Update : 25.12.2005
Place : Nairobi / Kenya
Day : 71
Distance : 13,040km

Earlier

I have mentioned briefly about how friendly, hospitable and compassionate Sudanians were. Yes I know this is the Ethiopia update but I still want to go back and dedicate a couple of paragraphs to Sudan so that I can at least tie up some loose ends of the Sudan update which abruptly came to an end, just like the TV programs on Turkish television that would just go off the air half way through when TRT first started broadcasting; we never had a clue how the program ended, what happened, etc. Anyways, back to Sudanians.
Every Sudanian is a potential friend to you regardless of whether he has any business with you or not. With the tiniest spark to come from you, a warm friendly dialog begins right away. They look at you expectantly for you to utter a word or two so that a conversation can start. And as I said, there is no self-seeking. At least such has been my experience in Sudan, confirmed by all the stories I heard.
Nando's story is an impressive example. About an hour after Chris and I first parted ways with Nando in Dongola -he left before us- we caught up with him 30-40 km outside the city and exchanged waves as we passed by. Frankly it didn't occur to us to stop and organize a farewell party. I heard Nando yell a few words but since Chris didn't react at all I didn't think anything of it. Nando told us later that he was asking if we had some cold drinks and gestured with his hand for us to stop. I, on the other hand, thought that he was waving at me so I waved back. In fact, he had consumed all his water in the 38°C heat and was asking for some from us. Later (there are no settlement areas for about 120-130 km after Dongola) the poor guy was left dry and dehydrated in the middle of the desert. "After a while I was completely exhausted and took shelter in the shade of a sign I spotted" he says. As he was resting there a Sudanian who was walking past saw him and came over; they barely communicated and once he figured out the situation Nando was in, he grabbed him and pushed his bicycle for 10 km to his house; put him up and fed him for a couple of days. "Until Khartoum I didn't have to spend any money on accommodation or food. From that point on, anyone I stayed with sent me off to my next destination with a note in my hand and the name of their friend or relative there". Due credit goes to the Sudanians.

Arrival at Ethiopia
One of the entry points to Ethiopia is a town called Metema (or village, for a better term) from Gallabat (Sudan). Once you cross the border you can't miss that you have entered another country. Say, for instance, you sleep through and wake up after crossing the border; you will almost feel like you are in "another" world. From Gedaref (Sudan) towards Gallabat the land transforms from the Saharan Africa look into the "real Africa", even then, the appearance of settlement areas is not that different those typical to Sudan with the exception of the brush huts. The picture changes as soon as you enter the country. First, everyone must really think the roads are allocated to them since they all walk, chat, shop, sit, think, and practically "live" on them.


A little after entering Ethiopia my old road buddy, the Great Rift Valley and I are reunited.
Our union will continue -though with brief interruptions- till Mozambique, that is where the Valley ends.

Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the world; annual per capita income is under USD150.00. Unable to cope with the poverty, people try all kinds of ways to continue living. "All kinds of ways" don't involve theft and robbery to a much extent. Like in any other capital city in the world, pickpocketing and theft warnings are also issued for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital city, but as I said, compared to the average crime rates in the world it is not very high at all. At least, I think Addis Ababa is safer than Khartoum, which is considered "one of the safest cities in Africa" by some sources.
Nevertheless, people do try anything to survive in a country where there is so much poverty. From the youngest to the oldest, a lot of people see begging as a part of life. There are professional and amateur beggars. As soon as you enter the country you are immediately surrounded by people who all want something from you. Kids start with pens. Then notebook, t-shirt, money, shoes, watches, water and anything that they can think of at the time; or anything they spot in your hand or in the car…

- "Give me a pen!"
- "I don't have one. Off you go now."
- "Give me one Birr!" (Birr is Ethiopia's unit of currency)
- "No kiddo, sorry, no money either!"
- "Give me water!"
- "This water is mine; if I give you then I won't have any!"
- "Give me watch!"
Good God! (Takes a deep breath)
- "Son, I got only one."
- "Give me....!"
- "Aaargh! ....'


"Give me a pen!"

