Visitors from Addis

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David and Nadia, friends from Addis, made the journey on The Road, with their Daughter (Nina, over from the UK on holiday) to visit Robe.

On Friday, we went up to the Sanetti Plateau. We were up in the clouds and visibility was very poor, but it was amazing - driving in thick fog one minute and then it would suddenly lift. It did mean that, for the first time, we did not see wolves. Luckily, they had seen one on the way through Dinsho on the drive here.

In the end, we decided that the visibility was too bad, and that it wasn’t fair on Elias the driver to keep on going, so we returned to Goba for lunch and then back to Robe for a relaxing afternoon.

On Saturday, we headed off to Sof Omar. En route, we stopped for breakfast at the Central Hotel in Goro, before continuing on the road that gets narrower and narrower, to Sof Omar village. As we got closer, there were lots of camels. In common with other domestic animals in Ethiopia, they stand on the road. However, whereas your average cow, donkey or sheep will just stand there while you have to drive round them, the camels seemed scared and ran ahead of the car, knees knocking, before veering off into a field. One fell over, but luckily managed to get up - we would have had to try and lift it and I didn’t fancy our chances.

Even though I have been before, and knew what to expect, it was still stunning.

Unbelievably, in one of the caverns, we found another tourist - Jonathan - who had got there by public transport, having stayed in Goro for 3 days waiting for a bus. Obviously, the story evolved into the fact that we rescued him! Apparently, had we been 2 minutes earlier we would have got a real shock as him and his guide were sitting in the dark. When we turned out our torches in one of the caverns, I tried to see my own hand and ended up hitting myself on the nose!

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Photos

Camels en route
Not the brightest of animals!

Sof Omar
Entering a chamber.

Sof Omar Caves
Beautiful every time!

Walking back
Girl looking after cows, who stopped to watch the farenji for a while.

Walking back
Being overtaken by cows.