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Published: August 6th 2007
Lake Ziway
(You can just see it, I had a better picture but as I explain in my blog I lost it)Well, finally, after nearly a week of waiting (for the others.....1 1/2 weeks for me) I left Addis; it was actually a sad moment, I had grown to like that city and the habits I had got into there. My final days in the city were quite fun though, going out every night to the plenthora of bars on the Piazza, teaching the others (David (Beats), Dave, and Tania) Irish Snap...the proceeding to play it in the middle of a seedy little bar in a dodgy part of the Merkato, drinking proper Tej...which made Tania sick...then getting charged 8Birr just because Beats took a picture (we got them back though, snapping away happily as we left), watching Top Gun and Dave singing along to 'Highway to the Danger Zone', and many other things I can't remember.
It was quite an experiance travelling in a Landrover (for a start), but also in a car where 3 people wern't squashed into one sea; having people who spoke English was nice to lol I should probably explain that the 4 people I am travelling with are....David (Beats) and Dave in the car I am in, and Jim and Julie...th parents of Dave; they are
driving in 2 landrovers which are in turn pulling two trailers full of Aid (toys, medical supplies ect) to the Amani Childrens Home in Moshi Tanzania. The journey out of Addis towards Awase, and through the Northern Rift Valley Lakes was incredibl; I am quite upset I wasted so much time in Ethiopia that could have been spent exploring this region, as it is so beautiful. A lot of the jouney Beats and myself spent trying to capture pictures of Oromo tombs, which are highly colourful blocks of stones with murals; alas we were travelling to fast, and these cunning Oromo do not make it easy with their postioning of the tombs, but I was still fairly Camera Happy all the way to Awasa.....unfortunetly most of them got wiped off my camera, along with all my pictures of Luxor, most of Lalibela, some of Gondar, various random ones, and numerous from other parts of this diary entry (including Marianne...she'll be glad), whilst I was trying to add them to this blog at the Easycom Internet Cafe in Moshi; overall I lost 121 photo's to some virus and the owner just shrugged and moved the virus warning into the corner of
the screen so it was out fo sight...so Avoid this place at all cost, needless to say I am considering burning it down as not only have I lost 100 irreplacable pictures a lot of them were my best ones...like I only lost 2 from Gondar, both were my best pictures of Fasildes Castle...and what makes it worse is even though I have stored them on here they aren't full size so if you try and put them from this site onto a comp they are very pixelated...grrrrrrr.
Anyway, after searching through the streets of Awase for 30minutes trying to find Jana's Pension I jumped out and enquired where there was to camp in this place; I got numerous blank looks about Jana's, but striked success when I mentioned the Wabe Shebele 2 which is mentioned in Lonelyplanet. We got there, set up camp in a very nice camping area, and headed to the restaraunt for something to eat; I ordered Kewat (spicy meat with injera) as it was my last meal in Ethiopia, but got a varity of 5 different dishes (however as I was only charged 15Birr...equivalent of 90p) I was very happy....as was the waiter who at
various stages of the meal kep coming back to our table just to check on my progress and was delighted when I had eaten it all. After dinner I attempted to set up my tent for the first time in a long while; it was a disaster, but I got it up...although it was much like sleeping in a coffin to be honest...however this was all fixed by mornings timely arrival. As I was walking to the shower I spotted a monkey and alerted the others....then Julie scared it away by screaming 'JIm JIm look a MONKEY'.....luckily it came back, and after Beats fed one of them we had the entire troop (?) camp on and around our Landrovers begging (just like their Ethiopian relatives)...even a mother and baby (lost this pic) came very close. After the interest with the mokeys died, Dave, David, and I headed off to check out Lake Awase...as we were camped on it shores. It was te most beautiful thing I have seen in all of Ethiopia (well after you Tati lol), it was magnificent; I really wish I had had a better camera to capture some f the bird life better....or at least a
camera which wouldn't have let it's pictures get wiped.
