Highland! highland! highland! - Ethiopia the recycler

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Amesingelahu Ethiopia - Thank you!

Recycling for the sake of survival. "Highland" - the first bottled spring water brand in Ethiopia. This is what children all over Ethiopia ask tourists for - not for the water itself but rather the empty bottles they use as containers for storage of various things. Not a bad deal if there is some left over water to drink also. I recall numerous instances of children running from the fields toward the vehicle as soon as they saw us on the horizon, merely in the hope that we would have an empty bottle - and if in a group they would wrestle over the bottle.

Ethiopia has been a wonderful experience, rich in lifestyle/culture & history, ancient architecture (remarkably in tact for its age), plenty of ruins, art, landscape and native wildlife. Travel through Ethiopia was relatively easy, and cheap. Whilst some time and a little patience is required when coordinating activities/internal trips as dealing with tour operators can be frustrating. If traveling alone it can be a lot
more costly to travel to the more remote attractions, so team up with others when you can.

We spent 9 days in the south in the Omo Valley region hired a 4wd and driver along with Bogden, (travel companion from Poland). The south was dotted with visually stunning lakes, mountains and very fertile land.

The primitive culture and traditions of the various tribal people was startling and rather disturbing. I couldn't help but have some trepadition and remorse for touring there as the tribes living in stick or mud huts seemed primarily focused on begging us to take a picture of them in their traditional adornment - in order to make 10c per picture. We visited 4 such tribes, all distinct in their tradition (lip plated, bare breasted, goat skin clothed, scarificated women; hand made be-jewelled, miniskirted polygamous men; white painted, head shaven bare footed and bare bottomed children all begging us to take their pic). Yes it was somewhat alarming and I wonder about the longevity of the culture of these primitive peoples. Many tribalmen adorned with plastic home made earings (good at recycling) carried a rifle as well as a traditional handmade farming sword/plough and herding a few goats or cows into the market.

We mingled with a few of them at the market pub ( a small marquey like tent with people sitting on their little wooden headrest/stools) whilst drinking 'taj' rather potent local honey bear/wine. The best place to interact with these people was to attend the market places and watch them in their day-day life of trading and bartering - much less of a 'show'.

Our not so trusty 4wd had a problem some 7 days out of the 9 day tour (brakes, tyres, shocks, 4wd function). This left me rather frightened especially traveling on half constructed roads, mud pits, along vast mountain ranges and in the dark. We managed to get bogged twice on a newly opened road heading away from a village and appealed to the tribes for assistance in pushing us out. The first time, it took about 30 tribal people to push us to dry land and our rather obnoxious driver (Sale) got in a fight with them over the price of the assistance and drove off in a huff only to land us in a deeper mud pile 4kms down the road! This time a second tribe of fewer men took about 45 minutes to dig us out and Ralph and Bogden where almost waste deep in mud. I spent the time watching out for the first tribe - worried they would catch up and use their rifle on our driver! Second time round our driver was much more appreciative for the tribal assistance.

A highlight of the southern region was an afternoon drive to visit the Dorze Village high in the mountains. This tribe is known for colourful woven cloth, making injera from false banana leaves and living in large bamboo huts. We spent only a few hours here but would recommend the traditional home stay offered to other travelers. Yirgalm Aragesh lodge on our final night down south was a wonderful final place to stay - a beautiful lodge perched in the mountain on an old coffee plantation. This was luxury accom and we looked out our window at monkeys staring back in. The property had beautiful black and white colobus monkeys munching on guavas and our afternoon walk around the property came with a surprise as we had been followed by a hyena who came up rather close to check us out (and see if we had food).

The past few weeks we have been up North doing the historical circuit, visiting island and cliff top monasteries and churches, seeing Aksum's ancient Stellae and tombs, palaces in Gonder - many dating to 8th BC!

Our 4 day trek into the Northern Simien mountains has been a highlight for sheer spectacular scenery - think Green Grand Canyon + rare wolves, Ibex and chatting, very tame Baboons. The freezing temperatures at night were not what we had expected, however our day time treks were superb. Whilst Ralph and I struggled with the altitude (compared to our fit Belgian travel companions) Pretty much the entire time during our four days of exercise in the fresh mountain air - I was speechless (and breathless) from the sheer beauty of the scenery. The altitude and my hiking boots did not do good for my game of football with a bunch of mountain Shepard boys at 1300m above sea level - quite pathetic performance.

The grand finale of the trip was what is known as 'Africa's Petra' - Lalibela. The 11 medieval rock hewn churches were awesome and remarkable in the way they had been built and preserved. Dimly lit passageways led to hidden crypts and grottoes carved in red volcanic rock almost a millenia ago. the two day bumpy, overcrowded and somewhat delayed bus journey was definitely worth it.

The Ethiopian food has been superb. We love the traditional staple, 'injera' - flat pancake like savoury bread served with a variety of wet dishes and eaten by scooping the meal up with the bread in the right hand only - I have begun to master this and no longer get the meal all over my face. We definitely must find an Ethiopian restaurant in Sydney, I think Ralph and I will very much miss it when we leave. A grandiose meal will be likely to cost $3. The fruit juices are to die for - mango, avocado, papaya, guava - even better when served as a "tropical", layer upon layer in a rainbow coloured effect, devoured with a spoon and very cold. Better than Italian gelato any day and only 70c. The coffee ain't bad either - especially given I didn't drink it prior to my arrival in the country and now a macchiato a day is the rule. Every so often we eat Italian pasta or Pizza -thanks to the years of Italian occupation in Mussolini's time.

We have seen vast poverty here and it really is like stepping back 100 years in time when you see mule drawn carts, trading peanuts in the town marketos, mountain shepherds and farming families sleeping in mud huts above their animals to keep warm! I really do feel so very fortunate to have been born in Australia. Having said this, Ethiopia seems to be developing comparatively well compared to what I saw in Kenya and Tanzania. Western Aid funded roadworks construction projects (built by the Chinese) are happening all over the country which will hopefully open up transport into the fertile lands and aid farmers whose crop seems to go to waste for lack of ability to trade it. I wonder how long the tribes will last, once the transit routes for tourists become more rapid and easier? Given the location of Ethiopia between Sudan, Kenya, Eritrea and Somalia - and border disputes causing potential unrest in each direction it will be interesting to watch the evolution of the country - here to hoping this beautiful country it will remain peaceful.

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