Sudanese Prince
Trip Start
May 27, 2010
1
15
18
Trip End
Nov 15, 2010
Khartoum, Khartoum, Sudan
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Monday The 4th of October 2010
This morning most of the group was going on a trip to the surrounding areas. Jess and I had the day to ourselves. For breakfast we went to the local supermarket and picked up some cereal and milk, I was missing it. I tried for a coco pops imitation but of course it wasn't as good. After breakfast we went to use the Internet, I wanted to update my blog. Jess and I had mixed experiences at the Café. Jess got the server computer so she had a fast connection but I was on one of the other computer and the connection was poor. I used the Internet for a little but after a few failures I gave up to look for a better connection. I didn't find it... I spent the next hour or so around town looking but not finding a better Café.
I eventually gave up and went to meet Jess we spent time around the hotel for a bit before lunch. We decided to go into town for lunch at a coffee shop. There wasn't much to eat but we had some chips and some coffee. Afterwards Jess and I did some grocery shopping so that we could have some munchies on the truck. The rest of the afternoon was standard except I was able to find a good Internet connection and publish my blog. In the Evening Jess and I met up with Sophie and Sohette for dinner at the hotel. Dinner was nice but we had things to do before tomorrow.
We would be spending the next week driving around northern Ethiopia visiting some of the major tourist destinations, we need to pack. I got our clean wet washing from reception (They told us it would be done but it was wet, TIA) and hung it up in our room hoping it would dry overnight. Jess and I packed our things for the next week and at this stage I was tired and went to sleep.
Tuesday The 5th of October 2010
Up early today to finish packing our things. We would be leaving at seven and needed to be ready. Our washing was still wet but we would have to make do. We packed all of our things onto the truck and into our bags and waited for everybody to be ready. I decided to get some more money from the bank but the ATM was in town. I got a Tuk Tuk into town and started to wait in line. The ATM wasn't working so I ran back to the hotel. At that stage everybody was waiting in the mini bus that would be our transport for the next couple of days. I hoped on and Carol gave us our allowance for the next week. Seeing as this trip wasn't part of the truck itinerary we had organise to get a portion of our money back in cash. Anyway we had a 6 hour drive ahead of us and it was time to go.
I slept for bits and pieces of the drive to Lalibela. The drive was unbelievable and took us through some of the nicest, greenest country side of the trip. We where on top of mountains and in the bottom of valleys and it felt like a place this beautiful would have to be from fiction. We arrived in Lalibela at around 2. Lalibela is famous for it's rock hone churches. The town itself has three and the surrounding area has another eight. Lalibela is set on the side of a mountain thousands of meters above sea level. It is odd to think that people chose to settle in such a formidable spot. The drive to our hotel took us through streets which had been paved with large cobble stone like rocks. I have a feeling this town started as a monastery and slowly became populated over time. Our hotel (2430m, Lat: N12°01'31.1”, Lon: E39°02'42.8) is nice enough and I would equate it to a three star place back home. It is clean but the showers leave something to be desired. Which is the same for most of Africa so I don't really have anything to complain about. Plus it is only costing us about $14 a night so still nothing to complain about.
I was very hungry seeing as I hadn't eaten breakfast and the only other thing I had to eat was a twix chocolate bar. Sam, Kate, Sean, Leah, Jess and myself went for a walk through town to find somewhere to have lunch. We found this local place called the Blue Nile which served some really tasty food. As well as some of the best coffee I have ever had. It took them about 30min to make the coffee but it was a whole process. First the beans where roasted and then we were allowed to smell them. Then they where ground in a mortar and pestle. Incense are then lit and the fragrance is allowed to fall over us. The ground coffee is then added to a coffee pot and allowed to distil in the hot water. After sufficient time the coffee is poured into little cups and distributed amongst the patrons. The taste is not at all bitter and tastes so fresh it reminds me of fresh green vegetables. And boy is Ethiopia cheap when it wants to be. Six of us had three rounds of drinks; two rounds of coffee and ate till we where stuffed for less than 20 Australian dollars. And that was with a 20% tip.
Anyway after our late lunch we walked around town for a bit and decided to grab some drinks and sit on Leah and Sean's balcony and watch the sun set. The night got a little rowdy and we found ourselves in another local joint a few hour later for a late dinner. As is the case with Africa, food takes time. Jess and I decided we where too tired and drunk to eat before our ordered meal came out and went to bed.