With every amateur Ethiopian kid you go through a similar "unproductive" dialog. And then there are the professionals, chatting with them is a little more fun. One would approach and greet you politely; ask you where you are coming from, about your job, family, where you will be staying, where you are going etc. They usually speak good English. Following this introduction the kid would either recommend you a hotel or -if you have told them that you already have picked a hotel -he proceeds to tell you that his mother does laundry and can wash your clothes for a very special rate and clean them much better than others. Or he offers to take you to a restaurant where you can get cheap and good food. If these don't work then he will tell you how well he is doing at school, studying so hard but to do better he needs books and notebooks, and they don't have the money to buy books and notebooks; he will appreciate so much if you could buy a book he wants from the bookstore. He tells you in detail, how -thanks to you- he will be able to graduate, help his family and serve his country. If you believe all this and go with him to the book shop to buy the book he wants, you will be content to know you have helped, by being the 101st buyer to the same book which was bought 100 times before you. In a little while, the book you have bought will return to its shelf to wait for its 102nd kindhearted buyer.


To be fair, I have to say this girl didn't ask for anything. I nicknamed her "Shy girl"

Well then, what to do? Maybe some of you will accuse me of being heartless for telling you this. Those who "have a heart" can hand out 50 t-shirts, 200 pens, 100 notebooks and 200 erasers which they have brought into the country for charity, then retreat to their "isolated" hotels to escape 10 times more persistent demands even after they have given all of it. Result: Creation of kids who see anyone who visits after these "kindhearted" individuals as a potential "pen, t-shirt, money, watch, eraser, water" distributor. Of course this is the micro-dimension of the situation. And then there is the "macro" dimension that wouldn't fit into these pages and could be discussed for days. "Aid!" A system which condemns the African people to a "complimentary life" where they get used to receiving without making an effort or working for it... Easy come easy go style; "Aid", when poorly organized without a plan and program benefits people other than those intended; and part of this kind of aid is "pocketed by "some" thus serving against its purpose to benefit some others. You will find dozens even hundreds of aid organizations in Africa, especially in countries like Ethiopia. All of them are providing aid to something somewhere. Some of these are missionary organizations. It is a chaotic effort where nobody knows who is helping who, for what purpose and how. A new slogan emerged: "Aid doesn't help". It was initially created by the best intentions of people who have the same mindset as I do. But, it was later embraced and claimed by those who oppose to aid to Africa since it "hurts" their wallet. So it went beyond its original purpose and began to help others'. I believe it is better to use the slogan "Aid is not a solution by itself". Anyways, this issue will feed the "forum" for months. To cut the long story short, a begging Ethiopia is created; sometimes to the level that drives one insane…

I can say we entered Ethiopia without dramas. While we were waiting for the person on duty to come back from his lunch to get our triptyque done, I snoozed using my car seat as a pillow on a couch in the waiting hall of the customs building and Chris chatted with a lady who lived with (I assume) her children in the corner of the customs building. An hour nap helped me recover from the exhausting drive and prepared me some for the next one which would be equally grueling. It was 11:00 daytime when we entered Gondar where we were going to spend our first night after crossing the border. Now you are confused, no? Exhausting trip from here to there, waiting for the customs guy to come back from his lunch and then arriving at Gondar at 11:00 daytime… But this is not the 11:00 you know, it is Ethiopian 11:00.

Well let me explain; Ethiopia is a sui generis country as far as "time" is concerned. First, hours of the day: They have divided the 24 hour day into two 12 hour cycles. The first cycle starts in the morning as per normal, at 6:00 and they call this "day time". The other cycle starts at 18:00 and this is the "night time". That is, for instance, when you intend to say 15:00 you need to use "daytime 9" instead. This system is also used in Kenya, Tanzania and Swahili.

Calendar is a separate issue and even more complicated. The Christian world discarded the Julian calendar in 1582 and adopted the Gregorian calendar, but Ethiopians did not oblige. They are still using the old calendar and, for instance, when I was there the calendars on the walls showed third month of the year 1998. The seven years and eight months difference between the two calendars becomes 7 years when your calendars show January 1st - September 10th, and 8 years from September 11th - December 31st. Ethiopians' year starts on September 11. They have a total of 13 months; 12 of which consist of 30 days each and 1 consists of 5 days (6 days in the leap year). That is how complicated their calendar is. Oh and their Christmas is on January 7th… But not sure whether this is unique to Ethiopia (Ethiopian church has its own independent place in the Orthodox world: It is referred to as Ethiopian Orthodox Church) or Christmas is on January 7th for the entire Orthodox community in the world, I am not sure. Excuse my ignorance. I will find out more about it when I go back home. But remember that it is important not to confuse the Ethiopian Orthodox Church with the Coptic Orthodox Church in Egypt, as many western sources do, including the Britannica. Something I have just learned, Coptic means Egyptian in ancient Greek. As you will remember, the St Katherine Monastery -the one which I couldn't get in because I did not check the hours before going there- on the Sinai Peninsula and the disassociation of the Coptic Orthodox from the rest of the Orthodox world dates back to 451 A.D. while Ethiopia Orthodox Church was consecrated in Alexandria in 4 A.D.

