TravelStream™ news feed for member bigadventure05 on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/bigadventure05 en-us Copyright ©2010 TravelPod.com Sun, 06 Apr 2008 16:08:53 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bigadventure05/bigadventure05/1207511040/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bigadventure05/bigadventure05/1207511040/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bigadventure05/bigadventure05/1207511040/tpod.html Sun, 06 Apr 2008 16:08:53 -0400 Ray & Gary's 2005 Big Adventure

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Arba Minch, Ethiopia

Packed up camp and began working our way back towards Addis Ababa. As we drive towards Weyto we stop to visit the Arbore tribe.

The Arbore use lots of silver to adorn themselves.Often this includes fairly amusing items --- such as half of a man's link watchband hanging down the middle of someone's forehead. The visit if fiarly pleasant as they don't take themselves or our interactions too seriously. They playfully tease their members who misbehave (eg won't get out of a photo they have not been selected to be in). But they don't appear to have a school or a teacher (my now favourite way of centralising the gift giving) and it is too crowded a situation to find any quiet time with any villagers. No one speaks a word of English.

Fuad, our driver helps me identify the village chief. I give him several bars of soap and indicate in front of those around tat he should cut it up and share it with them. Who knows if this will happen.

We lunch at Weyto. The food here now looks GREAT since our culinary expectations have been adjusted by our 5 days of Omo Valley travel. But Weyto is still so hot, so dusty, so sad.

As we climb out of the Omo Valley for the last time, the air becomes enjoyably cool again. A tourist 4WD is having mechanical trouble and we stop to investigate. Seems their clutch has gone totally kaput.
It is the car transporting the 'Italian Princess' (our nickname) we've been seeing at the tourist spots over the past few days.She travels alone except for her personal driver and interpreter/cook. As we pull up beside her she sits in the dead car gazing into the sky and sucking on her cigarette....as though we don't exist.

Honey, you in a dead car now and yo money ain't takin' you nowhere today.

We offer her and her interpreter a lift to Konso which she graciously accepts (her driver will stay with the car, this seems to be their preferred/expected arrangement). It rains heavily as we pass Konso Village and is still falling when we reach Konso town. The town is the same sea of mud it was during our outward pass through. Our group collectively decides to push on to Arba Minch since Konso is a muddy mess and we know the Kebele Molla Hotel in Arba has great hot water, delicious chicken salad and stunning breakfast views from its terrace.

We find the Arba hotel nearly deserted. So we revel in having our own African palace for a night. Two bottles of Ethiopian red wine are enjoyed over a long leisurely dinner discussing the impact of our visits with the tribes both on us and on the tribes themselves. Should we have made this trip? Was it OK to give gifts? Are we helping or harming them? Have we been selfish or generous by coming?
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bigadventure05/bigadventure05/1203048240/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bigadventure05/bigadventure05/1203048240/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bigadventure05/bigadventure05/1203048240/tpod.html Thu, 14 Feb 2008 23:51:19 -0500 Ray & Gary's 2005 Big Adventure

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Omorate, Ethiopia

Today we are making a side trip to visit the Galeb tribe. 1 1/2 hour drive each way from Turmi to their village of Omorate. To reach their village one must cross the Omo River in a dugout canoe. Not just a canoe, a real dugout made from a single hollowed out tree.

This seems to be the poorest tribe we have visited. Their huts are simply domes made of Acacia bark, not even any walls of tree trunks to provide standup space inside. We have a required local guide who explains some of the dress customs, etc. A family is posed in front of their hut like statues: granny, Mum, two kids at her side...one holding a forked tree trunk and a third kid on top of the hut looking like a human weathervane. I try to take this "African Gothic" photo just to document the absurb poses these folks setup to generate some income. But my camera battery gives out (of course, I pretend to take it and pay them anyway, they did their job).

