Crossing into Ethiopia

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We had a relatively leisurely start in the hope the roads could only improve as we approached Ethiopia, but that was an incorrect assumption.

The roads through the park were even worse as we headed North to reach the Ethiopian border, so much so that along the way we managed to bend the front bumper backwards on itself. In the end Nelly just couldn’t handle hitting so many rocks along the way.

Eventually we cleared the park and got on to a proper road toward the Ethiopian border, except it wasn’t a road at all. The highlight of the road was it ending in a 6 foot high wall of mud. It was clear where our road stopped and the road kept going but somehow we had to get the truck 6ft up a vertical wall. Our best guess is the road washed away but extensive talking with some goat herders who spoke no English revealed little. So we decided to double back and eventually found a road even worse than the one we were on which after some hard driving got us round the blockage.

The roads got ever worse and we’re not entirely sure when we crossed the border into Ethiopia as we kept having to ask locals which way to go and getting fairly unclear answers. All told we eventually crossed to Ethiopia around lunchtime and thought it a good time to stop for lunch.

No sooner had Alain said “watch-out for someone just appearing from the bushes” than a man appeared herding his goats and stood watching us. I offered him a cheese and tomato sandwich we had just made. He liked the bread but acted like we were poisoning him when he took one sniff of the cheese and tomato. In the end we gave him the remains of our bread and his eyes lit up and he disappeared into the bushes as quickly as he had arrived.

We ploughed on with Alain believing a tarmac road would magically appear and in fairness it did. We drove to a town called Omerate where we had to register our arrival in Ethiopia. We then had to get fuel which involved negotiating a price from a lady who seemed to own a few barrels. The fuel was clean and we were quickly on our way to Turmi which is a small town famed for its access to the various remote tribes of Ethiopia.

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