Heading Southward toward the Kenyan border

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We got up early as there wasn’t much worth staying for in Gewane which is pretty much a truck stop in the middle of the desert.

No sooner had we got going than a man in full military attire waving an AK47 assult rifle stood in the road and stopped us. It turns out he wanted a lift for the next 100km so we had to oblige. He promptly fell asleep and the gun rattled around but thankfully the road was pretty good. We soon dropped him off and continued on our way.

Only to be stopped for a customs check by the side of the road. We were directed to a walled compound which bore a distinct resemblance to a rubbish dump. Not seeing anyone or what to do we drove on out the other side at which point a number of people (none in any uniform) told us we need a piece of paper to leave. So we hunted around for a man handing out pieces of paper. He wrote the number plate and glanced at the car and checked our paperwork. We duly presented this piece of paper at the other end and were on our way. The only saving grace was a man selling deep fried bread which everyone seemed to be eating for breakfast, they tasted good but were extremely dense.

On we went and soon were skirting around Addis Ababa where we experienced a motorway where overtaking was not the death defying feat it had been the last 2 weeks. Unfortunately it only lasted 5km as we had to turn off to head south.

The roads got busier and the drivers more crazy. I had a bus pull out in front of me and had to do an emergency stop. I then had an oncoming truck trying to overtake and didn’t make it forcing us off the side of the road. Finally Alain had a motorbike pull out and stop in front of us. I’m happy to report Nelly’s brakes are working well.

We’ve found ourselves at a nice spot off the beaten track with huts and a restaurant. They’ve let us camp but there are lots of monkeys around so we’re not leaving anything outside to chance. In fact they also seem to have semi-tame Hyenas, which came quite close!

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