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Exploring the moorlands around Mount Guna.

One Year Africa: The Stolen Book

Maarten de Boeck
2006-05-01 17:02:47

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Exploring the moorlands around Mount Guna.

Mayhem! In the distance, when I came over the hill, I had already seen that something was wrong. When I opened my tent, I found chaos, everything was turned upside down. At first sight nothing seemed to have disappeared. Obviously the intruders had searched for money. Soon I discovered something was missing: my book, my travel guide. I had been so naïve to leave my tent unattended. Fortunately, I had taken my money and valuables with me.
That morning, a beautiful morning, I had gone down to the village to get water. On my way down I met a man who reacted reservedly to my greetings and refused to shake hands, like he wasn't so keen on me. I didn't pay too much attention to it. Probably it was that man who visited my tent.

The story takes place high up in the mountains, in an out of the way part in Northern Ethiopia. My tent was standing in a mountainous moorland noted on the map as Mount Guna. I had been in Africa for a little more than a month. I was about to experience one of the most difficult moments of the journey.
The incident shattered me. I felt down because of the loss of the book. I had lost my source of information. I knew it was as good as impossible to buy the same book in Ethiopia. By the time I thought a travel guide was quintessential for travelling. Later I found out that such a book is not that necessary.
I felt down and waged a battle to keep up my spirit. My first reaction was to take my stuff and leave the area. I was fed up with it. I didn't want more frustrations. For the first time in my life I felt a sense of loneliness. I wrote in my diary: 'I feel empty. I am sitting here in my tent high up in the mountains, it is dark and for the next 12 hours it will be only me and my thoughts. I wonder ...