It is a pleasant visit even though this village lives in a sorry state. They have a school and a clinic that we see in the distance. I befriend a little boy named Nyamo who looks to be about 4-5 years old and can already say a few words in English. He can count to 10 but never learned 8 ("7, 9, 10"). So I spent out time walking around teaching him 8 (which he, at first, substitutes for 9 but soon somewhat remembers to insert). Before we canoe back I use my dead camera to fake a few more photos of old ladies and kids so they 'earn' a few Bir. I give Nyamo a few Bir 'for school'.

As I get into the canoe to leave, Nyamo surprises me by handing me back the 3 Bir. What the....?!? Then I understand... He has taken off his clothes which he's given to the canoe poler. He wants me to keep his Bir safe and dry and he's going to swim the river to show off how strong he is.

He beats the canoe across; and when we arrive he throws on his tunic and recovers his Bir from me. What a neat kid. We have lunch nearby and afterward I look for Nyamo to give him a pen (which I forgot to take to the village). He isn't around so I gave it to the village guide. Hope Nyamo gets it.

It's a bright sunny day and on the drive back we notice that there are 6-10 quite large 'dust devils' (little whirlwind tornado-y things) visible across the plain at any given time. Not sure if this is normal but it is quite a sight.

We arrive back in Turmi at 2pm, the heat of the day, so we decide to delay heading back to our sunbaked campground and instead we head into the town's tourist restaurant. The restaurant is made in a commonly used design. It's round, open air with a tall centre pole that supports a sloping thatched roof. Mud and stick wals are built up from the ground but they stop about 2 feet short of the roof so a cooling breeze can pass right through. The circular wall is lined with wide seating covered in mats for cushioning. Locals are hanging out, toddlers snooze, tourist like us arrive looking flush with moist brows.

As we drink, Garry and Peter (the German guy touring with us) are having their usual discussion of world politics and economics when in walk two Hamar women in full tribal regalia. They are the real deal --- red beaded hair, goat skin clothing, etc. One is very pregnant.

They are served an injera lunch and we are, of course, (discretely) all eyes. They eat the lunch about twice as fast as we would; not in a rude way, but certainly not being prissy or eating dainty sized bites. The Kodak moment is when the non-pregnant one snaps a meat bone in half and spends a few minutes sucking the marrow from it. If this scene weren't real, it would look straight out of the Flintstones. You don't get a show like this back home!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bigadventure05/bigadventure05/1128787200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bigadventure05/bigadventure05/1128787200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bigadventure05/bigadventure05/1128787200/tpod.html Thu, 14 Feb 2008 21:30:55 -0500 Ray & Gary's 2005 Big Adventure

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Turmi, Ethiopia

Drove 2 hours to the town of Dimeka for their weekly Saturday market of the Hamar people. Our tour company had planned the stops of our trip to maximize opportunities like this for seeing markets and festivals, etc. This market is a really interesting and enjoyable experience because for some reason they don't need to pester us for photos, etc. other than to occasionally offer to sell us things. Oddly, we are approached often by Hamar people and asked to break a 100Br note. Makes us think that being paid 1-2Brs per photo is not their primary income? That would be good.

The market is sectioned into areas selling firewood, tobacco, honey, butter (not our kind of butter, but a rancid looking concoction the women put on their hair), cloth, goats/cows, fabric, household items, tribal wear, etc.


One smart little boy speaks English well and explains to me the various parts of the market. He says he lives in the quite substantial mud brick house near the river. Says his mother is a nurse and his father is a teacher.


Garry and I split a lunch of injera, the national dish. Injera is typically a selection of cooked meats and vegetables which are served on a big thick round pancake; as big as a large pizza. It should be eaten by breaking off an edge piece of the pancake and dipping/scooping the cooked food with it. It's a very practical dish for a resource poor country because it can be eaten without cutlery and individual plates. Today's injera is boiled meats and vegetables. The meat is simply too tough to get down. Vegetables are mainly potato and a little carrot.



We see quite a few men who have shaved the front half of their head and on the back half they have a 'skull cap' looking creation with a feather decorating the top. Though to us these have a strangely "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" resemblance, they are apparently quite the opposite. The only men who are allowed to wear this feathered adornment are those who have accomplished a major feat for their tribe or people (such as killing an enemy or otherwise protecting their tribe). After learning that fact we thought it best not to make any more jokes about these feathered blokes.