So, when I arrived in Ethiopia, I didn't adjust my watch according to their time but that was the first thing Chris did.


Gondar
If you arrive in Ethiopia from Sudan overland, the first stopover will probably be in Gondar. You can check yourself into a hotel after an exhausting drive from the border, provided that you can get away from the "hotel finders". The first thing you hear from the concierge is him cautioning you to park your car somewhere safe. For some odd reason in Ethiopia there is a nasty habit of "throwing stones" at cars. Almost all of the travelers I met or those whose travel notes I have read complain about their cars being stoned. I must say I haven't experienced it during the time I was there.

The first thing I planned to do was to drink an ice-cold beer (or two, or even three) as soon as we checked in. But the need for shower to get rid of the crusty layer of dust formed on my skin between Gallabat and Gondar (even though not as bad as Wadi Halfa - Dongola trip) won over the need for beer so I cleaned up while Chris downed his first cold one. As I broke my 18-day compulsory beer-fast, the dusk has already settled over the city after sunset.



Sunset in Gondar

Gondar is one of the larger cities of Ethiopia; it was also the capital city once. It was founded in 1635 by the Emperor Fasilidas and announced as the permanent capital city of Ethiopia. Previously a village, Gondar has become the capital city of Ethiopia following the succession of Fasilidas to the throne on the abdication of his father, Susneyos. Susneyos converted to Roman Catholic faith by the influence of the soldiers and the Catholic priests that stayed behind in Ethiopia after the Portuguese were called for help against Islam which began to force its way into and spread in the country. Later he declared Catholicism as the official religion of the state and closed the existing Orthodox Church. It is said that about 32,000 of those villagers who did not take this too well and revolted against the state were killed by the soldiers of the King's Army. In 1632 Susneyos abdicated in favor of his son, who later handed the Orthodox Church back its dignity and declared the country Orthodox once again. He also expelled the Portuguese who were at the time settled around the Lake Tana located to the south of Gondar. I told you the story of Gondar as a preparation for the historical places I will "take you to" later.

Especially the regions to the north of Addis Ababa have an altitude over 2,000m and this part of the country hosts a number of massive highland complexes and plateaus as high as 4,000m and up. These high plateaus are divided by "old friend" the Great Rift Valley stretching from north to south. Fourth highest point of Africa is on the Simien Mountains in the north-east of Gondar; Mount Ras Dashen with an impressive 4,620m. Even in Gondar I measured an altitude of 2,233m. At altitudes as these it becomes harder to breathe, for both man and vehicle alike, due to reduced levels of oxygen and pressure. Physical activity tires you out sooner and the performance of the car drops considerably.

One of the most remarkable historical structures in Gondar is Fasil Ghebbi. This is a fortress city surrounded by a stone wall on approximately 70,000m2 of land and contains 6 palaces, tunnels connecting these palaces to each other and other smaller buildings. UNESCO initiated a campaign to restore on this fortified compound in 1999. The restoration work which was projected to be complete by 2002 still continues. The reason for the restoration to take this long is because both the construction technique and the materials are authentic to the point that even the lime to be used in the mortar is slaked and rested in the holes dug into soil (actually, I remember when I was a kid in the construction sites there were lime pits as well). This dedication to authenticity resulted in delays unforeseen in the beginning of the campaign.

The most impressive building in Fasil Ghebbi is the first castle built in 1640 by the order of King Fasilidas. The two storey castle which went through restoration in mid-20th century embodies Portuguese, Axumite and Indian influences. A platform on the second floor is 32 meters high and serves as a watchtower. They say on a clear day you can see all the way to Lake Tana from this platform.



Fasilidas Castle, Fasil Ghebbi

The Royal Archive Building next to the Fasilidas Castle was bombed by the British planes during World War II because it was being used by the Italian army as their headquarters and it has been kept as is.


Royal Archive Building. Still carries the scars from the British bombardment

The remaining castles in Fasil Ghebbi have been constructed by other emperors after Fasilidas' reign. The sources describe the one constructed by the order of King Iyasu as the most fancy of all with its ivory, gold foils and other precious gem stones as well as most beautiful paintings decorating its walls. Unfortunately neither its ornaments and decorations nor its grandeur managed to survive to date mainly because of the earthquake in 1704 and the British bombardments during World War II.