Wednesday The 6th of October 2010
We woke up this morning at 7 because we had to get ready for a day of church visiting. Jess and I got up had a shower an went for breakfast at the hotel restaurant. Breakfast is my favourite meal of the day in Australia but Africa is another story. It's Just always so average, We met with the rest of the group and guide at 8:30 and headed up to the church info centre and entry. I am not going to speak too much about the different churches and what we did today instead I am going to let the pictures talk for me. I will however say that, according to historical records it took 23 years to build with 40,000 workers. It includes; completely monolithic, semi monolithic and cave churches. These are all connected by a series of tunnels and trenches. One of the tunnels is called hell and twists it's way through the rock in total darkness. You are given nothing but touch to navigate. We spent the whole day exploring with a 2 hour stop for lunch. The guide was informative and the place was extraordinary. In the afternoon Jess and I did some shopping for lunch tomorrow. We where both tired from our poor sleep last night (mosquitoes) and after an early dinner we had an early night.
Thursday The 7th of October 2010
What time is it? Yes that's right it's quarter to 5. We have a full day of driving today and we are leaving at 5:30. We got to experience some more of Ethiopia's beautiful terrain. Which today looked as though we where driving through Americas old west. Except a much greener version. Today consisted of two coffee stops; one lunch break and three tire changes. One of the coffee stops and the lunch stop was only because of the tire changes. The first tire change was probably the most amusing. You now how on trucks and buses they have two wheels on each side on the rear axle. Well the inside left tire was flat so we changed it but the spare was about 1cm in diameter larger than the other tire. This was because the tire already on the bus was so worn that it had lost a lot of it's diameter. This meant the existing tire was held off the road. The tire didn't last long like this and about an hour down the road the tire disconnected itself form the wheel. TIA. We drove on one rear wheel until we found a place that could fix our existing tire. People where like “is this safe”? “Well no, but what choice do we have?” Anyway the stop gave us an opportunity to have lunch.
We drove for the remainder of the day until we reached Aksum at around 7:30. The hotel (2123m, Lat: N14°07'17.0”, Lon: E38°44'06.5) is quite nice and I feel spoilt after all the camping I've done. Jess and I weren't hungry for dinner so we just had a cup of tea and went to bed.
Friday The 8th of October 2010
We would be seeing the sights of Aksum today which include the ruins of the old Aksumite civilisation. Jess and I got up early to eat breakfast and we where done in time to take it easy in the room for a bit. We left for the Aksumite ruins at 9 and our guide told us all about the Aksumites and the ruins we were about to see. We went through some tombs and saw the ruins of an ancient place which was though to be the queen of Sheba's. We also checked out a local museum where there were artefacts from before Christ. It's weird seeing things that old. The day wasn't the most interesting thing we have done on the trip but I am still glad we did it. Jess and I came back to the hotel for lunch and spent the afternoon on the Internet and relaxing in our room. In the evening Jess and I sat down at the hotel restaurant for dinner. I wasn't hungry so I didn't eat but Jess had some soup and some bread. Naughty Naughty... After dinner Jess and I spent some more time in our room and then went to sleep early.
Saturday The 9th of October 2010
Up at 6 today and on the road by 7. We are driving to a town near Simien mountains called Debark. It is only 260km away but the roads are dirt and they wind their way through the mountainous countryside. I was in the back of the bus today which made me so uncomfortable. This made the time pass painfully slow. Again Ethiopia showed us how beautiful she is. Today she had lush, green hills with rivers and streams every few kilometres. We took many photos and had our minds blow by the raw beauty. We arrived in town in the late afternoon and walked around town to have a bit of an explore. Debark is a small simple town with only one street. Jess and I picked up some bread, ˝kg of banana's, small bag of dates and 3 litres of water for only 30 birr ($2). Afterwards we went back to our hotel (2850m, Lat: N13°08'57.5”, Lon: E37°54'04.2) for some dinner, I had Kee Wot. Kee Wot is a local dish which is like a meat stew but it is spiced heavily and extremely tasty. After dinner we went to bed. One bad thing about Kee Wot is that it gives you some of the worlds worst flatulence. Mine was so bad it woke Jess up. Good night all.