In the afternoon, we are going to see a "jumping the bulls" ceremony. A local Hamar man wants to get married and his tribe requires he perform this feat before he is considered worthy (man enough) for his bride. We drive to quite a remote village in a gorgeous setting overlooking the Omo Valey and surrounding mountains. About 30 tourists attend each paying 100Br (A$17). We sit right amongst the tribal people on goat skins on the ground under a trellis covered in freshly cut branches that makes a shady audience 'grandstand'.

In front of the grandstand, women and girls sing and dance -- hop around really; don't picture a co-ordinated group type dance. Some wear jingle bells below their knees to add music. The dancing show stops but the women seated among us continue to sing, one after another. A boy tells me they sing to call the cows/bulls. One woman walks around and smears the backs of all the tribal women with any oily solution. At one point I have women seated on all three sides of me, each suckling a baby; one of them squealing her song to the crowd at the top of her lungs. I'm feeling like this is the real deal....not a Disney re-creation.

The ceremony goes on like this for hours. Seriously monotonous, though to be fair one must consider this is not a tourist spectacle, it is a marriage rite.

They make some giant urns of coffee. Coffee originated in Ethiopia and coffee ceremonies are an important part of life here.

They perform a 'whipping ceremony' where the eligible males whip the eligible females with slender tree branches. The whipping is disturbing for us westerners and even the Ethiopian government would like to put an end to it. But it is a tribal tradition and the women believe they must be properly whipped or they have not properly proven their subjugation to the men. Like the Mursi tribe cutting their young girls' lips, this whipping practise should stop, but does it not border on cultural imperialism for outsiders to tell these people what they can and cannot do? No easy answer.

The eligible males paint their faces, as do a few females. But, alas, no bulls arrive and the sun sets spectacularly with no jumping ceremony.

A tense chat between the guides and the tribe's chief produces a 50% refund of our fee and we leave. The next morning, the gossip back at Camp Gringo is that the bull jump did eventually happen but that the groom was old and therefore the tribe members 'helped' him accomplish the jump because they wanted him to get married. Who knows. It was fascinating to sit among the tribe and people watch both the tribal people and the tourists (including 7 pushy loud Italians; 2 French journalists; an Italian earth mother who joined right in having her face painted; a wealthy American buwana doling out the Bir anytime asked).

Back at camp that night, we had lights but no water (for bathing/toilets). Guess you can't have both at the same time ;0) ?!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bigadventure05/bigadventure05/1128704400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bigadventure05/bigadventure05/1128704400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bigadventure05/bigadventure05/1128704400/tpod.html Sun, 10 Feb 2008 12:53:48 -0500 Ray & Gary's 2005 Big Adventure

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Turmi, Ethiopia

In the morning about 5 baboons hang around camp waiting for us to leave so they can scavenge our trash. During breakfast about 4 white tailed monkeys entertain us by leaping from tree to tree.

Today's drive is on a very remote sandy road through the park so Fuad convoys with another 4X4 (one with two Spanish tourists and their driver) in case either car gets stuck.
Fuad has asked around and knows there will be a total of 10 cars taking the same route today. These guys really know what they are doing.

We drive about 3-4 hours to the villages of the Karo people.

It is noticeable that during most of this drive we don't see a single person or domestic animal. Previously no matter how remote we felt, we see the occasional person walking or tending animals. It could be the Park has been very effective at keeping the people and their domestic animals out. Or it could be we are in a seriously remote and desolate place?

OMO RIVER
We reach the Omo River, which has created this remote valley, the goal of our trip. We drive along beside the Omo which is about half a kilometer wide and with muddy brown water.