Anyway at about 10, after having got the campsite dogs to scare away the monkeys (which were now stealing our things), we were off with the aim of getting to Moyale and the Kenyan Border. The drive was less interesting than before, as banana country soon turned into scrubland....although I did have an adventure using the toilets at one petrol station we stopped at; they were basically logs balanced over a massive pit of poo....I nearly fell in, although after this I felt far more secure about conventional long drops lol. We past through a town called Mega (false advertising, I am thinking of sueing the Ethiopian Government) where we bought some of the sweetest best tasting banana's I have ever eaten from someone at the side of the road; and finally reached Moyale at dusk, where we found the Bekele Mola Motel very quickly. My tent was set up far better than the night before, and we settled down for a camp dinner....until it was disturbed by noises which turned out to be a bird we had hit earlier which was still alive, trapped in the roofrack. I fished it
Lake Awase
with fisherman out.....screamed like a little girl when it thrashed about....and deposited it under a tree, whilst the night guard for the campsite was motioning at me that he wanted to eat it lol
Next morning we awoke to a very misty and un-African morning, which Beats and I tried to liven up by walking into town; it was here that we met Belzebub a Ethiopia Aslyum Seeker in Ethiopia who had 'been kidnapped by mobile satellite technology'....after telling him to piss off we walked right into the middle of a anti-Somali war demonstration by members of the Somali tribe in Ethiopia...we retreated and watched from our motel wall, whilst been watched by the local children ourselves. Finally the demonstration ended and we were over the border; this is where I had some luck, thinking I would have to extend my visa in Nairobi (as it was running out) I was pleasantly suprised when with the words 'I am the Visa Man, not the Embassy' the Kenya Visa Official extended my Visa for free....however he was the one who also told me South Africa had been knocked out of the cricket world cup. We had hoped to leave Moyale that morning, but
we had missed the convoy so we ended up staying in the Moyale Nature Sanctary....where we had an Ostrich wander around our camp eating grass and occaisonally pooing (I had a photo, but ti got wiped); Beats and I tried to scare it away by lighting a fire, but failed miserably and had to call for the assistance of a Park Ranger who put us to shame and had a fire blazing in no time.
Finally the next day we were off, and as one of the Park Rangers from the night before had rather cryptically warned us ('When the forest blazes the insects don't stay to say goodbye') the oter vehicles, specifically the ones with the armed guards, sped off leaving our two landrovers crawling along...perfect targets for the Bandits, who thankfully didn't appear...despite us breaking down a couple of times. Finally, after driving hours along corrugated dirt roads, we arrived in Marsabit; camping on the outskirts of the National Park....a campsite which Lonelyplaney gives a poor review but it actually very nice...and it has Baboons....albeit Baboons who poo on the campers from the treetops at night, Julie swears they aimed for her as despite moving their car the
2nd night we were there they still got their rooftent lol Desite being there for 2 days, to repair a damaged roofrack, we didn''t get to go into the park as we were advised the Elephants and other animals didn't really like the rainy season..so had left lol
Not much happened on the road to Isiolo apart from Beats and myself going on a soul stealingt spree....as the locals apparently believe happens when you take their picture. It was rather amusing, if a little harsh, to watch people actually diving for cover at the sight of a camera. The Rangeland Hotel, and Campsite (I am setting my tent up like a pro by now), in Isiolo is very good...and serves meat at their restaruant by the KILO lol However we only spent one night there and were soon on our final leg to Nairobi....yay. On the way we passed Mt Kenya, who (As who can see from my picture) teased us by been visible from a distance but as soon as we came into close view became cloud covered; thankfully I did get to cross the Equator, twice as we drove past it and missed the sign the first time......oh
well I did it dramatically the secod time, but however refused a demonstration of the water flowing different ways on different sides as it cost money (and I had seen it on Micheal Palins pole to pole lol). We also met a White Farmer who's family had lived on their land for 3 generations now, and he advised us it would be a hard slog up numerous inclines to Nairobi...and he was right, as we arrived just before nightfall (and didn't get shot lol) at Junction after navigating through the darkening city streets using Lonely planets street map (I am liking it more now lol).
