Goodbye to Bradt's bird guide to Ethiopia

  Yabello, Ethiopia
Sunday, June 26, 2005

Day the Nineteenth - in which we get a rude awakening, the bus comes to pieces underneath us, and I get my breasts noticed for the first time ever.

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It is Sunday today. Which was reason enough for the large church on the hill (the one lit up like a Christmas tree) to start an infernal warbling at about 3am. Oh my GOD! You know when you are drifting in and out of sleep and everything takes on a surreal quality? It was sort of like that, snatches of sleep in amongst these drawn out and painful strains of devotion. It was still going on when we got up, so it was something of a blessing to have to get up and move out instead of trying to sleep through it any more.

As we found out yesterday, there is no bus to Yabello today. We were told we could get on one at Karat-Konso, maybe, so since Konso is a step in the right direction we found a bus headed there.
Why is the town idiot invariably lurking around the bus station?


The sun came up as we drove away from Arba Minch, setting the fields of maize on fire and glistening off Lake Chamo.









The route was all on dirt roads, sometimes running through dry riverbeds. Some trees had honey baskets hanging in them.




At Karat-Konso, we literally hopped off the bus and were pointed in the direction of a bus going to Yabello. Nice. We sat in the shade and had a drink while waiting for the bus to leave. The buses down south here rarely fill up and the fares aren't fixed. I asked a man up front what the ticket cost, but when the dude - nicknamed 'Eyelashes' due to his camel-like features - came round he wanted double from us to make up for empty seats. As Stef rightly pointed out, if we threatened to leave the bus then they'd have to leave even more empty-seated. But I just wanted to get going and so we paid less than double but more than everyone else.
While we were sat on the bus waiting to leave a guy came over and asked us if we were migrating. Which I just love. Are you migrating? Why, yes, yes we are.

Due to having the extra seats, and also because we felt we had the right to after paying more, Stef and I took a double each and both sat by the window for a change. The double across the aisle from us kept detaching during the journey, and bouncing around the floor of the bus with each bump we took. And there were many. The road got worse, and the riverbeds wider and sandier. There is no way we would have got through here if the rains had come.




Not surprisingly, a tyre blew. The driver controlled the bus admirably and we didn't end up upside-down in a ditch. Eyelashes had to fix it. On again, past fields of grain guarded by women with slingshots. They sat of platforms raised above the field and fired stones off to scare away the birds.




There were also men herding cattle and camels with AK-47s and spears, dressed only in scraps, like Tarzan. We stopped quite a bit to let locals on, and soon the bus was fuller than at the start. The main people here are Borena - a nomadic cum pastoralist tribe.




Each town in the area has a market day - Konso's is tomorrow. Often it's the best time to see tribal people, short of going to Omo/Mago yourself. Stef and I sat side by side again and watched out the window as we passed huge towering termite mounds.

We had to slow for a herd of camels, which ran in front of the bus for a while. They actually run pretty fast and as they ran alongside, Stef managed to get a video. Click HERE

There was an uncomfortable episode when one of the guys in front kept turning around and staring at my chest. Stef pretended to take a picture of him and he didn't like that and stopped looking back. It probably doesn't help that the roads are so bumpy on these journeys I have to wear a sports bra.

Then another tyre went - most likely the one we had noticed when the previous blow out was being fixed. It was bald so I can imagine how the road had shredded it. This one didn't exactly blow, just fell apart beneath us. Literally. We were sat on the wheel dent and as bits started to peel away we could feel them slapping on the underside. It made a noise - a rhythmic thumping that got steadily louder, confusing more and more of the passengers as it could be heard further and further down the bus, until with some really resounding *thonks* it would detach. It was like being kicked in the sole of the foot. Then after a few minutes another piece would start off. We couldn't believe he was leaving it and continuing on, but I guess they may not have had another spare. We just hoped it would last us to Yabello. Apart from anything else, the loose bits were probably damaging the tyre beside it - the bus having pairs of tyres.

The slapping continued for an hour, but we made it to Yabello and, bonus, there was some of the day left.

We met a nice guy coming out of the station who lead us to a hotel. It is probably the most basic one we have been in, but it has everything we need - a bed, a communal shower and toilet, and a restaurant of sorts.
Unpacking our 'top layer' - the layer of stuff that you need in your backpack - Stef discovered that the iodine had leaked. Being iodine it had eaten its way out of his pack-it bag, and soaked into various items of clothing, rendering a pair of his shorts and my Mozambique dive t-shirt (the one I had lent him to wrap the coffee pot in) unwearable. Since I'm not going back to Moz he said he'd get me another. We still have iodine since I carry some Betadine in my medkit. We use it in the water that we filter, as well as for medical purposes, so we may have to get some more.

The guy, Yeneneh, walked around town with us a bit, helped us haggle for some material, and explained the presence of some tribal peoples. Apparently there is a meeting of some tribes in town, so people have travelled from the Omo region to participate. We saw lots of Borena since they live around here, but also some Hamer and Gurage (I think). The Hamer women we saw were particularly striking - with their orange clay braids and jewellery.
We wandered to the bus station to get tickets for tomorrow's bus to Moyale. On the way there a man came up and, without any introductions or niceties, asked Stef if he was Jewish. I wasn't aware that Stef looks particularly Jewish, with his blond hair and blue eyes...
On the way back we again got asked for our photos.

After copying out the map of Moyale into our notebooks, we gave our Bradt guide to Yeneneh. It is pretty big and there is no point lugging it around Africa any more. A new one is in the works so it won't be up-to-date for very much longer. Yeneneh wanted it so he could read up on Ethiopia and improve his English.
There seem to be large crow-like birds everywhere, and since the roofing is all metal whenever they land and walk around it makes quite a racket. The shower has no light, and so when the door is pulled shut it's pretty dark. Not a problem, but when I was showering and one of the birds landed heavily on the corrugated roof and stomped up and down it was quite unnerving.

Evening meal was raw meat again, kitfo. And then to bed. Tomorrow is our last day in Ethiopia, all things permitting.