Under some shade trees I see an old woman and three kids eating yellow fruit. I ask for a taste. Hoping these people are less business-oriented than the Mursi I don't ask 'how much' when asking to take a photo. I'm expecting to pay the normal rate: 2 Birr for the lady and one Birr for each child. I snap a picture of the woman and 2 children then ask the lady if 4 Birr is OK (pointing individually to indicate it's for all of them). She says yes. I give her 4. Then she explains by motioning that these are not her kids and she's keeping the 4 Birr. OK so I'll give each kid an additional one Birr. No, they want 2 Birr per child. I offer one Birr each three times. They refuse. Fine, I walk away. They follow, of course, and after some walking they ask only 1 Birr per child. I make them walk all the way to the car and just before we leave give them their 1 Birr each. So much for meeting a kindly granny and her sweet grandkids.

So I finally realize at this point that every interaction with the natives --every single one-- is going to be a negotiated pay-per-view experience. Fine, I adjust my expectations accordingly.

KARO VILLAGE
We stop at the main village of the Karo people, high above a scenic bend in the Omo River. The expected mob greeting occurs. I bypass them as best I can. Far below a person poles a lone boat on the river; another picture postcard view of tranquility... wow.
I pick two cute kids (three to four years old) nearby for a photo. We agree one Birr each (normal union rate for children under 15 for an on-location shoot of less than ten minutes). I line up the photo and just before I snap they shout, "2-2-2". We had already agreed one and I'm not going to be extorted. I look for other children. As I look, these two relent and again agree one Birr each. I line up the photo and they do it again "2-2-2". I find two other honest children, snap their picture and pay them one Birr each.

I truly think many of the "images of normal life" we are seeing as we walk through the village are posed photo opportunities ( two girls side by side making flour; lady laughing joyfully with baby at entrance to her hut, etc.). But this is OK... it is honest modelling work, no different to Hollywood or Disneyland. Much better than the mass greetings when we arrive at some villages (ie pushiest one gets the photo gig) and desperate frenzied pleas when we leave.

HAMAR VILLAGE
We drive on for a few hours to our first village of the Hamar people. As we drive up about ten women and children are singing and dancing in a line (great way for them to ensure a car doesn't just drive by). This is the best visit yet because my issue of who-to-give-the-gifts-to is solved..... there is a school and we meet the teacher. We give him the pens and soaps to give to people as he sees fit.

An old woman appears walking into town with her firewood, sorghum and milk. I agree to 2 Birr for photo and take it without an incident! Yay, I'm making progress.


The school is a "modern" mud brick building that is unusable (missing windows and some walls etc.... Not sure why).







TURMI
We drive on to Turmi, an interesting town because both "regular" people and Hamar people live there, creating an unusual social dynamic. We stayed at a commercial campsite with about 30 other gringos. Campground is all hard dirt but the cold showers and flush toilets are clean! First night, no electricity/lights. Oh well, we camped without them last night. Garry is suffering a bit of heat exhaustion so he mixes and drinks a rehydration drink and goes straight to sleep at 6:00 PM.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bigadventure05/bigadventure05/1128618000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bigadventure05/bigadventure05/1128618000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bigadventure05/bigadventure05/1128618000/tpod.html Sun, 10 Feb 2008 10:22:43 -0500 Ray & Gary's 2005 Big Adventure

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Mago National Park, Ethiopia

LEAVING JINKA
The next 3 nights we'll be camping (incl cooking our own meals) so this morning we thought we'd buy some fresh vegetables (anything alive really) to complement our never-ending pasta dinners.

Had no luck at all (a whole town with no vegetables!) but a young boy helps us buy eggs at "local price" of 3 Birr for 2 eggs. Find out later from our driver that the local price is 1 Birr for 3 eggs. Jinka people seem totally geared to extract the maximum possible Birr from tourists' wallets. (Just like Las Vegas I suppose.)

MURSI TRIBE
We leave to visit the Mursi tribe, famous for their aggression and their women who wear clay plates in their bottom lip. We pick up an elderly man as a guide to accompany us.

This guide speaks only the Mursi language, and Oromo the common language used in south Ethiopia. The plan is if we have a question we can ask Fuad, (he speaks English, Amharic and Oromo) who would translate from English to Oromo and the guide can then translate into the Mursi language. But at the village the two men don't stay together so we are limited to sign language to communicate.

