The Road To Addis Part 5: The Bus Ride From Hell

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So we got on the bus at 10.30 got overcharged and were sat there waiting for it to fill up before leaving and it got under way at 11.30.

There were alot of people and luggage on that bus, but even then the conductor put his head out of the wndow and started shouting out the destination in the hope of enticing more people on.

The bus then abruptly did a u-turn and went back to the pickup point. People got off and we waited abit more. And waited. And waited.

When I asked what the hold up was no one understood. This is rural Ethiopia, its probably a matter of education and resources was my first thought.

So we waited. And waited. And waited...

Eventually an english speaker got on the bus ans we started talking and he told me that the bus would probably leave in the next hour. It was already 1.30, the bus was already full what were we waiting for?

We set off at 2.30. I nervously held my breath until we were out of town, preying that we would not turn back like we had done 3 hours ago. We didn't. Finally we were on our way. Another 2 hours an we would be at Yebelo were we could either set down for the night or see if we could get any closer to Addis.

Or so I thought...

About 10 minutes into the journey they pulled up by the side of the road and asked every one to get off. The reason? To rearrange the luggage.

You would think that they would do this too make people more comfortable, After all the luggage was piled around every one, blocking the aisle, and generally causing alot of discomfort. We got back on 10 minutes later.

Yes the isles were abit clearer. I could actually step on floor! Then I found out what they actually did with the things that were on the floor, they had put it under the seats. There wasn't actually enough room under the seats, but thats okay because they used the space the space between the seats as well. In other words my leg room!

But that's okay I thought the journey would only be a couple of hours at which point we wouldn't have to put up with this.

10 minutes later we pulled over again. This time I was told that the driver wanted a bathroom break. The next stop was for tea. And so it continued. Each time we would pull over for at least 10 minutes.

This carried on, and on, and on.

We reached a town where we were told to get some thing to eat. As I sat in the roadside 'eatery' (a low bench behind another bench that you ate of, in a wooden hut) the english speaking passenger told me why the bus was taking so long...

Basically the driver was working for smugglers, he's over loaded, in terms of weight and passengers and the bus wasn't exactly in a road worthy condition. Add all of these up and you had a driver eager to avoid police roadblocks. How did he know there was a police road block up ahead? They had a guy calling them every 10 minutes, at which point the driver would pull over and wait for another call. Hernce the numerous stops.

This break lasted an hour. I got on that bus 7 hours ago, expecting to get off 6 hours ago. As it was were still not even half way.

They were also in a position to try to cram as many people onto the bus as possible. At one point there were about 60 people, plus luggage, on a bus that was designed to carry 20. It was so over crowded that other people started to complain about the number of people they had on there when it looked like they were about to pick up more.

And then, then there was the windows....

I had heard that Ethiopians don't like opening or leaving open bus windows. No matter how hot it was. I thought it was a travellers tale (the type where things are exaggerated a billion times to make it sound more harrowing than it actually is).

God I wish it was a travellers tale.

The sun was streaming in, at this time of year the sun is directly over Ethiopia, so it was qiute strong. Did they open the windows?

Hell no. In fact it got as hot as hell on that bus. Eventually I just cracked. And opened the nearest window to me. After about 2 minutes some one asked for it to be closed, fortunately the english speaking bloke was sat in front of me and told them 'no' on my behalf.

I couldn't wait any longer. I had to know the reason why they didn't open windows. Screw being polite and accepting other cultures for what they were. People (by that I mean me)were suffering and I wanted to know why...

The reason?

Basically Ethiopians are paranoid about getting sick. They beleive that if you leave the window open on a moving vehicle that the wind will make you sick. There is also another superstitious reason that evil spirits will enter the bus and cause a crash (like they can't do that when the bus door is open...)

The only reaction I had too this was to burst out laughing. Loud and hard. People asked why. I'm not sure what was said and frankly I don't care (for reasons that will be explained in a later blog).

Any way we set off at about 6pm. It was soon going to get dark. In Ethiopia busses are not supposed to run during the night as the road accident rate is one of the highest in the world (according to some one I spoke too), but as this guy was prone to smuggling anyway then the chances were high that he would carry on driving. After all he did have a a cargo to deliver....

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