Shortly after leaving Khartoum we turned left off the main highway that connects north and south Sudan to head towards Ethiopia. The change in landscape was sudden and drastic – rectangle mud brick homes were replaced with villages of round huts made from sticks and straw, the desert became greener and a few hills sprung up.
Passing through immigration summed up our experience of Sudan – a lot of unnecessary bureaucracy. First we went in to a security office where they noted everyone’s names, passport numbers and a few occupations. This was just a local police check but took a good hour. Then we went to the immigration office about 10 meters away, where the same thing was done again. Clearly the two ministries don’t speak to each other. Then we drove across the border and checked in to Ethiopia’s immigration office. In fairness it took just over 3 hours, but you couldn’t help thinking that a few computers would go a long way in smoothing the process.
Driving through Ethiopia towards Gonder, where we’d be staying for 3 nights, was incredible. Immediately after crossing the border the temperature dropped about 20 degrees and we found ourselves looking out the window at green rolling hills. Small villages lined the windy road and goats and cows roamed freely. It was like being in England! Having sweltered in over 35 degree heat again the night before, putting on a jumper was more exciting than I can adequately describe.
Ethiopia is a predominantly Christian country so for the first time in weeks we saw women out and about, wearing western clothes and very few headscarves. The women would smile and wave at us along with children, which was nice as very few acknowledged us in Sudan or Egypt.
Another stark difference is the lack of rubbish here. In Sudan and Egypt plastic bags and wrappers are all over the streets, stuck in trees and bushes, caught in fences and blow across deserts. In Ethiopia it seems people only use what they can make or obtain from the land, so most things decompose.
Gonder (pop 207,000) was the first official capital of Ethiopia, when the Portuguese invaded in the 16th century. It’s known as the Camelot of Africa because of its cobbled roads and gothic-like castles. Today Gonder is a tourist gateway into the Simien Mountains and part of the overland route down to Lalibella, where churches are carved into rock (see Star Wars movie for more information apparently). As a result, there are many touts around and quite a few beggars. There are also many churches here - mostly Christian Orthodox - that provide food and I suppose hope for the huge number of people who are ill or disabled here. Polio was a serious problem until the last decade and today the biggest killers are malaria and HIV/ AIDS.
We were warned that begging is rife in Ethiopia, given the high levels of poverty and historically white people have arrived with abundant handouts, so an expectation has been set. The touts are pretty devious and the whole town appears to be in cahoots to rip off tourists. At least though when people are scamming you, they aren’t sexually harassing you in the same breath.
The Italian influence is also quite strong. In 1936 Mussolini’s Italian troops overran Ethiopia though technically didn’t colonize it. They were ousted by the British in 1941 as part of a League of Nations agreement, but left behind coffee machines, porcelain toilets, pasta and patisseries, which are a real treat for today’s tourists. It rains promptly between 1-3pm here each day so we’ve got the timings down pat to make it to a local hotel café for coffee or lunch to wait out the rain and rort their free wifi. The local dish, injera, is a big pancake made from sourdough, with a little more sour than dough, but it’s quite nice.
Another interesting fact about Ethiopia is that it has its own time and date system. Here it’s 2003 and I’m 21 years old again. The calendar year has 13 months and new years’ day is September 11 (ominous…). The daily clock begins not at midnight but one hour after sunrise, which means what I think is 8am is actually 2 o’clock, and then it goes back to 1 o’clock when the sun sets. I don’t know how they manage it for flights and transport timetables – hopefully I won’t have to find out.
After a couple of days in Gonder adjusting to the cooler climate we drove up into the Simian Mountains, famous for – yep – monkeys and baboons. The drive was probably only about 150km but most of the road is dirt and incredibly steep and windy, so it took us most of the day. As we passed villages and farm huts, young children would come running onto the road, grinning with big white teeth and waving at us excitedly. Thanks to my own enthusiasm I’ve become the official truck waver – meaning I hang out the window waving back at everyone. This is quite tiring work, but given how thrilled these kids are to see us I feel bad sitting down in case someone misses out. (Clearly I don’t have enough to think about if this has become the biggest stress of my day.)
The women appear to do most of the work carrying jerry cans of water from communal wells, some built kilometers from their homes, as well as washing, cooking, cleaning and home repairs. You see small children lifting close to their body weight in sticks and stones to help their parents build fences or mend walls, while a lot of the men and teenage boys herd animals or sit by the road doing generally not much.
On the way up the mountains we were lucky to see some packs/mobs/crowds of baboons just hanging out in paddocks next to where cows were grazing. Out of nowhere about 20 children came running and within minutes had set up a small market of hats and straw baskets they’d made.
As we got higher into the mountains the rolling hills became sharp peaks, and the views from our campsite at 3600 meters were truly spectacular. Unfortunately I learned the hard way that like drinking and driving, asthma and altitude don’t mix, and spent most of the next day simply trying to breathe. I was lucky to hitch a ride back to Gonder this morning with some Americans staying at the same campsite and will wait here until the rest of the group arrives back tomorrow. Seems i will have to shelve any dreams of climbing Everest...
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