We drive 3 hours over very rough roads to the Mursi village. Fuad says there are about 3,000 Mursi people but apparently nearly all the tourists drive to this one small village nearest the road. This has turned this village into a frenzy of villagers who make their living posing for photos and earning 1-2 Birr per shot. Along the road we see several Mursi people wanting to pose [eg small boy painted in tribal colours standing in tree with gorgeous mountain view as a backdrop; a man with yellow fruit on his head and penis]


At the village the pandemonium commences. Individuals and full families are poised in photogenic poses and accoutrement. One entire family of 7 stands in a row, each with basket on head ready to be snapped. Grannies poke two fingers in our faces asking "2 Birr, 2 Birr". About 50% of girls have the plated lower lip. Some old ladies have healed but scarred lower lips where they previously wore plates. Some have the bottom lip missing completely.

The village is about 15 huts. Cow dung everywhere. I see one woman making flour at her hut and go to her. She is grinding sorghum using two flat stones, a process we see in nearly all the tribes we visit. She lets me have a try doing the grinding. I ask (sign language) if we can visit her house. We enter via a small 'mousehole' entrance that we crawl through on hands and knees. Inside is much more rudimentary than yesterday's tribe. A small fire has a clay pot boiling water. She shows us that she puts the flour into the water and eats it ... porridge, we assume. There is a corked gourd by the wall. We ask what's in it. She pours out a little milk to show us. There's only one 'modern' item in the whole house, a plastic water bottle hung high on the hut's centre pole. There's a cow skin on the floor to sleep on.

Is this all real? Contrived? Hard to know. I give her 5 Birr and she asks for 30. She accepts 10 but not happily.

Outside is an elderly woman who I understand to be our hostess's mother. I figure I'll give her a bar of soap as a gift and then the whole family can use it. But after giving it to her our hostess makes it clear she's the mother of the next-hut-neighbour and the hostess wants a bar too. Ugh...so hard to get this right and do what's fair for everyone!

We walk to the furthest section of the village hoping the pushiest/meanest villagers are working the front. This section has some plastic utensils and buckets etc hanging around. The first non-natural items we have seen.

I agree with some children to pay them 1Birr each for photos but after snapping a photo they demand 2 Birr. They angrily throw the 1 Birr note I give them on the ground. I leave it there and we move back near the 'guide' assuming that defusing these disputes is one reason he is needed along on these visits.

I buy a lip plate from a girl for 5 Birr.

There are many different views on how to interact with the tribal people. Ideally I want the visits to be as natural as possible but, of course, I understand we are hardly the first tourists to visit and the tribal people have rightly come to expect tourists will pay for the hospitality given them. But my view is this should not consist of just throwing money at them (particularly the pushiest ones who practically trample their fellow tribespeople to get to the tourists first).
I set out to consciously NOT photograph any girls with cut lips because I feel photographing this will causes families to continue to cut young girls' lips so the tourists will want to photograph them. But virtually no other tourists I met agreed with me and I took a few photos of lip-plated girls so I didn't seem too stubborn. But I stick with my view: Photographing requires payment, so if you photograph a practice that you find objectionable (and I think lip-plating is one the world can do without) you are teaching them that this practice generates income and you therefore encourage it to continue. [End of Ray's soapbox diatribe]

MAGO NATIONAL PARK
We leave the village for Mago National Park to camp for the night. We stop at the road crossing of the Mago River to eat our sandwiches. Two Mursi girls and one young man walk up to visit. Gary buys another lip plate for 5 Birr.

This is very typical of our entire road trip. No matter where we stop, within a few minutes people seem to appear from nowhere. I take it this is because the country is very, very populous and the people simply live out of sight of the road (because they are farmers/hunters?). If you live in a remote place and a car full of tourists stops you go have a chat. These roadside visits were some of the best we had.

The Mago National Park campsite is shady and enjoyable. Equipment from our tour company is pretty broken down but we're fairly experienced backpackers and it is all tolerable (no choice at this point, we've made our bed...). We setup camp, bathe in the Mago River, cook the spaghetti for dinner that we bought in Addis.

