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30th august - 3rd october

Overlanding across Afica in our Land Rover Defender: Ethiopia

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

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gallabat to gonder - 30th august

crossing the border and driving to gonder, three things were striking; the weather, the landscape, and the people. it was actually cold. cold and wet, unbelievable, just a day's drive from sweltering khartoum. accordingly, the land dazzled us with a variety of greens from bright lime to dark pine. patchwork valleys opened out below forested peaks. beside the road the carpet of vegetation was torn, revealing a slice of the soft red earth below.

there were people everywhere. they lined the road continuously, despite the sparcity of the villages. the men wore blankets wrapped around their shoulders. their legs were bare - an unusual sight after so long in the conservative middle east. they carried staffs, resting horizontally across their shoulders; their arms hooked over either end. it was strange to see all those walking crucifixions as we entered the land of ancient christianity.

the people smiled and waved, and we reciprocated. i think we grinned for the whole 3 hours it took to get to gonder. sliding the land rover along the muddy track that wound up through the hills, we were glad to be in a new country, particularly one so strikingly different. it's also fair to say that after the absolute prohibition in sudan, we were looking forward to a beer.

arriving in gonder was our first experience of the legendary ethiopian "hassle". as we searched for a guesthouse, stopping, or even slowing down, prompted the advance of local youngsters aged from 5 to 15. "where you go? where you go?". everyone wanted to show us the way somewhere, a hotel, a restaurant, a shop. wherever we went or wanted to go, it was necessary for someone to "show" us - regardless of whether we knew the way or not. this was, of course, followed by a demand for a tip. we had been warned, but the constant attention was quickly irritating. through a strange blend of being shown the way, whilst trying not to ...