Paul's Moyale to Addis adventure
I won the first prize of 3 nights in Moyale, a town on the border between Kenya and Ethiopia as I did not have an Ethiopian visa arranged before travel, while the other five did; consequently the immigration officer would not let me through and told me I needed to return to Nairobi. As a warning to other travellers; my passport went to the Ethiopian embassy in RSA with the other passports and the clerk informed us British passports holders do not need a visa, it is obtained on arrival, I also got the same information from the embassy in London. What they fail to mention is that a visa can only be obtained on arrival at Addis Abba airport and no other port of entry. I met an American, Michael Hodson from Arkansas, who was in the same situation as me regarding entry into Ethiopia, so we stuck together. For the last 10 years Michael had been a lawyer, but the urge to travel was too much so he closed his practice, packed up his rucksack and started out on a 1 year round the world trip. When I met up with him he had completed South America and was heading up through Africa to Eastern Europe, Russia, the Far East, Australia and New Zealand before returning home. He had no intention of returning to Nairobi as the truck he had been travelling in was attacked by bandits and people were robbed of money. While it was disappointing to see the rest of the team cross the border and head north to Addis, I was not overly concerned, although on reflection someone should have stayed behind as I was rather anxious about riding the bike on my own. After 16 years of living and working on the African continent these situations are common and with patience there is always a solution. My options were to: 1. wait in Moyale to see if I could get special permission to enter, the problem however it was the weekend and the administration in Addis was closed, 2. leave my bike in Moyale and return to Nairobi, fly to Addis, get a visa on entry, travel down to Moyale collect my bike and ride back to Addis, 3. return to Nairobi with my bike and terminate the trip or 4. ride across the border without passing through immigration, using a smugglers route, something a Swiss rider had done a year previous when confronted with this situation I phoned Ray Muller from Cytech in South Africa, who helped organise the trip and prepare the bikes, to inform him of the situation. He had a contact in Addis: Tsegaye Aswaf, a local businessman but also the President of the Ethiopian Motorsport association. So while I waited in Moyale people were working behind the scenes to try and get me through, I must say it was a real roller coaster of emotions from the highs when you thought everything had been fixed to the lows of another door being closed. Michael and I returned to the border somewhere in the region of 5 times even trying the old dash to get us across but the officials were not interested. Abdi Haji Ali (Tel. +254 72545322) took us under his wing in Moyale, he was a former school teacher in town and although Kenyan his father was Somalian and mother Ethiopian. He took us for lunch where we ate goat stew and rice, also showed us where to get a cold beer, if you ever stranded in Moyale, the Prison canteen is the place to go and we visited his house and family. We stayed at the Al Yusra guest house, you cannot miss the building, the biggest and most elaborate in town, although still in construction it offered clean rooms, hot showers and satellite television. Abdi (+254 722257028) and his team did a great job in looking after us and my bike. The downside of the hotel was its location next door to the local Mosque and therefore we received an early wakeup call at 5am with the call to prayer in this dominantly Muslim town. The rest of the team finally arrived in Addis mid Sunday afternoon after an almost 2 day arduous trip they met Tsegaye and after a phone call I received a message at 1715 Sunday afternoon to get to the border I had clearance. Rather than packing, with the help of Abdi, Michael and I raced off to the border and although closed the Ethiopian immigration officer, Adin, was there to meet us with smiling face and entry stamp at the ready. We then returned to Kenya immigration who stamped us out but we spent the night on the Kenyan side ready for an early start the next day. The one last remaining item to complete was the stamping of the carnet for my motorcycle by Ethiopian customs, 8am the next morning. Rather than ride alone to Addis I decided to travel with Michael and through the help of Biruk an Ethiopian travel guide we hired a 3t Isuzu truck to drive us the 775 kilometres to Addis. We were due to leave at 8am but only departed at 11:15, I was now 24 hours behind the rest of the team however repairs to the bikes meant I could still catch up and continue the trip. The truck was packed with 20 sacks of sea shells from Mombasa for Addis, they use them in costume design and my bike neatly slotted in, upright, between the sacks. It was an arduous journey and we only managed to complete 500 kilometres in 12 hours a combination of rugged terrain, people and animals on the road slowed our journey to a crawl. However the driver, Bush, was excellent and we felt safe with