Boots on the Loose

Up at 4:45 in Addis, cabbed to the bus station, found a bus to Harar no problem. There we sat cramped up in a tiny seat on an old, clunky, vibrating machine. At least there were no chickens on board.…

Left Gondar around 6am for the 10 hour trek to Lalibela. Apparently not too long ago you pretty much had to fly in, and the road now isn’t a whole lot better (takes 2 full days by bus). Built way…

I got to check out the first hotel we stopped at, so we went with that one and saved us an hour of driving around town comparing hotels (might be the last time I get to check the hotel though…

Left Addis around 6am to make the 12hour jaunt to Bahir Dar; roads (and most other infrastructure) get a lot more attention in the North (apparently because the politicians are from the North) and so the drive was quite a…

On the way to Awasa stopped at the tabernacle in Shashemene which is a Rastefarian village setup in the 1930’s. Headed by “Papa Rock” who left Jamaica to return to the motherland, he gave an interesting overview of the religion.…

After breakfast, headed just outside of Turmi (where we spent a night camping) to visit the Hamer tribe which would turn out to be everyone’s favorite tribe of the trip. People wanting us to take their photos of course, but…

About an hour out of Arba Minch had to stop for a good 3 hours in a small town named Konso while Andu adjusted the overheating front brake (first 10am beer in a while!) Stopped again closer to Jinka for…

Left Addis bright and early as it’s a good 10 hour drive to Arba Minch. Driver’s name is Andu; fairly quiet at first but has turned out to be a real treat for us. Quite religious (as are most people)…

Ethiopia. Our first taste of “the real” Africa; Africa as everyone thinks about it. Sub-Saharan Africa. Plane left Cairo at around 2am so we had another crap night of little to no sleep. Road from airport in Addis goes through a…