During the 15 year period following Iyasu's reign 4 kings succeeded to the throne and each one of them were assassinated not long after. Only one of these kings, David III, one of Iyasu's sons was able to leave his mark in Fasil Ghebbi: the Lion Cage. From then on the Abyssinian lion with its black mane became the symbol of the Ethiopian Kingdom until the reign of Emperor Haile Selassie. Emperor Selassie's lions were the last to live in this cage till 1992.

It is rumoured that there were 44 churches in Gondar and its vicinity. Seven of these churches are said to be from the Fasilidas' reign. Most of these churches were destroyed during attacks from the forces of Mahdi in 1888. Only Debre Berhan Selassie Church has escaped the attacks and made it intact to date from the Gondar era.



Debre Berhan Selassie Church

The original structure build by the order of Emperor Iyasu I was restored after sustaining damages during a fire in 1707 (it is strongly believed that the building originally had a circular form). Apparently it took the rectangular shape it has today during its re-construction at the end of 18th century.


Priest of Debre Berhan Church

After two nights in Gondar I got on the road to drive north, to the city of Axum at 9:00 on Saturday morning, December 10th. My goal is to complete the 365km route shown on Michelin's "Africa-North East, Arabia" map no.745 in 6 to 8 hours time. According to the map first 295km of the road is "improved" and the last 70km is "partially improved". In addition, this road was going to cross the Simien Mountains which is the home to the 4,620m high Ras Dashen peak. It was also winding its way through difficult mountain passes with altitudes exceeding 3,000m at places. As I drove on the rough track snaking around the bends and turns along the edges of the chasms and gorges of the Simien Mountains, I gained a better insight into the vast difference between the "improved road" concept in my head and its Ethiopian version. My new window, which was installed to replace the one broken in Khartoum couldn't cope with the harsh road conditions and stopped working. When I attacked the handle to wind down the window to get some air, I realized that the handle rotated hopelessly. The only way to open the window was to push the window down pressing with one hand from outside and the other from inside. I always used to wonder in the past why the drivers of the veteran mini-buses (dolmus) working on the Bahceli-Kizilay-Cebeci route in Ankara opened their windows that way. Now I know; they must have also gotten their windows installed in Khartoum.

My heart couldn't bear the thought of my infant Defender turn into one of those mini-buses so I parked the car at a suitable spot and pulled out my tool box to perform my very first "actual intervention" since I started my journey.

On the roads of the Simien Mountains

I removed the door trim (was too easy since the glass guy broke most of the pins while removing it to install the glass) and "taped" the window back on the runners. After the creative repair job I have done I got back on the road. First signs of African wild life began to appear as I climbed up the Simien heights; Ethiopia's long-haired Guereza monkeys were wandering around in groups of 3's and 4's and running off frightened by the noise coming from the car. They were moving so fast that even sitting in my parked car and my camera on my lap with the tele-zoom attached ready to capture them, the one below, showing the silhouette of one watching me was the best I could take.


Guereza monkey... They were watching my every move intently.

The route I followed also passed through the Simien Mountains National Park which is one of the most important national parks of Ethiopia. This park was going to be a place where I would camp at least for one night according to my travel plans. However, due to the delay in my program because of the incident in Sudan I had to change this plan and cancel the camp in the park. I also found out later that the temperature dropped much below zero at nights and I have to admit I was not prepared for this kind of "heat". Bill and Clair who I bumped into again later in Addis Ababa told me that they had real trouble trying to start their Defender in the morning when their fuel froze, I think because there was H2O mixed in their fuel.

You come across such breathtaking scenery on the Simien Mountains

My original 6-8 hour drive on the 365km road became an 11.5 hour road trip and ended at 20:30 in Axum. I have probably spent half an hour out of that to fix the window but I didn't stop anywhere else. Average speed 33kmph. So slow... For some reason, I had a feeling that the travel schedule I have originally made for Ethiopia was not going to really work out. In the following days, new experiences would show me that my feelings were not off the mark at all. Yes, the drive took longer than expected and forced me to do a 3 hour night drive which I was not really too keen on. But the same 3 hour drive had also a very pleasant surprise waiting for me. As I was driving along content with my pencil beam spotlights and cornering lights turned on, since there were almost no other cars on the road other than mine, I spotted 2 Simien Wolves at two different locations. They bolted from one side of the road to the other and then watched me cautiously. Their numbers have declined critically during the last few years, especially due to rabies outbreak (it is thought that around 600 or so Simien wolves are left in Ethiopia). Despite such low numbers it is still possible to see them -especially at nights- on the sides of the road or even in areas close to settlements.

In my next update I will talk about the Axum - Lalibela - Addis Ababa route. Who knows, I might even complete entire Ethiopia update.

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