Basically I wandered the streets of Nairobi with Beats for 3 days we were there, never really doing anything of note. The first day I visted the Tanzanian Embassy, and obviously applied for my visa, and picked it up promptly on the first day....that was probably the most productive thing I did in Nairobi lol Wandering around we discovered (or rather I rediscovered as they are a South African company) the joy of Steers...who as Beats says 'Kick McDonalds and Burger Kings asses'; we also visted the City Curio market and I got into a
Ostrich at Moyale Nature Santuary (Kenyan Side)
I did have one of it pooing, but that was lost...for reasons explained in blog arguement with a shopkeeper about how his 'jewellry' he was selling Beats was actually made out of plastic....he didn't agree, but then again he didn't get a sale either. However he did eventually buy some, at fairly extorianate prices (or so it seemed to me...though he didn't listen although I have seemingly become the resident expert on whether things are real now or not) and also a giant African mask, for about 8quid...which was a rather good deal, at a Saturday street market in next to the law courts. I got pestered by a Zimbabwean refegee all this time asking me for money, although even after I said no he still stayed to have a chat with me which was nice...especially as he agreed with me about Mbeki and his role, or rather lack of, in Zimbabwe. Whilst waiting for a bus to the Sarit Centre we also met a group of western (fit!) girls just sat on the floor against a wall like beggars, weirdo's lol The Sarit Centre, and the Yaya Centre, are to be fair Oasis' of western bliss in the middle of the choas of central Nairobi (plus they serve Guinness Export in their pubs); however
like the rich Suburbs of the city are actually quite disgusting when you think of the fact that Nairobi has one of Africa's biggest slum areas...with millions of people living in cardboard houses. Generally though Nairobi is quite pleasant and ordely, even the public transport which in Addis was ridicolously ramshackle (but fun) is organised here....a bit dissapointingly they only put the correct number of people in each minibus...it's weird having a seat to myself. My final night in Nairobi was spent at Jungle Junction enjoying the braai, where Christoff (the owner) did everyone a massive, massive, massive steak....they were gorgoeus....I was a bit dissapointed we didn't visit Pavement, the rich mzungu, nightclub....but oh well. Jungle Junction itself was fun, although some of the people where odd.....like a German couple who were blantatly nudists as the man wandered arounded the camp in just his briefs...in broad daylight; also met the perfect Swiss Family Robinson in their perfect Landcruiser which had never broken down, who had perfect pictures of animals...needless to say Jim with his ramshackle Landrovers held together with duct tape was a little jealous.
We were off fairly early for once, 9ish, which was actually unnecessary as it turned
out, with our destination being Moshi; to finally (for them) deliver the Aid to the Amani orphanage. I rode in the other Landrover today, as Dave (not Beats) was being piniticky....and wouldn't let Beats drive unless he had both the back seats to stretch out on. The drive itself was very uneventful apart from (me again...humhumhum) spotted some Giraffes on the outskirts of the Nairobi National Park; and yet another border crossing was mundane and easy.....well apart from the numerous 'little men' (as Jim calls them) trying to sell us 80km speed limit stickers...oh and the fat American bitch who pushed in front of me in the queue and then got upset when the teller asked her if she was with our group, fat whore!
Anyway we crossed the border, and within minutes got our first glimpes of Mt Meru....and then Mt Kilimanjaro, which unfortunetly was covered with cloud...so far less dramatic than hoped. We searched for 30minutes for the Honey Badger Camp Site, and Cultural Centre, a ridicoulous search as it was just straight down the road we were on. It is a nice enough camp site, though the cultural centre is a pile of wank; we attended the
first night with a rowdy group of (gay) Quatarians...basically it was them dancing and singing up on stage whilst the 'cultural' acts laughed at them...Beats and I, who were the only ones who sat right through the entire thing, told them to piss off when the asked us to sing. They also ggave us some banana beer, which tasted and looked like someone had being sick in a glass....probably had to be fair. Anyway....running out of time so will update last 2 days in Moshi and the rest in my next blog...Beats is distracting me aswell by being a pratt nad reciting the Isle of Wight festival listing.
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