Home » Ethiopia » Overlanding across Afica in our Land Rover Defender: Ethiopia

30th august - 3rd october

Overlanding across Afica in our Land Rover Defender: Ethiopia

Andy Lees
2006-05-14 18:15:24

Displayed times (last time: )

poverty. children are filthy, their clothes in tatters, and there are so many flies. one child that vied for our attention had a mass of flies crawling on the inside edge of his mouth. others had flies gathered on the unwiped mucus that ran from their noses. these were scenes more reminiscent from the ethiopia of tv appeals. a mineral water bottle without its contents can transform a child's face from a resentful, demanding scowl to a delighted, grateful grin. a few days later we saw an ad being run on the sheraton hotel's tv channel, asking for donations to help the needy. after having seen for ourselves the circumstances in which the majority of the ethiopian population appears to live, we could see that the people featuring in this advert had to some extent been beautified for the cause.

nearly at addis - 19th september

our route south to addis was another long drive. the road was better than many we had been on recently, but was still swarming with people, donkeys, goats and dogs. doves too were a new obstacle, often moving too late, spraying feathers across the bonnet and windscreen. the going was slow and we didn't quite make it to addis, despite having started at dawn. we stayed in a very cheap hotel, about 150kms outside the capital, exhausting the last of our funds. we tucked into our usual dish of fried meat and injera.

arriving in addis, penniless and unable to get cash on a sunday, exhausted from weeks of long drives on bumpy roads, we ignored our budget and checked into the sheriton hotel where we knew our credit cards would be accepted. at about twice the price of the hilton it is an absurdly luxurious oasis, rising like a presidential palace from the surrounding desert of tin-roofed shacks. amongst so much poverty all the marble and gold opulence is certainly out of place, if not obscene, but just for 24 hours we were going to enjoy it.
addis abbaba for the week
after our stint ...