breakfast. We did manage to give them a contribution to their refugee camp but the main favour they asked for was for us to transport a sick old lady and a mother and her baby to a nearby clinic for treatment. Well it would be fair to say their hygiene standards were different and we enjoyed open windows to get a breeze. It also turns out the treatment centre was about 50KM away. I think our travelling companions had never been in a car, but they did take a fondness to Alain in the back with them! Since we could not get through our proposed route we had to double back a little and go round ... read more
Trying to kiss a Warthog

Africa » Ethiopia January 27th 2020

What started out as a good day ended up very muddy and poor Nelly reached the limit of how far we could go. We headed into Turmi to try and buy some supplies but the sum total of potatos, tomatos, onions and garlic seemed all that was available. So after limited purchases we pushed North, although finding the road out of town proved harder than we thought as the one we believed to be correct ended in a footpath. Eventually we did find the right road and headed out of town where they had started building a massive road, but of course we couldn’t go on it and had to go down a rather bumpy set of tracks down the side. Eventually and rather unexpectedly we reached a section of Tarmac in the middle of nowhere ... read more
Killing one of those biting insects
Sunset at the Catholic mission

Africa » Ethiopia » Addis Ababa Region January 4th 2020

Addis Ababa The flight was late arriving at Bole Airport in Addis Ababa and by the time I’d got through immigration, change some money and jumped into a taxi it was nearly midnight. The streets of Addis were quiet apart from taxis most of them parked up and a surprisingly large number of working girls who seemed to be on every street we drove along. “We don’t take bookings on the internet, sometimes over the phone but not the internet.” The gateman at Ambassador Pension told my taxi driver. I had booked and paid for 2 nights at the Ambassador through a third party website who I had had my doubts about all along. The pension was now full so the taxi driver drove me around the corner where I checked out another place that had ... read more
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It's good to chat

Africa » Ethiopia » Amhara Region » Lalibela December 28th 2019

Äthiopien Die historische Route zu den heiligen Stätten der äthiopisch-orthodoxen Christen am „Dach Afrikas“ Travelblog und Bilder Copyright by Bernhard Sonnleitner Dec. 28/2019 Addis Abeba Nach der Ankunft am Morgen Rundfahrt in Addis Abeba. Wir besuchen das National Museum (wo die Knochen des Frühmenschen Lucy – Australopitecus Afarensis, 3,2 Mill. Jahre alt - zu sehen sind), das Ethnologische Museum, und den Merkato. Der Merkato ist ein Straßenmarkt, der sich über ein ganzes Viertel zieht, angeblich der größte Mark Afrikas. Hier wird alles angeboten, was es zu verkaufen gibt, von der lebenden Ziege bis zum Kochtopf. Es gibt zwar Verkaufsstände, vieles wird aber auch einfach auf dem Boden sitzend feilgeboten. Der Verkehr rollt so dich... read more
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Africa » Ethiopia » Addis Ababa Region November 30th 2019

Yes, you read that right. Addis Ababa. Our tour group with just six people (5 guys and me) had an early morning flight from Dubai to Madagascar via Addis Ababa. However, our connection was very tight and with a mechanical issue that took over an hour to fix, we knew that we would miss the one daily flight to Madagascar. We ran to our gate anyway, where the adjacent gate agent confirmed that our flight had left on time more than 20 minutes before. Thankfully, Dagi was a complete angel and she took great care of us, starting with rebooking us on the next day's flight (after confirming with us that we did NOT want to fly to Kenya late that night and take yet another flight that arrived at 3am), and allowed us to pick ... read more
Holy Trinity Cathedral - Museum
National Museum of Ethiopia
Lucy Cafe

Africa » Ethiopia » Addis Ababa Region November 29th 2019

We are now in the busines class Lounge in the Ethiopian Airport in Addis Ababa. It crowded even though it’s 10pm. We take off at 1:30am for London where I’m hoping to take a shower at their lounge. There is a buffet here with a lot of Ethiopian dishes and I might sample them later if I get brave. Our flight here was on a new Dreamliner and was very comfortable. I hope the next one is the same so I can sleep. Until London.... read more




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