Today we have seen gelada baboons, black and white monkeys with long fluffy white tails, dik-dik (cuuute tiny little deer about knee high), elephant dung (guide says about 100 elephants live in Omo Valley), hundreds of birds and more grey squirrels. Some taller trees are absolutely covered in hanging, pendulous bird nests. Easy to see them because the trees are not lush or leafy. Some trees have 20+ nests.

Some baboons approach, probably to see if we will feed them. We have a look but then frighten them away so they don't take our food or gear.

Fuad engages a 'guard' who will spend the night at the camp to ensure the animals (and people??) don't bother us. Fuad assures us this is a very safe place but the guard does have a rifle.

About 1 a.m. we start hearing animal grunting noises and assume it is the baboons. The guard builds up the fire which reassures us he is on duty. This also explains the streams of water I've heard falling from the trees (monkey urine). Our tent had also been christened by some falling monkey poo the day before which we took to be a good omen.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bigadventure05/bigadventure05/1167612060/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bigadventure05/bigadventure05/1167612060/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bigadventure05/bigadventure05/1167612060/tpod.html Sun, 31 Dec 2006 20:45:27 -0500 Ray & Gary's 2005 Big Adventure

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Jinka, Ethiopia

Arba Minch to Jinka (via Konso and Weyto)

Drove about 3 hours around the south coast of Lake Chamoh to Konso where we took a tea break at a hotel.

It was about the muddiest town I've ever seen (maybe a time of year thing?). We didn't really visit the town other than the rest stop.










Konso women wear a long skirt with matching fringe tied around the waist. Saw women with the most enormous loads of wood on their backs.








As we drove out of town we passed what looked like an aid distribution station with a huge pile of sacks of grain from USA. We pass Konso "village" on a distant picturesque hillside.

In general the whole country uses wood to cook their evening meal and this has lead to denuding of the forests and lots of terrible erosion problems.


The road descended into the Omo Valley, an enormously wide, flat, valley. Very hot and dry in contrast to cool, wet Arba Minch and Konso.

Stopped for lunch in a dusty little crossroad village of Weyto. A really sad, inhospitable looking place. The dirt floor café had rickety chairs, and cooking only over a wood fire. But they made us edible pasta that, most importantly, had no ill effects. Drove on to our first village visit (not far...still Weyto?). Paid 30 Birr "entrance" fee (per vehicle). Mobbed by about 20 villagers, mainly young and children but also one old lady in tribal dress with wild hair. Visit the mud/stick house of a young couple. He was 20 yrs old, she was 25. One baby girl. He spoke some English and said he was in grade 8 and she was in grade 3. Not clear if they still go to school but seems unlikely. Village had a school and a teacher. Teacher's house looks to be the best in town.

Drove on to our overnight destination of Jinka. Scenery again becomes lush and green as we climb out of the Omo Valley. Jinka is like a wild west town where the tourists and tribes come together. A grass airplane landing strip is down the middle of the main street. Planes come twice a week so they move the cows and goats for the landings and takeoffs.

All tourist hotels appeared full and so we look at the hotel the drivers stay at. Very cheap and rooms OK but the shared toilets/shower look awful and there are some tough, scary looking types staying there. The German guy takes a room but Gary and I decide to look for a campsite. We stop again at a previous hotel and 2 rooms magically appear. (with ensuites 150 Birr each). Very accommodating guy at reception helps me burn my photos onto a CD (who says technology isn't everywhere?). Gary's toilet doesn't flush. Neither of our hot water heaters work. Minor stuff.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bigadventure05/bigadventure05/1128358800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bigadventure05/bigadventure05/1128358800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bigadventure05/bigadventure05/1128358800/tpod.html Sun, 31 Dec 2006 19:39:19 -0500 Ray & Gary's 2005 Big Adventure

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Arba Minch, Ethiopia

==========================================
3 October 2005
Day 1 of 10
Addis Ababa to Arba Minch
==========================================

10am departure and headed south. About 1-2 hours south of town city life gives way to rural life. Crops growing, cows, donkey carts, goats. 2-3 hrs out of town the good paved road ends; some houses here are made of mud brick as opposed to cement block in the city, Lunch at a hotel in Shashomene. Another hour on the road and now whole villages are made of mud brick.

