Day 27: Moyale - Awasa
After being woken up at 3 am, the team tossed and turned till 6 am, the time we had planned to wakeup. After a very interesting breakfast of banana, boiled eggs and ‘vetkoeks’, the team packed up and headed off to the border crossing. The South Africans got out of Kenya and into Ethiopia without much hassle, however Paul planning to get his Ethiopian visa at the border, ran into a massive problem when he was told that this was not possible. After much discussion and deliberation the team decided to head off to Addis to see if they could get Paul a visa there, while Paul remained in Moyale to try and work all other avenues, his other option was to head back to Nairobi, which was given a nanoseconds thought, seeing that we had barely survived the trip here. Fortunately for Paul, Michael an American traveling the world by foot had run into the same problem, so ‘abandoning’ Paul with Michael, the team crossed over into Ethiopia and headed off to Addis. Ethiopia is a strange place, it is one of the only African countries never to be colonized, the date was 13/10/2001 when we entered, our 12 o’clock, is their 6 o’clock and they have the weirdest sounding thank you and yes, which are Amisiganalo and Eish. By now it was well into the morning and having been informed that there is no speed limit in Ethiopia, we were confident that the pace would be good and we would be sleeping in the Sheraton Hotel, in Addis Ababa tonight. This was not the case! Between the border crossing in Moyale and Awasa, where eventually spent the night, stretched one massive accumulation of villages and towns that housed thousands upon thousands of people and their livestock. Due to this mass of people our pace was very slow, and we spent a great deal of the day, slowing down for cattle and sheep and navigating around stubborn donkeys standing in the middle of the road. 6 pm came and went and there was still no sign of any real accommodation, pulling off in the town of Dila, some 440 km from Moyale, we attempted to find somewhere to park our bikes and rest our heads. We did not succeed and after our final attempt at a Christian orphanage, we decided to press on to Awasa in the dark, breaking one of our carnal rules. Half way through the drive it began to ran, now tired, cold, wet, in the dark and trying to dodge the highway wildlife, the team etched closer and closer to Awasa, the spirit draining with every kilometer. Finally we arrived in Awasa and after driving around like headless chickens for a while, we eventually found the Circle of Life Lodge, needless to say we were ecstatic to have a place where we could pass the night.
Looking over Lake Awasa
COMMENTS
Apart from all the excitement of the journey, the beauty of your surroundings and the sharing of experiences, must be treasured forever. I am so proud of all the Boyz!
by Noeleen (Mom) on June 28 2009, 12:09
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