Sunday The 10th of October 2010
Got a bit of a sleep in today and boy did I sleep well last night, except for getting up to evacuate my body. When I did finally wake up Jess and I packed our things and had some breakfast at the hotel. I had a meat and a vegetable sandwich and Jess got two serves of eggs by accident. 6 eggs later jess was finished breakfast and we were ready to go and explore the Simien mountains. The group piled onto the bus and we all went into the Simien national park. After we had driven a short way into the park we all got off the bus and started to hike through the area. Now we had some low cloud cover so there wasn't much to see. Also we were expecting a bit of a trek off the beaten track but we walked along the road for about half the hike. Most of us felt as though it was a waste of money but se la vi. We would be staying in the park tonight at a small camp site (3238m, Lat: N13°13'43.1”, Lon: E38°02'25.9). It didn't have any showers but had some dorm rooms for us to sleep in. We had lunch at the camp site and then went to look at a waterfall. The waterfall was extremely high and we caught glimpses of it through the cloud. It would have been spectacular if we could see it properly. When we had had our fill we went back to camp and started on dinner. All of us sat around the camp fire laughing and talking until dinner was finished. We ate dinner and stayed up talking around the fire. It was cold so most of us went to bed, it was only 8.
Monday The 11th of October 2010
Up at five this morning to start breakfast and pack our things away. We were going to Gondor today and needed to leave by 7. Breakfast was porridge which took ages to cook on the lacking fire. We left just a couple of minutes after seven and drove for about 1.5 hours until we reached Debark. The drive back was much nicer than the drive into the national park. It was just much clearer and you could see further.
Just something I wanted to talk about quickly. During our time in the national park we were escorted by armed guards. And I will give you three reasons why they were useless; there wasn't anything dangerous; they smelled and there gun safety sucked. The last point I want to make especially clear as it made me feel less safe with them around, not more. They were high powered weapons (AK-47). The guns were locked and loaded, with safeties off. Worst of all they did not pay any attention to where they where pointing the bloody things. More often than not it was pointed at you and I had to ask one of them to point it away from me. Oh and as we drove down a bumpy road they held the guns pointed up with their heads leaning on them. If they die I call it natural selection.
When we got back into town we dropped the guards off (thank god) and had 30min while they changed the tire again (this makes four). The drive the rest of the way to Gondor went smoothly with the exception of another broken tire. Five in as many days. We got into Gondor just after lunch and set up tents in the hotel grounds (2242m, Lat: N12°36'48.4”, Lon: E37°28'40.5). I spent the afternoon looking for a present for one of my family. With the help of some locals I found what I was looking for. They said they were just being friendly but when we where done they asked for 100 birr, they didn't get it.
In the evening Jess and I met Sean and Leah in the hotel garden for a drink. There is no alcohol in Sudan and we decided the best way to rid our selves of our supply was to consume it. I didn't drink that much but the others have a much higher capacity than I and trying to keep up may have been a mistake. 4 schooners of beer in and hour or a 3rd a bottle of tequila may have been one of them. The night that ensued was great but I would be in bed early tonight and regretting it tomorrow.
Tuesday The 12th of October 2010
Up at five today and boy; does my head hurt. At least the alcohol is gone and I will be speared the 40 lashes for getting caught with the stuff in Sudan. We drove for 3 hours, all of which I slept, to the border. Once there I have never waited so long to get out of a country as I have in Ethiopia. I was expecting to wait in Sudanese immigration office for about four hours but it ended up being only one. So all in all a great boarder crossing. We drove for the balance of the day through the Sudanese country side. Hot would be one way to describe it but I would say more like surface of the sun. The people that we met where extremely friendly and all they wanted to do was say hello. In the evening when we had set up camp (481m, Lat: N14°02'44.7”, Lon: E34°36'01.2) a couple of people driving along the road stopped in for a chat. Some farmers also came to say hello, they where thirsty so we gave them a few litres of water. Later they came back and said thank you by performing a small dance. The people are by far the most hospitable in all of the African countries I have been to, believe what you hear. The desert at night is beautiful and I slept well under the blanket of stars and crescent moon.
Comments
What can I say except, I wish I could have some of that coffee !
Love MT
I've loved all the photos you've posted up here - I'll admit I skim through some of the posts (I am currently on countdown to handing in my cursed thesis). Stay safe, enjoy the rest of the time you've got over there ... and I guess we'll see you both round Christmas!