On the afternoon drive we see banana harvests, the vast majority of people now on foot, donkey carts are the most common form of 'transport'...no bicycles, no motorcycles. Improvised wheelbarrows made of anything available even wood.

Afternoon tea break at a hotel in Sodo.

The scenery includes lush mountainsides planted with crops. Not at all barren or inhospitable as I'd expected. Apparently coffee originated here.

At 5pm we pass through a town as the sun sets. The streets are absolutely teeming with people who must step aside to let our car through. We often encounter large herds of cattle on the road that must be moved aside to let us pass. They are moved out to fields to eat during the day and taken home for the night.

Overnight Arba Minch at the Bekele Mola hotel (Room 162Birr; Dinner & Br 62Birr) which is in a fantastic location on a ridge overlooking two giant lakes nearby.

==========================================
4 October 2005
Day 2 of 10
Around Arba Minch
==========================================

Although we had not come to Ethiopia to see animals or go 'on safari' the beautiful Nechizar National Park is nearby and was well worth a visit. It's about a 2 hr drive from Arba Minch.

Animals in Ethiopia are generally for eating, not viewing and most had been annihilated until a foreigner bought the land to establish Nechizar in the hopes of preserving it and perhaps even creating sustainable tourism jobs.

We spent about 1.5 hrs in the park then drove back to town for lunch. Nechizar means 'white grass' and it has beautiful plains, mountains and is situated between two enormous lakes.

We saw baboons; many zebras (a herd even ran along on the track in front of our 4WD for a long time); antelope/gazelle, secretary birds and surprisingly...even a grey squirrel. (Note: We saw tour vehicles from these companies: Ghion; Green Land; Jacaranda; Kioran)

Our driver, Fuad, dropped us in town and we found lunch and walked back to the hotel. We passed a local school and saw adorable kids playing in the street rolling hoops down the road with a hook. English was spoken more readily than we expected.

At 4:30 Fuad took us over to Lake Chamo for a cruise on the lake. We saw crocodiles, about 10 hippos (a highlight for me) and white pelicans. The sun set as we returned toward shore offering some nice photo opps.

Another night in Arba Minch.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bigadventure05/bigadventure05/1128099600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bigadventure05/bigadventure05/1128099600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bigadventure05/bigadventure05/1128099600/tpod.html Tue, 26 Dec 2006 04:13:52 -0500 Ray & Gary's 2005 Big Adventure

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

For the Ethiopia portion of our trip, I've added extensive narrative and photos for two reasons: 1) it was the most adventurous and interesting part of our 2005 Big Adventure and 2) the details may help others who are planning a trip to Ethiopia (which I highly recommend for those who like seeing truly far flung places that challenge as well as entertain them).


Took a KLM flight from Amsterdam to Addis Ababa. It stopped in Khartoum, Sudan which is in the middle of the brownest, driest looking place I have ever been. Khartoum airport was a big tin quonset-hut type building and most of the planes parked nearby were Aid Orgs or military looking. I have travelled to remote parts of Indonesia and Central and South America but this was the most hostile environment I have ever seen.

The plane continued on for about an hour or so to Addis Ababa where we arrived in late evening. The airport looked brand new. Modern, marble floors and fully air conditioned. A delightful relief after what we'd seen from afar during the stop in Khartoum. We had arranged a pickup by our hotel, the Taitu, which we had picked as the best of the backpacker hotels from Lonely Planet's Thorntree forums. Sure enough, two young men were waiting with our name on a card at the customs exit and we followed them to their car.

It was a dilapidated compact about the size of a Corolla, with only a wire coat hanger as the inside door handle. The drive took about 20 minutes to the hotel.

The Taitu was an old wreck of a place and we had one of the 'best' rooms in the main building, which probably was a showplace 100 years ago when it was built, but now suffered from neglect generated by ongoing state-vs-private ownership disputes. The room was clean enough and even had a balcony. But the bathroom was awful and we had to keep the bathroom door closed to keep sewage smells contained. Some exposed wires in there plus no shower curtain added a degree of thrillseeking to the usually mundane bathing routine.