him behind the wheel. We stopped at local cafes on the way and ate wonderful spicey Ethiopian meat and sour pancakes washed down with strong black coffee, Ethiopia being the origin of this drink. We made it to Awasa and stayed the night in a rather grotty motel where, after only 3 days Michael and I had to share a double bed, nobody cared as we were exhausted, up again at 4am and on to Addis, arriving a 9am. However the next obstacle to face was that the truck could not go anywhere near the Sheraton hotel because of the threat of terrorism so we found a side road about 3 kilometres away where we could reverse up to a grassy bank and unload the bike, I rode the final kilometres to the hotel. By this stage with little sleep and no food I had lost my sense of humour, so when I finally met the rest of the group sarcastic remarks from Mark did not go down well and I stormed off to my room leaving Craig to ride my bike to the workshop. The Sheraton Hotel in Addis is something else; it is one of the chains luxury hotels and has won the award of best hotel in the world several times. It seems so out of place with every luxury imaginable, but surrounded by abject poverty, once inside you could have been in any first world city. After an eternity in the shower and hot food I felt a little more sociable and joined the rest of the team to get the bikes roadworthy for the adventure ahead, new rear shocks and tyres after the Isiolo to Moyale road took its toll on the bikes. Ethiopia has been a surprise, my images of the country had been the famine of the eighties. However it has a rugged green landscape and in Mount Deshen, at over 4,000m, the third highest peak in Africa. But there is a lot of poverty and people everywhere like I have never seen before in an African country and as a country it has the second highest animal herds (cattle, sheep and goats) on the continent. Consequently there is mass over grazing, serious erosion and deforestation as wood forms the main fuel source and construction material. On the roads there is no awareness of vehicles by the population and therefore travel is very slow.
Chicken delight at the Prison Canteen
Views of Moyale from the hotel
Al Yusra hotel Moyale
Michael, Abdi and Paul in a local resturant, Moyale
Michael checking email using a BGAN on the hotel balcony in Moyale.
COMMENTS
Wow Paul, your account of your ordeal is so graphic and descriptively written. Even though you are a seasoned traveller through Africa, your experience must have been
very harrowing, but comforting in the fact, that there are always 'friends' . .more
by Noeleen on June 28 2009, 12:00
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You were truly up against it Paul well done at getting through it and carrying on I imagine the Sheraton was a welcome sight!
Stay safe
by Karen on June 28 2009, 12:57
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Hi, sounds as all is going well! Infact "it" sounds like something of a cross between Scorpion King and Indiana Jones, minus the semi nude nubile bodies!!! Probably best - no hair dryers, straighteners etc!
Thinking of you all everyday and . .more
by Rosemarie on June 29 2009, 16:47
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And I thought I was the only one who did dumb things at border posts - and shared hotel rooms with strangers!!!! Clearly I am not alone. All the best - Keep well to you all, Cheers Paul
by Paul Durham on June 29 2009, 18:58
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Hi Paul. Great account of your 3 days and super photo's!! I imagine it was all made much easier having company - so for both you and Mike it worked well. These experiences will really make incredible memories for you all. Very relieved it all . .more
by Marilyn on June 30 2009, 15:03
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If you didn't have an experience like this somewhere along the way, it wouldn't have been a true African experience! Amazing stuff.
by Kean on July 01 2009, 04:03
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hi guys:)
We are so enjoying reading about all your adventures and the pictures are amazing...its been a wonderful, but hair raising adventure thats for sure:) Cant wait for you to get back and we going to have to have a sushi night and loads . .more
by Andrea :) on July 02 2009, 11:08
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hi guys....
so sorry to read what you have to go through......i am ethiopian but live and work in europe.when i see the beauty of ethiopia and what it can offer i find it sad to see people like yourselves had to go throgh this just to ride or . .more
by girma on June 30 2010, 21:14
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Hi guyz,its bn nice 2 know great things abt ua country yet u dont appreaciate da gud things u've got unless astranger says it out,p'ple appreaciate wat God has given us and we should take gud care of ouq enviroment.big up p'ple.
by Asili on July 22 2010, 10:01
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bravo michael$paul thanx 4 visiting my town, if u or ur friend got any problem just call 002547165444411
by abdulkarim haji on August 02 2010, 22:08
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