The first night, I wondered if we needed our heads examined for coming to Ethiopia. Why would anyone go from the scrubbed beauty of Amsterdam to this mess? Perhaps I had finally reached the age where adventure travel in developing nations was a thing of the past? Luckily that was not to be the case.

We spent the first few days planning our trip to the southern tribes and choosing our tour company. We chose the young fellow that we'd seen recommended on Lonely Planet's Thorntree forum, Osman Ahmed, who impressed us immediately with his excellent English, clear understanding of what we were after and patient guidance in helping design the trip to meet our needs.

Here are Osman's contact details:
soratoursethiopia@yahoo.com
osmanao@ethionet.et
www.soratours.com

We posted notes on bulletin boards at nearby hostels and on Thorntree to find travelling companions to share our car/guide. A German guy travelling alone responded who agreed to share the trip and its expenses with us (a 30% savings!). Although we first thought we'd find a couple to share with us, during the trip's hours and hours of rough, bouncy driving we realised that 3 passengers is the optimum number to share one 4WD. Four passengers would have been way too cramped.

There isn't too much to see in Addis but we enjoyed the main museum (gives you a good understanding of the country's history, tribes, etc), and the Mercato was just as we had been warned....fascinating and dangerous. We went mid-day as a safe option but without a guide (not recommended....but heck we are two tall males) and we took virtually nothing of value. It all went well except at one point I was shoved up against a car and forcibly 'pickpocketed' with the loser not even getting the few Birr in the pocket he 'picked'. This incident lasted 3 seconds all up, but it was startling because it happened in broad daylight on a busy street full of people. It certainly wasn't the 'light fingers' you expect in a normal pickpocketing.
The market is supposedly the largest in Africa....blocks and blocks and blocks of streets lined with stalls. We didn't venture much into any alleyways, etc for obvious reasons. As we got further along we didn't have a clear sense of direction. The stares at us got stronger and began to looked a bit questioning ("do these white people know what they've gotten into?"). When a policeman offered to get us a taxi we thought that might be good advice and we headed back to our hotel's 'hood where we felt much more at ease.

Our trip to the southern tribes of the Omo Valley was going to include several nights of camping and we decided to cook for ourselves on these nights. The day before our departure, Osman drove us to the supermarket to buy our food and a mass supply of bottled water; to the bank to get a big bag of small Birr notes; and to buy razor blades, pens and soap to give as gifts.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bigadventure05/bigadventure05/1119632880/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bigadventure05/bigadventure05/1119632880/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bigadventure05/bigadventure05/1119632880/tpod.html Mon, 31 Jul 2006 14:27:22 -0400 Ray & Gary's 2005 Big Adventure

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Sydney, Australia

Only the first two weeks of the trip are planned in detail, much will be decided along the way.

General plan is:
-- 2 weeks Hawaii
-- 6 weeks in USA (family, friends and maybe see some new places in the northeast)
-- 1-2 weeks with friends in France
-- 3 weeks touring Italy with Gary's Mum (a new country for us all)
-- 3-4 weeks in Ethiopia (the adventure part!)
-- 1 week to make our way home

With the help and support of friends in Sydney (looking after our mail, apartment, car, etc) we blasted off on Friday night 24 June, 2005.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bigadventure05/bigadventure05/1126183440/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bigadventure05/bigadventure05/1126183440/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bigadventure05/bigadventure05/1126183440/tpod.html Wed, 28 Sep 2005 22:48:03 -0400 Ray & Gary's 2005 Big Adventure

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Venice, Italy

Two quick nights in this oh-so-expensive city. Decided we simply had to stay right in town and it is very neat to wake up to these views.

Pam, Gary's Mum, loves crafts and artwork so we spent our full day visiting the islands of Murano (was given a personal tour of a handmade glass factory by the owner) and Burano (handmade lace). The skies let loose with a downpour as we arrived in Burano so we were holed up in a restaurant most of the time and didn't see much there.
]]>